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e. The 2020 United States presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the major candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election, were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. There were three initially planned scheduled debates. The first debate took place on September 29, 2020.
Oct 22, 2020 · Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at final presidential debate on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. Live Updates: Presidential Debates Conservatives pounce on Biden’s desire to move ...
- Key moments from the debate
- Candidates close with Inauguration Day pitch to voters who didn't support them
- Trump and Biden spar over climate change
- Trump: "I ran because of you, Joe"
- Trump says he is the "least racist person in the room"
- Fact check: Trump claims he's immune from COVID-19
- Biden says family separations violated "every notion of who we are as a nation"
- Trump blames Pelosi for lack of progress on coronavirus relief bill
- Fact check: Trump says "99.9% of young people recover, 99% of people recover" from COVID-19
- Fact check: Trump says we're "rounding the turn" on coronavirus
In the final question of the final presidential debate before Election Day, Mr. Trump and Biden were asked to relay what they would say on Inauguration Day to voters who did not support their candidacies.
Mr. Trump focused his remarks on the economy and touted the low unemployment rates across a variety of demographics.
"We have to make our country totally successful as it was prior to the plague coming over from China," he said.
Mr. Trump claimed that before the coronavirus pandemic devastated the U.S. economy, Democrats "wanted to unify."
"Success is going to bring us together," he said. "We are on the road to success."
Mr. Trump warned that if Biden is elected, "you will have a depression the likes of which you've never seen."
When asked about climate change, Mr. Trump said that "what I want is the crystal clean water, the cleanest air." He did not mention that his administration had rolled back several environmental regulations, including the Clean Water Act. Biden responded that climate change is a serious issue.
"Climate change, climate warming and global warming is an existential threat to humanity," Biden said. He said that his plan, which had been endorsed by major environmental and labor groups, would provide "millions of new good-paying jobs." Biden also talked about the importance of developing solar and wind energy.
"I know more about wind than you do. It's extremely expensive. It kills all the birds," Mr. Trump replied. He also accused Biden of flip-flopping on banning fracking, which Biden denied.
"I do rule out banning fracking," Biden said, but he added that "we need other industries."
Welker also pointed out that Black people are disproportionately affected by rolling back regulations, allowing the nearby environment to be polluted.
"The families that we're talking about are employed heavily," Mr. Trump said, declining to directly answer the question.
Mr. Trump questioned Biden on his accomplishments across his 47-year career in public service and said he decided to mount a run for president in 2015 because he believed the Obama administration did "a poor job."
"I ran because of you, Joe," the president said. "I ran because of you."
Mr. Trump attributed Biden to other career politicians who fail to follow through on their promises.
"It's all talk, no action with these politicians," he said.
Biden, however, urged voters to evaluate the two candidates for president based on their character.
"I am anxious to have this race. I am anxious to see this take place," the former vice president said. "The character of our country is on the ballot."
Welker asked both candidates about "the talk" that Black parents have to give their children, discussing how to respond when pulled over by the police. Welker, who is Black, asked them if they understood why Black parents needed to warn their children about interactions with the police.
"I never had to tell my daughter if she's pulled over for a traffic stop, put both hands on the wheel," Biden said. "But a Black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are,has to teach their children, don't wear a hoodie walking across the street."
Biden also said that "there is institutional racism in America," and that the U.S. has "never, ever lived up" to the promise of liberty and equality for all.
"We have to provide for economic opportunity, better education, better health care," Biden said.
When asked about whether he understands "the talk," Mr. Trump said he did before pivoting to talking about how his administration has aided Black Americans.
"Nobody has done more for the Black community than Donald Trump," Mr. Trump said, saying he has done more for Black Americans than any president other than Abraham Lincoln. He also slammed Biden for supporting a crime bill in the mid-1990s which led to harsher sentences for drug possession.
Statement by President Trump: "I can tell you from personal experience that, I was in the hospital, I had it. And I got better, and I will tell you that, I had something that they gave me — a therapeutic, I guess they would call it. Some people would say it was a cure, but I was in for a short period of time, and I got better very fast or I wouldn't be here tonight. And now they say I am immune — whether it's four months or a lifetime, nobody has been able to say that, but I'm immune."
Claim: Mr. Trump claims he's immune from COVID-19 after having contracted it and recovered.
Fact check: Inconclusive
Details: A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 vaccination fact sheet updated on October 14 states that "[t]here is not enough information currently available to say if or for how long after infection someone is protected from getting COVID-19 again; this is called natural immunity."
The fact sheet says, "Early evidence suggests natural immunity from COVID-19 may not last very long, but more studies are needed to better understand this." The CDC adds that until a vaccine is available and understands more about natural immunity from COVID-19, the CDC "cannot comment on whether people who had COVID-19 should get a COVID-19 vaccine."
COVID-19 antibodies may confer immunity, but as Factcheck.org notes, there's no way to know whether a person is immune without trying to reinfect the individual.
Following the revelation that the Trump administration cannot locate the parents of more than 500 children who were detained at the border and separated from their families, Mr. Trump defended his immigration policies and said children are brought across the U.S.-Mexico border by coyotes and drug cartels.
"We now have as strong a border as we've ever had," the president said, adding there have been more than 500 miles of new barrier built along the southern border. "They have to come in legally."
The president said his administration is "working on" reuniting children with their parents and "trying very hard" to do so.
Biden lambasted Mr. Trump's family separation policy and said it was designed to disincentivize migrants from crossing the southern border.
"It makes us a laughing stock," he said. "It violates every notion of who we are as a nation."
Biden called the Trump administration's inability to locate the parents of those children "criminal."
Welker asked Mr. Trump about why he hasn't pushed Congress to reach a deal on a coronavirus relief bill, as millions of Americans have lost their jobs and face food insecurity because of the pandemic.
"Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to approve it. I do," Mr. Trump said, referring to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have engaged in negotiations for weeks over a deal, but Mr. Trump said Pelosi was waiting until after the election.
"She'd love to have some victories on a date called November 3," Mr. Trump said. Pelosi has repeatedly said that she wants to pass a stimulus bill before the election. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told Republican senators that he warned the White House against reaching a deal before the election.
Biden noted that the House passed a $3.4 trillion bill in May, and a slimmed-down $2.4 trillion bill last month.
"Why isn't he talking to his Republican friends?" Biden said. "It's not new. It's been out there. This HEROES Act has been sitting there."
Mr. Trump claimed that the HEROES Act, passed by Democrats, was a "bailout" for blue states. Biden said that, if elected, he would care about states controlled by Democrats and by Republicans.
Statement by President Trump: "99.9% of young people recover, 99% of people recover."
Claim: Trump claims 99.9% of young people recover and 99% of people recover from COVID-19.
Fact check: Misleading
Details: Based on identified cases, the CDC shows an overall cumulative case death rate of 4.5%. About 4% of new cases require hospitalization.
Among young people, according to the CDC, the survival rate for COVID-19 among people 19 years of age and younger is 99.997%. The survival rate among individuals ages 20 to 49 is 99.98%.
But studying the death rate from the virus is complicated because drops in the overall U.S. death rate for COVID-19 coincides with a change in whom the disease is sickening. Studies that have calculated the death rate based on broader antibody testing suggest an infection death rate of less than 1%.
Statement by President Trump: "It will go away. And as I say, we're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It's going away."
Claim: Trump claims that the coronavirus is going away.
Fact check: False
Details: New infections and hospitalizations are currently rising in the U.S.
•Coronavirus cases are currently increasing in at least 34 states, according to Johns Hopkins University.
•Hospitalizations are rising in 37 states, according to an analysis by CNBC.
- Grace Segers,Stefan Becket,Melissa Quinn
- 15 min
The first presidential debate took place in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29, 2020. Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic co-hosted the event. Fox News' Chris Wallace moderated. On October 9, 2020, the commission canceled a planned second debate between President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D).
Oct 23, 2020 · PBS NewsHour via YouTube. Updated Friday at 12:35 a.m. ET. President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden faced off for the last time Thursday night in Nashville. It was the final ...
- 117 min
- Chloee Weiner
Oct 23, 2020 · 23 October 2020. By Anthony Zurcher, North America reporter, @awzurcher. ... like earlier debates, it started on the coronavirus pandemic - a topic the American public cares most about, polls ...
Oct 22, 2020 · President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met for a second and final debate, moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News. Watch the video here and review our analysis as it happened.
