Taking part in the final presidential campaign debate on October 22, for the elections of 2020, Joe Biden slammed the current President of the USA, Donald Trump, claiming that he has no plans to get rid of the ‘dark winter’ of Covid-19 deaths across the country. The debate was televised from Nashville and it was moderated by Kristen Welker, who pleaded for civility before the debate began. The presidential candidates did not shake hands as a safety measure against Covid-19.

Trump said that the citizens may not worry as Covid-19 related deaths would soon be handled and contained due to the rapidly growing medical research and experimentation to release a vaccine as soon as possible. He also gave the example of his recovery from the Covid-19 infection.

While Biden disagrees with the president’s empty words, he said –“Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.” He further added that all the Americans are about to go into a ‘dark winter’ as the number of Covid-19 deaths keeps on increasing and that Trump has no solid plan to tackle the situation.

To this, Trump responded with a consolidating approach that the vaccine is almost ready and would be announced within weeks. He also stated that he will try to reopen the US as soon as possible. He denied Biden’s claims and said that there is going to be ‘no dark winter’.

Even though Trump tried to deviate from the pandemic situation, Biden kept the focus of the entire debate on the Covid-19 pandemic and addressed how 6 out of 10 people in the country believe that Covid-19 has gone out of control. This data was released by the Quinnipiac University poll done earlier the same day as the debate was held.

Trump took a similar approach as he did against Hilary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election debates, where he threw accusations at Joe Biden on how he profited from corrupt business relationships involving his son, Hunter Biden, when he was the Vice President under Barack Obama. He said that Biden owes an ‘explanation’ to all the Americans.

Many observers noted that Biden seemed to have won the final debate of this year’s presidential election while many others claim that the restrain and discipline shown by Trump in the second debate was quite commendable.

Keeping in mind the social distancing norms, many American voters have decided to participate in the early voting system, according to which Biden leads with 51% of votes while Trump remains at 41% as revealed in the Quinnipiac University poll. However, for the past few decades, the results of presidential campaigns have been quite unpredictable, so it is hard to say what would be the final outcome.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.