US election: Trump and Biden deflect key questions in TV grilling

US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden have batted away key questions during separate meet-the-voter TV events.

Mr Trump, a Republican, declined to disavow a bizarre online conspiracy, while Mr Biden, a Democrat, would not divulge plans for the Supreme Court.

Both candidates were on the defensive at times on their records, Mr Trump for a range of issues and Mr Biden on race.

Opinion polls indicate Mr Biden has a solid lead over Mr Trump.

However, polling is still very close in several key states which could decide the election.

More than 18 million people have already voted in person or by post for the 3 November vote.

Thursday night’s town halls, as TV voter question-and-answer events are known in the US, replaced a cancelled second presidential debate. Mr Trump had refused to join that showdown virtually, following the recent Covid-19 diagnosis from which he now appears fully recovered.

What were the key moments for Trump?

During his primetime event hosted by TV network NBC in Miami, Florida, the president was asked about the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose adherents believe that Mr Trump is battling a clandestine network of elites, often involving Satanic plots and child trafficking.

When moderator Savannah Guthrie asked Mr Trump whether he would reject them, he replied: “I know nothing about QAnon.”

Ms Guthrie said she had just told him about the group, which has been labelled a potential terrorist threat by the FBI.

The president said: “I know nothing about it, I do know they are very much against paedophilia, they fight it very hard.”

Mr Trump instead turned his fire on antifa, a loose-knit movement of mainly far-left activists blamed by the US Department of Justice for civil disorder in American cities during racial justice protests over the last few months.