Trump, Biden clash in final debate on COVID-19 response, health care, race

Trump tackled the first question on the coronavirus pandemic but stuck to his stance the pandemic is "rounding the corner" and "going away."

"Since the two of you last shared a stage, 16,000 Americans have died from COVID," Welker said. "So please be specific, how would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis?"

"As you know, 2.2 million people modelled out were expected to die," Trump began. "We closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from China."

He went on to draw from his personal experience contracting COVID-19, downplaying its side effects and touting the country's therapeutics.

"I can tell you from personal experience that I was in the hospital. I had it. And I got better," Trump said. "And I will tell you that I had something that they gave me, a therapeutic, I guess they would call it, some people could say it was a cure. But I was in for a short period of time and I got better very fast or I wouldn't be here tonight. And now they say I'm immune. Whether it's four months or a lifetime, nobody has been able to say that, but I'm immune."

"It will go away and as I say, we're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It's going away," he added.

The final presidential debate has kicked off from Belmont University in Nashville marking Trump and Biden's final chance to pitch themselves to voters in primetime ahead of Nov. 3. The audience of roughly 200 people in stadium-style seating applauded as the candidates took the stage.

There was a last-minute change to remove the plexiglass partitions placed between the two candidates after Dr. Anthony Fauci weighed in and each tested negative for COVID-19. They remain socially distanced with at least 12 feet of space between them.

The first question from moderator Kristen Welker, NBC News White House correspondent, was on COVID-19 and went to the president. 

Biden's mic will be muted while the president answers, and Trump's mic will follow suit when it's the former vice president's turn to weigh in.

"On behalf of the voters, I'm going to ask you to please speak one at a time. The goal is for you to hear each other and for the American people to hear every word of what you both have to say," Welker said.

Debate organizers removed the plexiglass barriers initially placed between the candidates’ lecterns after speaking with the government’s top expert on infectious diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl that he got a call from Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows asking if in his opinion there was a need to have plexiglass between the two candidates.

Meadows then had Fauci talk to a doctor working with the Commission on Presidential Debates, and Fauci explained to the doctor that because the candidates were 12-feet apart, there was no need for plexiglass as droplets wouldn’t reach that far and aerosol isn’t stopped by plexiglass anyway.

Even with the removal of the plexiglass partitions, the coronavirus pandemic is still on display inside the debate hall at Belmont University in Nashville. 

All audience members are required to wear masks and will be removed from the event if they refuse, organizers said. The mask requirement comes after several members of the Trump family removed their masks once seated at the first presidential debate in Cleveland. 

Singer Kid Rock and professional golfer John Daly, both Trump supporters, were spotted in the audience ahead of the debate’s start without their masks. They put them back on after they were approached by debates staffers.  

The FiveThirtyEight politics crew discusses how the last presidential debate might affect the election. Is there still time to shift opinions, or have voters already made up their minds?

8:07

What to watch for during the final presidential debate | FiveThirtyEight

Can Donald Trump make up lost ground during the last presidential debate?

ABCNews.com