Winning by points, not by knockout: Trump asked the tough questions,...

US President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden met tonight (Friday) at Belmont University in Nashville for their second and final confrontation before the November 3 election. But it seems that ironically, it would have seemed less like a confrontation and more like Friday’s Parliament in the neighborhood cafe, where everyone is talking about everything and agreeing on nothing.

There is no doubt that the virus was once again a hero today. The journalists, in whom he writes these lines, had to undergo a corona examination before entering the university compound. The journalists themselves, myself included, were allowed to sit in a special tent near the hall where the confrontation took place, since only a few were allowed to sit among the audience. In the press room, too, the journalists were distanced from each other. Americans do not spare means to maintain social distance. What a difference between the two previous confrontations I attended in 2016.

The candidates were in perfect sync

Moderator Kristen Walker entered the hall five minutes before the start of the confrontation, a few minutes after Melania Trump, the first lady entered the hall at an entrance that was more regal than presidential. Silence and alertness in the hall waiting for the two candidates. Relatives of Trump and Biden found it difficult to hide their excitement. The election is far from decisive.

Everything the two said was predictable, but on the other hand – each stung the other and protested that the other disagreed with him. That was the abysmal difference compared to the first and chaotic confrontation of September 29: there was an argument but there was also style. As if there was a defined role for both of them, as if the division of roles was divided between them in advance. In that respect, they had perfect synchronization, just a pity they run against each other and not with each other.

This is not surprising, because the two have never been in such a similar situation: they both knew that it might be the end chord of the campaign, that they should not get dirty out of this confrontation. So there was neither Biden’s ‘silence’ nor Trump’s tantrums from the first confrontation.

Biden had very low expectations. There was talk that he would have no passion in his eyes, but he spoke in many parts of the heart. Expectations were even lower than the 45th president, there was a fear that he would explode on the moderator and Biden again. But even he at certain moments took deep breaths, made eye contact and said to Biden: go ahead I mean, your stage, prove you can fill my place.

Biden at certain moments did not know what to do with the time given to him. Like the deer caught in the headlights of a car – he sometimes froze in place, and fell into Trump’s traps, trying to defend Trump’s attacks and rhetorical questions instead of putting up an appropriate answer. For example, when Trump asked why he did not do the prisoner reform in his previous term as vice president. In another case, Trump asked him, “Who built the cages where immigrants are put?” – Biden did not answer, he knew it was the Obama-Biden administration.

The Hunter Biden affair

But as mentioned, after four years of a re-election campaign, no one has really rediscovered Trump, and after 47 years of politics, no one has been “impressed” by Biden. So the task was mostly to talk to the base, reassure the disappointed, and persuade the home crowd on both sides to show up on Election Day and vote (and perhaps send the remote ballot paper lying on the kitchen counter without anyone really wanting to go to the post office to send).

Just as expected of him, Trump did not hesitate to attack Joe Biden on the issue of the seemingly dark business he ran his son, Hunter, with the knowledge of his father (who denied it) and the incriminating e-mail affair revealed by the New York Post. This revelation gained renewed validity with the press conference of Tony Bobolinski, one of the protagonists of the emails, in which he confirmed that Biden Sr. was aware of everything. But the exposure did not seem to affect the confrontation too much, though on the face of it it was a harsh exposure that shows how much Biden knew there was corruption and may even have been an accomplice to it.

The six issues in the conflict were the war in Corona, American families, racism in the United States, global warming, national security and leadership. Event presenter Kristen Walker, an NBC reporter for the White House, chose the topics. The Trump people protested that the issue of US foreign policy was not one of the issues. They also claimed even before the confrontation that the facilitator was biased in favor of Biden, since she belonged to a media channel hostile to the president. Trump himself did not hesitate to attack Walker himself on his Twitter account like the host of CBS ‘”60 Minutes” program, Leslie Stahl, with whom he blew up an interview this week and spread the incident.

Either way, Trump was determined to repair the image damage caused by his behavior in the first confrontation, and seemed the most calm he has been so far during the campaign. Immediately after the confrontation, all the journalists who were around Trump praised him for showing calm.

It is not a trivial matter when there is praise in the press room for the 45th president. It shows that he has the ability to be disciplined, as he was very disciplined in the last two weeks of the 2016 election. Thanks to this discipline he won – and maybe this time too it will happen. He also went out of his way to make it clear that he was not a racist, and did not express himself in a way that might imply that he winked at extremists on the right.

Biden went on the defensive

Trump himself as mentioned took advantage of the stage well to pose tough questions to Biden, and the latter remained on the defensive. It’s a points victory, if not a knockout for Trump, but Baiden still had one card that still worked to his credit: the Corona. U.S. commentators say the Corona issue is due to the president’s Achilles because of the math, too: 220,000 Americans have died from the virus and 8.3 million Americans have been infected mainly in the Midwest, in places likely to win the election.

Already on the first issue dealing with Corona we saw the first controversy among the candidates: Trump talked about vaccination within weeks, while Biden talked about Trump having no plan. Trump spoke of the state and the economy not being able to be shut down, while Joe Biden would “shut down the state.” The second issue was national security. The facilitator mentioned that only the day before, it was reported that Russia and Iran were seeking to intervene in the US election.

As expected, Trump raised the issue of the Biden family’s alleged corruption because of his son’s ties with officials in China and Ukraine. The former vice president has stated that he has never received a single cent from a foreign country and has actually blamed Trump for trading with China. But it’s hard to say that this year the candidates’ alleged corruption, their past affair (including allegations of sexual harassment on both sides) and all their other alleged omissions interest the American voter. Biden’s alleged corruption interests Americans as much as Trump’s alleged non-payment of taxes. Zero interest in both cases.

At the end of the day, they both got what they wanted. Trump was presidential, thus reassuring his electorate; Biden came prepared with answers that would show that he really wanted the role. The question is which of the candidates managed to break out with momentum from the confrontation. We will only know in a few days, if at all.