First 2020 presidential debate

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Fox News host to Trump: Are you willing to condemn white supremacists?
01:29 - Source: CNN

What we covered here

  • President Trump?and Joe Biden faced off in a chaotic debate that devolved into an unrelenting volley of personal attacks and interruptions.
  • The candidates were asked about the Supreme Court, economy, coronavirus pandemic, race and violence, their records and integrity of the election.?
  • CNN holds candidates equally accountable by pointing out what’s true and what’s not. Our fact check team is reviewing the claims made by the candidates in tonight’s debate.?

Our live coverage has ended. Watch and read below to catch up on the big moments.

66 Posts

4 key moments from tonight's messy debate

President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden exchange arguments during the first presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29.

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(.)”?

Fact check: Trump’s claim on Biden’s health care plan

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.

Fact check: Biden's claim about Trump's jobs record

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.”

Fact check: Trump claims Biden called African Americans "super predators"

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 Santorum and Jennings: Trump performed poorly at debate

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.

Fact check: Biden claims US trade deficits with China and Mexico increased under Trump

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.??

Biden campaign expresses intent to participate in final two debates despite chaos

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.?

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.”???

Here's what undecided voters thought of tonight

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

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03:40 - Source: cnn

CNN Poll: 6 in 10 say Biden won the debate

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.

Kamala Harris: Trump is "dog whistling through a bull horn"?

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, greets diners at Trophy Brewing and Pizza during a campaign visit in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday, September 28.

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.

Fact Check: Biden claims eliminating Affordable Care Act would take away health insurance for 20 million people

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participates in the first presidential debate against U.S. President Donald Trump.

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.

Kamala Harris: Biden will debate again

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.

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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06:12 - Source: cnn

Fact check: Trump claimed “military people” died because of Biden's Senate record on healthcare

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.”

Fact check: Trump's claim on Hunter Biden receiving money from Russians

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.

Sheriff disputes Trump's claim of endorsement

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.

Fact check: Trump claims Biden called him xenophobic for travel restrictions

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.”??

Van Jones: Trump failed to condemn white supremacists on the global stage, in front of my children

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

“Only three things happened for me tonight:

  1. Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacy.
  2. The President of the United States refused to condemn white supremacy.
  3. 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.

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0fd4208c-2f3d-4b27-b4ef-3e0855f4c651.mp4
01:18 - Source: cnn

Trump and Biden clash on election legitimacy: "This is not going to end well"

President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, in Cleveland, Ohio.

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.”

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.

Trump declines to say he will concede election if he believes results have been "manipulated"

President Donald Trump speaks during the first presidential debate against former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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.

CNN's Jake Tapper: Tonight's debate was "a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire"

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.”?

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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b6de2896-7281-4095-afb4-5d6d3ae3e886.mp4
01:45 - Source: cnn

Here's who talked the most in the first debate

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.

Trump refuses to condemn white supremacists

President Donald Trump participates in the first presidential debate against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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.

“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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778cdf1f-ae82-40a4-821d-26f8a1f6e77a.mp4
01:27 - Source: cnn

Trump keeps trying to bring the debate back to Hunter Biden

President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden appear in the first Presidential debate.

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.

Trump is controlling tonight's debate — that doesn't mean he's winning it

President Donald Trump speaks during the first presidential debate against former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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.

Fact check: Trump claims Biden wants to shut down the country

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.

Biden: Trump’s view of the suburbs is backward

President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate.

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.

Here's who has talked the most in the first hour

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.

Biden: Trump uses "everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racist?hatred"

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participates in the first presidential debate against U.S. President Donald Trump.

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:

- Source: cnn " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/4e8389ae-ea25-44b5-800a-12b1a675849b.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/4e8389ae-ea25-44b5-800a-12b1a675849b.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="" data-timestamp-html="" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2020-09-30T02:31:04.024Z" data-video-section="" data-canonical-url="" data-branding-key="" data-video-slug="trump biden race vpx" data-first-publish-slug="trump biden race vpx" data-video-tags="" data-details="">
b2d30b94-1e90-43a6-b3e7-e5202115e9cf.mp4
04:50 - Source: cnn

Biden responds to Trump's attacks on his son: "This is not about my family"

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participates in the first presidential debate against President Donald Trump.

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:

- Source: cnn " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/9e64c64b-333e-41b0-831c-d2310255b7dd.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/9e64c64b-333e-41b0-831c-d2310255b7dd.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="" data-timestamp-html="" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2020-09-30T02:47:48.633Z" data-video-section="" data-canonical-url="" data-branding-key="" data-video-slug="hunter biden" data-first-publish-slug="hunter biden" data-video-tags="" data-details="">
35259ec7-cc90-4eec-9295-642b9c8c48a8.mp4
02:24 - Source: cnn

Trump and Biden depict starkly different realities on coronavirus

President Donald Trump speaks during the first presidential debate against former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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.

“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.?

Trump on NYT report on his taxes: "I don't want to pay tax"

President Donald Trump participates in the first presidential debate against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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:

- Source: cnn " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/4b45a935-a773-4bf6-ad9f-0116b52dd450.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/4b45a935-a773-4bf6-ad9f-0116b52dd450.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="" data-timestamp-html="" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2020-09-30T02:27:01.333Z" data-video-section="" data-canonical-url="" data-branding-key="" data-video-slug="don't pay taxes" data-first-publish-slug="don't pay taxes" data-video-tags="" data-details="">
0f4500b7-0c32-47c4-a401-04e9b6fbaa3f.mp4
03:00 - Source: cnn

Wallace asks Trump to stop interrupting

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

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