For Mr Biden, it was 90 minutes to solidify an apparent lead less than two weeks before the election.
All those states - some historically favorable for Democrats - voted for Trump in 2016 over then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Almost as many more could die before the end of the year, he added, describing the coming months as a "dark winter".
"It's certainly going to be brought up tonight", Wallace said. Lawyers say the government has been unable to identify the parents of some 545 children who are still being held. I mean, why would we expect and accept this from the President of the United States? He promised that the country was "rounding the corner", even as several USA states reported record one-day increases. White House advisers reportedly implored the president to follow that example.
Attacking woman journalists is Trump's ever-shabby default position, and his foreign policy debate threat soon withered once everyone simultaneously realized Trump probably couldn't find the District of Columbia on a map, much less North Korea or Syria.
More than 47 million Americans already have voted, and it's doubtful that many who still haven't cast a ballot are undecided about whom to choose for president.
Biden insisted neither claim is true. "Trump was more message-focused and there were no fights with the moderator".
According to current polls, Joe Biden has a very comfortable lead over President Donald Trump in the national and state races.
Since then, Trump has continued to minimize the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic - despite his own infection - while calling Dr. Anthony Fauci a "disaster".
"And Joe you were vice president when some of this was happening and it should never have happened, and I think you owe an explanation to the American people".
The Biden campaign in a statement noted that the former vice president - unlike Trump - has released his tax returns and pointed to a recent New York Times report that Trump has a secret bank account in China.
"I did my job (as vice-president) impeccably", Biden insisted.
Hundreds of children who remain apart from their parents years after being separated from them at the border are actually "so well taken care of" in USA hands, he stressed separately.
Not these children, Biden shot back.
"Their kids were ripped from their arms and separated, and now they can not find over 500 sets of those parents, and those kids are alone", he said.
"Nowhere to go. It's criminal".
Turning to address Americans directly through the camera at one point, Biden pegged his case to economic, kitchen-table issues that pollsters say independent voters care about most.
This from the guy who promised Jason Whitlock of Outtake on Thursday that Happy Donald is just waiting on the far side of victory.
The debate, hosted by Belmont University, was moderated by NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker.
Debate topics will include the pandemic, race relations, climate change and national security.
When Trump repeatedly asked Biden if he would "close down the oil industry", the Democratic standardbearer said he "would transition from the oil industry, yes", and that he would replace it by renewable energy "over time".
23 October 2020
23 October 2020
23 October 2020
23 October 2020
23 October 2020
