Opened at about 8 30 p. M. We will go live at the time. And as always on cspan movable be getting your reaction after the debate and ashes. All earlier today President Trump and first lady departed the white house for marine one including air force base and took air force one to the short flight to clean cleveland. Joe biden flew in from delaware among those traveling with him, the former Obama Administration point person on ebola. And hes been helping with the debate preparation and his sister valerie biden. That joining from the debate hall in cleveland is michael from the wall street journal. How have you been covering the president ial politics and debates. Ive been covering President Trump since hes been a candidate in 2015. In a cover him to the white house and my background uncovered congress a little bit before that and then State Government i was in ohio with state politics there and spent quite a bit of time in florida. Before coming to washington in 2013. Is electionyear hundred this one feels different and 2016 and particularly this debate. I started covering the 2016 race before the 2014 midterm. And compare that to this year and it feels like were really only starting president ial campaign now. Because of all of the other issues that have taken precedence. Usually the campaign, the race for the present in the United States the big story in the world for most of the year. It is only starting to feel like that right now. Now with this debate, there were some changes, the limited audience the covid19 testing. It was a for getting into the debate hall. It was. Rigorous. In fact it was not even supposed to be in cleveland tonight. Initially this was supposed to be as notre dame. Theyre uncomfortable with a lot of the circumstances so cleveland stepped in particularly think Cleveland Clinic and it feels like a debate when one of the top hospitals in the world and everyone coming in at just the debate hall but the Media Filing Center which is a couple of blocks away from here has to have been tested for covid19. There is really a few places in the country that can compare to that. Everyone is required to get a covid19 test before coming in. Not doing and coming back to work yet. Michael bender so everywhere we have come in, whether it is the testing Cleveland Clinic of the Media Filing Center here in the debate hall, has a respin to show that have tested negative for covid19 and also have to take temperature checks and have a mask and social distancing. In fact the social distancing is one of the aspects behind or for the audience tonight. Each candidate has 20 seats right in front of him. Because the room is sort of split in half. Trump side is mostly filled with family and is white house chief of staff mark medicine some of his family the Republican Committee woman. Invited seats, they dont have name tags on them yet. Only one, is wife doctor joe biden. But then when you go behind the scenes, any on each side. The other half of the signs that have been familiar with the ballgames or other Public Places asking the audience to not sit there to skip that seat because of social distancing. In the really and unique feel for president ial debate. So thats on top of course the usual security panic companies that president ial debate. How any times have you been tested in the last 48 hours for covid19. Michael bender ive been just tested it once first thing this morning. The results came back a couple of times. Cover the white house and any time to the President Trump, and in the oval office to interview him are going on air force one with the press corps we have to be tested. Site have been tested a few times over the house few months. But just was today. But youre right, there is also a lot of security here. And does feel a little bit tense. Cleveland hosted the Republican National convention four years ago your member. And it was really and they really pulled it off and it felt tense but there is really no issues. This time around it feels like even though it is a smaller event, theres not as any people coming into the city. It really does feel like on edge out there. And ive talked to a number of Police Officers and security in secret service. They feel also compared to four years ago. You mentioned there were people outside, no large crowds. Michael bender i will say that it got tested early this morning and it kind of been in the debate bubble in the put a perimeter around the debate hall and several. [inaudible conversation] blocks with the media is at. And a lot of streets are shut down. In cleveland today. So not seen any signs of any unrest other than armed guards. And bullet proof vest and helicopters, military helicopters and Police Helicopters flying overhead. Otherwise gorgeous night in cleveland tonight. It. Peter what is the format of the debate. Michael bender will the formats going to be 90 minutes. Going to hop around to different topics. His trump and biden, fillin stage. In one single moderator. Chris from fox news. I think we can expect quite a bit of time to be spent on coronavirus, the response from the white house and what biden would do differently. I expect that to me a big part of tonight. Peter the topics have already been decided here they are. Theyre going to be talking with the trump and biden records in the Supreme Court covid19, the economy, race and violence in our cities and the integrity of the election. Who chose those topics. Michael bender chris had a very big hand and putting this format of the debate together tonight. Is a very accomplished journalist. Hes done this before. And interviewed World Leaders and had a. Sensual role in what tonight will look like. It. Peter when it came to chris being the first moderator. Michael bender all of these things are negotiated. The locations, and the moderators the format, the rules, these are weeks and months of negotiations along the way. So it is there participating in this debate with quite a bit of leverage. But at the end of the day these are decisions by the president ial Debate Commission. To decide on. Its interesting that micah said these are months are decisions and negotiations but today we saw a lot of backandforth between the two campaigns. Jostling over to accusations of the other side. That change in the last minute. Its an interesting pregame heading into the debate tonight. Inc. Everyone felt like this was going to be an tense night in the possibility for an explosive moment. Arguing today over lastminute rule changes. Just to suggest that could very well happen tonight. Peter what you hearing from the campaigns from your reporting about the importance of tonight. Michael bender is really important night tonight. For one, joe biden, he has been in the public eye for almost 50 years. But this is really the first time that a lot of voters attending in to see joe biden as a president ial candidate. He has a challenge ahead of him tonight. I think twofold. Hes taken a lot of heat from President Trump over his mental stability. And biden has to have a solid performance to sort of reassure people that he has the basic faculties to get through a debate. And i think tonight also to leave people with some idea about what he is for, the policy is he is for and why. In what he is against. The girl of people tuning in for the first time to this president ial race given all the other things that have complicated everyones lives of the last year or so. When the bigger challenge tonight will be for President Trump. Theres more pressure on President Trump prayed for one, even a year ago, talking to very high level republicans around trump and political advisers. One person they were most worried about was joe biden. I remember the conversation a year ago telling me why that was. And it was because here that biden was the one who could stand up on stage and have the kind of blue collar credentials to tell trump that is kind of full of it. And bidens favorite terms, malarkey. Hes full of malarkey. It event to resonate into matter in a way that no one in the debate stage in 2016 to do. Could challenge trump like that. But i think the bigger thing here is that for trump is that he has lowered expectations for joe biden. And if you listen to trump and the Briefing Room at the white house or the campaign trail, his campaign rallies, he describes biden essentially is a jury geriatric vegetable other end of finding can show hes up for this job, he can string a few sentences together. And finish in a recognizable position for more he started. That could be trouble for trump. If biden just clears a very low bar. Biden has a good night, error if he has a very good night, it will be a long ride home on air force one tonight. It. Peter slen the university had recent poll and they asked the question, basically, 827 percent said not likely to change in vote. Michael bender im actually surprised that number is so low. Look at some of the National Polls over the past year. And in january when before biden was the nominee, but before covid19. And before the impeachment. And before the racial unrest. In the economic collapse. Back in january, biden was ahead of trump in National Polls. By four or five points. Fastforward through all of that trauma and National Polls right now show biden ahead four or five points. His pulled a little bit ahead in the battleground states but the point is theres a lot of people who just made up their minds about these two candidates. In both campaigns expect a very close race at the very end of the day. So yes this is definitely a play for those florida voters sort of on the sports. Those handful of voters that have not decided yet. And we saw from biden today, he released his last four years of tax returns. He paid about 300,000 or a little bit less than a Million Dollars over that time. Over about 300 times when trump reportedly paid in 2016 and in 2017. A selfproclaimed billionaire paying 700 or 800 year income taxes. I bring this up because trumps taxes and his refusal to disclose them which countered decades of precedent from major party candidates. Once was litigated in 2016. A lot of voters have already decided when they think about trumps refusal to show where his money comes from. Who he owes debt two. In his refusal to sort of level with the voters on that. The bidens push for that earlier today, i think we will hear about that tonight. Biden will bring that up as a point. They must see some voters on the edges were that can make a difference. So yes, this is very much a play for 13 percent of america or less tonight. Peter slen also joining us tonight is cspans greta. It. Out with a new poll, goes along with what you all were just talking about. They find that only 6 percent likely voters planning to watch tonights debate are Still Deciding who to vote for. 73 percent are watching to see how the candidate performs. 41 percent are watching for the entertainment. And cnn Campaign Advisors that the president must make up some ground and tonights debate with biden. He pointed to some recent polls showing trump running behind keep battleground states including pennsylvania. His a report. He needs the debate to regulate. But theyre probably referring to is the fox news goal that came out last week showing the Vice President in the lead in nevada, ohio, and pennsylvania. And then cnn also reporting the Biden Campaign and the dnc team have secured the handle on twitter, which they will use to fact check President Trump in real time at the debate tonight. This is according to a campaign aide. And cnn reporting the debate press includes biden seen getting him ready for truck to go after his son, hunter prayed and trump advisors pressing the president is a call if biden retaliates. They said the bidens plan is to pivot, not engage. Cspan spoke with former senator of New Hampshire about his experience helping candidates prepare for debate. He prepped president george w. Bush and former secretary 1996 buried and Vice President of the base against al gore, and reaction and have the candidates prepare for in light in front night like tonight. It depends on the candidate. Summer very casual. Some candidates are extremely intense about it. As with george w. Bush. In fact after the nomination with george w. Bush in 2000, he said theres really only three major things left to do want us to pick a Vice President into it is to speak to the convention. And give my speech in the three is the running and anticipate and the debate in a very impressive way. He took it very seriously. Probably ten major debates events. There today events. They involved to debate preps. To of these debates each day. And event events every meeting. And they mainly in this in austin texas, and a small group working on this project. He probably had ten or 15 people involved. Most people, and those like that very active in his campaign. Some more policy people and myself. I was there as well. You wrote in 2016, the president ial debates are about connecting with the audience. The American People. And when the makes them a good candidate. They want to believe that the candidate is a leader they can look up to and trust. Any feel about meeting that goal. I think it depends on who the candidate is obviously. There was trouble confining a statement to two minute so he had trouble dealing with formats. Really great guy prayer and brilliant individual and nice person. A major Football Player as well. But if you cant work without format of two minutes and deliver your thoughts in a concise way in a pleasant way. Usually way that involves a smile often. Youre not going to connect. And youre just going to sort of key to all the debates i think is that the moderators to ask the questions. Theyre antagonistic mostly. Its your opponent. Its really whether or not you can reach out and say to people and people have the reaction says, like this person. I have confidence in this person i believe la does the right direction. And i believe their concern about the things that bother me in my everyday life. If they can communicate that. Remember, only a very small percentage of people have already not made of their mind most people have been up their minds. It but the swing votes, which really fact the key states. There listening and they want to hear and they want to connect. Can you give the feedback to the candidates. And how open do they need to be to hearing that feedback during these mock separations. On the case of george w. Bush for any was governor at the time. In 2000. But when he was governor, there was a lot of information the team had a digest with him. Because he was the governor and governors dont deal with the federal policy director where his opponent al gore, was an growing up in washington. In been Vice President and in the senate. Hes been in everything. So the depth of the knowledge was much more broader than the present our president on the governors at the time. As of communicating and get the governor up to speed on the issues was very important for natives extremely receptive friday absorbed everything and he read everything. And very aggressive questions. If you didnt have good answers, he was not happy. It so he could be very intense. The actual debate prep. In the interchange between myself and the president and the governor. We would have a debate. And then we would have a debriefing as to how his questions were handled. Whether the governor made his points effectively. Whether he responded to al gores attacks effectively. What he could anticipate. So there was a lot of going over with the questions would be. It. Wanted you go about becoming al gore. Al gore was interesting. For the camp debate. As called a week before the debate denies to do it and brief time to do it and get up to speed. The governor brush, when he became president bush. I spent probably 100 hours watching videos listening to audio. Reading everything i could about al gore and all of his interviews. In all of his speeches. Knew new him person b is observed in the congress with him. I get to the point where my wife would turn on the car radio there would be al gore talking into turn the tv and there he would be. It would get very frustrating for her. But really is total immersion. Because the job of the person is not to be yourself. You know what your opinions being expressed express. Better bs excited as you can be expressed in the views of the person youre representing. In this case is al gore. One of his positions work how you respond to an attack or how he is going to attack. That is your role. But that is more than most important things that i would do. Is a really felt he would be the next president. It. And john kerry in 2004 predispute. John terry was a lot different. Because the president was up to speed. In been present for four years. There were no issues they didnt have an opinion on. I knew john again. One served in the senate with him. In a little bit more difficult rated because al gore in my opinion was very mechanical and predictable. Where is john was really effective counterpunch are targeted and good. It is anticipating how we would handle it if she was a little more complicated and im not sure i did it all that well. And there was former senator judd gregg talking about state preparation. And he spoke briefly about how they are preparing as well. If somebody is bringing joe biden into the debate with you are you doing dave bates preps at all. If there really good. You place biden for you. Pres. Donald trump i would say maybe a combination. Either one of them is about five times smarter than sleepy joke. We had a little bit of a debate prep before we came there. I think this whole thing is a debate prep for an everyday im taking questions with people all of the time for you have ta