The second and final debate will be streamed live here tonight on National Zero, with fact checks and reactions right here as the shitshow progresses.
(11:30 p.m. ET): Asked what they would tell people who did not vote for him in his inaugural address, Trump said he would say we have to make our country successful again, like it was “before the plague came in from China.” (He failed to not that his administration has lost 3.7 million jobs since taking office.) Trump again went on with the story that people were calling him, including “people on the other side,” yet he can give no examples of how he leveraged that good will in the last nine months. Trump then went on to give a different version of his American Carnage speech.
Biden said “I’m an American President. I will represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me, and I’m going to make sure you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope. We’re going to move. We’re going to choose science over fiction. We’re going to choose hope over fear. We’re going to choose to move forward because we have enormous opportunities to make things better. We can grow this economy. We can deal with systemic racism. At the same time, we can make sure our economy is being run and moved and motivated by clean energy, creating millions of new jobs.”
(11:27 p.m. ET): Biden slammed Trump about his lack of knowledge about the factory fenceline communities that have higher disease rates and lower education success because of long-term impacts of chemical exposure.
(11:22 p.m. ET): Trump claims “We are energy independent for the first time.” [FACT CHECK: That’s a lie. We’re a net energy exporter, but we still rely on imported fuels.] Trump claimed windmills “kill all the birds.” {FACT CHECK: WTF?}
(11:19 p.m. ET): Moving on to Climate Change, Welker asked how each combat climate change and support job growth. Trump responded that “we have so many different programs,” but could only name the “trillion trees program,” which is an international program the Trump Administration signed on to just six days ago. Trump claimed to have the lowest carbon emissions in 35 years. [FACT CHECK: That’s a lie. They were lower in 2017, and they were lower prior to 1992.]
Trump claimed that he took the US out of the Paris Climate Accords because they were unfair to the US because other nations were still polluting. He claimed that he would not sacrifice US jobs for the environment and that the Paris Accords would have cost US jobs. [FACT CHECK: In every month, until Trump came into office, after the Paris Accords were signed, the US gained jobs.]
Biden noted that climate change is an existential threat to humanity and we have a moral obligation to deal with it. Biden said his plan was create jobs while cleaning the environment by improving the energy efficiency of homes and putting electric car charging stations along highways.
Trump said some unnamed source claimed Biden’s plan would cost $6,500 per family. He also said Biden didn’t write the plan; AOC+3 did. Trump then claimed that a “real plan would cost $100 trillion;” he did not cite where he got that figure. Trump claimed Biden wants to “knock down buildings and build buildings with tiny, little, small windows”–which is nowhere in Biden’s plan to retrofit buildings.
(11:00 p.m. ET): Biden pushed his advocacy for drug courts to deal with low-level drug crimes and addicts.
Trump countered with “Why didn’t you get it done?” after Biden had explained that republicans in Congress blocked the efforts.
(10:56 p.m. ET): Trump claims that he first heard about the Black Lives Matter movement when they were chanting “Pigs in a blanket” during a protest. (That protest took place in New York City; Trump was in Washington, DC at the time.) He claimed, “I am the least racist person in this room.” [FACT CHECK: How do you identify a racist? When they claim they’re the least racist person somewhere, and then they bring up their black friends.]
(10:54 p.m. ET) Trump claims that he ran for office because Obama-Biden was ineffective. Biden said the character of the nation is on the ballot. Trump said, “If this stuff is true about Russia, Ukraine, China, other countries, Iraq… If this is true, then he’s a corrupt politician. … Joe, they’re calling you a corrupt politician.”
Biden: “Nobody is calling me that.”
Biden is being honest. Only Trump is, and with the caveat, “If this is true….”
Trump then went on to rant about Hunter’s laptop.
(10:45 p.m. ET) Welker changed the topic to Race in America. She brought up The Talk, in which Black parents talk to their children about their interaction with police so they don’t get hurt.
Biden say that it’s a fact that there’s institutional racism in America. Biden noted that equality means equal opportunity to build wealth.
Trump says he understand why Black family have The Talk. Trump said that Biden called Blacks “superpredators” in the 1994 crime bill. [FACT CHECK: That’s a lie. There’s no record of Biden ever using that term.] Trump also claimed no one has done more for Black people in American, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.
(10:42 p.m. ET): Trump claimed that only 1% of the people who were released show up for immigration hearings. [FACT CHECK: This is a lie. Overall 85% of people seeking asylum attended their asylum hearing. That rose to close to 99% when they were given legal representation.]
(10:35 p.m. ET): Welker asked why voters should trust Biden with immigration policy when he couldn’t get it done before. Biden said, “I’ll be president, not vice president” and admitted that the Obama administration waited too long to get it done. (It should be noted that a 2014 immigration bill was passed with bipartisan support by the Senate, but killed by republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, who did not want to give Obama and Democrats a win in an election year.)
Biden promised pathways to citizenship to DACA and Dreamer kids.
(10:32 p.m. ET): Trump claimed that they’re working to reunite 545 kids with their families. Biden correctly noted that the families were separated and the parents deported. Trump pivoted to say that kids are being taken care of “so greatly.” Trump wanted Biden to answer “Who built the cages?”
(10:27 p.m. ET): Biden was asked about his desire to increase the minimum wage. Biden said we should be encouraging all small businesses to wage the minimum wage even during the pandemic, and providing unspent PPP money so they can do it.
Trump claimed that places where it happened saw small businesses roundly fail and cut staff. This is untrue. Trump says minimum wages should be up to the states, but there’s a federal minimum wage.
(10:23 p.m. ET): Biden gets angered when questioned why he hasn’t pushed Democrats to agree to a coronavirus relief package. Biden noted that the HEROES Act was passed in May. Trump claims the May bill was a way to bail out “Democrat cities and states. That’s a lie. The HEROES Act provided aid to all cities and states, not just those run by Democrats.
(10:21 p.m. ET): Trump claimed the stock market has boomed under his leadership. [FACT CHECK: The DJIA increased an average of 20.3 percentage points annually during Obama’s administration. Under Trump, the DJIA is averaging an annualized growth rate of just 11.6 percentage points.]
(10:17 p.m. ET): Trump claimed that Biden’s VP pick is the most liberal Senator. [FACT CHECK: Harris is the third most liberal Senator according to GovTrack after Gillibrand (NY) and Merkley (OR). CNN notes that while Harris is liberal on many issues, she’s moderate on others. In 2019, GovTrack rated Harris as the most liberal Senator. Others have her listed farther down the line. ]
Trump claimed that Biden would immediately do away with fracking. That’s untrue. Biden has said he would phase out fracking and fossil fuel usage over 30 years to become a net-zero carbon polluter.
(10:16 p.m. ET): Trump says Biden will terminate “180 million health care plans” for people who are insured through their employers.
Biden said that he would put in Obamacare with a public option. He would also provide for negotiations with drug companies under Medicare. He also stated that he was for private insurance, which caused strife in the Democratic primaries. Biden also noted that Trump hasn’t released ANY health care plan–“I guess we’ll get it the same time we get his infrastructure plan.”
Biden also correctly noted that 10 million people have lost their private insurance because they lost their jobs during the pandemic.
(10:11 p.m. ET): Moving on to American families, Welker noted that with the appointment of Barrett to SCOTUS would likely mean the Affordable Care Act would be overturned, leaving 20 million people without insurance. Welker asked Trump what he would do to reassure those families.
Trump said that he did away with the individual mandate “through the legislature.” He claimed that “pre-existing conditions will always stay,” although protections for people with pre-existing conditions would be voided if the ACA is overturned. Trump said that he “would like to terminate Obamacare and come up with a brand-new, beautiful health care–” [FACT CHECK: in the released 60 Minutes interview, Trump claimed that he already had the health insurance package largely written, although he’s never shown it to anyone and had no individual, public or corporate feedback on it.]
(10:03 p.m. ET): Trump touted his great relationship with North Korea. Trump said that Obama told him “we would be in a war with North Korea.” There is no record of this conversation.
Asked how Biden would rein in the threat from North Korea. Biden said that China would have to be part of any solution to any problem in North Korea. Biden said Trump’s legitimized North Korea. Biden said he would meet with Kim Jong-un if the Korea peninsula would be a nuclear free zone.
Trump claimed Obama tried to meet with Kim, but Kim said no. This is untrue.
(10:00 p.m. ET): Trump claimed China paid $28 billion to US farmers. That’s not true: those were subsidies from US taxpayers. Trump claimed trade deficits with China went down. In 2016, the deficit was -315 billion; in 2019, it was -345 billion.
(9:55 p.m. ET): Trump claimed that he had a bank account opened in China, which he closed in 2015, and “everyone knew about it.” That’s not true. It was just uncovered this week, because Trump refused to release his tax returns.
(9:53 p.m. ET): Trump says that Hunter Biden was unqualified for the job with Burisma and that Hunter had “no job” until Joe Biden became vice president. [FACT CHECK: Hunter Biden was a partner in a Mergers and Acquisitions firm that worked with Burisma and was awarded a seat on the board; a report from the republican-run Finance and Homeland Securities Committees concluded there was nothing illegal in his time on the board, nor did it influence US policy. Subsequently, Biden was part of a venture investment firm that raised money–including from the widow of a Russian mayor–that invested in companies around the world, including in US companies. Biden didn’t take the money personally; it was invested in other ventures. ]
(9:52 p.m. ET): Welker asked Biden if there was anything unethical or inappropriate about his son’s dealings with foreign entities. Biden said no. He pointed to Trump’s own people who testified during the impeachment hearings that they could find nothing illegal or unethical about Hunter Biden’s or Joe Biden’s dealings in Ukraine.
(9:48 p.m. ET) Trump started to whine about the Mueller report calling it a witch hunt. He claimed Mueller went through his taxes. [FACT CHECK: That’s untrue: Acting AG Rod Rosenstein prevented them from looking at Trump’s finances.] Trump claims the Mueller investigation found “no collusion and nothing wrong. [FACT CHECK: The Mueller report did not address collusion, as it said in the report, because that’s not a legal term. The report said it found evidence–as did a Senate Intelligence Committee report–but insufficient to prosecute. And the case is not closed: the report outlined ten incidents of Trump allegedly committing obstruction of justice that Trump may be prosecuted for when he leaves office.]
(9:44 p.m. ET) Trump claimed he had a deal done with his taxes before he decided to run for president, and then the IRS (assumedly) ditched the deal. That means that his returns completed and filed are not part of that deal and may be released.
(9:43 p.m. ET): Trump claimed Biden was getting money from Russia, apparently referring to the Hunter Biden laptop. [FACT CHECK: The Hunter Biden laptop story is quickly fizzling. The story claims that while living in California, Hunter Biden took a laptop computer to a blind computer repairman in Wilmington, Delaware. Emails, in the forms of PDFs with no metadata, were found on the laptop that supposedly link Joe Biden to a Ukrainian oligarch. There is no link between the laptop and Hunter Biden, other than claims from Trump cabal members like Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has been tagged as a Russian asset–either willing or unwilling–and a target of Russian disinformation. The newspaper that’s run with this story, the New York Post, had reporters who did not want to be bylined on the story because it was so weak. ]
Trump claimed that he “pre-paid” taxes. “Nobody told him that,” he claimed. “They keep talking about $750, which I think is a filing fee.” [FACT CHECK: There is no filing fee for personal taxes, and even if you “pre-paid” your taxes, the bottom line on your 1040 would show the overall amount owed. Trump has yet to release his taxes, claiming they are still under audit.]
(9:37 pm. ET): Moving on to National Security, the question related to foreign countries interfering in US election. Biden vowed that they’ll pay a price, and that Trump hasn’t taken on Putin. Biden mentioned that Trump was told that his “pal” Rudy Giuliani was being played as a Russian pawn. (Trump smirked.)
Trump claimed that Biden got $3.5 million from Russia because Biden was friends with Putin and Moscow’s mayor’s widow. [FACT CHECK: Hunter Biden was a partner in a Mergers and Acquisitions firm that worked with Burisma and was awarded a seat on the board; a report from the republican-run Finance and Homeland Securities Committees concluded there was nothing illegal in his time on the board, nor did it influence US policy. Subsequently, Biden was part of a venture investment firm that raised money–including from the widow of a Russian mayor–that invested in companies around the world, including in US companies. Biden didn’t take the money personally; it was invested in other ventures.]
Trump also claimed that he got NATO members to put more money into the military. [FACT CHECK: This is a stretch of the truth, at best. NATO allies are not paying more due to Trump. The NATO plan to increase domestic military spending to 2% of GDP by 2024 was put in place in 2014 under President Obama.]
(9:29 p.m. ET): Biden brought up Trump’s statements to Bob Woodward in which Trump stated that the coronavirus pandemic was going to a disaster, but played down the risk to the public. Biden also said Trump officials went to “Wall Street” to tell them the risks and prompting them to short-sell stocks. [FACT CHECK: This was verified by memos reviewed by the New York Times.]
(9:27 p.m. ET): Trump said we have the best testing in the world by far, that’s why we have so many cases. That’s not how it works. Testing identifies cases; it doesn’t cause them.
Trump went on to say that Dr. Anthony Fauci said we shouldn’t be wearing masks. [FACT CHECK: Fauci advised against the public wearing masks when the N95 supply was critically low early in the pandemic, on March 8. Since then, he has been a strong advocate for mask wearing and social distancing, which were updated April 3rd to recommend mask wearing.]
(9:24 p.m. ET): Biden said that Trump should get out of a sandtrap and negotiate an aid package.
Trump says that states–primarily those run by Democratic governors–“are dying.” The fatality rate among teachers, Trump says, is very low. (There’s no data to support that.) Trump says that “people are losing their jobs, suicide, alcohol abuse like we’ve never seen before.” Trump claims Biden would shut down the government if “one person said he should.”
Biden outlined the steps and resources needed to keep people safe. Biden said that he doesn’t look at it in terms of “red states” and “blue states” saying that we’re all Americans.
(9:17 p.m. ET): Trump claimed that the H1N1 virus would’ve killed tens of millions of people. The fact is, it didn’t. Biden is correct in saying that Trump called for thanks to China’s Xi. Biden is also correct in saying Trump did nothing to stop the spread of the virus. (FACT CHECK: Trump implemented no domestic policy to effect an economic shutdown; that was the action of state governors.)
Trump claimed that 99% of people who get coronavirus recover. That’s not true. The case fatality rate is 2.6% in the US. Trump claimed that “we’re learning to live with it.”
Trump did say he took no responsibility to this.
(9:13 p.m. ET): The first question goes to Trump on the coronavirus and how he would manage the next phase. Trump claimed that 2.2 million were modeled to die. Trump claims that the excess mortality rate in the US is lower than anywhere else. [FACT CHECK: The US and the UK rank as the two highest countries for excess mortality in the world due to COVID-19.] Trump claims that we’re rounding the turn, and that we have enough PPE and ventilators. [FACT CHECK: Hospitals and front line personnel still face a critical shortage of PPE.] Trump claimed a vaccine will be coming within weeks.
Biden said that 220,000 have died from the coronavirus. He said 200,000 are predicted to die of the virus by the end of the year. [FACT CHECK: The IHME model from the University of Washington shows that 316,000 people will die of the coronavirus by the end of the year if we keep current restrictions in place. If those restrictions are removed, the fatality count goes to 338,000.]
Trump was asked about his claim that a vaccine would be available within weeks. He changed his answer, saying it will be available by the end of the week. Trump claimed that we’ll have 100 million vials, and that it would be easy to distribute.
Biden was asked how to make people feel confident about the vaccine. He said he would open the science.
Trump claimed the that his travel ban was effective. [FACT CHECK: Trump issued the travel ban from China on January 31st, after the virus already had a foothold in the United States. 300,000 people traveled to the US from China in the month before the ban, when the virus was active in China. Additionally, it was not a “ban”: it allowed US nationals and the family of US citizens in China to come to the US. After the so-called “ban,” more than 40,000 people came into the US from China. Additionally, the more virulent strain of the virus came from Europe; Trump did not issue a travel ban from Europe until the beginning of March, and he did it in such a way as to create panic among travelers. Biden did not call Trump xenophobic for the travel ban; he labeled Trump xenophobic because of Trump’s policies prior to the pandemic.]
(9:04 p.m. ET): Biden walked out on stage wearing a mask. Trump did not.
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