Trump, Biden clash in final debate on COVID-19 response, health care, race
Highlights from the final presidential debate before Election Day.
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.
Top headlines:
Fact check: Trump left out significant detail when saying 2.2 million Americans were initially expected to die from COVID-19
TRUMP'S CLAIM: "So as you know, 2.2 million people modelled out were expected to die."
FACT CHECK: It is true that, in the spring, one early model predicted more than 2 million deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, although the model said the death toll would only be that high no attempts were made to control the pandemic.
During a March 29 White House coronavirus task force press briefing, Trump and White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said that models showed up to 2.2 million people could die from COVID-19 in the United States "if we did nothing," as the president put it.
This was an estimate of potential deaths if neither the government, nor individuals, choose to alter their behavior, despite the pandemic.
The prediction may have been drawn from a model by Neil Ferguson, an epidemiology professor at Imperial College London, which found that an "unmitigated epidemic," could result in "2.2 million (deaths) in the US."
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
Final candidate speaking times
After over 90 minutes on the final presidential debate stage, below is ABC’s calculation of the candidates' approximate speaking times:
Trump: 40:36
Biden: 39:24
Here's the time spent on each individual topic including moderator speaking time:
COVID-19: 20:32
National security: 19:55
American families: 21:12
Race in America: 14:02
Climate change: 11:28
Leadership: 4:49
-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh
Fact Check: US exports more energy than imports, but not completely energy independent, despite Trump claim
TRUMP'S CLAIM: "We are energy independent for the first time."
FACT CHECK: The U.S. exports more energy products like oil and liquid natural gas than it exports, but many parts of the country still rely on oil from other countries.
But the U.S. is not fully energy independent.
The amount of oil produced in the U.S. is about 1.25 million barrels a day short of demand, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and while imports are at a record low the country still relies on imported products for 3% of domestic petroleum consumption.
One of Trump's goals has been to make the U.S. energy independent, in part by expanding oil and gas drilling around the country including on public lands.
Last year, U.S. energy exports surpassed imports for the first time since 1952, largely due to increases in natural gas production.
-ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs
Fact check: Trump falsely accuses Biden of calling Black Americans 'super predators'
TRUMP'S CLAIM: "He's been in government 47 years. He never did a thing, except in 1994, when he did such harm to the Black community. And they were called, and he called them 'super predators.' And he said that. He said it, 'super predators.' And they have never lived that down."
FACT CHECK: It was then-first lady Hillary Clinton who used the phrase "super predators" in 1996, while expressing her support for the 1994 crime bill.
Both former Biden and Trump have made past references to Americans being "predators."
In a speech from on the floor of the Senate in 1993, Biden said, "We have predators on our streets that society has in fact, in part because of its neglect, created." He added, "They are beyond the pale many of those people, beyond the pale, and it's a sad commentary on society. We have no choice but to take them out of society."
Trump, in his 2000 book "The America We Deserve," wrote several times about "predators."
"The perpetrator is never a victim," Trump wrote. "He's nothing more than a predator, and there can be no excuses made for killing old ladies, beating old men, or shooting adolescents."
Trump added: "If I were in charge of things, life would be even tougher for these predators. If there was a situation in New York like that terrible dragging death in Texas, I'd not only put the perpetrators to death, I'd find some way to make them an example to others."
-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson and Chris Donovan