NASHVILLE, Tenn. — To close out Thursday night’s presidential debate, both President Donald Trump and Joe Biden offered very divergent versions of what they’d tell Americans who didn’t support them on a hypothetical Inauguration Day.
Trump said that if he’s reelected, during his inaugural address, he would tell voters who didn’t back him in the election that “success is going to bring us together, we are on the road to success.” He touted the country’s economic growth “prior to the plague coming in from China” that sparked the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, meanwhile, says he would tell his detractors that “I represent all of you, whether you voted for or against me” and “I’m going to make sure that you’re represented.” He went on to reiterate some of his major campaign themes, pledging to grow the economy, address systemic racism, move the nation towards clean energy and make sure every American has “an even chance.”
Trump and Biden debated for just over 90 minutes at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday night. The faceoff included substantive debate on a number of topics including the response to the coronavirus pandemic, immigration and how each would handle climate change as president.
The nominees’ first debate was so raucous that changes were enacted to make the next one more orderly. Those modifications included a mute button controlled by a representative of the Commission on Presidential Debates, to ensure that each candidate would have two full minutes uninterrupted for opening answers on each topic.
