Donald Trump and Joe Biden's first election debate: Five key things to take away

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have faced off in their first debate of the US election campaign, with the president talking over his rival as he sought to hold the spotlight.

The ill-tempered debate on Tuesday night saw the presidential rivals clash over race, the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Trump’s tax returns and the Supreme Court.

The long-awaited battle between the US leader and former vice president in Cleveland, Ohio, was the first of three between the two ahead of the November 3 election.

Here are five key takeaways from the match-up:

"It is what it is because you are who you are," Mr Biden told the president, suggesting Mr Trump spend months of downplaying Covid-19 while he said privately he understood how deadly it is.

Mr Trump hit back by saying the death toll in the United States would have been “millions” if Mr Biden was president when the pandemic hit.

Biden fell back on his bottom line: "A lot of people died, and a lot more are going to unless he [Mr Trump] gets a lot smarter."

For voters still undecided about who'd better handle the pandemic, the exchange may not have offered them anything new.

Mr Trump defended his decision to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court just weeks before Election Day, saying "elections have consequences."

Mr Biden said he was "not opposed to the justice," but said the "American people have a right to have a say in who the Supreme Court nominee is."

But rather than litigate Republicans' 2016 blocking of Merrick Garland to the high court, Mr Biden quickly pivoted to the issues that will potentially come before the court: healthcare and abortion.

It was an effort by the Democrat to refocus the all-but-certain confirmation fight for Mr Trump's third justice to the Supreme Court into an assault on the president and his record.

Mr Biden said Justice Barrett would endanger the Affordable Care Act and tens of millions of Americans with preexisting conditions, and would imperil legalised abortion.

Mr Trump said of the conservative: "You don't know her view on Roe vs. Wade" and he defended his efforts to try to chip away at the popular Obama-era health law.

Mr Biden has tried to press Democrats to use the court confirmation fight as a rallying cry against Trump, and the debate discussion largely played out on his turf.

Mr Trump said his rival was the politician who helped put millions of black Americans in prison with the 1994 crime law, while Mr Biden called the president "the racist" in the race for the White House.

The Democratic challenger was quiet as Mr Trump blitzed him as a tool of the "radical left" and a weak figure who opposes "law and order."

He pressed Mr Biden repeatedly to name any police union that's endorsed him. He falsely accused Mr Biden of wanting to "defund the police."

Biden did not capitalise when Mr Trump refused to condemn armed militias, insisting: "This is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem."

The former vice president tried to push back, but not until after Mr Trump had made his arguments, including the misrepresentations.

Mr Biden regained some footing mocking the president's warnings about suburbs, saying: "He wouldn't know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn."

The president was asked what he paid in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, after the New York Times reported that his tax returns showed only a $750 payment in each year.

Offering no evidence, Mr Trump said he had paid "millions of dollars... And you'll get to see it," despite his refusal to release any returns since he became a candidate in 2015, breaking with decades of tradition.

"Show us your tax returns," Mr Biden interjected.

Mr Trump attempted to walk a fine line, claiming he owed a hefty tax bill while also defending his efforts to pay as little taxes as possible€“ and blaming Mr Biden and former President Barack Obama for helping him to do so via the tax code.

When Wallace turned to Mr Biden, the Democrat quickly pivoted to his economic plan, saying he would repeal Trump'€™s tax cuts that largely benefited corporations and the wealthy, and the discussion turned to the trillions of dollars those proposals represent.

Left unmentioned were many of the allegations in the Times report: tax deductions for hair styling and private jets, no income tax paid in 10 of the last 15 years, a massive $72.9 million tax refund that is the subject of a long-running audit.

It may have been a missed opportunity for Mr Biden. He has worked hard to reach out to the working-class white voters at the heart of Mr Trump's base who might be particularly offended by Mr Trump's miniscule tax payments.

Mr Trump is used to sparring with reporters, and he spent the debate using the same tactic he uses in the White House briefing room: interrupting.

Throughout the 90-minute debate, Mr Trump repeatedly talked over Mr Biden and the moderator, overshadowing attempts to discuss policy and drawing rebukes for breaking the rules that both campaigns had agreed on to ensure that both candidates had equal time.

The debate split-screen regularly showed the two candidates talking simultaneously while Wallace pleaded for order.

"Please let the vice president talk," the moderator told Mr Trump during one of his interruptions.

"Will you shut up, man?” Mr Biden said to Mr Trump, one of many times he directed the president to be quiet.

The effect was exhausting for the moderator, who conceded at one point that he was having trouble following.