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:
Trump departs for Ohio ahead of debate
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Read more about the battle for Ohio here.
-ABC News' Ben Siegel and Adia Robinson
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.
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.
-ABC News Political Director Rick Klein
ABC News Chief Global Affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz joins ABC News' Start Here podcast to talk about her experience moderating debates with both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden before the two go head-to-head for the first time Tuesday night.
Trump targets Biden's mental health in debate lead-up, despite aides' efforts to raise expectations
President Donald Trump is set to enter the first presidential debate on Tuesday down in the polls, but coming off the high of nominating his third Supreme Court justice. Some top advisers expect a dominant performance by the president, despite the opposing narratives of attacks on Joe Biden's mental state and the Trump campaign's work to raise expectations for the Democrat ahead of the showdown.
With days to go the debate, Trump has carried out conflicting and confounding strategies both repeatedly targeting Biden's mental acuity, claiming at a recent rally he doesn't know he's alive, while also making passing attempts to boost the former vice president as a seasoned debater who could outshine him.
"This guy doesn't have a clue. He doesn't know where the hell he is," Trump told his supporters in Pittsburgh a week to the day before the first debate. "This guy doesn't know he's alive."
At a campaign rally Saturday night in Pennsylvania, the president both attacked Biden as "dumb" before immediately lauding him as an experienced debater. "He’s a dumb guy. Always known as a dumb guy. But we look forward to seeing him in the debate. He's got a lot more experience. He's got 47 years. I’ve got 3 1/2 years. So we'll see. But he's got 47 years of experience."
Biden has brushed off Trump's onslaught of attacks on his mental fitness. "Watch me, Mr. President. Watch me. Look at us both, what we say, what we do, what we control, what we know, what kind of shape we're in," the former vice president said when asked by ABC News about the president's attacks on his cognitive ability.
While some advisers tell ABC News they're nervous as the president enters his first debate since his encounters with Hillary Clinton four years ago -- with Biden having participated in nearly a dozen debates leading up to clinching the Democratic nomination -- others are anticipating a knockout performance by the president and expect the debate to help highlight the former vice president's gaffes, sources familiar said.
-ABC News' Will Steakin, Katherine Faulders and John Santucci