Biden's ABC town hall: Former VP lays out vision in stark contrast to Trump's
Highlights from Biden's town hall with voters in Philadelphia.
With less than three weeks to Election Day, Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden faced voters directly in an ABC News Town Hall from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Thursday night.
The live special edition of "20/20" -- titled "The Vice President and the People" -- was moderated by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos.
The primetime event followed a fiery back-and-forth on the fate of the second presidential debate, which was originally scheduled for Thursday in Miami but ultimately canceled last Friday.
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates changed its format to be virtual following President Donald Trump's positive COVID-19 diagnosis, to which Trump took issue, saying he wouldn't "waste" time in a virtual debate. With Trump's rejection of the event, Biden then agreed to participate in the town hall with ABC News.
Voters had the opportunity to ask the former vice president the questions most important to them
The event was held in accordance with state and local government health and safety regulations, as well as guidelines set forward by health officials.
Trump, at the same time Thursday, participated in a town hall from Miami with NBC News. The president participated in an ABC News town hall in September.
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Thursday's town halls focused on the candidates' plans and lack thereof
"World News Tonight" anchor David Muir asked ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, who watched the dueling town halls, if the separate appearances moved the needle for people who were undecided.
Karl said that there are so few Americans who are undecided at this point.
"This is such a strange campaign. We have heard very little from either of these two men on about what they would actually do over the next four years," Karl said
Karl noted that after dodging questions on his stance on expanding the Supreme Court, Biden answered Thursday night after being pushed by Stephanopoulos.
"We have what appears to be a commitment that after the Amy Coney Barrett vote, he will tell the American people. He said voters have the right to know where he stands," Karl said.
During Trump's town hall, the president didn't answer a question from a voter on his plan for rising health care costs, something Karl said the president had four years to come up with.
"It was abundantly clear that he has absolutely no plan. This is something he's had four years, nearly four years in office, to come up with," Karl said.
"He basically said that what he has done is he's done away with the individual mandate with Obamacare, and then talked a little more about Obamacare is not a good thing, and we need something better, but absolutely nothing about what he'd actually do on health care," he added.
FACT CHECK: Biden incorrect on his website's praise of Green New Deal
BIDEN'S CLAIM: "My deal is a crucial framework, but not the New Green Deal."
FACT CHECK: In addition to misstating the name of the Green New Deal, Biden was incorrect in how he laid out his view of the plan compared to how it is stated on his own campaign website.
"Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face," his website reads.
While Biden has said he does not support major aspects of the Green New Deal, his own plan calls for moving the nation's power system to net-zero emissions by 2035, a more ambitious timeline than his original climate plan laid out, which has been praised by progressive activists.
The Green New Deal was a resolution that laid out a broad framework for climate action but would not have changed any policies if it had passed.”
In one major distinction from that framework, Biden said he does not think it would be possible to completely eliminate fossil fuels by 2030, saying the country will need to be able to transition to more investments in renewable energy while improving sources that can release greenhouse gas emissions like natural gas.-ABC News' John Verhovek and Stephanie Ebbs
Town Hall gives Biden new opportunity to get close with voters
ABC News senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce said viewers saw something that they haven't seen very often due to the pandemic: Biden interacting directly with voters.
"His campaign feels he shines in these moments, that he does best when he is able to speak directly with voters," she said.
"There was a lot of deep diving that he was doing into his policy proposals going forward. This was a night largely about Joe Biden and, actually surprising, not a lot about his opponent," she added.
FACT CHECK: Biden says he wants to improve, not ban, fracking
BIDEN'S CLAIM: "I do not propose banning fracking. I think you have to make sure that
fracking is, in fact, not admitting methane or polluting the well or dealing with what can be small earthquakes and how they're drilling. So it has to be managed very, very well, No. 1. No. 2, what we have to do is the future rests in renewable energy."
FACT CHECK: Biden said he does not support a ban on fracking, the shorthand for the process of extracting natural gas, but he does support limiting its environmental impact, blocking its use on public lands and putting more focus on renewable energy.
The debate around fracking has focused on whether a candidate would "ban" the entire industry, but a president would only have the power to stop issuing new leases for oil and gas activity on public land, not activity on private property.
Biden has said that he doesn't want to add new fracking on public lands. He has said he wants to move away from fracking and focus on more renewable energy sources to eventually get net-zero emissions, including preventing the release of the methane from natural gas activity.
He has also argued that a transition to clean energy is necessary to keep people employed and that it won't be possible to immediately eliminate all fossil fuels, including natural gas.
Biden's environmental plan calls for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and for a massive investment in clean energy, including training fossil fuel workers for clean energy jobs.
-ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs and Averi Harper
Biden criticizes Trump on the economy
Anthony, a Republican voter from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, asked Biden about his assertion that he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year and how that fit with his promise to repeal the Trump tax cuts.
Biden said that the majority of those tax cuts, $1.3 trillion out of a total $2 trillion, went to the wealthiest Americans.
"If you raise the corporate tax just back to 28%, which is a fair tax, you'd raise $1,300,000,000 by that one act," he said. "If you made sure people making over $400,000 paid what they did in the Bush administration, 39.6%, you'd raise another -- it goes up to, let me get you the exact number here -- about another 200 -- excuse me, $92 billion."
Stephanopoulos asked Biden if the economy could handle the tax increases after the (devastation) caused by the pandemic. Biden pointed to a Moody's analysis of his tax plan which said his plan would create 18.6 million jobs and raise the GDP by a trillion dollars. He also talked about the wealth that billionaires gained, while millions of Americans were out of work.
Trump "talks about a V-shaped recovery. It's a K-shaped recovery," Biden said. "If you're on the top, you're going to do very well. ... If you're at the bottom, or you're in the middle or the bottom, your income is coming down. You're not getting a raise."
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden on whether it's wise to raise the corporate tax when the economy is weak.
"We're going to invest a great deal of that money into infrastructure and green infrastructure," he said.