A Combative Trump and a Deliberate Biden Spar From Afar at Town Halls (Published 2020)
With less than three weeks left in the campaign, there was no sign that either candidate was diverging from the political tracks they laid down months ago.
President Trump spoke positively about an extremist conspiracy-theory group, expressed skepticism about mask-wearing, rebuked his own F.B.I. director and attacked the legitimacy of the 2020 election in a televised town hall forum on Thursday, veering far away from a focused campaign appeal. Instead, he further stoked the country’s political rifts as his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., pushed a deliberate message anchored in concerns over public health and promises to restore political norms.