Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden hours before the beginning of the Presidential debate released his tax returns. The details show that he has paid nearly $ 300,000 in federal taxes in 2019, which is almost 30% of his adjusted gross income of $ 985,000.  The Vice Presidential nominee from the Democratic party, Kamala Harris has been showed to have paid $1.19 million in federal taxes from an income of about $ 3.1 million. These came after the pandemonium generated over the media on the findings by the New York Times that the incumbent President had paid just $750  as taxes in 2016 and 2017 and none in other years,  adjusting the taxes under heavy business loss and tax maneuvers.

Subsequently, the time of the first Presidential debate of 2020 came. This debate can beyond any doubt be classified as chaotic. The numerous interruptions which Biden had to face from his opponent while he was presenting his points made the debate go haywire. The POTUS threw his volley of blames related to Biden’s family and voter fraud which were countered by Biden. The Democratic Presidential nominee argued that Trump’s own FBI director Christopher Wray had refuted such claims of voter frauds on the ground of absence of evidence. At one point of time the moderator Chris Wallace had to ask Trump to ask his supporters to stay calm. Biden firmly stated that the citizens must come out and vote and act against all kinds of fear. He seemed to gradually acclimatize to the chaotic nature of the debate.

One particularly interesting moment arose during the debate, when Trump started claiming that he will soon release his tax returns. He also took a jibe at Biden stating that he has paid millions of dollars in tax.  Biden who had already disclosed his tax returns of 2019 asked in a sarcastic tone when Trump will disclose his. In the middle of this exchange Biden used the Arabic phrase “Inshallah” which translates into God willing. This came as a surprise to all. Observers state that this simply means that Biden said that hopefully (God willing) someday Trump will actually disclose his Tax returns. It is important to note that some linguistics experts opine that the use of this phrase in the context of such political debates means that the expected outcome (that Trump will actually disclose his tax returns) is too good to be true.

Research director of the European Council of foreign relations and former American Diplomat, Jeremy Shapiro observed that the first presidential debate of 2020 was another sign of the degradation of the American democracy. The debate, he added did not provide any hint of planned out foreign policy steps by the contenders. Shapiro added that the debate points towards the decline of the culture of America which seems to have been accelerated by the Covid situation in USA. He further added that the debate not only strongly hinted at the absence of the USA from the role of global leadership role, but also indicated the failure and incompetence to deal with it. Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute of International Relations, observed that the debate gave a signal to the world that USA is slowly withdrawing into itself. He further added that Trump had explicitly walked away from the global leadership role and Biden may be doing it implicitly. Gomart’s observation is not wrong at least with Trump. The current POTUS had withdrawn USA from the trade alliance of Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Climate deal- the Paris accord of 2015 which were platforms and mechanisms to prove and strengthen the role of USA as a global leader in trade and mitigation efforts towards Climate change.