President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden faced off from a social distance in the first presidential debate of 2020 in Cleveland, just five weeks out from Election Day.
The first presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic came on the heels of bombshell reporting from The New York Times on two decades of Trump's tax records, ahead of a contentious Supreme Court confirmation process in the Senate and as the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Biden maintains a 10-point edge among both registered and likely voters.
The coronavirus pandemic's impact on the race was also on display as the two candidates didn't partake in a handshake, customary at the top of such events. The size of the audience was also limited and everyone attending the debate had to undergo COVID-19 testing and follow other public health protocols.
The debate’s moderator, Chris Wallace of "Fox News Sunday," selected six topics for Tuesday with each segment expected to get approximately 15 minutes: Trump's and Biden's records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence in U.S. cities, and the integrity of the election -- the final topic coming as Trump over the weekend wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power.
Here's how the debate unfolded. All times Eastern.
Sep 29, 2020, 3:24 PM EDT
Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Health
With unprecedented unemployment in the United States, where health care is inextricably linked to employment, and a coronavirus pandemic ravaging the globe, it's safe to say that on Nov. 3, health is on the ballot.
As it stands, more than 200,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. Another 13 million are unemployed.
2:15
Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Health and COVID-19
An overview of the presidential candidates’ positions on various issues.
ABCNews.com
Health might be a political football in 2020, but it's also a deeply personal issue that affects every American voter. Given health's crucial significance this year, the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund polled 4,220 likely voters in battleground states between Aug. 25 and Sept. 20 on which health care issues mattered most to them, and which candidate -- President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden -- they thought would be more likely to address those health concerns.
President Trump is on his way to Ohio ahead of the debate tonight and while he didn't speak to reporters before departing, his chief of staff Mark Meadows said that Trump was essentially done preparing for the debate and added that he was in a good mood.
President Donald Trump gestures to reporters as he departs with first lady Melania Trump to participate in his first presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Cleveland, from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Sept. 29, 2020.
Leah Millis/Reuters
Meadows said that some of the debate guests would be traveling on Air Force One, but didn't name names. However Alice Johnson, who Trump pardoned last month, was spotted boarding.
President Donald Trump gestures as White House interns cheer him on as he leaves the White House residence for Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on September 29, 2020, in Washington.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In addition to Johnson, the pool traveling with the president so far has spotted Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle aboard Air Force One.
-ABC News' Katherine Faulders
Sep 29, 2020, 2:41 PM EDT
Trump, Biden compete for battleground Ohio ahead of 1st debate
Despite Republican successes in statewide races in Ohio since 2016, the Buckeye State has become increasingly competitive as Trump and former vice president Joe Biden prepare to face off in Cleveland for their first debate on Tuesday.
The stage awaits the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 28, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
In recent weeks Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have traveled repeatedly to Ohio, where they defeated Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., her vice presidential candidate, in 2016, 51% to 43%.
Republicans also performed well statewide two years ago, winning the gubernatorial race and other down-ballot contests.
“Ohioans showed up for President Trump in 2016 and we expect them to do the same this November,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager told ABC News.
The president’s campaign has had a permanent presence on the ground in Ohio since 2016, and said they have made more than 10 million voter contacts in the state, where they and other GOP groups continue to canvass on the ground during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Biden campaign, meanwhile, has relied on virtual and digital organizing in the state during the pandemic, and has hosted hundreds of events and held 450,000 conversations with voters over the last month. Following Tuesday's debate, Biden will take a train tour of the state on Wednesday.
Biden has delivered a sharp economic message focused on Trump's record, centered on Toledo and Youngstown, home to several car plants and many blue-collar voters who abandoned Democrats and voted for Trump for years ago.
He's run at least eight television ads in recent weeks, including a response to Trump's call for a ban on Goodyear, the Ohio-based tire company than ran in Akron, where the company is based.
In an election year reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic, it’s also playing host to a number of legal battles over access to ballot drop boxes, which are increasingly used by voters as an alternative to in-person voting or relying on the United States Postal Service, amid concerns about service delays.
Erosion in base underscores debate’s stakes for Trump
An immutable fact of politics in the era of President Donald Trump is that there's no separating the president from his base.
Yet an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday morning out of critical Pennsylvania -- FiveThirtyEight's most likely tipping-point state -- brings new evidence that Trump can't bank on the range of supporters he once did.
The poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading Trump 54-45 among likely voters, mirroring the results of the ABC/Post national poll released Sunday. Hillary Clinton backers from 2016 support Biden 98-1 in the Pennsylvania poll, while Trump's supporters from last time break 92-8 in his favor.
This does not mark a mass exodus. But it suggests a narrowing coalition, Wisconsin and Michigan -- all states won by Trump by less than a percentage point, in a region Trump and Biden are set to visit in the days after Tuesday night's first presidential debate.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Harrisburg International Airport on Sept. 26, 2020, in Middletown, Penn.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
There won't be many, or perhaps any, singular moments as critical as this first debate in terms of changing the trajectory of the race. Trump wants and needs to effectively disqualify Biden as an alternative -- to make the campaign about Biden more than himself.
Biden will be trying to avoid a brawl of an insult-fest. He will be seeking to keep the campaign focused on COVID-19 and the economy -- about Trump and his leadership, in a campaign that's been more steady than not.
