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

TRUMP'S CLAIM: "Joe got $3.5 million from Russia, and it came through Putin because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow, and it was the mayor of Moscow's wife. And you got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million. And, you know, some day you're going to have to explain why did you get $3.5 [million]."

FACT CHECK: In September, Senate Republicans unveiled the findings of their highly controversial investigation into the foreign business dealings of Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden -- and specifically whether those endeavors ever influenced U.S. foreign policy.

As part of their report, Republicans highlighted an alleged $3.5 million wire transfer sent from Elena Baturina, the billionaire wife of the former mayor of Moscow, to a bank account tied to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, a consultant group that the committee said was co-founded by Hunter Biden.

George Mesires, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, dismissed the claim outright as "false," adding that Hunter Biden "had no interest in and was not a 'co-founder' of Rosemont Seneca Thornton, so the claim that he was paid $3.5 million is false."

Hunter Biden was involved with Rosemont Seneca Partners -- not Rosemont Seneca Thornton, as the Senate Republicans claimed. The two are separate entities, according to Mesires.

Politico reported last month that Trump also sought to engage Baturina's husband, the former Moscow mayor, for business opportunities prior to his time in office.

-ABC News' Luc Bruggeman and Allison Pecorin

BIDEN'S CLAIM: "And to the best of my knowledge, I don't think the president has said anything to Putin about (election meddling). I don't think he's talking to him a lot. I don't think he said a word. I don't know why he hasn't said a word to Putin about it."

FACT CHECK: A smirking Trump, under pressure from members of Congress and his own intelligence community, did in fact tell Russian President Vladimir Putin at the "Group of 20" countries summit last year not to interfere in the 2020 election.

But Trump delivered the warning in a very casual way, playfully wagging his finger at Putin without making eye contact with him, saying, "Don't meddle in the election please, don't meddle in the election."

Trump also pressed Putin in his first G-20 summit meeting on interference in the 2016 election after intelligence officials confirmed Russian involvement in manipulating the election, according to then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. 

"The president opened the meeting by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in 2016 election. Putin denied such involvement, as he has done in the past," Tillerson said at the time.

-ABC News' Matthew Vann

TRUMP'S CLAIM: When asked how he would lead the country during the next phase of the pandemic, Trump said that "there was a spike in Florida, and it's now gone. There was a very big spike in Texas, it's now gone. There was a very big spike in Arizona, it's now gone. And there are some spikes and surges in other places. They will soon be gone."

FACT CHECK: Although cases did "spike" and reach record levels in Florida, Texas and Arizona earlier this summer, then steadily decreased for a few months, cases in all three states have been on the rise for the last several weeks. 

Since Oct. 1, the seven-day average of new cases has doubled in Arizona, according to an ABC News analysis of COVID Tracking Project data, recording an average of 880 new cases a day.

In Texas, more than 6,000 cases were reported on Thursday, increasing by 37% in the last two weeks, and in Florida, the seven-day average is still hovering at 3,300 new coronavirus cases a day.

Additionally, nationally, cases are not in fact, going away.

New cases have been rising rapidly for the last five weeks.

Since Sept. 12, the seven-day average of new cases has surged by 77.5%. Just in the last 10 days, the U.S. has reported eight days with over 50,000 new cases reported, and on Thursday, the U.S. reported over 73,000 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily figure in nearly three months.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

BIDEN CLAIM: "The idea that we're in a situation that is going to destroy Medicare, this is the guy that the actuary of Medicare said ... if, in fact, he continues to withhold -- his plan to withhold the tax on Social Security, Social Security will be bankrupt by 2023."

FACT CHECK: Biden’s claim is misleading on a number of fronts, but is rooted in an action Trump took and comments he made in August.

Trump signed an executive order in August that temporarily halted the collection of the payroll tax, a tax on wages split by workers and their employers. He subsequently asserted that he would like to permanently eliminate the tax.

In 2019, the tax financed 89% of Social Security. Workers and employers each contribute 6.2% of wages, while self-employed people pay the full 12.4%.

However, following Trump’s signing of the executive order, he has said publicly that he will draw from the government’s “general funds” to cover any lost funding for Social Security, a scenario the actuary accounted for in his response to the group of Democratic senators, telling them that the solvency of the program will be essentially unchanged if Trump follows through and actually proposes legislation akin to his public comments.

But since Trump issued his order, and despite Biden’s claims that Trump put forward a full-fledged “proposal,” Trump and the GOP have not unveiled more detailed legislation on how they would prevent the elimination of the payroll tax from impacting the financial security of Social Security.

In late August, Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen and Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the chief actuary of the Social Security program asking what the effect of eliminating the payroll tax would be. In response, the chief actuary said he was not aware of any “hypothetical legislation” that had been proposed. In simply responding to the scenario posed by Senate Democrats, he said the Social Security benefit program would be depleted of funds by 2023 if there's no additional stream of funding identified to offset eliminating of the payroll tax.

What Trump has not said thus far is what programs could potentially be impacted by the redirection of funds from the government's general fund, only that he will protect Social Security benefits. The general fund finances the operations of the U.S. government, such as recording "funds received and distributed by the Department of the Treasury," and it "includes assets held by government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and the Internal Revenue Service."

-ABC News' John Verhovek