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New Moderator Reins in Trump But Doesn’t Stop Torrent of Lies

By Manny Otiko, IVN Staff Writer   

The third and final presidential debate was often more of the same. President Donald Trump unleashing an avalanche of lies and Democratic candidate Joe Biden offering definite answers about policy.   

Moderator Kristen Welker, NBC White House correspondent, attempted to keep a tighter rein on the participants by forcing both of them to stick to the issues and answer questions. Her performance was a marked improvement on the previous debate moderators who failed to control Trump.   

Several reporters praised her performance.  

“I’m beaming watching Kristen Welker. Such an amazing moment for her and for all who know of her hard work and dedication to journalism. Go girl!” said PBS White House reporter Yamiche Alcindor in a tweet.  

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow also declared Welker “the clear winner.”  

However, Welker still didn’t stop Trump from lying and refusing to answer the question. When asked a question, Trump would often launch into a long-winded answer about something off subject.   

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale described Trump’s debate performance as a “constant barrage” of lies.   

“President Trump was better behaved, but he lied more,” said Dale.   

Trump lied about several issues such as his handling of the coronavirus, wind energy, being the best president for African Americans, the Green New Deal and Biden taking foreign money, to name a few.   

For example, when asked about how he handled the coronavirus, Trump said, “The spike’s gone, they will soon be gone.” He also claimed he might be immune and there would be a vaccine soon.   

None of this is true. Coronavirus numbers are increasing and there have been several cases of people who have been reinfected with the virus. Also, experts say the vaccine won’t be ready until at least next year.   

Biden pushed back on several of Trump’s false claims.   

“I never get any money from Russia,” said Biden.  

The Los Angeles Times also debunked this lie.   

“The president and his allies have been hammering Biden for his son Hunter’s overseas business dealings in Ukraine and China, but they have yet to produce any clear evidence that Biden misused his authority as vice president for his family’s profit. They also haven’t demonstrated that Biden personally benefited financially,” said The Los Angeles Times in a fact check.   

CNN commentator Keith Boykin also fact-checked Trump’s claim that he was the “least racist person in the room.”  

“Trump has a decades-long history of racism, including the full-page ad he took out against the Central Park Five, five innocent Black boys falsely accused of assault and rape, and I wish Joe Biden would have spent more time reciting all of these instances (not just the Central Park one,)” said Boykin.   

However, some of Trump’s most troubling comments were about children held in migrant detention centers on the border. The Trump administration’s new policy determines that children who arrive at the border and request asylum are separated from their families. However, the government failed to keep track of the project and now they have no way of reuniting 545 children with their parents.   

But Trump brushed this off and claimed that the children were kept in “clean facilities.”  

“They are well taken care of,” said Trump.   

However, Trump failed to offer a concrete answer on how he would reunite the children with their parents. And that seemed to incense Biden. He said the human rights abuse on the border was a stain on the nation’s reputation.   

“These 500-plus kids came with parents,” said Biden. “They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. We’re tough, we’re really strong. Guess what? It’s not coyotes. Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents. It makes us a laughing stock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation.”  

Although Trump showed more moderation in the final debate, it didn’t help his cause.  

CNN held a focus group after the debate and none of the participants declared Trump the winner. The majority of hands went up for Biden.   

“Overall, 53 percent of voters who watched the debate said that Biden won the matchup, while 39 percent said that President Donald Trump did,” said CNN.   

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