1st presidential debate between Trump and Biden spirals into chaotic clash
Highlights from the first presidential debate held in Cleveland.
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.
Latest headlines:
Biden heads to Ohio for debate
Former Vice President Joe Biden boarded a new campaign plane in Wilmington, Delaware, at 3:18pm as he gets ready to head to Cleveland, Ohio, for the debate tonight.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
In Pennsylvania, advantage Biden with a big boost from women: POLL
Overwhelming support in Philadelphia and its suburbs lift former Vice President Joe Biden to a clear lead in crucial Pennsylvania, with backing from college-educated white people and women -- notably white, moderate and suburban women -- central to his advantage in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.
President Donald Trump, for his part, is suffering attrition among his 2016 supporters; 8% of them now back Biden instead. While a small slice of the electorate, it’s a potentially important factor in a state Trump won by 44,292 votes out of nearly 6.2 million cast four years ago.
Likely voters support Biden over Trump by 54 to 45%, almost exactly matching a national ABC/Post poll released Sunday. The result includes more than a 2 to 1 Biden lead in the populous Philadelphia suburbs, home to nearly a quarter of likely voters, and close results in northeastern and western Pennsylvania, leaving only the conservative center of the state clearly to Trump.
See more data on this new poll here.
-Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates, conducted the poll.
-ABC News' Isabella Meneses contributed to this report.
Biden, Harris release 2019 tax returns
The Biden campaign released Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ 2019 tax returns, a clear effort to draw a sharp contrast with the revelations about Trump’s tax returns reported by the New York Times, ahead of tonight’s debate.
With Tuesday’s release Biden has made public 22 years of records, and Harris 15 years.
The releases were posted to Biden’s campaign site.
-ABC News' Mary Bruce and Molly Nagle
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.
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.
-ABC News' Erin Schumaker
FACT CHECK: Trump accuses Hunter Biden of making a fortune overseas
TRUMP'S STATEMENT: "Once you became vice president, (Hunter Biden) made a fortune in Ukraine and China and Moscow and various other places. He made a fortune, and he didn't have a job."
FACT CHECK: While the exact sum of Hunter Biden's foreign business ventures is unclear, ethics experts have broadly taken issue with them -- particularly those in places like Ukraine and China, at a time when his father was fronting U.S. policy there.
Robert Weissman, the president of progressive watchdog group Public Citizen, told ABC News last year, "at absolute minimum there's a huge appearance of conflict … (Joe Biden) should have encouraged his son to not take these positions."
Still, Weissman called Hunter Biden's business activity "orders of magnitude" less troubling than how the Trump family has operated its businesses during the Trump administration.
In an interview with ABC News last year, Hunter Biden said he exercised "poor judgment," but maintained that he made no "ethical lapses."
"I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That's where I made the mistake," he said. "So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever."
"Did I make a mistake? Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah," he continued. "But did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not."
In their 87-page report released last week, Senate Republicans concluded that Hunter Biden's overseas endeavors were "awkward" and at times "problematic," but stopped short of identifying any criminal activity on Hunter Biden's part or any wrongdoing on Joe Biden's part.
--ABC News' Lucien Bruggeman