Charles, what do you think is most at stake for the president tonight . If you buy the consensus he is down in the polls, whatever you think of the polls he has got to make the stronger pitch, a, do you buy that and what does he do . I think he has got, he has got to again remind people, because we talked earlier about the fact that you know, at this point a lot of folks are taking their own personal economy for granted. A lot of people still have jobs. Their wages have gone up. They have bought a house. Homeowner ship the highest level since Third Quarter of 2018. The highest ever for hispanics. He has to remind them, listen this, doesnt happen by accident. You went through eight years we recovered from a recession but it was the worst postrecession recovery in history. We were limping along. When my policies hit there is a direct line. You know the tax cuts went into effect in january of 2018. That year immediately we saw bluecollar wages skyrocket. It wasnt a tax cut that just benefited the socalled rich. This is something that actually changed the lives of everyday americans. I want him to do that. By the way, when they hit him on the covid thing, this is the one of the favorite punching bags in the media, a talking point of democrats, at this very moment, here are two headlines i read today, just moments ago. Italy did everything right, so what went wrong . 80. 3 of their coronavirus cases are happening in homes. Only 4 outside activities including school. Germany hits a record surge, 11,000 in 24,000, up from the prior record on friday, 7,000. So my point is, this whole notion that trump was dumb, he did everything wrong, the world ran circles around us, it is just not true. It is simply not true. Neil did you have to drag italy into it, charles . I will talk to you later about that. Were about a minute away. Charles has to go ahead and hit italia. Here is where we stand right now. The debate will start. There are 15 minute categories. 15 minutes for a subject to come up, then another subject. Six of them. Two minute intros. The two candidates are standing a little more than 12 feet apart. There is no plexiglass between them. The ideas we have wendys sort of a drivethru motif, that is not the case in nashville tonight. The pressure certainly right now on Kristen Welker of nbc. It didnt go so well for Chris Wallace at the last debate, beyond his control because the candidates took things out of control. She has promised that will not happen tonight. This is americas chance to see whether she can deliver on that. The president ial debate begins now. Good ening from Belmont University in nashville, tennessee. Im Kristen Welker of nbc news and i welcome you to the final 2020 president ial debate between president donald j. Trump and former Vice President joe biden. Tonights debate is sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. It is conducted under health and safety protocols designed by the commissions Health Secure advisor. The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent. No cheers, boos or other interruptions except right now as we welcome to the stage former Vice President joe biden and president donald j. Trump. [applause] i do want to say a very good evening to both of you. This debate will cover six major topics at the beginning of each section, each candidate will have two minutes uninterrupted to answer my first question. The Debate Commission will then turn on their microphone only when it is their turn to answer. And the commission will turn it off exactly when the two minutes have expired. After that both microphones will remain on but on behalf of the voters im going to ask you to please speak one at a time. The goal is for you to hear each other and for of the American People to hear every word of what you both have to say. And so with that, if youre ready. Lets start. We will begin with the fight against the coronavirus. President trump, the first question is for you. The country is heading into a dangerous new phase. More than 40,000 americans are in the hospital tonight with covid including record numbers here in tennessee and since the two of you last shared a stage 16,000 americans have died from covid. Please be specific. How would you lead the country during this next stage of the Coronavirus Crisis . Two minutes uninterrupted. So as you know 2. 2 Million People modeled out were expected to die. We closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from china. It is a worldwide pandemic. It is all over the world. You see spikes in europe and many other places right now. If you notice the mortality rate is down 85 . The excess mortality rate is way down and much lower than almost any other country and were fighting it and were fighting it hard. There is a spike. There was a spike in florida and it is now gone. There was a very big spike in texas. It is now gone. There was a very big spike in arizona. Its now gone and there are some spikes and surges in other places. They will soon be fon. Gones. We have a vaccine that is coming it will be ready and going to be announced in weeks an it will be delivered. We have operation warp speed, which the military will distribute the vaccine. I can tell you from personal experience that i was in the hospital. I had it and i got better and i will tell you that had something that they gave me a therapeutic i guess they would call it. Some people could say it was a cure but i was in for a short period of time. I got better very fast or i wouldnt be here tonight. Now they say im immune whether four months or lifetime nobody has been able to say that but im immune. More and more people are getting better. We have a problem that is a worldwide problem. This is a worldwide problem. But ive been congratulated by heads of many countries on what weve been able to do with the, if you take a look at with weve done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and Everything Else and in particular ventilators. Were not making ventilators all over the world, thousands and thousands a month distributing them all over the world. It will go away. And as i say were rounding the turn. Were rounding the corner. It is going away. Okay, former Vice President biden to you, how would you lead the country out of this crisis . You have two minutes uninterrupted. 220,000 americans dead. Hear nothing i say tonight hear this, anyone who is responsible for not taking control, in fact not saying im, i take no responsibility initially, anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of america. Were in a situation where there are thousand deaths a day now, a thousand deaths a day. There are over 70,000 new cases per day. Compared to what is going on in europe as the new england medical journal said theyre starting from a very low rate. Were starting from a very high rate. The expectation is well have another 200,000 americans dead between now and the end of the year. If you just wore these masks, president own advisors told them, we could save 100,000 lives. And were in a circumstance where the president thus far still has no plan, no comprehensive plan. What i would do is make sure we have everyone encouraged to wear a mask all the time. I would make sure that we move in the direction of rapid testing, investing in rapid testing. I would make sure that we set up National Standards how to open up schools and open up businesses so they can be safe and give them the wherewithal, the Financial Resources to be able to do that. Were in a situation now where the new england medical journal, one of the most serious journals in the whole world said for the First Time Ever that this, the way this president has responded to this crisis has been absolutely tragic and so folks, i will take care of this. I will end this. I will make sure we have a plan. President trump i would like to follow up with you and your comments you talked about taking a therapeutic. I assume youre referencing regeneron. You said a vaccine willing coming within weeks . Yes. Is that a guarranty . Not aegirinety, it will be by the end of the year. There are two companies within a matter of weeks. It will be distributed very quickly. Can you tell us which companies . Johnson johnson is doing very well. Moderna is doing very well. Pfizer is doing very well. We have numerous others we have others were working on very closely with other countries in particular europe. Let me follow up with you, because this is new information. You have said a vaccine is coming soon within weeks now. Your own Officials Say it could take well into 2021 at earliest for enough americans to get vaccinated. And that the country will wear masks and distancing until 2022. Is your timeline realistic . I think my timeline is more realistic. I dont know theyre counting on the military. The generals is lined up. One in particular the head of logistics. This is easy distribution for him. He is ready to go as we have the vaccine. We expect to have the hundred one 100 million vials. As soon as we have the vaccine he ask ready to go. Vice President Biden, what steps would i take to give americans confidence in a vaccine if it were approved . Make sure totally transparent. Have the science world see it, no it, look at it. Go through all the processes. By the same this is the same fellow that told you this would end by easter last time. This is the same fellow, dont worry well end this by the summer. Were about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter. And he has no clear plan. There is no prospect there will be a vaccine available for the majority of the American People before the middle of next year. President trump reaction he says you have no plan . I dont think well have a dark winter at all. We opened up our country and learned and studied understand the disease which we didnt at the beginning. When i closed and banned china coming in heavilily infected ultimately europe. China was in january, months later he was saying i was xenophobic, i did it too soon. Now he is saying i should have moved quicker. But he didnt move quicker. He was months behind me, many months behind me. Frankly he ran the h5n1 swine flu and it was total disaster, far less heat that but it was a it was a total disaster. Had that this kind of numbers, 700,000 people would be dead right now but it was a far less lethal disease. Look, his own person who ran that for him whos a you know was his chief of staff, it was catastrophic. It was horrible. We didnt know what we were doing. Now he comes up and he tells us how to do this. Also everything that he said about the way every single move that he said we should make, that is what weve done. Weve done all of it but he was behind us. Vice President Trump your response. My response he is xenophobic, not because he shut down china, he was late, after 40 countries done that. After that he made sure 44 people in there in china trying to get to wuhan to determine what exactly the source was. What did the president say in january . He said no, he said this is, he is being transparent. The president of china being transparent. We owe him a debt of gratitude. We have to thank him. And than what happened was we started talking about using defense act to make sure we could go out to get whatever is needed out there to protect people. And again i go back to this. He had nothing, he did virtually nothing. Then he gets out of the hospital and he talks about, this is, dont worry. All going to be over soon. Come on. There is not another serious scientist in the world who thinks it will be over soon. President trump, your reaction . I didnt say over soon. Were learning to live with it. We have no choice. We cant lock ourself up in a basement like joe does. He has ability to lock himself up. He made a lot of money someplace but he has thing about living in a basement. People cant do that. By the way i as president couldnt do that. I would love to put myself in the basement or in a beautiful room in the white house and go away for yearandahalf until it disappears. I cant do that. And kirsten, every meeting i had, every meeting i had, i met a lot of families including gold star families and military families, every meeting i had i had to meet them, it would be horrible to have canceled everything i said you know, this is dangerous and you catch it. I caught it. I learned a lot. I learned a lot. Great doctors, great hospitals. And now i recovered. 99. 9 much young people recover. 90 of pool recover. Which have to recover. We cant close up our nation. We have to open up your schools and close our nation or you will not have a nation. The cdc says young people can get sick with covid19 and can pass it. Vice President Biden i want to talk about strategy. Can i respond to that . 30 seconds i have a question. Number one, he says were learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it. You folks home with empty chair at Kitchen Table this morning, that man or wife going to bed tonight, reaching over to try to touch out of habit where their wife or husband was is gone. Learning to live with it, come on. Were dying with it. Because he is has never said, as he said it is dangerous. When is the last time, is it really dangerous still . Are we dangerous . You tell the people it is dangerous now . What should they do about the danger . You say, i take no responsibility. Let me talk about excuse me, i take full responsibility. It is not my fault that it came here. Its chinas fault. It is not joes fault it came here either. It is chinas fault. They kept it from going into the rest of china for the most part but they didnt keep it from coming out to the world including europe and ourselves. Vice President Biden. The fact is when we knew it was coming, when it hit, what happened . What did the president say . He said dont worry. It is going to go away. Be gone by easter. Dont worry, the warm weather. Maybe inject bleach. He said he was kidding when he said that. A lot of people thought he was serious. A whole range of things the president said, even today he thinks we are in control. Were about to lose 200,000 more people. President trump. Look perhaps just to finish this, i was kidding on that but just to finish this, when i closed he said i shouldnt have closed. And that went on for months, what nancy pelosi said the same thing. She was dancing on the streets in chinatown in san francisco. But when i closed he said, this is a terrible thing, youre xenophobic. I think he called me racist even because i was closing it to china. Now he says i should have closed it early. Joe, it doesnt work. I didnt say either of those things. You certainly did. You certainly did. I talked about xenophobia in a different context t wasnt about closing the border to chinese coming to the United States. I want to talk about both your different strategies he thought i shouldnt have closed the border. That is obvious. Do you want to respond to that quickly Vice President , biden. No. Talk about your different strategies dealing with this. Mr. Vice president you would support new shutdowns if scientists recommended it. What do you say to americans, fearful, cost of shutdowns, higher rates of poverty, depression, domestic abuse, depression, outweigh of shutdowns . What i say i will shut down the virus not the country. His ineptitude why country shut down. Why businesses are gone under, schools are closed so many people lost their living. Those other concerns are real. Instead of sand trap in golf course he should been negotiating with nancy pelosi and the rest of the democrats and republicans about what to do about the acts passing for billions of dollars to make sure people had the capacity. You havent ruled out more shutdowns . No. Im not shutting down the there are, looks, they need standards. The standard if you have a reproduction rate in a community that is above a certain level, everybody says, slow up. More social distancing. Do not open. Bars and do not open gymnasiums. Do not open until you get it under control. Under more control but when you do open give people the past to be able to open and have the capacity to do it safely. For example, schools, schools they need a lot of money to open. Need to deal with ventilation systems. Need to deal with smaller classes, more teachers, more pods. He refused to support that money or at least up to now. Talk about schools, president i think we have to respond if i might. Plies. I have a follow up. Thank you i appreciate that. Look all he does is talk about shutdowns but forget him. His democrat governors, cuomo in new york, you look at what is going on in california, look at pennsyialv, north , cana,lina,li dems,rats allheyhehe ow so s sigig a ay trehe dy eyre dyinrg. Dyrg. Sups all the thehehe peop. Op opl he aboks ikssks sowhunstd. Hd hu re n goingot d and a aveav t oopenn ouroo leiant liks s s exaxa imple leve aha yngon. Ivitslsls tesdositit eime spo to t doctheor tec sdononone t he wass. Nee waenterententway. Wa wa yoeopl esguesgut isshemmunee. Tsystem. Em em. E foe upe we hhhh you ent tmp. Mp youyoyoemandemd the t schools on ,rsrsrs insisnsd ty safesafebostbostecameam the lto moveubveubvevell sl tirely oine after ro wh iwhs y iour iourouousagesa tr or sending parents to school will endanger not only kids but also teachers and families. I want to open the schools. Transmittal rate to the teachers is very small but i want to open the schools. We have to open our country. Were not going to have a country. You cant do this. We cant keep this country closed. This is a massive country with a massive economy. People are losing their jobs. Theyre committing suicide. There is depression, alcohol, drugs at a level that nobodys ever seen before. There is abuse, tremendous abuse. We have to open our country. You know i have said it often the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. That is whats happening. He wants to close down. He will close down the country if one person in our massive bureaucracy says we should close it down. Vice President Biden. Simply not true. We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We ought to safely open but what they need resources to open. You need to be able to, for example, if youre going to open a business, have social distancin