First 2020 presidential debate

Tonight’s presidential debate made for a chaotic first foray between Joe Biden and Donald Trump since the start of the general election race.

Trump was intent on interrupting Biden on nearly every question and the former vice president wasn’t above name-calling, calling the President a “clown” and telling him to “shut up.”

In case you missed tonight’s debate, here are four key moments:

Trump addresses the New York Times report on his taxes

The President offered a simple defense for the low amount of income taxes he’s paid over the years: “I don’t want to pay tax.”

At the same time, however, Trump also insisted that he pays millions in taxes, contradicting the New York Times’ reporting, which indicated that he paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017.

Different realities on the coronavirus

Biden, citing the staggering coronavirus death toll and case number in the US, said, “The President has no plan. He hasn’t laid out anything.”

Trump, however, insisted that Biden “could not have done the job we did.”

The President also brought up his administration’s plan to quickly distribute a coronavirus vaccine, but Biden questioned why Americans should trust someone who lies so frequently.

“This is the same man who told you by Easter this would be gone away. By the warm weather, it’d be gone — like a miracle. And by the way, maybe you could inject some bleach into your arm,” Biden said.

Biden responds to Trump’s attacks on his son, Hunter

Reacting to Trump’s repeated unfounded and false claims about Hunter Biden acting corruptly in Ukraine, the former vice president said, “This is not about my family or his family, this is about your family — the American people.”

“He doesn’t want to talk about what you need,” Biden added.

At another point in the debate, Trump raised Hunter Biden’s past issues with drug addiction.

“My son had a drug problem, but he’s overcome it and I’m proud of him,” Biden responded.

Trump refuses to condemn white supremacists

Trump refused to explicitly call out white supremacists for inciting violence at anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country, saying during the debate that the violence wasn’t an issue caused by the right and telling one far-right group to “stand back and stand by.”

“Sure, I’m willing to (tell them to stand down), but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace,” Trump said.

“Who would you like me to condemn?” Trump asked moderator Chris Wallace. “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what. … Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem(.)” 

President Donald Trump tried to paint former vice president Joe Biden’s health care plan as the same as “Medicare for All,“which was promoted by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and would have shifted the nation’s health insurance to a single government-run program. 

“You are going to extinguish 180 million people with their private health care that they are very happy with. You’re going to socialist medicine,” Trump said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that President Trump is “going to be the first President of the United States to leave office having fewer jobs in his administration than when he became President.”

In attacking Joe Biden for his advocacy of the 1994 crime bill, President Trump claimed that Biden had called African Americans “super predators.”

“He did a crime bill,” Trump said. “1994. Where you called them super predators. African Americans. Super predators. And they’ve never forgotten it. They’ve never forgotten it.”

Republicans Rick Santorum and Scott Jennings agreed that President Trump’s antics took the conversation away from core GOP issues during tonight’s debate and at times were offensive.

“If I was a Republican elected official, if I was someone running for office right now, I’d be pretty mad at him… He indulged himself,” Santorum said.

Santorum added, that while he believes that Trump has a winning message and policy, and had an overall edge over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden during the debate, Trump’s behavior overshadowed that.

“We can’t win with a center-right campaign if we have someone who is as caustic as what the President is in this debate… Donald Trump’s personality ran wild tonight,” he said.

Jennings told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Trump’s strategy of being on the offense turned into “just being offensive.”

Jennings also slammed the President for not condemning white supremacists.

“He’s going to have to speak for himself on this. He’s going to have to clean this up. He has to clear it up. It’s the wrong answer. It’s always been the wrong answer. There is a clear right answer to these questions which is, ‘Anyone that is committing violence, left, right, white, black, up, down, if you’re in a city and you’re committing violence and you’re doing it in the name of white supremacy… you’re all the same, you’re hurting America. So, go home and stop it.’ It’s always been the right answer. It’s always been that clear and the fact that he can’t look into the camera and say it is a problem,” Jennings said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested that the United States currently has a higher trade deficit with both China and Mexico than it has had before.  

The Biden campaign broke its single hour fundraising record during the debate, raising $3.8 million between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., the campaign’s Kate Bedingfield announced on a post-debate press call. 

Asked if they still believe it is worth debating President Trump given the chaos of tonight’s debate, the campaign expressed its intent for Biden to continue participating. 

“We are going to the debates, yes,” Bedingfield said, committing to the final two presidential debates. 

“Joe Biden’s gonna show up,” said Bedingfield. “He’s gonna continue speaking directly to the American people. The next debate is a town hall format where real voters are going to have the chance to engage the candidate. Biden obviously relishes any opportunity to talk directly to real voters, that’s something that he prioritizes doing on the campaign trail.” 

She said that there will be “ongoing discussions with the commission” about “formats and rules,” adding, “we think the opportunity for Biden’s address the American people directly as is powerful.” She did didn’t provide any changes they are considering following tonight’s debate. 

Bedingfield argued that the debate did Trump a “disservice” and casted him as “weak.” She said she thinks the President came across as “somebody who believes that he is losing this race. I think that was readily apparent written all over his face.” 

Asked if they’d had a chance to ask Biden how he felt and if he had expressed regret about any of the lines he threw at the President, Bedingfield replied, “He expressed regret that the President of the United States chooses to conduct himself this way on the national stage and on the international stage.”   

This is what undecided voters said about tonight’s first presidential debate:

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Six in 10 debate watchers said former Vice President Joe Biden did the best job in tonight’s debate, just 28% say President Donald Trump did, according a CNN Poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS. 

In interviews with the same voters conducted before the debate, 56% said they expected Biden to do the better job while 43% expected that Trump would. 

The post-debate result is about the same as the outcome of a post-debate poll in 2016 after the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton. In that poll, 62% thought Clinton won the debate, 27% said Trump did. 

About two-thirds said Biden’s answers were more truthful than Trump’s (65% Biden to 29% Trump), and his attacks on the President were more frequently seen as fair. Overall, 69% called Biden’s attacks on Trump fair while just 32% said Trump’s attacks were fair. 

The survey is designed to be representative of those registered voters who watched tonight’s debate; it does not represent the views of all Americans. The voters who watched the debate were more partisan than Americans as a whole, 35% identified as independents or non-partisans compared with around 40% in the general public, and the group of debate watchers was more Democratic than a typical survey of all adults, with 39% identifying as Democrats and 25% as Republicans.

The CNN post-debate poll was conducted by SSRS by telephone and includes interviews with 568 registered voters who watched the Sept. 29 debate. Results among debate-watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 6.3 percentage points. Respondents were originally interviewed September 22-27 either by telephone or online, and indicated they planned to watch the debate and would be willing to be re-interviewed when it was over. Respondents initially reached online are members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally representative probability-based panel.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris blasted President Trump for not condemning white supremacists during tonight’s debate.

Harris went on to say that the President has created policies that would end training against racial bias and contrasted the stark difference between Biden and Trump.

“On the one hand, Donald Trump continuously, throughout his campaign for president, throughout his presidency, spending full-time trying to sow hate and division, trying to get the American people to turn on each other.
On the other hand, a Joe Biden who speaks with a calm voice, respecting the dignity of all people, recognizing the kind of division that has taken place in our country because of Donald Trump and there with a genuine, genuine goal of unifying our country once, God-willing, he wins this election,” the California senator said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden turned a question about the Supreme Court into a defense of the Affordable Care Act, which was enacted while he was in office. 

“He’s in the Supreme Court right now, trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which will strip 20 million people from having insurance,” Biden said of President Trump’s support of a case coming up before the justices that could overturn the landmark health reform law. 

Correction: An earlier version of this graphic incorrectly stated that Biden’s claim was misleading. The claim is true. Health care experts say this figure is roughly accurate. It is an estimate from the Obama administration as to how many people gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris batted down speculation that Joe Biden might decline to participate in future presidential debates, after President Trump derailed tonight’s exchange with insults and interruptions.

“Joe Biden is never going to refuse to talk to the American people and have any opportunity that he can to talk directly to American families and speak about the issues, and speak the truth and address the facts of where we are now,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper, when he asked if Biden would debate again. 

Currently, Trump and Biden are slated to face off twice more before the election, once in Miami and once in Nashville.

When pressed by Tapper, Harris said she believed Americans benefited from the contrast clearly visible in the candidates’ behavior on stage.

“Joe was trying to have a mature conversation,” she said.

Harris continued: “Then on the other hand you had a Donald Trump who spent full time interrupting, bullying the moderator and lying to the American people.”

“I do believe that the American people benefited from a clear contrast of what they’ve got right now but also what they they could get and what is possible,” she added.

Watch the interview:

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During a discussion on health care and insurance, President Trump claimed 308,000 “military people” died because Biden “couldn’t provide them proper health care.”

President Trump claimed that Biden’s son Hunter Biden got a $3.5 million payment from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. “Why is it, just out of curiosity, the mayor of Moscow’s wife gave your son $3.5 million?” Trump said.

President Trump’s claim tonight that he is being supported by the sheriff in Portland was disputed by the sheriff himself. 

In a tweet sent as the presidential debate was still going on, Multnomah County, Oregon, Sheriff Mike Reese said, “As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him.”

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office confirmed the tweet.

During a tense discussion about violent protests in Portland, Oregon, Trump said, “Portland – the sheriff just came out today and said, ‘I support President Trump.’”

Multnomah County includes the city of Portland, whose municipal government does not have a sheriff.

Defending his response to the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump referenced the travel restrictions his administration imposed on foreign nationals who had been in China, then attacked Biden for remarks he had made the same day.

Addressing his opponent, Trump said, “I closed it, and you said, ‘He’s xenophobic. He’s a racist and he’s xenophobic,’ because you didn’t think I should have closed our country.”  

CNN’s Van Jones slammed President Trump for not condemning white supremacists during the debate.

“Only three things happened for me tonight:

Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacy. The President of the United States refused to condemn white supremacy. The commander-in-chief refused to condemn white supremacy on the global stage, in front of my children, in front of everybody’s families and was given the opportunity multiple times.”

Jones added that the President gave a “wink and a nod” to the Proud Boys, the white supremacist group.

Jones also said that Trump failed across the board during the chaotic debate.

“Everybody I know is either disgusted, sad or angry. I don’t know a single person, even my Republican friends are disgusted,” Jones said, “I don’t know what he was doing up there, but there’s not a single thing that he needed to do tonight that he did, except offend a lot of people.”
See the moment:

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President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden clashed Tuesday on the legitimacy of election results, with the President continuing blatant efforts to foster mistrust in mail-in ballots on the debate stage. Trump baselessly cast doubt on the outcome and Biden said he would abide by independent certification of the results.

Asked what they were prepared to do to reassure the American people that the next president will be the legitimate winner, the opponents offered starkly different responses.

Biden noted remarks from Trump’s acting Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf and FBI director Christopher Wray, asserting that “there is no evidence at all that mail-in ballots are a source of being manipulated and cheating.”

“This is all about trying to dissuade people from voting because he’s trying to scare people into thinking that it’s not going to be legitimate. Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of this election. Vote, vote, vote,” Biden said.

In his response, Trump initially invoked his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, before going on to sow doubt in the 2020 results, calling ballots “a disaster,” drawing a distinction, as he often does, between solicited ballots, which he said are “okay,” and unsolicited ballots.

But voting-by-mail rarely results in fraud. And although Trump has tried to spin the two as fundamentally different before, absentee and mail-in voting are essentially the same, both subject to several degrees of verification. 

“They’re sending millions of ballots all over the country. There’s fraud. They found them in creeks, they found some with the name Trump – just the other day in a wastepaper basket. They’re being sent all over the place,” Trump said, without evidence, later claiming that Virginia mailmen are “selling the ballots” and other ballots are being “dumped in rivers.”

“This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” Trump said. “This is a horrible thing for our country. This is not going to end well.”

Some context: Trump’s insistence that an increase in mail-in voting this November will result in massive fraud is unfounded. 

While rare instances of voter fraud from mail-in ballots do occur, it is nowhere near a widespread problem in the US election system.

Mail ballot fraud is exceedingly rare in part because states have systems and processes in place to prevent forgery, theft and voter fraud. These systems would apply to both absentee ballots and mail-in ballots for in-state voters.

President Trump said he would not “go along” with conceding the election if he believes the results have been “manipulated,” continuing to press unfounded conspiracy theories about voters casting ballots by mail.

“Will you urge supporters to stay calm during this extended period not to engage in any civil unrest and pledge tonight that you will not declare victory until the election has been independently certified,” asked moderator Chris Wallace.

“I’m urging supporters to go into the poll and watch very carefully,” Trump said tonight, beginning to slam vote by mail. “If it’s a fair election, I’m 100% on board. But If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that.”

Biden responded to the question by agreeing to “not declare victory” until the election if certified.

“This is all about trying to dissuade people from voting because he is trying to scare people into thinking that it is not going to be legitimate,” Biden said. “Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of this election.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper described tonight’s chaotic presidential debate as “a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.” 

“That was the worst debate I have ever seen,” said Tapper. “In fact, it wasn’t even a debate. It was a disgrace and it’s primarily because of Trump who spent the entire time interrupting not abiding by the rules he agreed to.” 

“I can tell you one thing for sure, the American people lost tonight because that was horrific,” he added.

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said the tone and tenor of the exchange was the most chaotic he’d ever seen and could endanger two more debates planned between President Trump and Joe Biden later this fall. 

“Clearly, this was the most chaotic presidential debate I’ve ever seen and I suspect most of you if not all have ever seen,” said Blitzer, just moments after the debate had concluded.

“It will certainly raise a lot of questions… about the future of a presidential debate between these two candidates,” he added. “I wouldn’t be surprised, by the way, if this is the last presidential debate between the President of the United States and the former vice president.”

Currently, Trump and Biden are slated to face off twice more before the election, once in Miami and once in Nashville.

Here is the moment:

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We tracked how much time both candidates spoke in tonight’s debate. President Trump edged out former vice president Joe Biden speaking more than 39 minutes while Biden spoke for over 37 minutes.

President Trump refused to call out white supremacists for inciting violence at anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country, saying during Tuesday’s debate that the violence wasn’t an issue cause by the right.

When debate moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he was ready to condemn white supremacists and say they need to stand down during ongoing demonstrations across the country, Trump told one group to “stand back and stand by.” He also asserted that violence at the protests was not an issue caused by conservatives.

“Sure, I’m willing to (tell them to stand down), but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace,” Trump said.

“Say it. Do it. Say it,” Biden responded, encouraging Trump to condemn the groups.

“Who would you like me to condemn?” Trump asked Wallace. “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem(.)”

Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, have been seen in their black and yellow polo shirt uniform at multiple 2020 Trump campaign rallies. 

CNN has reported on how white supremacists have posed as Antifa online, calling for violence. Before it emerged the account was run by white supremacists, Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son, pointed his 2.8 million Instagram followers to the account as an example how dangerous Antifa is.

And the President has previously defended the actions of Trump supporters who apparently fired pepper spray and paintballs at demonstrators. Trump also previously said that Kyle Rittenhouse — who faces homicide charges as well as a felony charge for attempted homicide in Kenosha, Wisconsin — “probably would have been killed” had he not acted as an armed vigilante during anti-police violence protests, claiming that the 17-year-old had been “very violently attacked.”

Watch the moment:

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Just as his advisers previewed ahead of time, President Trump keeps working to bring the debate back to Hunter Biden, an attack they hoped would goad Joe Biden into losing his cool.

This time the issue arose as Biden sought to criticize the President for reportedly calling US war dead “losers.” Raising his late son Beau — who served in Iraq before succumbing to brain cancer in 2015 — the former vice president declared he wasn’t a “loser.”

Instead of rebutting the claims about his views of the military, Trump sought to return the debate to Hunter Biden.

“I don’t know Beau Biden,” Trump scoffed.

As Trump launched into an attack on Hunter Biden, including raising his past issues with drug addiction, Biden again turned to the camera and addressed the issue, even as Trump was seeking to interrupt. 

“My son had a drug problem, but he’s overcome it and I’m proud of him,” Biden said.

President Trump is controlling tonight’s debate – that doesn’t mean he’s winning it.

For much of the first hour, Trump dominated the discussion, talked over his rival, steamrolled the moderator – often without any interruption. 

It’s clear that the President is trying to win the moment, while Joe Biden seems to be playing more of a long game. Yet at times, he seemed to all recede from the stage. To those listening – and not watching – he went for stretches of time without speaking, intent on biting his tongue. 

Judging the winner may be an impossible task. Finding the loser is easy: American voters.

It’s an open question whether any undecided voters – believe it or not, they do exist – were given any measure of clarity. Perhaps that was the President’s aim — to muddy the waters and run out the clock.

But with more than one million ballots already cast, it’s hard to see how the first debate changed the trajectory of the race. And Trump needed that tonight.

President Donald Trump claimed several times that Joe Biden wants to shut down the country to address the coronavirus. “He wants to shut down this country and I want to keep it open,” Trump said.

President Trump has been warning throughout the campaign that suburbs are at risk of succumbing to what he describes as something like an anarchist revolution – a thinly coded appeal to White voters the President believes are turned off by anti-racist protests against police violence.

Joe Biden dismissed those claims and fired back tonight, telling a much different story of who lives in the suburbs and the threat they’re facing.

“I was raised in the suburbs. This is not 1950,” Biden said. “All these dog whistles and racism don’t work anymore. Suburbs are by and large integrated.”

Biden continued, saying, “What really is a threat to the suburbs and their safety is his failure to deal with Covid-19.”

The former vice president also described climate change as the kind of existential threat that Trump attributes to protests.

“His failure to deal with the environment” is a bigger issue, Biden said. “They’re being flooded and burned out because (of) his refusal to do anything. That’s why the suburbs are in trouble.” 

We’re just over an hour into the debate, and both candidates were about even in speaking time at the one hour mark with more than 27 minutes.

Joe Biden said that President Trump attempts to make everything into a racial “dog whistle” tonight, arguing that the President has “done virtually nothing” for African Americans during his time as president.

During a prolonged segment on race, the two fought over who would handle issues of race, culminating in Biden calling Trump a racist.

Asked why he would be better at tackling issues of race, Biden attacked Trump for equivocating on the racist right-wing rally in Charlottesville in 2017 with the protests in response and the fact that protesters outside the White House were forcibly moved earlier this year so the President could walk to a nearby church.

Trump responded to the attack by noting Biden’s role in passing the 1994 crime bill, a law that led to significant increases in the incarceration of Black Americans.

“I’m letting people out of jail…” Trump said, pointing to criminal justice reform he passed in his first term. “You have treated the Black community about as bad as anybody in this country.”

Watch the exchange:

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It took about 45 minutes for President Trump to raise an issue his advisers said he was itching to bring up: Hunter Biden.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the former vice president and his son acted corruptly in Ukraine. 

It’s something Republicans believed at one point would dominate this year’s campaign, though has failed to erupt amid a global pandemic, nationwide protests and an economic downturn.

Still, some Democrats had wondered how Biden would respond when the topic arose. Some feared he would lose his cool, sensitive to matters of family.

Instead, Biden seem prepared and spoke straight-to-camera as he sought to rebut Trump’s claims his son engaged in wrongdoing when he served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

“This is not about my family or his family, this is about your family — the American people,” Biden said. “He doesn’t want to talk about what you need.”

Here’s the moment:

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President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden offered starkly different versions of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

When both candidates were asked about the handling of the pandemic during the debate, Biden pointed to the staggering number of Americans who have died or contracted coronavirus since the pandemic reached US shores.

“When he was presented with that number, (Trump) said, ‘It is what it is.’ Well, it is what it is because you are who you are. That’s why it is. The President has no plan. He hasn’t laid out anything. He knew all the way back in February how serious this … was,” Biden said, referencing Trump’s interviews with journalist Bob Woodward in which he indicated he wanted to play the coronavirus down in order not to create national panic.

“You don’t panic. He panicked,” Biden added.

Trump retorted, telling Biden, “You could never have done the job we did” and citing the Obama administration’s handling of the swine flu.

“We got the gowns. We got the masks. We made the ventilators. You wouldn’t have made ventilators. And now we’re weeks away from a vaccine. We’re doing therapeutics already. Fewer people are dying,” Trump said, blaming China for the virus and arguing that his administration’s perceived lack of success in its handling of the pandemic is the result of bad press.

“I’ll tell you, Joe, you could never have done the job that we did. You don’t have it in your blood. You could’ve never done that, Joe,” Trump added. 

The President then brought up the Trump administration’s plan to quickly distribute a coronavirus vaccine once it is ready to be deployed. But Biden pushed back, questioning why Americans should trust someone who lies so frequently.

“This is the same man who told you by Easter this would be gone away. By the warm weather, it’d be gone — like a miracle. And by the way, maybe you could inject some bleach into your arm,” Biden said.

Trump claimed during the debate that the bleach comment he made earlier this year was sarcastic. CNN has fact checked this before, and there was simply no indication that he was being anything less than serious. 

President Trump offered a frank defense of himself when questioned about new reporting on the minimal amount in income tax he’s paid: “I don’t want to pay tax.”

It was a defense that amounted to Trump saying the tax loopholes for wealthy Americans are there to exploit — even if, at the same time, he tried to claim he’s paid “millions of dollars” in taxes in the first years of his presidency.

It was a contradictory response, but one that seems to capture how Trump has sought to explain himself since The New York Times first reported details of his tax returns over the weekend.

Trump has simultaneously sought to claim he was doing what everyone else was by avoiding taxes while also insisting he pays millions in taxes, which contradicts the Times reporting that he paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017.

Somewhat surprisingly, Biden did not seem to grasp on to Trump’s answers for long, even though his campaign has made it a major issue over the past several days.

Watch moment:

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After a chaotic first half of the debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked President Trump to stop interrupting.

“Gentlemen! I hate to raise my voice… So, here’s the deal we have six segments. We have ended that segment, we’re going to go to the next segment. In that segment you each are going to have two uninterrupted moments. In those two [uninterrupted] minutes, Mr. President, you can say anything you want… I think that the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions. I’m appealing to you, sir, to do that,” Wallace said.

When Trump tried to push back by stating Biden had interrupted him, Wallace added, “Frankly, you’ve been doing more interrupting than he has.”

President Donald Trump defended his large rallies during the coronavirus pandemic, attacking Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s smaller events that largely follow guidelines on gatherings from states and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Asked why he holds big rallies, Trump said, “Because people want to hear what I have to say,” boasting about crowds of “25 — 35,000 people.” 

Since the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a global pandemic in mid-March, Trump has held 21 campaign rallies, mostly at partially outdoor airplane hangar venues. Three of those rallies — Tulsa, Oklahoma, Phoenix, Arizona, and Henderson, Nevada —were held indoors. Supporters largely do not wear masks and little to no social distancing is observed. 

“So far, we have had no problem whatsoever. It’s outside that’s a big difference, according to the experts, and we do them outside. We have tremendous crowds,” Trump said, neglecting to mention a packed rally at a manufacturing plant near Las Vegas two weeks ago. 

Biden hit back at Trump, calling him “totally irresponsible” and suggesting the President doesn’t care about spread among his supporters: “He never worried about you. He’s not worried about the people out there breathing.”

Trump later hit back at Biden, saying, “If you could get the crowds, you would have done the same thing. But you can’t, nobody can.”

See the moment:

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More than 200,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 and President Trump is still casting doubt about the effectiveness of wearing a mask – and mocking Democratic nominee Joe Biden for doing so himself.

Biden, when asked about the use of masks, again referenced the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director’s beseeching of Americans to put them on – and reiterated how many lives could be saved in the coming months if people took his advice.

Trump jumped in to argue to that health officials have said “the opposite” – a false claim that he’s repeated when questioned on the matter.

“No serious person has said the opposite,” Biden shot back.

Trump again interrupted to say that Dr. Anthony Fauci had said precisely that, before noting, almost in passing, that Fauci had changed his position from the very early days of the pandemic.

Watch exchange:

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When the notion of politicizing a coronavirus vaccine arose, President Trump made no attempt to tamp down the notion he’s rushing companies to develop one before November’s election.

“I disagree with both of them,” Trump said when questioned about statements made by health experts in his administration — including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — suggesting it might be next year before a vaccine is widely available.

Trump said he’s talking to drugmakers himself about developing a vaccine and said they can “go faster than that by a lot” — even though the major drugmakers have all pledged to not make a vaccine available until it meets all safety and efficacy standards.

And he fully embraced the idea that developing a vaccine would be influenced by politics.

It was an example of Trump making little attempt to rebut the very thing he was being accused of — making a vaccine a central element of his presidential campaign.

Watch the moment here:

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After the first half hour of a contentious debate, former vice president Joe Biden is leading slightly in speaking time with more than 13 minutes.

Joe Biden turned directly to the camera tonight and asked the American people whether they trust President Trump about coronavirus, noting that the President told journalist Bob Woodward in February that he downplayed the virus.

“Do you believe for a moment what he’s telling you, in light of all the lies, he’s told you about the whole issue relating to Covid,” Biden said, looking straight into the camera. “He still hasn’t even acknowledged that he knew this was happening, knew how dangerous it was going to be back in February, and he didn’t even tell you.”

Biden continued: “He’s on record as saying it. He panicked or he just looked at the stock market, one of the two, because guess what, a lot of people die and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker.”

Trump took issue with the former vice president questioning his intelligence, attacking Biden for graduating from University of Delaware and said he “graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class.”

“Don’t ever use the word smart with me,” Trump said.

The moment highlighted a key difference in the election: Biden has made the virus the most pressing issue of his campaign, while Trump has tried to downplay it on the campaign trail.

Watch the moment:

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President Trump got into a tense exchange with moderator Chris Wallace at the top of tonight’s debate as Wallace attempted to ask the President about his health care plan.

Wallace: If I may ask my question sir. Over the last four years you have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but you have never, in these four years come up with a plan, a comprehensive plan, to replace Obamacare…
Trump: Yes, I have.
Wallace: To replace Obamacare…
Trump: Of course I have. I got rid of the individual mandate.
Wallace: When I finish, I’ll give you an opportunity to…
Trump: Excuse me, I got rid of the individual mandate…
Wallace: That is not a comprehensive plan…
Trump: It’s absolutely a big thing…
Wallace: You’re debating him, not me. Let me ask my question.

Finally, after a few more interruptions, Wallace was able to ask his question: “What is the Trump health care plan?”

To which Trump responded, “Well first of all, I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s okay I’m not surprised.”

Hear the exchange:

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The debate devolved into chaos in the first 20 minutes, as President Trump repeatedly talked over former Vice President Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.

Trump persistently interrupted nearly every Biden answer on the Supreme Court and the candidates’ health care plans, as well as Biden’s rebuttals to Trump.

The interruptions turned the early portions into a free-for-all in which there was little room to explore policy differences.

Exasperated, about 18 minutes in, Biden turned to Trump and said, “Will you shut up, man?”

Trump ignored Biden and continued talking over Wallace. “Keep yapping, man,” Biden said.”

“The people understand, Joe. For 47 years, you’ve done nothing,” Trump shot back.

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Joe Biden moved quickly to rebut the charge of socialism on Tuesday night, responding to an attack from President Trump by saying he defeated people who were closer to socialism during the primary.

“Your party wants to go socialist medicine,” Trump said to Biden.

“The party is me, right now,” Biden retorted. “I am the Democratic Party.”

Trump, during the opening segment of the debate, accused Biden of wanting to end private insurance. Biden said that was “simply” not true.

“What I proposed is that we expand Obamacare, and we increase it,” Biden sad.

“One of the big debates we had with 23 of my colleagues trying to win the nomination that I won, were saying that Biden wanted to allow people to have private insurance still. They can, they do. They will under my proposal.”

When Biden said that the Democratic platform is what he says it is, Trump responded, “Not according to Harris,” a reference to the Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden almost immediately pivoted to the fate of Obamacare when asked about President Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and Republicans’ intentions to confirm her before or shortly after Election Day.

After briefly making the case for waiting until after the election is over and giving Americans “a right to have say” in the process, Biden set the stakes as he sees them: “The president has made it clear he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said. “He’s been running on that, he ran on that, and he’s been governing on that.”

Adding Barrett to the Supreme Court, he added, was his way of delivering on that promise.

Biden was careful to make the distinction between his opposition to potential policy implications of Barrett’s confirmation and his view of her as a jurist and person, saying “she seems like a very fine person.”

But he harkened back there to her writings from before being nominated.

“She thinks the Affordable Care Act is not constitutional,” Biden said, before moving along to what the ACA’s striking down would mean for women’s health care, reminding viewers that popular protections built into the law — like for those with pre-existing conditions — would go out the window. 

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The first 2020 presidential debate has started. The candidates will not have opening statements, and President Trump will receive the first question from the moderator.

Each segment will last about 15 minutes, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond after the moderator, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, opens each segment with a question. Wallace will then use the rest of the time in the segment to facilitate further discussion on the topic, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

About the presidential race: Trump heads into the night trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in the polls and on defense about his handling of a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and led some 30 million people to file unemployment claims.

Trump must deliver a performance that will dramatically alter the race at a time when voters are looking for him to explain the stunning new reporting from The New York Times that he paid no federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years starting in 2000.

President Trump loves to watch TV. And he’s been watching old debate footage of Joe Biden, particularly intrigued by his 2008 vice presidential debate with Sarah Palin, a Trump adviser said. 

And Biden has been watching old footage of Trump – from the 2016 primary debates and the general election appearances with Hillary Clinton.

Biden has even spoken to Clinton about the debates, a person familiar with the matter said, in a private conversation between the two Democrats.

But more than watching these old reruns, both men have spent even more time familiarizing themselves with each other’s records. Biden has studied Trump’s record over the last four years and Trump has studied Biden’s Senate and vice presidential record.

Vice President Mike Pence said during remarks at a Make America Great Again event and presidential debate watch party that he spoke with President Trump in the Oval Office this morning and that “he’s ready” for the debate tonight.

“It’s gonna be a great night,” Pence said. “I can tell you I left the President earlier today in the Oval Office. And he’s ready. We’re ready.”

He later said, “Somebody said to me. How long has the President been preparing for the debate? I said all his life.”

Pence slammed former Vice President Joe Biden throughout his speech, including on fracking, law enforcement and taxes. 

He said, as he has many times before, that Biden would be “a Trojan horse for the radical left.” 

Per the pooler, one of the biggest cheers of the night came when Pence brought up Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Many in the crowd stood up and cheered, according to the pooler. 

Pence spoke about being at the Senate today with Barrett, adding, “I promise you — Judge Amy Coney Barrett is going to become Justice Amy Coney Barrett.” 

Toward the end of his remarks, Pence joked that after the crowd sees the debate tonight, they’ll “forget” Pence was even in Pennsylvania because Trump is going to “bring it” at the debate. 

Pence also mentioned the vice president debate next week, saying he and second lady Karen Pence would travel to Salt Lake City next week and “do our level best.”  

“Race and Violence in our Cities” is one of the topics selected for tonight’s debate by moderator Fox News host Chris Wallace. Each segment will last about 15 minutes, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond after the moderator opens each segment with a question.

The section on race pits each candidate’s core arguments against the other’s.

Joe Biden has said since he launched his campaign that Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 is what motivated him to run for president this year. His argument that the “soul of the nation” is at stake is based in part on Trump’s racist comments and actions, which Biden has said embolden white supremacists across the country.

Though he has condemned violence, property damage and looting, Biden has broadly supported protests against racial injustice and police brutality, and has met with the families of George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis, and Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Trump, meanwhile, devoted much of the Republican National Convention to condemning the property damage and looting that have taken place along with largely peaceful protests in some cities, and to promising a crackdown.

He has warned that electing Biden would lead to more chaos. His objective is to frighten suburbanites who have drifted toward Democrats since he took office — and while similar tactics failed for Trump and the GOP in 2017 and 2018, he is on the ballot this year, unlike those elections.

Each topic segment will last about 15 minutes, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond after the moderator opens each segment with a question. Wallace will then use the rest of the time in the segment to facilitate further discussion on the topic, according to the commission.

Read more about key things to watch for in tonight’s debate here.

Even before the debate began, President Trump and his campaign were attempting to tarnish Joe Biden by insinuating he was using performance enhancing drugs or wearing an earpiece to receive direction during the event — both suggestions Biden’s team wrote off as ridiculous.

The tactic seemed designed to force the debate back into familiar territory for Trump: personal attacks and baseless accusations. Trump has used them throughout his political career as a way to divert attention from unfavorable topics — in this case, the coronavirus pandemic and new reports about his taxes.

Ahead of the debate, Biden’s team suggested he had been preparing for such attacks, hoping to avoid being baited by a rival who has shown no boundaries when it comes to political assaults.

An open question is whether Trump’s tactics appeal to voters — and in particular women, who polls have shown souring on some of Trump’s behavior while in office. While some of the President’s advisers have encouraged him against calling Biden senile or slow, he has continued to embrace that line of attack.

Joe Biden joked about the Trump campaign’s unfounded accusations that he takes drugs as performance enhancers and that he would wear an earpiece during tonight’s debate:

There is no basis for the claims. President Trump made a similar and equally groundless suggestion about Hillary Clinton using drugs during the 2016 campaign.

President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have specific sets of voters in mind tonight as they make their cases during the first — and, both sides agree, likely most important debate.

Both men are eyeing the pivotal women’s vote. 

Even though Trump has long given up on the notion of moving toward the middle, aides say women are still a centerpiece of his strategy. He intends to draw particular attention to his Supreme Court nomination — and remind conservative voters of his judicial record, which advisers believe draws many women who oppose abortion rights to his fold.

For his part, Biden intends to focus heavily on Obamacare — and why his election is needed to save the signature health care law. He is also trying to boost enthusiasm among women across the board and “will remind voters again and again of his partnership with President Obama,” one aide says.

Tonight, Trump advisers believe that offers potentially the last-best chance to improve the President’s standing among older women. That erosion is among his biggest worries.

A group of undecided voters in Westerville, Ohio, will be watching tonight’s presidential debate live with CNN’s Ana Cabrera and reacting in real-time to President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden’s answers.

The group is composed of Independents, Republicans and Democrats.

One participant, who is a member of law enforcement, said he’s looking for a unifying message:

“Right now, I feel like as a nation there’s a lot of separation going on, so my main concern is I want to see who’s going to be the one unifying us. … Everyone’s concerned about how we’re different. I think we need to be concerned more about what we have in common,” he said.

Another participant said she would like to see both President Trump and Biden focus on the issues. “I’m kind of looking for some, you now, serious information about issues, concrete information, especially on Medicare because I’m about to retire. And I hope that the time is spent constructively and not bantering,” the participant told Cabrera.

After the debate the participants will offer their opinions on how each candidate did.

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Inside the map room of the White House, a small group of advisers sat around a table and peppered the President with accusations and criticisms about everything from lying to incompetence. The team, led by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was getting Donald Trump prepared for the onslaught they expect from Joe Biden on the debate stage Tuesday night.

About 100 miles north in Wilmington, Delaware, a similar scene played out with Biden and his team, led by longtime Biden aide and debate expert Ron Klain. Biden’s prep has been more traditional — putting on mock debates with veteran Democratic attorney Bob Bauer playing the role of Trump in at least one session.

For two very different men with polar opposite temperaments and divergent governing philosophies, their debate objectives have some fundamental things in common: Put their opponent on the defense and make it as much a referendum on the other as possible. In conversations with multiple sources familiar with both candidates’ prep, each is practicing ways to get under the other’s skin, while also avoiding blowing up and going off script if the debate turns personal.

Advisers to both candidates are expecting one of the night’s biggest flash points to be about each man’s children.

CNN is told that Trump is preparing to go after Hunter Biden for getting lucrative jobs overseas when his father was vice president that he will say the younger Biden was not qualified for. Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the former vice president and his son acted corruptly in Ukraine.

Their hope is that it knocks Biden off his game — either causing him to blow up or say something incorrect.

Biden’s team has been working with him to be ready for Trump to go after his son in a way he hasn’t had to deal with as directly before. Trump advisers have also spent time working with the President to stay calm if Biden retaliates by invoking Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, both White House aides with no previous government experience. A source familiar with Biden’s prep, however, says his plan is to pivot away from this issue, not engage.

Read the full story here.

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It takes 270 electoral votes to win the 2020 presidential election. Ahead of tonight’s debate and only 35 days until the election, CNN’s John King breaks down President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s possible path to victory.

Currently in CNN’s calculation, Biden is ahead solid or leaning 269 electoral votes.

CNN’s John King explains the map:

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Visit CNN’s interactive 270 electoral map here. You can pick an electoral map based on CNN’s current race ratings.

Incumbent presidents have struggled before when it comes time to debate during their bid for reelection, though unlike President Trump they appeared to spend more time preparing. 

President George W. Bush made a last-minute decision in 2004 to retreat to his ranch in Texas ahead of his first debate with Sen. John Kerry after aides deemed the White House too distracting.

But a president cannot entirely escape the realities of the job; for Bush that year it was hurricane season and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the debate, he was described as alternately tired-sounding, angry and sour. Polls showed Americans believed Kerry won the debate by a wide margin.

President Barack Obama held a debate camp outside of Las Vegas in the lead-up to his first showdown with Mitt Romney in 2012 — but wasn’t necessarily thrilled to be there. Obama notoriously despised debating, believing them a test of performance and style over more substantive matters.

“Basically they’re keeping me indoors all the time,” Obama told a supporter during a phone call when he visited a local campaign office. “It’s a drag. They’re making me do my homework.”

When it came time to debate Romney, Obama delivered a lackluster performance that failed to land any attacks on Romney and that his campaign barely tried to spin as anything but a disappointment.

“We had one stinker in there,” Obama recently told his old campaign manager David Plouffe on his podcast. “It was basically on me.”

Hunkered down to prepare for his next debate at a riverside golf resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, aides made sure to tell reporters that Obama’s golf clubs stayed behind.

Trump hasn’t made similar efforts: he was spotted on Sunday on the course at his golf club in Virginia.

More than 1.2 million Americans have already cast their ballot, according to the 20 states that are reporting, said CNN’s Pamela Brown, ahead tonight’s presidential debate and voters in 32 states have already had the opportunity to cast their ballots.

About 800,000 of those ballots cast come from eight of CNN’s most competitive-rated states. In North Carolina and Wisconsin alone, more than 500,000 ballots have already been cast roughly a quarter of ballots requested.

The high return rate suggests many voters have already made up their minds, and they’re heeding the advice from politicians and election officials who are urging people to return their ballots quickly due to concerns of delays in mail delivery.

By the last presidential debate every state will have already started early voting.

More on early voting:

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released his 2019 tax returns ahead of Tuesday evening’s debate, a clear effort to draw contrast with Donald Trump following the New York Times reporting that the President did not pay any federal taxes in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000.

Biden’s returns show he and his wife, Jill, paid nearly $300,000 in federal income tax last year and had an adjusted gross income of about $985,000. 

Biden’s release of his 2019 tax returns come hours before the first presidential debate and two days after the New York Times reported that Trump paid no federal income taxes whatsoever in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000. Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, the Times reported. Trump has not released his tax returns to the public. 

California Sen. Kamala Harris also released her 2019 tax returns on Tuesday, which showed that she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, paid about $1.2 million in taxes and had an adjusted gross income of about $3 million. 

Last year, the Bidens released tax returns that showed they paid a total of $3.7 million in 2017 and $1.5 million in 2018. 

You can read the documents here. 

Ahead of the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine says he thinks the state’s voters will cast their ballots based on “bread and butter issues” and “vote their pocket book,” adding that the Supreme Court is an important topic.

“Ohioans vote their pocket book a lot. I think you have a lot of voters who are concerned about who is on the court. I think, as people try to assess where am I going to be, am I going to be better off with one guy or better off with the other one?” DeWine told CNN on Tuesday.

“I think it comes down to bread and butter issues and basic issues, such as the court, and I think people will make those decisions to a great extent on that,” he added.

DeWine said he thinks there are a lot of people who are happy with President Trump’s decision to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat and appointing conservative judges is one area where he kept his initial campaign promise.

“This is an area where he really kept a pledge that he made. He said I’m going to put conservatives on the bench, and he has done that consistently. So, I think those issues are frankly more important than, you know, a tax issue. And that’ll play out, and you’ll see that discussed I’m sure tonight,” DeWine said.

If President Trump has an overriding strategy in the final days of the campaign, it is to divert attention away from the coronavirus pandemic that voters say in polls he has badly mismanaged. It has been evident for months Trump is eager to move on.

That’s not entirely possible during Tuesday’s debate, where the pandemic is one of the topics selected by the night’s moderator. The scaled-down audience and lack of a handshake also bring the health crisis into the debate hall atmospherics. And Biden appears eager to hammer home his message that Trump woefully bungled the federal response. 

Ahead of the event, the pandemic’s economic fallout came into sharper focus after Disney announced it was laying off 28,000 theme park workers due to a slowdown in business.

In their loose preparation sessions, Trump and his team devised ways to use the issue both as a way to broadcast Trump’s record and to accuse Biden of being in China’s pocket. But Trump’s political advisers are cognizant that Americans’ views of his handling of the crisis are largely solidified and mostly negative — and have eagerly jumped at ways to change the topic entirely.

Heading into tonight’s debate, Joe Biden is bracing for personal attacks from President Trump and has studied up on the President’s debate style and mannerisms, advisers said, with one top adviser saying “he’s ready for anything.”

Biden and his advisers have run through possible attacks the President could make on his son Hunter over his business dealings in China and Ukraine, an adviser said, noting he may quickly address this type of attack but then turn the focus back to issues at hand like the economy and coronavirus. They’ve also practiced how to respond to the President’s mannerisms on the debate stage – like interrupting – with Biden even reviewing some of Trump’s 2016 debates against Hillary Clinton.

Biden’s debate preparations included a mix of mock debates and rapid fire question and answer sessions – with his final major in person session with his advisers taking place yesterday, one adviser said, and he’s been reviewing his briefing material in the final hours before the debate.

Biden spent about 20 minutes at the debate site for his walkthrough this evening, and top advisers like Mike Donilon and Ron Klain, who ran Hillary Clinton’s debate prep in 2016, are on hand for this trip.

Biden’s advisers feel like this debate will play out differently for Biden than the unwieldy Democratic primary debates – where he was debating multiple opponents within his own party.

They say his preparations have been very direct and focused as he has just one opponent to hone in on – and one with whom he has fundamental differences which will be on display tonight.

Legendary journalist Sam Donaldson said the candidates will be focused on appealing to the middle at tonight’s debate.

“They’re playing to the middle,” the former ABC news anchor told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “Full Circle.” And what is the middle looking for? They are looking for issues.”

As far as debate performance, Donaldson said Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden must not let President Trump bully him.

“Trump will try to, Trump will say the most outlandish things … many of them not true and he’ll attack Hunter Biden,” he said.

Donaldson said he’d like to see Biden have “a little touch of anger and then say, ‘let me tell you the facts Mr. President’ and then very calmly and very assuredly explain why what Mr. Trump says is just wrong.”

He went on to say that Biden “must keep his cool” and “must not let Trump dominate him.”

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Ahead of Tuesday night’s debate, the campaign made clear once again that they believe it is not Joe Biden’s duty to fact-check during the debate.

Sanders said that Joe Biden will be “speaking to folks at home. He will be speaking directly to the American people.” 

The campaign also unveiled the guests at tonight’s debate: Kristin Urquiza, whose father died of Covid-19. She delivered a blistering condemnation of Trump via video at the Democratic National Convention. Gurneé Green, the owner of Cleveland Heights fashion store Chemistry 11, and James Evanoff Jr., an ArcelorMittal steelworker and member of United Steelworkers, will also be in attendance.  

The CNN Poll of Polls tracks the national average in the race for president between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

The poll of polls includes the most recent national telephone polls which meet CNN’s standards for reporting and which measure the views of registered or likely voters. The poll of polls does not have a margin of sampling error.

As of yesterday, this is where the candidates stand:

There’s no evidence that debates lead to wide swings in public opinion. But presidential elections are decided by relatively close margins. It’s possible for a candidate to survive a bad debate performance, as Barack Obama did when he bombed (Seriously. It was bad.) against Mitt Romney in 2012.

Separately, a bad debate performance can, in hindsight be blamed for a razor-thin loss.

Al Gore was unlikeable and overly dramatic, sighing on the debate stage. He still won the popular vote and lost the election. Richard Nixon was shifty and sweating on the debate stage in 1960, so that’s baked into the fact that he lost. But he lost by a historically slim margin. Donald Trump loomed weirdly behind Clinton in 2016, but that didn’t cost him the election.

Further complicating things this year is that a large portion of the country is voting early — either in person or by mail — and will cast their votes before debate season ends.

Learn more about the presidential debates this year here.

Donald Trump could face the most direct challenge of his presidency to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and his personal conduct in his first debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden tonight.

The topics for the debate are “The Trump and Biden Records,” “The Supreme Court,” “Covid-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities” and “The Integrity of the Election,” according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Here are key things to look for in tonight’s debate:

Read more here.

Fox News Sunday anchor and moderator Chris Wallace will not be tasked with fact-checking the candidates in real-time tonight.

“We don’t expect Chris or our other moderators to be fact checkers,” Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chair, the Commission on Presidential Debates, told CNN’s Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter on “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “The minute the TV is off there will be plenty of fact checkers.”

The topics for Tuesday’s debate, selected by Wallace himself, include: Trump and Biden’s records, the Supreme Court, Covid-19, the economy, race and violence in our cities, and the integrity of the election.

If one of the candidates says something incorrect onstage Tuesday, it is the other candidate’s job to raise concern and essentially fact check live, Fahrenkopf said.

While fact-checking one another would seem essential for candidates’ strategies, it isn’t easy to accomplish.

“The moderator is the facilitator,” Fahrenkophf, Jr. said. “When we choose moderators we make very clear to them that there’s a vast difference between being a moderator in a debate and being a reporter who is interviewing someone.”

A Biden aide with knowledge of the debate process told CNN that the former vice president doesn’t intend to fact-check Trump’s falsehoods, even if the President routinely pivots to them. That, the aide said, is the job of the moderator. Some Democratic strategists believe it is foolish for Biden to get bogged down in fact-checking Trump.

“The best way to deal with Trump … won’t be to try to fact-check him in real time or to let lies and absurdities go in the hope that moderators — or viewers — catch them,” wrote Philippe Reines, a former aide to Hillary Clinton who played Trump during her 2016 debate prep.

Instead, wrote Reines, Biden should preempt the President early in the debate by noting that he frequently tells lies.

CNN will be fact-checking tonight’s debate live. You can also visit CNN’s fact check database here.

In just hours, President Trump and Joe Biden will face off in Cleveland for their first of three debates. It will be a socially distanced event in which the candidates won’t shake hands.

Here’s a look inside the debate hall:

Covid-19 has impacted the way President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s first presidential debate will play out tonight.

Here’s a look at some of the modifications:

Another sign of Covid-19’s impact on the debate — there will not be a media “spin room” where campaigns typically send supporters and representatives to make the case for their candidates after the debate.

Read more about tonight’s debate here.

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The first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump will be moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace and will take place tonight at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland.

According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Wallace selected the following topics for the first debate:

The Trump and Biden records The Supreme Court Covid-19 The economy Race and violence in our cities The integrity of the election

Each segment will last about 15 minutes, and the candidates will have two minutes to respond after the moderator opens each segment with a question.

Wallace will then use the rest of the time in the segment to facilitate further discussion on the topic, according to the commission.