NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After the first presidential debate was panned so widely that organizers introduced a mute button, Thursday’s second and final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was far more civil. Whether because of that button or the terrible reviews — especially for Trump — the candidates interrupted each other far less frequently, even as they clashed on issues ranging from the coronavirus to crime to global warming. While Trump and Biden responded to each other’s answers — shaking their heads disapprovingly or smiling, in the case of Biden — the two largely avoided speaking over one another this time.

(AP) — President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden scrapped over how to tame the raging coronavirus in Thursday’s final 2020 debate. They largely shelved the rancor that overshadowed their previous face-off in favor of a more substantive exchange that highlighted their vastly different approaches to solving the major domestic and foreign policy challenges facing the nation. With less than two weeks until the election, Trump sought to portray himself as the same outsider he first pitched to voters four years ago, arguing anew that he wasn’t a politician. Biden, meanwhile, argued that Trump was an incompetent leader of a country facing multiple crises and tried to connect what he saw as the president’s failures to the everyday lives of Americans.