President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, faced off in the final presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle from Belmont University in Nashville on Thursday night, marking the candidates’ last chance to pitch themselves to tens of millions of voters in primetime before Nov. 3.
The stakes were high: Trump needed to make his case as polls show him trailing nationally and in several battleground states key to his reelection hopes. At the same time, Biden had a platform to solidify his lead and avoid any major mistakes with Election Day just 12 days away.
Biden spent the week hunkered down in Wilmington, Delaware, to prepare -- what he's done before other debates -- while Trump had seemingly done less to prepare, telling reporters on Wednesday, "I do prep, I do prep," without elaborating. Earlier this week Trump said that answering journalists' questions is the best kind of preparation.
Thursday's debate was supposed to be the candidates' third matchup but is instead the second of only two presidential debates this election. Trump refused to participate in the second debate when it was moved to a virtual format following his COVID-19 diagnosis. The candidates ultimately participated in dueling town halls instead.
Here's how the evening unfolded. All times Eastern.
Oct 22, 2020, 7:57 PM EDT
ABC News interactive election map
Pick who wins the race: Forecast if Trump or Biden will win the 2020 presidential election with ABC News' interactive election map.
To win the presidency, candidates have to hit the magic number of 270 electoral votes. The Electoral College comprises a total of 538 members, with each state getting a total number of electoral votes equal to its congressional delegation and three additional electoral votes for District of Columbia.
Oct 22, 2020, 7:52 PM EDT
Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Foreign policy
American foreign policy for over half a century was defined by its bipartisan nature, symbolized in the old adage that politics stopped at the water's edge.
But in recent years, foreign policy has become as politically charged as virtually everything else in American life, and when voters mail in their ballots or go to the polls, they'll face a stark difference between the Republican and Democratic nominee and their views of the world and the United States' place in it.
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Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Foreign policy
An overview of the presidential candidates’ positions on various issues.
Ahead of Thursday's debate, the Trump campaign made an eleventh-hour demand that the questions focus on foreign policy, as opposed to the topics chosen by the moderator, though the campaigns agreed months ago to allowing the moderator to choose the debate topics.
Read about how Trump and Biden differ on major foreign policy issues including relations with China, Iran, North Korea and NATO allies, among others, here.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Oct 22, 2020, 7:46 PM EDT
Both candidates report testing negative for COVID-19
Aides to Trump and Biden separately reported their candidates tested negative for COVID-19 ahead of the final debate.
Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that Trump had tested negative, and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows said the president was tested during the flight from the Washington, D.C., area to Nashville.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Oct. 22, 2020.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
They did not offer information on whether the people who accompanied Trump to Nashville -- including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Tiffany Trump, Bill Stepien, David Bossie and Robert O’Brien -- were tested.
] text=[MORE: Election 2020 live updates: 'I think the mute is very unfair': Trump on debate mics]/
Biden’s campaign said in an earlier statement the former vice president “underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected” -- his thirteenth negative test since the campaign began disclosing test results in the aftermath of the last debate and Trump’s positive diagnosis.
Biden told reporters on his way to Nashville that he'd hoped everyone got tested ahead of the debate.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden wearing face masks arrive at Nashville International Airport ahead of the second presidential debate in Nashville, Oct. 22, 2020.
Leah Millis/Reuters
At a NBC News town hall last week, Trump claimed he didn’t remember whether he’d been tested on the day of the first debate, which took place before his first positive COVID-19 test was reported.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Jordyn Phelps
Oct 22, 2020, 7:19 PM EDT
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will attend the debate as Biden guest
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted Thursday that she will be attending the presidential debate as a guest of Biden. Bottoms also tweeted that she was a guest at the first debate in September.
Other guests of the former vice president include small business owners Zweli and Leonardo Williams of Durham, North Carolina. Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders said the campaign invited them to draw attention to the struggles of small business owners.
“These small business owners from Durham -- because these are much like small business owners from Wisconsin, like the small business owners down in Georgia, like small business owners all over this country -- who are grappling with how to make ends meet, how to continue to provide, not only for their families but their employees. They're making decisions that, frankly, they shouldn't have to make because the president failed them,” Sanders said.