India is filthy, claims Trump at his final clash with Biden before race for White House closes

Though better behaved and disciplined than they were in their disastrous first debate on September 29, they also launched vicious attacks on each other over corruption, character and integrity in the second showdown.

President Donald Trump on Thursday used the word “filthy” to describe the quality of air in India - language that he has never used for a country that he has counted among America’s friends.

This combination of pictures created on October 22 shows US President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. (AFP)

“Look at India, it’s filthy,” Trump said during a heated exchange with his Democratic rival Joe Biden on the topic of climate crisis and his decision to pull the US out of the Paris Accord, during the second and final presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia, look at - India, it’s so filthy, the air is filthy,” the American president said, arguing his position on climate crisis. “The Paris accord I took us out because we were going to have to spend trillions of dollars, and we were treated very unfairly when they put us in there - they did us a great disservice, they were going to take away our business.”

The American president has made a similar argument in the past - saying India and China got a sweeter deal under the Paris Accord - but he has not used this kind of language before for India.

The Republican president and his Democratic challenger locked horns for their second and final presidential debate on Friday morning, India time. Polling in the US ends on November 3