Presidential Debate turns to National Security, morphs into personal finances

Biden gets the first question and was asked what he would do to stop other countries meddling in US elections.

This follows the news from the prior day that US national security officials claimed that Iran was responsible for sending threatening emails to Democratic voters ahead of next month's presidential election.

Biden said the following:

I made it clear and I asked everyone else to take the pledge. Any country, no matter who it is, her interviews with American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price. It has been overwhelmingly clear the selection, no-one ever get into the last ones, the selection that Russia has been involved, China has been involved to some degree and now we learn that Iran has been involved. They will pay a price if I am elected. They are interfering with American sovereignty.

     

Biden then brought up Rudy Giuliani.

His (Trump's) buddy Rudy Giuliani, he has been used as a Russian pawn. He has been fed information that is not true and then what happens — pawn, and then you find out that everything going on here about Russia is anting to make sure that I do not get elected the next president of United States because they know I know them and they know me,

Biden says.

The President says that "I never got any money from Russia".

 I have got the NATO countries to put up an extra Iran billion - $420 billion a year to go against Russia," Trump said.

Trump pivots to the Hunter Biden theme:

"All of the emails, the emails, horrible emails of the kind of money that you were raking in, you and your family. And you are Vice President when some of this was happening and it should have never happened. I think you owe an explanation to the American people. Why is it? Somebody just at a news conference a little while ago who was essentially supposed to work with you and your family but what he said was damning. And regardless of me, I think you have to clean it up and talk to the American people.

Biden responded:

"I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life. We learned that this president paid 50 times the tax in China as a secret bank account with China, does business in China, and in fact is talking about me taking money? I've not taken a single penny in any country whatsoever, ever. Number one. Number two, this is a president, I have released all of my tax returns. 22 years. Look at them. 22 years of my tax returns. You have not released a single solitary year of your tax returns. What are you hiding? Why are you unwilling? The foreign countries are paying you a lot. Russia is paying you a lot. China is paying you a lot. And your hotels and all your businesses all around the country, all around the world. And China is building a new road to a golf course you have overseas. So what is going on here? Why don't you release your tax returns and stop talking about corruption?"

.. End

Meanwhile, the US dollar is stable on the 93 level.