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:
Trump to early vote in Florida on Saturday
The White House announced Trump will vote early in Florida on Saturday.
"President Trump plans to early vote on Saturday in West Palm Beach, Florida," spokesman Judd Deere said.
It had been expected that the president would vote absentee, because even as he has railed against mail-in voting, he has also justified his own practice of voting absentee in the past.
-ABC News' Jordyn Phelps
Trump vs. Biden: On the issues
ABC News has broken down where each candidate stands on some of the key issues:
Election security and integrity
Early voting hits record numbers across the country
With early voting having kicked off in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., at least 47 million votes have already been cast in the 2020 general election as early voting data continues to break records across the country.
In 2016, there was a total of 47 million early votes cast, meaning the country has narrowly passed its 2016 early voting data with 12 days still left.
According to the United States Elections Project, spearheaded by University of Florida's political expert Michael McDonald, as of Thursday at 5 p.m. ET an unprecedented 47,095,528 voters have already cast their ballots and at least 85,133,505 ballots have been requested in early voting states.
TargetSmart, a Democratic firm that collects political data including early voting statistics, reports that 10 million voters who have already voted in the 2020 election did not participate in the 2016 election. Many of these early votes are coming from young voters as well as first time voters with individuals under 30 years old having cast 9.1% of early votes.
During an earlier press conference, TargetSmart predicted that there will still be an additional 40 million early votes as well as between 60-70 million votes on Election Day. Their prediction allots for at least 150 million ballots cast. In comparison, in the 2016 election, there were 138 million total votes.
-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh
Candidates to face off at a social distance between plexiglass partitions
Plexiglas partitions were placed on the debate stage next to each candidates' lectern -- already set up at least 12 feet apart -- as a coronavirus precaution for the second and final presidential debate in Nashville.
According to a source familiar with the debates, the partitions were added under the direction of the Cleveland Clinic as part of its responsibility to keep debate participants safe.
Plexiglass became an issue prior to the vice-presidential debate when the two campaigns squabbled over whether to have physical barriers separate the two candidates.
The insistence on barriers was initially met with resistance by Vice President Mike Pence's team, but they were ultimately used.
Trump says he's not 'knocking' Fauci
Before moving on to election security, Welker asked Trump about his recent public criticisms of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
"President Trump, this week you called Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's best known infectious disease expert, quote, 'a disaster.' You described him and other medical experts as, quote, 'idiots'. If you're not listening to them, who are you listening to?" she asked.
"I'm listening to all of them, including Anthony," Trump said. "I get along very well with Anthony, but he did say don't wear masks. He did say, as you know, this is not going to be a problem. I think he's a Democrat, but that's okay."
Fauci is registered as an Independent and said not to wear a mask at the start of the pandemic as the task force was concerned with having enough personal protective equipment for health care workers. Once the science became clearer, he recommended the practice.
Biden responded by saying it was Trump who panicked when the virus hit U.S. soil, not the American people, drawing on interviews with journalist Bob Woodward.
"Think about what the president knew in January and didn't tell the American people. He was told this was a serious virus that spread in the air and it was much worse -- much worse than the flu," Biden said. "Americans don't panic. He panicked."