Joe Biden's campaign says it received record-breaking donations after his debate with Trump

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Joe Biden's campaign says it received record-breaking donations after his debate with Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump and former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speak during the first presidential debate at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio.Morry Gash-Pool/Getty Images
  • Joe Biden's election campaign broke a fund-raising record immediately following his debate with Trump.
  • His director of communications Kate Bedingfield reportedly told journalists that it raised $3.8 million in an hour following the chaotic televised debate on Tuesday.
  • The campaign broke "the single-hour record for a campaign ever" on Democratic fundraising website, Act Blue, she told reporters.
  • Biden on Wednesday said Trump's debate performance was a "national embarrassment."
  • The 90-minute debate was characterised by interruptions and falsehoods and drew negative reviews from across the political spectrum.
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Joe Biden's election campaign says it broke fund-raising records in the immediate aftermath of his disorderly and ill-tempered debate with President Trump on Tuesday.

Kate Bedingfield, Biden's director of communications and deputy campaign manager, told reporters on a conference call following the debate that their campaign raised $3.8 million between 10pm and 11pm via the Democratic fundraising website, Act Blue, The Guardian newspaper reports.

Bedingfield told reporters that the Biden campaign broke "the single-hour record for a campaign ever on ActBlue" after the first televised debate between Biden and President Trump ahead of the election next month.

The 90-minute debate was characterised by repeated interruptions from Trump and bad-natured exchanges between the two candidates.

Speaking during a campaign visit to Alliance, Ohio on Wednesday, Biden said Trump's performance, in which he spoke over Biden several times and made a number of false statements, was a "national embarrassment." At one point during the debate, Biden told to Trump to "shut up" and later called him a "clown."

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"For 90 minutes, he tried everything to distract," Biden told reporters in Ohio. "And it just didn't work."

The Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday said that it would regulate future debates to "ensure a more orderly discussion" and that it would announce new measures for structuring televised debates "shortly." Politico reported that measures could include muting the microphone of candidates breaking debate rules.

Following Tuesday's debate, Biden sought to seize on Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacists, telling reporters in Ohio: "My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist... That's not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans."

When asked by moderater Chris Wallace to condemn the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, Trump told the group to "stand back" and "stand by" amid nationwide protests against racism.

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