Biden's ABC town hall: Former VP lays out vision in stark contrast to Trump's

Cedric Humphrey, a Black student, brought up race issues in his question to Biden.

Humphrey noted that young Black voters are conflicted between voting for Trump and not voting. He also made a reference to controversial comments Biden made in May during an interview for a radio show, which he later apologized for.

"So my question for you then is, besides 'you ain't black,' what do you have to say to young black voters who see voting for you as further participation in a system that continually fails to protect them?"

Biden brought up several proposals including expanding educational opportunities for all Americans, which he said propels people to a better economic standing.

"The federal government spends billions of dollars a year on universities because they're ... the best-kept secret of where most of the major inventions come out of," he said. "And so that school will now be able to produce young black women and men who are going to go into a field of a future that's burgeoning."

Biden also said he would expand a program under President Barack Obama that provided over $1.5 billion to small business associations across the country.

Stephanopoulos asked Humphrey if he heard what he needed to hear, to which the voter responded, "I think so."

Biden said he would speak with Humphrey after the town hall to answer any more questions.

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Anthony, a Republican voter from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, asked Biden about his assertion that he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year and how that fit with his promise to repeal the Trump tax cuts.

Biden said that the majority of those tax cuts, $1.3 trillion out of a total $2 trillion, went to the wealthiest Americans.

"If you raise the corporate tax just back to 28%, which is a fair tax, you'd raise $1,300,000,000 by that one act," he said. "If you made sure people making over $400,000 paid what they did in the Bush administration, 39.6%, you'd raise another -- it goes up to, let me get you the exact number here -- about another 200 -- excuse me, $92 billion."

Stephanopoulos asked Biden if the economy could handle the tax increases after the (devastation) caused by the pandemic. Biden pointed to a Moody's analysis of his tax plan which said his plan would create 18.6 million jobs and raise the GDP by a trillion dollars. He also talked about the wealth that billionaires gained, while millions of Americans were out of work. 

Trump "talks about a V-shaped recovery. It's a K-shaped recovery," Biden said. "If you're on the top, you're going to do very well. ... If you're at the bottom, or you're in the middle or the bottom, your income is coming down. You're not getting a raise."

Stephanopoulos pressed Biden on whether it's wise to raise the corporate tax when the economy is weak.

"We're going to invest a great deal of that money into infrastructure and green infrastructure," he said.

Biden was asked by Republican Kelly Lee about his views and plans for a future coronavirus vaccine.

During last week's vice presidential debate, Sen. Kamala Harris said she would trust scientists over the president with regard to the validity of a vaccine.

Biden warned that Trump's rhetoric on vaccine and health guidelines have been questionable.

"President Trump says things like, you know, everything from this crazy stuff he's walking away from now, inject bleach in your arm and that's going to work," he said. "I'm not being facetious though. He actually said these things."

Biden said that he's been meeting with scientists and complimented them for their diligence in their research.

"They're not there yet," he said. "And the most scientists say -- it's not likely to have a vaccine that would be available until the beginning of next year, into the spring of next year."

Stephanopoulos asked if Biden would mandate a vaccine's use once it's safe and effective. Biden said it would depend on several factors.

"It depends on the state of the nature of the vaccine when it comes out and how it's being distributed," he said. "But I would think that we should be talking about, depending on the continuation of the spread of the virus, we should be thinking about making it mandatory."