The second and final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden took place on Thursday night and the two exchanged attacks on topics from Russia and China, to Hunter Biden, and immigrant detention.
Russia
The candidates were asked about U.S. intelligence showing that Russia and Iran have stolen U.S. voter data and are using it to influence voters, and how the candidates would respond to these adversarial actions.
“I made it clear that any country will pay a price,” Biden said. “They will pay a price if I’m elected … for interfering with American sovereignty.”
Trump said there has been “nobody tougher than me on Russia,” pointing to sanctions among measures he has taken to penalize Russia for its wrongdoings.
“While [Biden] was selling pillows and sheets, I sold tank-busters to Ukraine,” he added.
Hunter Biden
Trump brought up the recent emails discovered on the alleged laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, which appeared to link the vice president to his son’s business deals with foreign governments. The FBI is reportedly in possession of the laptop and investigating the materials, while Biden rejects the laptop’s contents.
Biden rejected Trump’s allegations of his son’s business deals and conduct, saying, “nothing was unethical … Not one single solitary thing was out of line. Not a single thing.”
“Someday you’re going to have to explain,” Trump told Biden. “You were vice president when some of this was happening. I think you owe an explanation to the American people,” adding that Biden and his family were sucking up money “like a vacuum cleaner” from foreign deals.
“I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever,” Biden insisted.
Border
Trump and Biden also went head to head on the administration’s border policy, which Biden alleges is responsible for separating 545 children.
“What happened? Their kids were ripped from their arms and separated and now they cannot find over 500 sets of those parents and those kids are alone. Nowhere to go, nowhere to go. It’s criminal,” Biden said.
Trump shot back against border policy criticism by pointing out that most of the children were brought into the country by “coyote” smugglers. He also said the highly criticized images circulated of immigrant children in “cages” in recent years wasn’t his decision, but rather came at the direction of his predecessor Obama.
“Who built the cages, Joe? Who built the cages, Joe?” Trump asked repeatedly.
