The 2020 United States presidential debates were a series of debates held during the 2020 presidential election.
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bipartisan organization formed in 1987, organized three debates among the major party candidates, and sponsored two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. Only Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden met the criteria for inclusion in the debates, and thus were the only two to appear in the debates. The vice presidential debate took place between their respective vice presidential running mates, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.
There were three initially planned scheduled presidential debates. The first presidential debate took place on September 29, 2020. The next presidential debate was scheduled to take place on October 15 but was later canceled due to Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and refusal to appear remotely rather than in person. As a result, 2020 had the fewest debates since 1996. The final presidential debate took place on October 22, 2020. Additionally, a vice presidential debate took place on October 7, 2020.
Background On October 11, 2019, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced that it would host three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate.
In 2019, Trump claimed that the 2016 debates were "biased", and suggested that he may not participate in further CPD-hosted debates. In December 2019, Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., the co-chairman of the CPD, met with Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign chairman, to discuss Trump's comments. Fahrenkopf said "the president wanted to debate, but they had concerns about whether or not to do it with the commission." While Trump did not press the issue further publicly, in June 2020, he requested additional debates to the traditional three, which Biden's campaign declined. At the end of June, representatives of the Biden campaign confirmed that they had agreed to the original schedule.
The Trump campaign submitted a request to the CPD to move the scheduled debates up in the calendar, or to add a fourth debate in relation to mail-in voting; the request was declined in August 2020. Later that month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggested that Biden should skip the debates, claiming that Trump will "probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency". Biden responded by stating that he would go ahead and participate to "be a fact-checker on the floor while [...] debating [Trump]".
Qualification of candidates In order to qualify for the debates sponsored by the CPD, presidential candidates had to meet the following criteria; vice-presidential candidates qualify by being the running mate of a qualifying presidential candidate:
Be constitutionally eligible to hold the presidency. Appear on a sufficient number of ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College. In theory, this means a candidate could win the election despite not meeting this criterion and hence not qualifying for the debates, as a candidate can win the election despite having a minority vote in the Electoral College. In practice, this has only happened once. Have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by five national public opinion polling organizations selected by the commission, using the average of those organizations' most recently reported results at the time of determination. The five polls were chosen with the advice of Frank Newport of Gallup, based on how Newport and the commission perceived these criteria: The reliable frequency of polling and sample size used by the polling organization. The soundness of the survey methodology employed by the polling organization. The longevity and reputation of the polling organization. The five polls were: ABC/The Washington Post Poll CNN Poll Fox News Poll NBC/The Wall Street Journal Poll NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll
Debate list Three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate were initially scheduled:
2020 United States presidential election debates Date and time Host Location Moderator ParticipantsKey: Participant PresidentDonald Trumpof Florida Vice PresidentJoe Bidenof Delaware Tuesday, September 29, 20209:00 p.m.–10:30 p.m. EDT Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio Chris Wallace of Fox Thursday, October 15, 20209:00 p.m.–10:30 p.m. EDT Arsht Center Miami, Florida Steve Scully of C-SPAN colspan="2" Thursday, October 22, 20209:00 p.m.–10:30 p.m. EDT Belmont University Nashville, Tennessee Kristen Welker of NBC
2020 United States vice presidential debate Date and time Host Location Moderator ParticipantsKey: Participant Vice PresidentMike Penceof Indiana SenatorKamala Harrisof California Wednesday, October 7, 20209:00 p.m.–10:30 p.m. EDT University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah Susan Page of USA Today
September 29: First presidential debate (Case Western Reserve University)
The first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden took place on Tuesday, September 29, 2020, at the Samson Pavilion of the Health Education Campus (HEC), which is shared by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The debate was moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox.
According to a 2021 book by Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 on September 26, three days before the debate, and six days before he was hospitalised for COVID-19. Meadows also said Trump tested negative from a different test shortly after the positive result. Trump denied this story and called it false.
The debate was originally scheduled to take place in the Phillip J. Purcell Pavilion located within the Edmund P. Joyce Center at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, but Notre Dame withdrew as a host site on July 27, 2020, due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prelude Entering into the debate, Biden had a significant and persistent lead in the polls. Biden's lead was compounded by a funding shortage in Trump's campaign, with Biden's campaign donations improving significantly.
Since Biden's successful nomination in the Democratic primaries, Trump had attempted to cast doubt over Biden's abilities, claiming that he was suffering from dementia and that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs in the primaries. Trump called for Biden to be drug tested before the debate. Biden mocked the idea. Trump also claimed that Biden would use a hidden electronic earpiece for the debate, demanding that Biden's ears be searched. Biden declined.
Running up to the debate, Trump made repeated claims that the election would be rigged by means of voter fraud, especially with regards to mail-in ballots. When asked if he would commit to a peaceful transition of power, Trump said, "we'll have to wait and see;" however, in a later press briefing, he said that he did believe in a peaceful transition of power. In several instances, Trump called for his supporters to vote twice—in order to test safeguards against voter fraud—even though voting more than once is a felony.
In the weeks leading up to the debate, Trump became part of various controversies. Bob Woodward released his second book on the Trump presidency, based on 19 recorded interviews with Trump. In one recording made in February 2020, Trump indicated that he understood the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic early on, which contrasted with Trump's attempts to publicly play down the virus. Trump confirmed that he downplayed the severity of the pandemic, saying that "I don't want to create a panic." The New York Times published an investigation into Trump's federal tax returns, which found that Trump had paid no tax at all in 10 out of 15 years studied, and only $750 in federal income tax for 2016 and 2017. Additionally, they reported that his businesses lost money in most years. A few days before the debate, the US reached the milestone of 200,000 deaths from COVID-19. This number represented 20% of worldwide fatalities, despite the US having only 4% of the world's population.
Nearly two weeks prior to the debate, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from cancer. Ginsburg was one of four Supreme Court justices who are commonly considered liberal; the other five justices are commonly considered to be conservative. The day after Ginsburg's funeral, Trump nominated conservative Amy Coney Barrett. Senate Republicans, under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, moved swiftly, promising to vote on her nomination before Election Day. The move was controversial, since the same Senate Republicans had refused to consider a Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland by then-President Barack Obama in an election year.
Format and debate The debate was divided into six segments: "Trump's and Biden's records, the Supreme Court, the COVID-19 pandemic, race and violence in cities, election integrity, and the economy". Each was approximately 15 minutes in length; Wallace introduced each topic and gave each candidate two minutes to speak, followed by facilitated discussion between them. The allotted time was generally not upheld; Trump repeatedly interrupted and criticized Biden during Biden's answers to the initial questions as well as during the facilitated discussions, and was chastised by Wallace several times for doing so. On several occasions, Wallace pleaded with Trump to respect the rules and norms of the debate. At one point, Biden refused to answer a question given by Wallace, leading to Trump interrupting him. Biden then remarked to Trump, "Will you shut up, man?" Biden also said in response to allegations that he would implement "socialist medicine", "The party is me. I am the Democratic Party right now. The Democratic platform is what I, in fact, approved of." Additionally, Biden called Trump a "clown" during the discussion about healthcare plans.
At one point during the debate, Biden and Wallace pressed Trump to condemn white supremacy groups. When Trump replied "Give me a name...", Biden responded with "The Proud Boys". Trump then said "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by", a remark interpreted by some members of that far-right group, as well as others, as a call to arms. When asked about his position on police reform, Biden called for an increase in police funding, in opposition to left-wing rhetoric calling for a defunding of police. He explained such funds would be used to hire psychologists or psychiatrists who would accompany police officers during 9-1-1 calls in order to defuse potentially violent situations and reduce the use of force, and improve officer training.
Fact checkers challenged many of Trump's statements. Trump falsely said that he "brought back (college) football"; as he had commented on his wish for the conferences to play, but took no official action. Trump also repeated the claim that he "got back" Seattle and Minneapolis from left-wing protesters, and continued to repeat conspiracy theories about voter fraud. He said, without evidence, that drug prices will fall "80 or 90 percent," in reference to his efforts to cut drug prices and exaggerated that he is making insulin at prices "so cheap, it's like water", despite insulin prices remaining fixed at about $300 per vial. Trump also misleadingly said that the U.S. economy before the pandemic was "the greatest economy in the history of our country"; although GDP growth was high in the first three years of the Trump presidency, it was higher under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Bill Clinton, and the unemployment rate was lower under Eisenhower. Nominal GDP was higher than at any point in US history, but this is true for the large majority of US Presidencies.