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.
Latest headlines:
FACT CHECK: Biden generally right about disparity in majority-black neighborhood home values
BIDEN'S CLAIM: “(If) my home was in a white neighborhood on one side of the highway and yours is in a Black neighborhood, same exact home, your home will start off being valued 29% less than my home, yet your insurance for that home will be higher. You'll be taxed more for it. We’ve got to end this.”
FACT CHECK: Biden’s statement is generally accurate.
After the town hall concluded, Biden’s campaign told ABC News he had been referring to a 2018 study by the Brookings Institution that found “homes of similar quality in neighborhoods with similar amenities are worth 23 percent less ($48,000 per home on average, amounting to $156 billion in cumulative losses) in majority black neighborhoods, compared to those with very few or no black residents.”
His campaign said Biden misspoke and meant to say 23%.
The 1968 Fair Housing Act is supposed to prevent discrimination that leads to those disparities. But civil rights groups and anti-poverty advocates have long argued that even with the law, cities and states can perpetuate housing segregation through zoning laws, insurance and lending policies, as well as tax credits that often favor wealthier white families over others.
Under Trump, Housing Secretary Ben Carson finalized a rule in August 2019 making it harder for people to allege discrimination – a proposal advocated by insurance companies and others in the housing industry that said regulations weren’t clear enough.
-ABC News' Anne Flaherty
FACT CHECK: Biden correct Trump has overstated Regeneron drug's promise -- but wrong that there's no plan
BIDEN'S CLAIM: Biden said he had not seen a distribution plan for Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. "What's happening is there is no plan to figure out how to distribute it," he said. "How many -- you know, we have 500,000, you know, vials of it. Well, we don't have all the testing equipment. We don't have all the ability to get it to the people who need it.”
FACT CHECK: Biden is correct to suggest that Trump has overstated the promise of Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19.
However, there is a federal plan for distribution of the treatment touted by Trump.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said the government is stockpiling doses of antibody treatments for Americans and that it plans to distribute those doses to state governments and hospitals similar to how it delivered the drug remdesivir, another therapeutic that has been administered to people with COVID-19.
Since Oct. 1, hospitals have been able to purchase remdesivir, also known as Veklury, directly from the drug’s distributor. Over the past five months, the U.S. government had overseen the allocation and distribution of the drug in its limited supply.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar has said his agency does not anticipate a problem with delivering the doses so long as the drug receives authorization from regulators.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos, Sony Salzman and Anne Flaherty
Biden takes more questions following end of town hall
After Stephanopoulos ended the 90-minute town hall, Biden put on a mask and took questions from voters who remained in the hall.
"This is what Joe Biden loves," ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz said following the town hall. "We'll all probably be in bed before he's out of that hall."
Biden promises to unify the country
Democratic voter Keenan Wilson started his question by referencing that the former vice president said he entered the race following the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He asked Biden how he would steer Trump and his supporters "towards the ideals of a more perfect union."
Biden said he doesn't think Trump would stop his rhetoric and added that the president was emboldened by his impeachment.
The vice president said he would lead by the example set by his father and treat everyone with dignity.
"Whether I'm a defeated candidate for president, back teaching or I'm elected president, it is a major element of everything that I'm about," he said.
Biden said he feels most Americans want to be inclusive and provide opportunities to all regardless of race or background.
"If I'm elected president, you will not hear me race baiting, you will not hear me dividing, you will hear me trying to unify," he said.
Stephanopoulos asked Biden, if he lost, what that would say about the country.
"Well, it could say that I'm a lousy candidate and I didn't do a good job, but I think -- I hope that it doesn't say that we are as racially, ethically and religiously at odds with one other as it appears the president wants us to be," he said.
The vice president, however, said he is committed to making sure that if elected he would be a voice for all Americans.
"I think the people are ready, they understand what's at stake," he said. "I'm going to take care of those who voted against me as well as those who voted for me. For real. That's what presidents do. We've got to heal this nation."
Biden shares how he would’ve responded to COVID-19 looking back
The first question of the night came from Nicholas Freden, an attorney from Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, who asked how Biden would have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic when it began and what following the science looked like to Biden going forward.
The former vice president responded by what he called for beginning in February, including keeping pandemic investigators on the ground in China and utilizing the Defense Production Act earlier.
Trump "missed enormous opportunities and kept saying things that weren't true," Biden said. "It's going to go away by Easter. Don't worry about it. It's going to all -- when the heat -- when the summer comes, it's all going to go away like a miracle. He's still saying those things."
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden, asking why he didn't call for masks in January and February, early in the pandemic. The former vice president responded by saying he started wearing masks and social distancing in March when scientists, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, began to recommend it.
" What we should be doing now, there should be a national standard," Biden said. "Remember what the president said to the governors. Well, they're on their own, it's not my responsibility, the governors can do what they need to do, not my responsibility. It is a presidential responsibility to lead. And he didn't do that."