WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump and rival Joe Biden began a sprint through the final 11 days of the US presidential race yesterday after battling over the Covid-19 pandemic and personal integrity in their second and final debate.

Mr Trump, 74, was to hold two rallies in the battleground state of Florida, where opinion polls show a tight race. Mr Biden, 77, was slated to deliver a speech in his home state of Delaware on his plans for leading a recovery from the pandemic.

Mr Trump, a Republican, adopted a more restrained tone than he did during a chaotic first debate last month, when he repeatedly interrupted Mr Biden.

But Thursday's clash still featured plenty of personal attacks between two men who evince little respect for each other, and Mr Trump kept fact-checkers busy by levelling unfounded corruption accusations at Mr Biden and his family.

The absence of disruptions yielded a more substantive debate over a range of topics, including the economy, race, climate change, healthcare and immigration.

But the coronavirus, which has killed more than 222,000 people in the US, loomed over the proceedings as it has throughout the campaign.

Mr Biden, who walked onstage wearing a mask, delivered his closing argument at the very start.

"Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America," Mr Biden said in his first opportunity to speak.

"We're about to go into a dark winter. A dark winter. And he has no clear plan," he added.

Mr Trump, who has put his stewardship of the economy at the centre of his campaign, defended his approach to the outbreak and said the country could not afford to close businesses again despite fresh surges. "We're learning to live with it," said Mr Trump, who has played down the virus for months. "We have no choice."

Mr Biden retorted: "Learning to live with it? "Come on. We're dying with it."​

Mr Trump, whose instinct remains to run as an outsider, portrayed Mr Biden as a career politician whose nearly 50-year record was insubstantial. "You keep talking about all these things you're going to do," Mr Trump pressed. "Why didn't you get it done?"

"All talk, no action," he repeated.

But he did not lay out a clear agenda for a second term, while Mr Biden returned again and again to Mr Trump's four years as president, pointing to the economic damage the virus has done to people's lives.

It was in the second segment of the debate that the exchanges turned sharply personal, as the focus shifted to foreign interference in US elections. Mr Biden spoke first, warning that countries such as Russia and Iran would "pay a price" for tampering with the campaign.

Alluding to unsubstantiated stories about him that have circulated in conservative media, Mr Biden chided Mr Trump for the actions of "his buddy Rudy Giuliani".

Mr Trump rapidly escalated matters, brandishing the unproven allegations about Mr Biden's son to accuse his rival of personally taking money from foreign interests.

Mr Biden rejected the charge, saying he had "not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life".

"There's a reason why he's bringing up all this malarkey," Mr Biden said, looking directly into the camera. "It's not about his family and my family. It's about your family, and your family's hurting badly."

Pushing back on the President, he cited a New York Times report that Mr Trump maintained a Chinese bank account. "Release your tax returns," Mr Biden said. "Or stop talking about corruption."

The former vice-president was less sure-footed elsewhere in the debate. When under pressure from Mr Trump, he appeared to endorse the eventual elimination of the oil industry.

Mr Trump immediately seized on Mr Biden's remark for voters in all-important Pennsylvania, where Mr Biden's position on reducing fracking wins him few friends.

But Mr Biden also had standout moments of his own. He pounced when Mr Trump claimed he was the best president for black Americans since Abraham Lincoln, accusing the President of pouring "fuel on every single racist fire".

"Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history," Mr Biden quipped.

In a debate that was originally planned as a forum on national security, the two candidates devoted only a few glancing exchanges to the subject.

The televised encounter represented one of Mr Trump's last remaining opportunities to reshape a race that national opinion polls show he has been losing for months, though the contest is much tighter in some battleground states likely to decide the election.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, NYTIMES