The debate began with moderator Kristen Welker asking how Trump and Biden will tackle the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Cases are surging across the United States with winter months approaching, a CNN analysis showed that 42 states have seen hospitalizations from Covid-19 increase by more than 5% over the past two weeks, a key indicator of how quickly the disease is spreading.
Trump made a firm defense of his handling of the pandemic and made the false claim that initial models had predicted that some 2 million Americans were expected to die. Painting a highly misleading picture of the pandemic as cases spike all across the country and hospitalizations begin to rise again, Trump claimed that the US is "rounding the turn."
"We are rounding the corner. It's going away," the President said.
Trump spoke about his own experience fighting Covid-19 and downplayed the current spike, which medical experts have been warning about for months as the country heads into the fall and winter.
"There are some spikes and surges in other places. They will soon be gone," Trump said.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects there will be 235,000 to 247,000 coronavirus deaths in this country by November 14.
Biden parried with a fierce rebuke of Trump's handling of the pandemic, noting that 1,000 people a day are dying. He focused on Trump's past words -- pointing toward his March statement that he takes "no responsibility" for the slow rate of coronavirus testing growth -- and said his response is disqualifying.
"Anybody that is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America," Biden said.
"I will take care of this, I will end this, I will make sure that we have a plan," Biden said.
Trump appeared to be working not to lose his temper and the early exchanges were more substantive and controlled than the furious clashes at the start of their first debate. That event was so chaotic that the Commission on Presidential Debates took the unprecedented step of changing the rules before Thursday's showdown: The candidate's microphones will be cut off while their opponent responds to the first question in each of six segments. The topics for the discussion are "Fighting Covid-19," "American Families," "Race in America," "Climate Change," "National Security" and "Leadership."
Pandemic again dominates the debate
The two men offered sharply different visions for the months ahead at a time when cases are rising in more than 30 states. Biden warned that the US is going to have a "dark winter" as the virus begins to rage out of control.
Trump rejected that view and offered upbeat and misleading statistics, including that 99% of people recover. "I don't think we are going to have a dark winter," the President said.
"We are opening up our country," Trump said, adding that the US is "learning to live with it." "We have no choice, we can't lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does."
Biden rejected Trump's attacks that he would lock down the country and harm the economy.
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