Moderator Chris Wallace looks on Tuesday, as Joe Biden (left) debated Donald Trump in Cleveland. (Photo: Bloomberg/Olivier Douliery)
The first presidential debate for the 2020 election may be best remembered not for what the candidates said about the economy, COVID-19 pandemic or the Supreme Court but for the chaos on stage.
Some television commentators afterward even questioned whether there would be a second and third debate due to President Donald Trump's interrupting of both his opponent and the moderator, Fox News' Chris Wallace.
On the economy, Trump boasted correctly that it's recovering faster than many had expected following the wide-ranging state shutdowns in March and April but incorrectly touted the U.S. economy under his watch as the greatest in history, while arguing that if Biden were president it would be shut down again.
Biden said the recovery is K-shaped — meaning that it is uneven for different segments of society — so millionaires and billionaires have done well due to tax cuts and the stock market's rebound, but average Americans — "the people at home" — haven't because of lost wages and jobs.
Like many economists and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Biden noted that the economy can't fully recover until the COVID crisis is fixed and that small businesses need more government help to survive and thrive.
Job Numbers
Biden wrongly accused Trump of being the first president to leave office with the job market weaker that it was when he took office. Herbert Hoover, who was president during the Great Depression, left office in 1933 with an economy that had fewer jobs than when he was elected in 1929.
Biden said he would create 7 million more jobs in his first term than Trump would if he wins the election. Economists with Moody's Analytics have estimated that 7.4 million more jobs would result from a Democratic sweep of the White House and Congress versus a Republican sweep of all three — in part because of a "green jobs" tied to infrastructural growth outlined in Biden's plans to combat climate change, which aim for net zero emissions by 2035.
Biden said the economy was suffering because of hurricanes, floods and rising seas as a result of climate change and that he would push for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, which Trump abandoned.
