In the first debate, Trump’s dishonesty eclipsed Biden’s misstatements, as the President repeated some of his more frequent lies while talking over both his opponent and the moderator. In an attempt to avoid some of the chaos of that first encounter, each candidate’s microphone will be muted during portions of Thursday’s debate to allow their opponent to answer questions uninterrupted.
NBC’s Kristen Welker is moderator for the 90-minute event and plans to focus on six main topics. On the first announced topic, fighting Covid-19, Trump has consistently misled the American public, including as recently as his “60 Minutes” interview. During an excerpt which the President released ahead of the episode’s airing this weekend, Trump falsely claimed the US has turned the corner on the pandemic.
Among the other topics that Trump and Biden will be asked to address tonight are race in America, climate change, national security, American families and leadership.
CNN will be fact-checking both candidates throughout the night.
Trump: Coronavirus is ‘going away’
Trump claimed the virus is going away. “We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away,” Trump said.
Facts First: This is false. The US coronavirus situation — as measured by newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and the test positivity rate — is getting worse, not better. There is no basis for his vague claim that we are “rounding the corner.”
Trump has baselessly claimed for eight months that the virus would disappear or was currently disappearing.
— Holmes Lybrand
This is a breaking story and will be updated.