Mr Biden said he had not taken a “penny from any foreign source ever” in his life.
“I have released all my tax returns — 22 years. Look at them. You have not released a single solitary year of your tax returns. What are you hiding?” he said. “There is a reason why he is bringing up all this malarkey. He doesn’t want to talk about the substance of the issues. It is not about his family and my family, it is about your family and your family is hurting badly.”
Mr Biden’s most aggressive attack was over Mr Trump’s management of the coronavirus.
“220,000 Americans dead. If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this. Anyone who is responsible for not taking control … saying ‘I take no responsibility’ … anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States,” he said.
“This is the fella who told you, ‘don’t worry, we’re going to end this by summer’. We are about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter. And he has no clear plan and there is no prospect that there is going to be a vaccine available for a majority of the American people before the middle of next year.”
‘It will go away’: Donald Trump during the final debate on Friday. Picture: AFP‘It will go away’: Donald Trump during the final debate on Friday. Picture: AFPMr Trump said that 2.2 million people could have died if he had not taken action and that a vaccine was coming “within weeks”. “It will go away, we are rounding the corner, it is going away,” he said of the virus that is infecting more than 65,000 Americans a day.
The President said the economy needed to reopen regardless of the virus. “We are learning to live with it, we have no choice, we can’t lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does,” he said.
Mr Biden retorted: “He says we are learning to live with it, people are learning to die with it.”
Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of wanting to shut down the entire country. “All he does is talk about shutdown (but) we have to open our country or we’re not going to have a country,” he said. Mr Biden replied: “I’m going to shut down the virus, not the country.”
On other issues, both candidates sparred angrily over healthcare, with Mr Biden accusing Mr Trump of wanting to scrap Obamacare and leave 22 million Americans without insurance despite not having a back-up plan.
“There is no way he can protect pre-existing conditions. None. Zero … he has never come up with a plan,” Mr Biden said, referring to the fact Mr Trump has not released a healthcare plan.
Mr Trump attacked Mr Biden over border security, saying the Obama-Biden administration’s catch-and-release policy had been a disaster that had allowed criminals to infiltrate the US.
Mr Biden attacked Mr Trump over the news this week that more than 500 children who were separated from their parents at the border under the administration’s policies had not yet been reunited with their parents. He ended the debate with a final pitch for voters, saying “what is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency, honour, respect, treating people with dignity … you haven’t been getting that the last four years.”
The debate was the last major event between the two before the election on November 3.
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