Covid-19: Trump touts 'fantastic' job, Biden says he did nothing

The two candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, at the White House were live on two different channels Thursday night.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Thursday night - on two different channels with two opposing styles - posted their deep disagreements over handling the coronavirus epidemic, 19 days before the US presidential election.

"We're in a situation where we have over 210,000 dead and what does he do? Nothing, ”the Democratic candidate said on ABC, calmly and calmly. “We did a fantastic job (...). The vaccines are coming and the treatments are coming, ”said the tenant of the White House on NBC almost at the same time.

"I am president, I have to see people"

Tense, aggressive, angry at questions put to him in particular about why he wore the mask so little, he refused all mea culpa. “I am president, I have to see people (...). I cannot be locked in a beautiful room somewhere in the White House, ”he quipped.

The Republican president has also refused to explicitly condemn the conspiratorial movement "QAnon". "I don't know anything about QAnon," he said before asserting that he agreed with their "against pedophilia" positions.

Biden advocates "courtesy and honor"

The contrast was stark with his Democratic opponent, who leads the polls, who answered questions from the audience in a much calmer register. You have to "listen to the other," he replied to a voter who asked him how he planned to restore "courtesy and honor" to American politics.

The virtual debate originally planned having been canceled after Donald Trump refused to participate, the two candidates spoke at the same time, on two different channels from Florida and Pennsylvania. These two key states were won by the billionaire in 2016 but Joe Biden appears able to fight for the victory.

"I wish I could watch him to see if he can go through with it."

A few hours before his entry on the scene, Donald Trump had set the tone: aggressive and mocking. "I wish I could watch him to see if he can make it all the way to the end," the 74-year-old president said, referring to his 77-year-old opponent who he dubbed "Sleepy Joe".

The polls are worrying for Donald Trump in this twisty campaign, for which more than 17.5 million Americans have already voted early. Democrats have a "good chance" of winning the White House, recognized Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, very close to Donald Trump, taking note of the current dynamic.

The former Democratic vice-president leads by almost ten percentage points in the national average in polls for the November 3 presidential election. But above all, albeit with a narrower margin, in key states that conduct elections in the United States by switching from one party to another.