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.


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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


Topics for Tuesday's debate

The debate between President Trump and Joe Biden will run from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with no breaks for commercials.

The program will be divided into six segments of 15 minutes each, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates, with topics decided by the moderator.

Topics for Tuesday night's debate are:

  • Trump and Biden records
  • The Supreme Court
  • COVID-19
  • Economy
  • Race and violence
  • Integrity of election
  • ABC News' Kendall Karson contributed to this report


    Commission on Presidential Debates: Don’t expect moderators to be 'fact checkers'

    Viewers tuning in Tuesday night may anticipate moderator Chris Wallace to fact check the candidates in real time, but the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) attempted to manage those expectations over the weekend.

    "There's a vast difference between being a moderator in a debate and being a reporter who is interviewing someone," CPD co-chair Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. said Sunday on CNN. "We don't expect Chris or our other moderators to be fact checkers. The minute the TV is off, there are going to be plenty of fact checkers in every newspaper and every television station in the world. That's not the role, the main role, of our moderators."

    Wallace -- who received widespread praise for moderating the third and final 2016 debate between Trump and Clinton -- also said Sunday on Fox News that his job as a moderator is "to be as invisible as possible."

    "I'm trying to get them to engage, to focus on the key issues, to give people at home a sense of, 'why I want to vote for one versus the other,'" Wallace said.


    ABC News outlines 3-hour primetime coverage of 1st debate

    ABC will offer three hours of primetime coverage for the first presidential debate of 2020 on Tuesday evening with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos leading coverage from New York City joined by “World News Tonight” Anchor David Muir and “ABC News Live Prime” Anchor Linsey Davis.

    A one-hour special, "Trump vs. Biden: The Main Event - A Special Edition of 20/20,” kicks off network coverage at 8 p.m. ET. The program will set the stage for the critical night for both candidates, reporting on the latest developments from the campaign trail, the stakes for both campaigns and the most important issues to voters across the country.

    Pre-show coverage will begin at 7 p.m. on ABC News Live.


    Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Election security and integrity

    Russia's ongoing brazen efforts to interfere in the presidential election -- as they did four years ago -- remains a principal concern among national security officials, along with other adversaries including China. But unlike in 2016, the rapid and sweeping embrace of vote-by-mail in response to the coronavirus pandemic injects new uncertainty about election security, as millions prepare to vote in an alternative way.

    Fueling those anxieties over mail voting, which is underway in several states, is President Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of rampant fraud, even as dozens of state election officials tell ABC News that they have confidence in the system. His campaign against vote-by-mail throughout the cycle exceeds similar efforts he made in 2016, when he argued, without evidence, that voter fraud was the only reason Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. His own voting integrity commission found no evidence of that.

    The integrity of this year's matchup between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden has taken on an outsized role in the increasingly competitive political environment, as attempts to undermine confidence in the democratic process mount both from outside the country's borders and from inside the Oval Office.

    Biden has attempted to combat Trump’s onslaught by pointing out that Trump himself has voted-by-mail in Florida from the White House.

    Some elections experts argue Trump’s offensive against mail-in voting is a voter suppression tool, which could lay the "groundwork for contesting a close election if he loses, " wrote Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of "Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust and the Threat to American Democracy."

    "The most benign explanation for Mr. Trump’s obsessive focus on mail-in balloting is that he is looking for an excuse for a possible loss to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, in November. The less benign explanation is that he is seeking to sow chaos to drive down turnout and undermine the legitimacy of the election," wrote Hasen,.

    At the first presidential debate on Tuesday at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, the two rivals are set to spar over the integrity of the election, one of the topics previewed by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

    Here's what we know about the candidates' histories with and stances on the issue

    -ABC News' Kendall Karson and Quinn Scanlan