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."

A voter asked Biden what his administration would do to deal with COVID-19 that hasn't been done by the current administration.

"There should be a national standard ... it is the presidential responsibility to lead," Biden said.

Trump seized on the announcement from C-SPAN earlier that it has indefinitely suspended its political editor Steve Scully after Scully admitted to lying about his Twitter feed being hacked when confronted about a tweet to former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Scully was the surprise pick to moderate the town-hall debate that was supposed to happen Thursday evening, until Trump rejected a virtual format and Biden signed on to the ABC News Town Hall instead.

Moments after the Associated Press published an apology from Scully, Trump tweeted he was "right again!" and claimed Scully's lie showed the debate was "rigged" and that his campaign was "not treated fairly by the 'Commission.'"

A week ago, after Trump called Scully a "never-Trumper," Scully tagged Scaramucci's Twitter account in a tweet -- in what looked like a direct message gone wrong -- and asked, "should I respond to Trump."

Scaramucci, a fierce critic of the president, tweeted back his advice: "Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down."

Scully said once he saw the controversy the exchange had created, he falsely claimed his Twitter account had been hacked.

"These were both errors in judgement for which I am totally responsible for," Scully said. "I apologize."

Early voting has already begun in 48 states plus Washington, D.C., with data continuing to hit record numbers across the country.

In the states reporting data, at least 17.8 million votes have been cast in the 2020 general election and at least 80.7 million ballots have been requested in early voting states.

The large early voting numbers are due to the coronavirus pandemic as well as an increase in voter interest.

However, though millions of ballots have been requested, it's unclear how many might sit at home unmarked.

Seven states -- California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington -- have an all-mail ballot election, meaning every registered voter is automatically sent a ballot.

By Friday, all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., will have some form of early voting underway.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh

BIDEN'S CLAIM: Biden claimed that neither he nor the doctors he has spoken with had not seen a plan from the administration to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine. "There should be a plan," he said. "When we have the vaccine, how do we distribute it?"

FACT CHECK: The Trump administration does have a plan to distribute a potential COVID-19 vaccine, although the president has misrepresented how quickly it could be distributed.

Some of that plan was outlined in a Sept. 16 "Distribution Strategy," released jointly by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense.

The documents, according to HHS, provide an overview of distribution plans along with guidelines for "state, tribal, territorial, and local public health programs and their partners on how to plan and operationalize a vaccination response to COVID-19" in their communities.

The Trump administration also created "Operation Warp Speed," a partnership between HHS and DOD, as well as other private and federal agencies, to accelerate the research, development and eventual distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar has said that as part of Operation Warp Speed, federal officials have been laying the groundwork for vaccine delivery. "This in-depth, round-the-clock planning work with our state and local partners and trusted community organizations, especially through CDC, will ensure that Americans can receive a safe and effective vaccine in record time," Azar said in a press release last month.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention executed a contract with McKesson -- the company that distributes the annual flu vaccine -- to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.

Trump, though, has exaggerated how quickly most Americans could receive it, suggesting it would be widely available by the end of the year or even sooner. Federal public health officials and outside experts say most Americans will not be able to get vaccinated until well into next year.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos and Sony Salzman