WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden sparred Tuesday in their first of three debates, hoping to sway undecided voters planning to cast ballots by mail and in person in the final weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election.
A look at how their statements from Cleveland stack up with the facts:
TRUMP, addressing Biden on U.S. deaths from COVID-19: If you were here, it wouldnt be 200,000 people, it would be 2 million people. You didnt want me to ban China, which was heavily infected…. If we would have listened to you, the country would have been left wide open.
THE FACTS: This accusation is off the mark. Biden never came out against Trumps decision to restrict travel from China. Biden was slow in staking a position on the matter but when he did, he supported the restrictions. Biden never counseled leaving the country wide open in the face of the pandemic.
Trump…