As Trump continues to interrupt during the debate, Biden says, 'Will you shut up, man?'
President Donald Trump spent much of the first 20 minutes of his first debate with former Vice President Joe Biden trying to rattle his Democratic opponent.
As they discussed the opening on the Supreme Court, Trump constantly needling, interrupted and spoke over Biden – a sequence that ended with Biden finally saying: “Will you shut up, man?”
True to form, Trump had come out swinging – calling Biden a “socialist,” accusing him of catering to the left wing of his party, repeatedly talking over the former vice president and moderator Chris Wallace. It was the kind of attack line the president often levels at his rallies.
Wallace cautioned Trump several times to stop interrupting and let Biden speak.
For about 15 minutes, the two candidates did settle into more typical debate banter, but it didn't last long, with the president starting to interrupt and talk over Biden and Wallace again.
"It's hard to get any word in with this clown," Biden said, throwing up his hands.
Wallace, who repeatedly had to raise his voice to be heard, had his hands full trying to keep order as the candidates went after each other, but he came down harder on President Donald Trump.
“Frankly, you’ve been doing more interrupting,” Wallace said at one point.
At one point as he chided Trump, he sarcastically asked the president if he wanted to change seats and become the moderator.
The back and forth started early, as Biden tried to answer a question about his health care plan. Trump tried to tie him to Bernie Sanders.
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“I’m not going to listen to him,” Biden said, as he tried to ignore Trump. “The fact of the matter is I beat, Bernie Sanders.”
“Not by much,” Trump needled.
As Trump kept interrupting, Biden tried to get back on track. “Here’s the deal. Here’s the deal,” Biden repeated, before asserting that he was not on stage to “call out his lies.”
“Everybody knows he’s a liar,” Biden said.
The moderator tried to take control, asking Trump to let Biden finish.
“Gentleman, you realize that you’re both speaking at the same time,” Wallace said.
As Wallace moved on to the next topic, Biden joked sarcastically that “that was really a productive segment.”
The back-and-forth suggested the predictions were right that the debate could be among the most personal in modern times.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden asks Trump to "shut up" as president keeps interrupting debate
