The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday, 29 September (local time), ahead of the US elections in just over a month, was a messy affair with Trump incessantly interjecting Biden's speech and the latter calling the former a "clown".
Prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Elizabeth Warren were quick to react to the debate, calling Joe Biden a "real president" and Donald Trump a "white supremacist" who "fans the flames of racism".
Pelosi, in her tweet after the debate, called Biden a "real president, with the empathy, integrity and science-based plan needed to crush COVID-19, protect people with pre-ex conditions, heal our nation and build back better as we address the climate crisis."
Catch all the highlights of the US Presidential Debate here.
‘Fascism at Our Door’
Cortez, meanwhile, touched upon Trump's controversial comments on the 'Proud Boys' group, calling the US president a "white supremacist". “People have been warning about this for a long time. They were ridiculed, called hyperbolic and radical – not because they were wrong, but because others couldn't accept that our country elected a supremacist as president. This is fascism at our door," she tweeted.
Elizabeth Warren, who was in the race to be the Democratic presidential candidate earlier, criticised Trump on the issues of racism and voting.
‘Plan to Root Out Systemic Racism’
Biden's running mate and US senator Kamala Harris also took on Trump who, she said, has "inflamed the racial divides in our country these past four years." "But getting Trump out of office won’t be enough. Joe Biden and I have a plan to root out systemic racism across our laws and institutions – in everything from policing to housing," she tweeted as the debate was going on.
The presidential debate on Tuesday was categorised into five topics: ‘The Trump and Biden Records’, ‘The Supreme Court’, ‘COVID-19’, ‘Economy, Race and Violence in our Cities’ and ‘The Integrity of the Election’.
In course of the 90 minutes, incumbent US President Donald Trump faced questions about his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the US economy, race relations and his controversial personal conduct during the past four years.
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