Transcript - Debate: Second Presidential Debate in Nashville With Donald Trump and Joe Biden - October 22, 2020 | Factba.se

Kristen Welker

00:00:00 - 00:00:07 (7 sec)

Good evening everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for being here. It is such an honor for me to moderate this debate tonight, the final debate. I want to welcome the first family and the First Lady. We're so glad and thankful that you are feeling better. I want to welcome the Biden family, Dr. Jill Biden.

Kristen Welker

00:00:07 - 00:00:14 (8 sec)

Thank you all for being here tonight. We are so excited. We're looking forward to a really robust discussion, and the only thing I would reiterate are the CPD guidelines that when the candidates are talking, please hold any applause or any other reactions, except, of course, when they walk out. Make sure you cheer and loud and applause so that everyone can hear you.

Kristen Welker

00:00:14 - 00:00:24 (9 sec)

Thank you for having me. This is really the honor of a lifetime. I am going to sit down and just get organized and get settled and the show will start very soon. Thank you for being here. Good evening from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm Kristen Welker of NBC News and I welcome you to the final 2020 Presidential Debate between President Donald J. Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Kristen Welker

00:00:24 - 00:00:33 (9 sec)

Tonight's debate is sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. It is conducted under health and safety protocols designed by the commission's health security adviser. 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.

Kristen Welker

00:00:33 - 00:00:41 (8 sec)

And 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.

Kristen Welker

00:00:41 - 00:00:51 (10 sec)

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, I'm going to ask you to please speak one at a time. The goal is for you to hear each other and for the American people to hear every word of what you both have to say.

Kristen Welker

00:00:51 - 00:01:29 (39 sec)

And so with that, if you're ready, let's start and we will begin with the fight against the Corona virus. 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.

Kristen Welker

00:01:29 - 00:02:03 (33 sec)

And since the two of you last shared a stage, 16,000 Americans have died from COVID. So please be specific, how would you leave the country during this next stage of the Coronavirus crisis. Two minutes uninterrupted.

Donald Trump

00:02:03 - 00:02:06 (3 sec)

So as you know, 2.2 million people modeled out were expected today. We closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from China. It's a worldwide pandemic. It's all over the world. You see the 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.

Donald Trump

00:02:06 - 00:03:14 (68 sec)

And we're fighting it and we're fighting it hard. There is a spike. There was a spike in Florida and it's now gone. There was a very big spike in Texas. It's now gone. There was a very big spike in Arizona. It's now gone. And there were some spikes and surges in other places, they will soon be gone. We have a vaccine that's coming.

Donald Trump

00:03:14 - 00:04:41 (87 sec)

It's ready. It's going to be announced within weeks and it's going to be delivered. We have Operation Warp Speed, which is the military is going to 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 I had something that they gave me a therapeutic, I guess they would call it. Some people could say it was a cure.

Donald Trump

00:04:41 - 00:04:41 (0 sec)

But I was in for a short period of time and I got better very fast or I wouldn't be here tonight. And now they say I'm immune, whether it's four months or a lifetime, nobody's been able to say that. But I'm immune. More and more people are getting better. We have a problem that's a worldwide problem. This is a worldwide problem.

Donald Trump

00:04:41 - 00:04:41 (0 sec)

But I've been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we've been able to do with the -- if you -- if you take a look at what we've done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and everything else, and in particular, ventilators. We're now making ventilators all over the world, thousands and thousands a month, distributing them all over the world.

Donald Trump

00:04:41 - 00:04:41 (0 sec)

It will go away. And as I say, we're rounding the turn, we're rounded the corner. It's going away.

Kristen Welker

00:04:41 - 00:04:41 (0 sec)

OK. Former Vice President Biden to you, how would you lead the country out of this crisis? You have two minutes uninterrupted.

Joe Biden

00:04:41 - 00:04:41 (0 sec)

220,000 Americans dead. You hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this. Anyone who's responsible for not taking control. In fact, not saying I'm -- I take no responsibility initially. Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America. We're in a situation where there are a thousand deaths a day now, a thousand deaths a day, and there are over 70,000 new cases per day.

Joe Biden

00:04:41 - 00:04:41 (0 sec)

Compared to what's going on in Europe, as the New England Medical Journal said, they're starting from a very low rate. We're starting from very high rate. The expectation is we'll have another 200,000 Americans dead the time between now and the end of the year. If we just wore these masks, the President's own advisers have told him, we could save 100,000 lives.

Joe Biden

00:04:41 - 00:06:52 (131 sec)

And we're in a circumstance where the President thus far and 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 we move in the direction of rapid testing, invested in rapid testing. I would make sure that we set up national standards as to 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.

Joe Biden

00:06:52 - 00:07:02 (10 sec)

We're in a situation now where the New England Medical Journal, one of the serious -- most serious journals in the -- 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.

Joe Biden

00:07:02 - 00:07:04 (1 sec)

I will make sure we have a plan.

Kristen Welker

00:07:04 - 00:07:10 (6 sec)

President Trump, I'd like to follow up with you. In your comments, you talked about taking a therapeutic. I'd assume you're referencing Regeneron. You also said a vaccine will be coming within weeks?

Donald Trump

00:07:10 - 00:07:10 (1 sec)

Kristen Welker

00:07:10 - 00:07:11 (1 sec)

Is that a guarantee? Is --

Donald Trump

00:07:11 - 00:07:39 (28 sec)

No, it's not a guarantee, but it will be by the end of the year, but I think it has a good chance. There are two companies. I think within a matter of weeks, and it will be distributed very quickly.

Kristen Welker

00:07:39 - 00:07:41 (2 sec)

Can you tell us which companies?

Donald Trump

00:07:41 - 00:07:53 (12 sec)

Johnson and Johnson is doing very well. Moderna is doing very well. Pfizer is doing very well, and we have numerous others. And then we also have others that we're working on very closely with other countries, in particular, Europe.

Kristen Welker

00:07:53 - 00:08:20 (26 sec)

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 the earliest for enough Americans to get vaccinated, and even then they say the country will be wearing masks and distancing into 2022. Is your timeline realistic?

Donald Trump

00:08:20 - 00:08:41 (21 sec)

No, I think my timeline is going to be more accurate. I don't know that they're counting on the military the way I do, but we have our generals lined up. One in particular that's the head of logistics and this is a very easy distribution for him. He's ready to go as soon as we have the vaccine and we expect to have 100 million vials.

Donald Trump

00:08:41 - 00:08:43 (2 sec)

As soon as we have the vaccine, he's ready to go.

Kristen Welker

00:08:43 - 00:09:00 (18 sec)

Vice President Biden, your reaction in just 40% of Americans say they would definitely agree to take a Coronavirus vaccine if it was approved by the government. What steps would you take to give Americans confidence in a vaccine if it were approved?

Joe Biden

00:09:00 - 00:09:19 (19 sec)

Make sure it's totally transparent. Have the scientists of the world see it, know it, look at it, go through all the processes. And by the way, he's -- this is the same fellow who told you this is going to end by Easter last time. This is the same fellow who told you that don't worry, we're going to end this by the summer.

Joe Biden

00:09:19 - 00:09:29 (10 sec)

We're about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter, and he has no clear plan and there's no prospect that there's going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.

Kristen Welker

00:09:29 - 00:09:32 (3 sec)

President Trump, your reaction, he says you have no plan.

Donald Trump

00:09:32 - 00:09:55 (23 sec)

I don't think we'll going to have a dark winter and -- at all. We're opening up our country. We've learned and studied and understand the disease, which we didn't at the beginning. When I closed and banned China from coming in, heavily infected, and then ultimately Europe. But China was in January. Months later, he was saying I was xenophobic.

Donald Trump

00:09:55 - 00:10:21 (26 sec)

I did it too soon. Now he's saying I should have -- I should have, you know, moved quicker. But he didn't move quicker. He was months behind me, many months behind me. And frankly, he ran the H1N1 swine flu and it was a total disaster, far less lethal. But he -- it was a total disaster. Had that had this kind of numbers, 700,000 people would be dead right now.

Donald Trump

00:10:21 - 00:10:40 (19 sec)

But it was a far less lethal disease. Look, his own person, who ran that for him, who, as you know, was his chief of staff, said it was catastrophic. It was horrible. We didn't 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's what we've done.

Donald Trump

00:10:40 - 00:10:43 (3 sec)

We've done all of it. But he was way behind us.

Kristen Welker

00:10:43 - 00:10:45 (2 sec)

Vice President Biden, your response.

Joe Biden

00:10:45 - 00:11:06 (21 sec)

My response is he is xenophobic, but not because he shut down access from China. And he did it late after 40 countries had already done that. In addition to that, what he did, he made sure that we had 44 people that were in there in China trying to get to Wuhan to determine what exactly the source was. What did the President say in January?

Joe Biden

00:11:06 - 00:11:23 (17 sec)

He said, no, he said this is -- he's being transparent. The President of -- of China is being transparent. We owe him debt of gratitude. We are -- we have to thank him. And -- and then what happened was we started talking about using the Defence Act to make sure we go out and get whatever is needed out there to protect people.

Joe Biden

00:11:23 - 00:11:40 (17 sec)

And again, I go back to this. He had nothing. He did virtually nothing, and then he gets out of the hospital and he talks about where this is all -- don't worry, it's all going to be over soon. Come on. There's not another serious scientists in the world who thinks it's going to be over soon.

Kristen Welker

00:11:40 - 00:11:43 (3 sec)

President Trump, your reaction.

Donald Trump

00:11:43 - 00:11:57 (14 sec)

I didn't say over soon, I say we're learning to live with it. We have no choice. We can't lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does. He has the -- he has the ability to lock himself up. I don't know. He's obviously made a lot of money someplace, but he has this thing about living in a basement. People can do that.

Donald Trump

00:11:57 - 00:12:28 (31 sec)

By the way, I, as the President, couldn't do that. I'd love to put myself in the basement or in a beautiful room in the White House and go away for a year and a half until it disappears. I can't do that. And Kirsten, every -- every meeting I had, every meeting I had, and I'd meet a lot of families including Gold Star families and military families, every meeting I had, and I had to meet them, I had to. It would be horrible to have canceled everything.

Donald Trump

00:12:28 - 00:12:56 (28 sec)

I said, you know, this is dangerous and you catch it and, you know, I caught it. I learned a lot. I learned a lot. Great doctors, great hospitals. And now, I recovered. 99.9 of young people recover. 99% of people recover. We have to recover. We can't close up our nation. We have to open our school and we can't close up our nation, or you're not going to have a nation.

Kristen Welker

00:12:56 - 00:13:09 (13 sec)

And of course, the CDC has said young people can get sick with COVID-19 and can pass it. Vice President Biden, I want to talk broadly about strategy though. You've --

Joe Biden

00:13:09 - 00:13:10 (1 sec)

I've respond to that.

Kristen Welker

00:13:10 - 00:13:12 (3 sec)

30 seconds, please and then I have a question.

Joe Biden

00:13:12 - 00:13:27 (15 sec)

No, number one. He says we're -- you know, we're learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it. You folks home will have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning. That man or wife going to bed tonight to reach over to try to touch their -- out of habit where their wife or husband was is gone.

Joe Biden

00:13:27 - 00:13:42 (15 sec)

Learning to live with it. Come on. We're dying with it because he's never said -- you see he said it's dangerous. When's the last time? Is it really dangerous still? Are we dangerous? You'd tell the people is dangerous now. What should they do about the danger? And you say I take no responsibility.

Kristen Welker

00:13:42 - 00:13:43 (1 sec)

Let me talk about your --

Donald Trump

00:13:43 - 00:14:06 (24 sec)

Excuse me, I take it -- I take full responsibility. It's not my fault that it came here, it's China's fault. And you know what, it's not Joe's fault that it came here either. It's China's fault. They kept it from going into the rest of China for the most part, but they didn't keep it from coming out to the world including Europe and ourselves.

Kristen Welker

00:14:06 - 00:14:09 (2 sec)

Vice President Biden.

Joe Biden

00:14:09 - 00:14:31 (22 sec)

The fact is that when we knew it was coming, when it hit, what happened? What did the President say? He said, don't worry, it's going to go away. Be gone by Easter. Don't worry, the warm weather. Don't worry, maybe in [Inaudible] -- please. He said he was kidding when he said that, but a lot of people thought it was serious.

Joe Biden

00:14:31 - 00:14:38 (7 sec)

A whole range of things the President said. Even today. He thinks we are in control. We're about to lose 200,000 more people.

Kristen Welker

00:14:38 - 00:14:39 (1 sec)

President Trump.

Donald Trump

00:14:39 - 00:14:59 (20 sec)

Look, perhaps just to finish this. I -- I was kidding on that, but just to finish this. When I closed, he said I shouldn't have closed, and that went on for months. What Nancy Pelosi said the same thing. She was dancing in the streets in Chinatown in San Francisco. But when I closed, he said this is a terrible thing.

Donald Trump

00:14:59 - 00:15:09 (10 sec)

You're xenophobic. I think he called me racist even and because I was closing it to China. Now, he says I should have closed it earlier. It just -- Joe, it doesn't work.

Joe Biden

00:15:09 - 00:15:13 (3 sec)

I didn't say either of those things.

Donald Trump

00:15:13 - 00:15:15 (2 sec)

You certainly did. You certainly did.

Joe Biden

00:15:15 - 00:15:26 (11 sec)

I talked about the xenophobia in a different context. It wasn't about closing the border to Chinese coming to the United States.

Kristen Welker

00:15:26 - 00:15:29 (3 sec)

All right. I want to talk about both of your different strategies to handling --

Donald Trump

00:15:29 - 00:15:34 (4 sec)

He thought I shouldn't have closed the border.

Kristen Welker

00:15:34 - 00:15:35 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:15:35 - 00:15:37 (2 sec)

That's obvious.

Kristen Welker

00:15:37 - 00:15:41 (5 sec)

Is that -- do you would respond to that quickly, Vice President Biden?

Joe Biden

00:15:41 - 00:15:41 (0 sec)

Kristen Welker

00:15:41 - 00:16:04 (22 sec)

OK. Let's talk about your different strategies toward dealing with this. Mr. Vice President, you suggested you would support new shutdowns if scientists recommended it. What do you say to Americans who are fearful that the cost of shutdowns, the impact on the economy, the higher rates of hunger, depression, domestic and substance abuse outweighs the risk of exposure to the virus?

Joe Biden

00:16:04 - 00:16:21 (17 sec)

What I would say is I'm going to shut down the virus, not the country. It's his ineptitude that caused the virus -- the caused the country to have to shut down in large part, why businesses have gone under, why schools are closed, why so many people have lost their living, and why they're concerned. Those other concerns are real.

Joe Biden

00:16:21 - 00:16:44 (23 sec)

That's why he should have been instead of in a sand trap on his golf course, he should have been negotiating with Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats and Republicans about what to do about the acts they were passing for billions of dollars to make sure people had the capacity.

Kristen Welker

00:16:44 - 00:16:46 (2 sec)

But you haven't ruled out more shutdowns.

Joe Biden

00:16:46 - 00:17:05 (19 sec)

Well, no, I -- I'm -- I'm not shutting down the [Inaudible], but there are -- look, we need standards. The standard is if you have a reproduction rate in a community that's 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 this under control, under more control.

Joe Biden

00:17:05 - 00:17:26 (20 sec)

But when you do open, give the people the capacity to be able to open and have the capacity to do it safely. For example, schools. Schools, they need a lot of money to reopen. They needed to deal with ventilation system. They need to deal with smaller classes, more teachers, more pods and he's refused to support that money or at least up to now.

Kristen Welker

00:17:26 - 00:17:30 (4 sec)

Let's talk about schools. President Trump, can you --

Donald Trump

00:17:30 - 00:17:34 (4 sec)

Well, I think we have to respond if I might.

Kristen Welker

00:17:34 - 00:17:36 (3 sec)

Please. And then I have a follow up.

Donald Trump

00:17:36 - 00:17:58 (22 sec)

Thank you and I appreciate that. Look, all he does is talk about shutdowns. But forget about him, his Democrat governors, Cuomo in New York. You look at what's going on in California, you look at Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Democrats, Democrats all. They're shut down so tight and they're dying. They're dying.

Donald Trump

00:17:58 - 00:18:19 (21 sec)

And he supports all these people. All he talks about is shutdowns. No, we're not going to shut down and we have to open our schools. And it's like, as an example, I have a young son. He also tested positive. By the time I spoke to the doctor the second time, he was fine. It just went away. Young people, I guess, it's their immune system.

Kristen Welker

00:18:19 - 00:18:42 (23 sec)

Let me follow up with you, President Trump. You've demanded schools open in person and insist they can do it safely. But just yesterday, Boston became the latest city to move its public school system entirely online after a Corona virus spike. What is your message to parents who worry that sending their children to school will endanger not only their kids, but also their teachers and family?

Donald Trump

00:18:42 - 00:19:02 (19 sec)

I want to open the schools. The transmittal rate to the teachers is very small. But I want to open the schools. We have to open our country. We're not going to have a country. You can't do this. We can't keep this country closed. There's a massive country with a massive economy. People are losing their jobs.

Donald Trump

00:19:02 - 00:19:27 (26 sec)

They're committing suicide. There's depression, alcohol, drugs at a level that nobody's ever seen before. There's abuse, tremendous abuse. We have to open our country. You know, I've said it often, the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself and that's what's happening and he wants to close down. He'll close down the country if one person in our -- in our massive bureaucracy says we should close it down.

Kristen Welker

00:19:27 - 00:19:31 (3 sec)

Vice President Biden, you're response.

Joe Biden

00:19:31 - 00:19:52 (22 sec)

Simply not true. We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We ought to be able to safely open, but would they need resources to open? You need to be able to, for example, if you're going to open a business, have social distancing within the business. You need to have if you have a restaurant, you need to have plexiglass dividers, so people cannot infect one another.

Joe Biden

00:19:52 - 00:20:12 (19 sec)

You need to be in a position where you can take testing rapidly and know whether a person is, in fact, infected. You need to be able to trace. You need to be able to provide all the resources that are needed to do this. And that is not inconsistent with saying that what we're going to make sure that we open safely.

Joe Biden

00:20:12 - 00:20:18 (6 sec)

And by the way, all you teachers out there, not that many of you are going to die, so don't worry about it, so don't worry about it. Come on.

Kristen Welker

00:20:18 - 00:20:20 (2 sec)

President Trump, let me follow up with you quick.

Donald Trump

00:20:20 - 00:20:42 (22 sec)

By the way, I will say this. If you go and look at what's happened in New York, it's a ghost town. It's a ghost town. And when you talk about plexiglass, these are restaurants that are dying. These are businesses with no money. Putting a plexiglass is unbelievably expensive and it's not the answer. I mean, you're going to sit there in a cubicle wrapped around with plastic.

Donald Trump

00:20:42 - 00:20:56 (14 sec)

It's -- these are businesses that are dying, Joe, you can't do that to people. You just can't. Take a look at New York and what's happened to my wonderful city for -- for so many years. I loved that it was vibrant. It's dying. Everyone's leaving New York.

Kristen Welker

00:20:56 - 00:20:57 (1 sec)

Vice President Biden.

Joe Biden

00:20:57 - 00:21:21 (24 sec)

Take a look at what New York has done in terms of turning the curve down, in terms of the number of people dying. And I don't look at this in terms of the way he does, blue states and red states. They're all the United States. And look at the states that are having such a spike in the Corona virus. They're the red states, they're states in the Midwest, they're the states in the upper Midwest.

Joe Biden

00:21:21 - 00:21:41 (20 sec)

That's where the spike is occurring significantly. But they're all Americans, they're all Americans. And what we have to do is say wear these mask, number one, make sure we get the help that the businesses need that has -- money's already been passed to do that. It's been out there since the beginning of the summer and nothing's happened.

Donald Trump

00:21:41 - 00:21:48 (7 sec)

Present New York has lost more than 40,000 people, 11,000 people in nursing home.

Kristen Welker

00:21:48 - 00:21:52 (3 sec)

President Trump, what are --

Donald Trump

00:21:52 - 00:22:10 (19 sec)

When you say spike, take a look at what's happening in Pennsylvania where they've had it closed. Take a look at what's happening with your friend in Michigan where her husband is the only one allowed to do anything. It's been like a prison. Now, it was just ruled unconstitutional. Take a look at North Carolina.

Donald Trump

00:22:10 - 00:22:32 (21 sec)

They're having spikes and they've been closed and they're getting killed financially. We can't let that happen, Joe. You can't let that happen. We have to open up. And we understand the disease, we have to protect our seniors. We have to protect our elderly. We have to protect especially our seniors with heart problems and diabetes problems and we will protect them.

Donald Trump

00:22:32 - 00:22:36 (4 sec)

We have the best testing in the world by far. That's why we have so many cases.

Kristen Welker

00:22:36 - 00:22:55 (19 sec)

Let me follow up with you before we move on to our next section, President Trump. This week you called Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's best known infectious disease expert, quote, a disaster. You described him and other medical experts, as quote, idiots. If you're not listening to them, who are you listening to [Inaudible]

Donald Trump

00:22:55 - 00:23:10 (15 sec)

Let me -- I'm listening to all of them, including Anthony. I get along very well with Anthony. But he did say don't wear masks. He did say, as you know, this is not going to be a problem. I think he's a Democrat, but that's OK. He said this is not going to be a problem. We are not going to have a problem at all.

Donald Trump

00:23:10 - 00:23:34 (25 sec)

When Joe says that I said, Anthony Fauci said and others, and many others, and I'm not knocking him, let -- nobody know. Look, nobody knew what this thing was. Nobody knew where it was coming from, what it was. We've learned a lot. But Anthony said don't wear masks. Now, he wants to wear masks. Anthony also said, if you look back, exact words, here's his exact words, this is no problem.

Donald Trump

00:23:34 - 00:23:39 (5 sec)

This is going to go away soon. So he's allowed to make mistakes. He happens to be a good person.

Kristen Welker

00:23:39 - 00:23:43 (4 sec)

Vice President Biden, your response quickly and then we're going to move on to the next section.

Joe Biden

00:23:43 - 00:24:07 (24 sec)

My response is that think about what the President knew in January and didn't tell the American people. He was told this was a serious virus to spread in the air and it was much worse than -- much worse than the flu. He went on record and said to one of your colleagues recorded that, in fact, he knew how dangerous it was, but he didn't want to tell us. He didn't want to tell us because he didn't want us to panic.

Joe Biden

00:24:07 - 00:24:31 (24 sec)

He didn't want us -- Americans don't panic, he panicked. But guess what, in the meantime, we find out the New York Times the other day that, in fact, his folks went to Wall Street and said this is a really dangerous thing, and a memo out of that meeting, not from his administration, but from some of the brokers said, sell short because we've got to get moving.

Joe Biden

00:24:31 - 00:24:33 (2 sec)

It's a dangerous problem.

Donald Trump

00:24:33 - 00:24:35 (1 sec)

Well, this is --

Kristen Welker

00:24:35 - 00:24:40 (5 sec)

I'm going to give you 30 seconds to respond and then we're going to move on.

Donald Trump

00:24:40 - 00:24:45 (5 sec)

[Inaudible] I don't know somebody went to Wall Street. You're the one that takes all the money from Wall Street. I don't take it.

Joe Biden

00:24:45 - 00:24:46 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:24:46 - 00:25:05 (19 sec)

You -- you have raised a lot of money, tremendous amounts of money. And every time you raise money, deals are made, Joe. I could raise so much more money as President and as somebody that knows most of those people, I could call the heads of Wall Street, the heads of every company in America, I would blow away every record, but I don't want to do that because it puts me in a bad position, and then you bring up Wall Street.

Donald Trump

00:25:05 - 00:25:20 (16 sec)

You shouldn't be bringing up Wall Street because you're the one that takes the money from Wall Street, not me. I -- I could blow away your records that -- like you wouldn't believe. We don't need money, we have plenty of money. In fact, we beat Hillary Clinton with a tiny fraction of the money that she was able --

Kristen Welker

00:25:20 - 00:25:25 (5 sec)

All right. Gentleman, we're going to move on --

Joe Biden

00:25:25 - 00:25:28 (3 sec)

Average contribution, $43.

Kristen Welker

00:25:28 - 00:25:44 (16 sec)

All right, we're going to move on to our next section, which is national security. And I do want to start with the security of our elections and some breaking news from overnight. Just last night, top intelligence officials confirmed again that both Russia and Iran are working to influence this election.

Kristen Welker

00:25:44 - 00:25:59 (16 sec)

Both countries have obtained U.S. voter registration information, these officials say, and Iran sent intimidating messages to Florida voters. This question goes to you. Mr. Vice President, what would you do to put an end to this threat? You have two minutes uninterrupted.

Joe Biden

00:25:59 - 00:26:17 (18 sec)

I made it clear and I ask everyone else to take the pledge. I made it clear that any country, no matter who it is, and interferes in American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price. And it's been overwhelmingly clear. This election, I won't game -- getting into the last one, this election that Russia has been involved, China has been involved to some degree, and now we learn that -- that -- that Iran is involved.

Joe Biden

00:26:17 - 00:26:32 (15 sec)

They will pay a price if I'm elected. They're interfering with American sovereignty. That's what's going on right now. They're interfering with American sovereignty. And to the best of my knowledge, I don't think the President said anything to Putin about it. I don't think he's talking to them a lot. I don't think he said a word.

Joe Biden

00:26:32 - 00:26:51 (19 sec)

I don't know why he hadn't said a word to Putin about it. And I don't know what he has recently said if anything to the Iranians. My guess is he'd probably be more outspoken with regard to the Iranians. But the point is this, folks, we are in a situation where we have foreign company -- countries trying to interfere in the outcome of our election.

Joe Biden

00:26:51 - 00:27:39 (48 sec)

His own -- own national security adviser told him that what is happening with his buddy. Well, actually, I will, his buddy, Rudy Giuliani. He's being used as a Russian pawn. He's being fed information that is Russian that is not true. And then what happens, nothing happens. And then you find out that everything is going on here about Russia is wanting to make sure that I do not get elected the next President of the United States because they know I know them and they know me. I don't understand why this President is unwilling to take on Putin when he's actually paying bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan when he's engaged in activities that are trying to destabilize all of NATO. I don't know why he doesn't do it, but it's worth asking the question.

Joe Biden

00:27:39 - 00:27:48 (9 sec)

Why isn't that being done? Any country that interferes with us will, in fact, pay a price because they're affecting our sovereignty.

Kristen Welker

00:27:48 - 00:28:05 (17 sec)

President Trump, same question to you. Let me -- let me ask the question. You're going to have two minutes to respond. For two elections in a row now, there has been substantial interference from foreign adversaries. What would you do in your next term to put an end to this? Two minutes uninterrupted.

Donald Trump

00:28:05 - 00:28:23 (18 sec)

Well, let me respond to the first part as Joe answered. Joe got $3.5 million from Russia and it came through Putin because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow, and it was the mayor of Moscow's wife, and you've got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million. And you know, someday you're going to have to explain why did you get three and a half.

Donald Trump

00:28:23 - 00:28:44 (21 sec)

I never got any money from Russia. I don't get money from Russia. Now, about your thing last night, I knew all about that, and through John who is John Ratcliffe, who is fantastic, DNI. He said, the one thing that's common to both of them, they both want you to lose because there has been nobody tougher to Russia with -- between the sanctions.

Donald Trump

00:28:44 - 00:29:07 (23 sec)

Nobody tougher than me on Russia between the sanctions, between all of what I've done with NATO. You know, I've got the NATO countries to put up an extra 130 billion going to $420 billion a year. That's to guard against Russia. I sold -- while he was selling pillows and sheets, I sold tank busters to Ukraine.

Donald Trump

00:29:07 - 00:29:26 (19 sec)

There has been nobody tougher than -- on Russia than Donald Trump. And I'll tell you, they were so bad. They took over the -- the submarine port. You remember that very well during your term, during you and Barack Obama. They took over a big part of what should have been Ukraine. You handed it to them. But you were getting a lot of money from Russia.

Donald Trump

00:29:26 - 00:29:45 (19 sec)

They were paying you a lot of money and they probably still are. But now, with what came out today, it's even worse. All of the e-mails, the e-mails, the horrible e-mails of the kind of money that you were raking in, you and your family. And Joe, you were Vice President when some of this was happening and it should have never happened.

Donald Trump

00:29:45 - 00:30:06 (21 sec)

And I think you owe an explanation to the American people. Why is it, somebody who just had a news conference a little while ago who was essentially supposed to work with you and your family. But what he said was damning. And regardless of me, I think you have to clean it up and talk to the American people, maybe you can do it right now.

Kristen Welker

00:30:06 - 00:30:13 (8 sec)

Vice President Biden, you may respond [Inaudible] and then I do want of follow up on the election security.

Joe Biden

00:30:13 - 00:30:30 (17 sec)

I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life. We learn that this President paid 50 times the tax in China as a secret bank account with China, does business in China, and in fact, he's talking about me taking money. I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever, ever, number one.

Joe Biden

00:30:30 - 00:30:48 (18 sec)

Number two, this is a President -- I have released all of my tax returns, 22 years. Go look at them. 22 years of my tax return. You have not released a single solitary year of your tax return. What are you hiding? Why are you unwilling? The foreign countries are paying you a lot. Russia is paying you a lot.

Joe Biden

00:30:48 - 00:31:05 (18 sec)

China is paying you a lot. And your hotels and all your businesses all around the country, all around the world, and China is building a new road to a new go -- a golf course you have overseas. So what's going on here? Why don't release your tax return and stop talking about corruption?

Kristen Welker

00:31:05 - 00:31:07 (2 sec)

President Trump, your response.

Donald Trump

00:31:07 - 00:31:30 (22 sec)

First of all, I called my accounts, underwrote it. I'm going to release them as soon as we can. I want to do it and it'll show how successful, how great this company is. But much more importantly than that, people were saying $750. I asked them a week ago, I said, what did I pay? They said, sir, you prepaid tens of millions of dollars.

Donald Trump

00:31:30 - 00:31:42 (12 sec)

I prepaid my tax, tens -- over the last number of years, tens of millions of dollars I prepaid because, at some point, they think it's an estimate. They think I may have to pay tax. So I already prepaid it. Nobody told me that.

Kristen Welker

00:31:42 - 00:31:43 (1 sec)

But your account [Inaudible]

Donald Trump

00:31:43 - 00:32:14 (31 sec)

Nobody tell you that. Excuse me, and it wasn't written. Whenever they write this, they keep talking about $750, which I think is a filing fee. But let me just tell you. I prepaid millions and millions of dollars in taxes, number one. Number two, I don't make money from China, you do. I don't make money from Ukraine, you do. I don't make money from Russia, you made $3.5 million, Joe, and your son gave you -- they even have a statement that we have to give 10% to the big man.

Donald Trump

00:32:14 - 00:32:26 (12 sec)

You're the big man I think. I don't know, maybe you're not, but you're the big man I think. You sense that we have to give 10% to the big man. Joe, what's that all about? It's terrible.

Kristen Welker

00:32:26 - 00:32:29 (3 sec)

All right, gentlemen, I want to ask you both some questions --

Joe Biden

00:32:29 - 00:32:31 (2 sec)

I have to respond to that.

Kristen Welker

00:32:31 - 00:32:46 (16 sec)

I'm going to let you both respond very quickly. You just said you spoke to your accountant about potentially releasing your taxes. Did he tell you when you can release them? Do you have a deadline for when you're going to release to the American people?

Donald Trump

00:32:46 - 00:33:15 (29 sec)

I get treated worse than the Tea Party got treated because I have a lot of people in there. Deep down in the IRS, they treat me horribly. We made a deal, it was all settled until I decided to run for President. I get treated very badly by the IRS, very unfairly. But we had a deal all done. As soon as we're completed with the deal, I want to release it, but I have paid millions and millions of dollars and I -- it's worse than paying.

Donald Trump

00:33:15 - 00:33:19 (3 sec)

I paid in advance. It's called prepaying your taxes. I paid it.

Kristen Welker

00:33:19 - 00:33:34 (16 sec)

I want to ask you both about questions regarding your potential foreign entanglements and questions that have been raised to give you both a chance to talk about this more broadly. Respond very quickly and then I'll get to my question.

Joe Biden

00:33:34 - 00:33:50 (16 sec)

Why then that he's been saying this for four years? Show us. Just show us. Stop playing around. You've been saying for four years you're going to release your taxes. Nobody knows, Mr. President. What they do know is you're not paying your taxes or you're paying taxes that are so low. When last time he said at what he paid?

Joe Biden

00:33:50 - 00:33:54 (5 sec)

He said I only pay that little because I'm smart. I know how to game the system. Come on. Come on, folks.

Kristen Welker

00:33:54 - 00:33:59 (5 sec)

President Trump and then I want to get to two questions to both of you.

Joe Biden

00:33:59 - 00:33:59 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:33:59 - 00:34:28 (29 sec)

I was put through a phony witch hunt for three years. It started before I even got elected. They spied on my campaign. No President should ever have to go through what I went through. Let me just say this. Mueller and 18 angry Democrats and FBI agents all over the place spent $48 million. They went through everything I had including my tax returns and they found absolutely no collusion and nothing wrong, 48 million.

Donald Trump

00:34:28 - 00:34:50 (22 sec)

I guarantee you, if I spent one million on you, Joe, I could find plenty wrong because the kind of things that you've done and the kind of moneys that your family has taken. I mean, your brother made money in Iran, millions of dollars. Your other brother -- brother made a fortune and it's all through you, Joe, and they say you get some of it and you do live very well.

Donald Trump

00:34:50 - 00:34:53 (3 sec)

You have houses all over the place. You live very well.

Kristen Welker

00:34:53 - 00:35:13 (19 sec)

All right, gentlemen, let me just ask some questions about all of this broadly. Vice President Biden, there have been questions about the work your son has done in China and for Ukrainian energy company when you were Vice President. In retrospect, was anything about those relationships inappropriate or unethical?

Joe Biden

00:35:13 - 00:35:33 (20 sec)

Nothing was unethical. Here's what [Inaudible]. With regard to Ukraine, we had this whole question about whether or not because he was on the board. I later learned of Burisma, a company, that somehow I had done something wrong. Yet every single solitary person when he was going through his impeachment, testifying under oath who worked for him, said I did my job impeccably.

Joe Biden

00:35:33 - 00:35:52 (19 sec)

I carried out U.S. policy. Not one single solitary thing was out of line, not a single thing, number one. Number two, the guy who got in trouble in Ukraine was this guy trying to bribe the Ukrainian government to say something negative about me which they would not do and did not do because it never ever, ever happened.

Joe Biden

00:35:52 - 00:36:04 (12 sec)

My son has not made money in terms of this thing about what he's talking about, China. I have not had -- the only guy that made money from China is this guy. He's the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.

Kristen Welker

00:36:04 - 00:36:07 (3 sec)

President Trump, let me -- let me ask my question to you.

Donald Trump

00:36:07 - 00:36:09 (1 sec)

But I just one -- one thing.

Kristen Welker

00:36:09 - 00:36:10 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:36:10 - 00:36:35 (25 sec)

Your son didn't have a job for a long time, was sadly no longer in the military service. I won't get into that. And he didn't have a job. As soon as he became Vice President, Burisma. Not the best look -- not the best reputation in the world. I hear they paid him 183,000 a month. Listen to this. 183 and they gave him a three million dollar upfront payment.

Kristen Welker

00:36:35 - 00:36:36 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:36:36 - 00:36:37 (2 sec)

And he had no energy --

Kristen Welker

00:36:37 - 00:36:44 (6 sec)

I -- I'm going to let the Vice President respond to that quickly and then I need to get to a question to you very quickly.

Joe Biden

00:36:44 - 00:36:49 (6 sec)

No basis for that. Everybody investigated that. No one said anything he did was wrong in Ukraine.

Kristen Welker

00:36:49 - 00:37:07 (18 sec)

OK. President Trump, this is for you. Since you took office, you've never divested from your business. You've personally promoted your properties abroad. A report this week, which was referenced, does indicate that your company has a bank account in China. So how can voters know that you don't have any foreign conflicts of interest?

Donald Trump

00:37:07 - 00:37:40 (32 sec)

I have many bank accounts and they're all listed and they're all over the place. I mean, I was a business man doing business. The bank account you're referring to, which is everybody knows about it, it's listed. The bank account was in 2013, That's what it was. It was opened to do -- it was closed in 2015, I believe, and then I decided because I was going to do -- I was thinking about doing a deal in China like millions of other people.

Donald Trump

00:37:40 - 00:37:47 (8 sec)

I was thinking about it. And I decided I'm not going to do it. Didn't like it. I decided not to do it, had an account open and I close it.

Kristen Welker

00:37:47 - 00:37:48 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:37:48 - 00:38:13 (25 sec)

Excuse me, and then, unlike him, where he is Vice President and he does business, I then decided to run for President after that. That was before. So I closed it before I even ran for President, let alone became President. Big difference. He is the Vice President of the United States and his son, his brother, and his other brother are getting rich.

Donald Trump

00:38:13 - 00:38:16 (3 sec)

They are like a vacuum cleaner. They're sucking up money [Inaudible].

Joe Biden

00:38:16 - 00:38:18 (1 sec)

Kristen Welker

00:38:18 - 00:38:40 (22 sec)

We do have to move on. I do want to ask you, Vice President Biden, about China. Let's talk about China more broadly. There have, of course, President Trump has said that they should pay for not being fully transparent in regards to the Corona virus. If you were President, would you make China pay, and please be specific, what would that look like?

Joe Biden

00:38:40 - 00:39:08 (29 sec)

What I'd make China do is play by the international rules, not like he has done. He has caused the deficit to China to go up, not down with China, up, not down. We are making sure that in order to do business in China, you have to give all your intellectual property, you have to get -- you have a partner and China, it's 51%. We would not do that at all, number one.

Joe Biden

00:39:08 - 00:39:24 (16 sec)

Number two, we're in a situation where China would have to play by the rules internationally as well. When I met with Xi, that -- and when I was still Vice President, he said we're setting up air identification zones in the South China Sea. You can't fly through them. I said we're going to fly through them.

Joe Biden

00:39:24 - 00:39:49 (25 sec)

We just flew B-52, b -- B-1 bombers through it. We're not going to pay attention. They have to play by the rules. And what's he do. He embraces guys like the thugs, like in North Korea and -- and -- and the Chinese President and Putin and others. And he pokes his finger in the eye of all of our friends, all of our allies.

Joe Biden

00:39:49 - 00:40:20 (31 sec)

We make up only -- we're -- we're 25% -- 25% of the world's economy. We need to be having the rest of our friends with us saying to China, these are the rules you play by them all, you're going to pay the price for not paying by them, economically. That's the way I will run it and that's what we did in upholding steel tariffs and a range of other things when we were President, Vice President.

Kristen Welker

00:40:20 - 00:40:23 (3 sec)

All right. Let's talk about North Korea, let -- let --

Donald Trump

00:40:23 - 00:40:25 (3 sec)

Excuse me, no, I have to respond to that.

Kristen Welker

00:40:25 - 00:40:30 (4 sec)

OK, very quickly, and then we're going to move on to North Korea.

Donald Trump

00:40:30 - 00:40:49 (19 sec)

[Inaudible] who walked out with a billion and a half dollars from China [Inaudible] after spending minutes in office and being an Air Force Two, number one. Number two, there's a very strong e-mail talking about your family wanting to make $10 million a year for introductions.

Kristen Welker

00:40:49 - 00:40:58 (9 sec)

President Trump, on China policy though, what specifically are you going to do -- what specifically are you going to do to make China pay? You've said your going to make them pay.

Donald Trump

00:40:58 - 00:41:04 (6 sec)

First of all, China is paying. They're paying billions and billions of dollars. I just gave $28 billion --

Kristen Welker

00:41:04 - 00:41:05 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:41:05 - 00:41:07 (2 sec)

Listen, I just gave $28 billion to our farmers.

Joe Biden

00:41:07 - 00:41:09 (2 sec)

Taxpayer's money.

Donald Trump

00:41:09 - 00:41:10 (1 sec)

Joe Biden

00:41:10 - 00:41:11 (1 sec)

Taxpayer's money [Inaudible].

Donald Trump

00:41:11 - 00:41:36 (25 sec)

Yeah, you know the taxpayer is, it's called China. China pays for 28 billion and you know what they did to pay it, Joe? They devalued their currency and they also paid up. And you know who got the money? Our farmers, our great farmers because they were targeted. You never charge them anything. Also, I charge them 25% on dumped steel because they were killing our steel industry.

Donald Trump

00:41:36 - 00:41:39 (3 sec)

We were not going to have a steel industry.

Kristen Welker

00:41:39 - 00:41:39 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:41:39 - 00:41:42 (3 sec)

And now we have a steel industry.

Kristen Welker

00:41:42 - 00:41:46 (4 sec)

OK. Vice President Biden, your response, please.

Joe Biden

00:41:46 - 00:42:08 (22 sec)

My response is, look, this isn't about -- the re -- there's a reason why he's bri -- bri -- bringing up all this malarkey. There's a reason for it. He doesn't want to talk about the -- these -- the substance of issues. It's not about his family and my family. It's about your family, and your family is hurting badly.

Joe Biden

00:42:08 - 00:42:28 (20 sec)

If you're making less than -- if you're a middle class family, you're getting hurt badly right now. You're sitting at the kitchen table this morning deciding, well, we can't get new tires the ball because we have to wait another month or so or are we going to be able to pay the mortgage. Who's going to tell her she can't go back to -- to community college.

Joe Biden

00:42:28 - 00:42:38 (10 sec)

They're the decisions you're making in the middle class families like I grew up in Scranton and Claymont. They're in trouble. We should be talking about your families. But that's the last thing he wants to talk about.

Kristen Welker

00:42:38 - 00:42:47 (9 sec)

I want -- I want to talk about North Korea. I did want to turn to -- 10 seconds, Mr. President. 10 seconds.

Donald Trump

00:42:47 - 00:43:02 (14 sec)

It's a difficult political statement. Let's get off this China thing and then he looks the family around the table, everything, just the typical politician when I see them. I'm not a typical politician. That's why I got elected. That what's --

Kristen Welker

00:43:02 - 00:43:02 (1 sec)

Let's talk about --

Donald Trump

00:43:02 - 00:43:08 (6 sec)

Let's get off the subject of China. Let's talk around sitting around the table. Come on, Joe, you can do better.

Kristen Welker

00:43:08 - 00:43:33 (24 sec)

We're going to talk about North Korea now. President Trump, you've met with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, three times. You've talked about your beautiful letters with him. You've touted the fact that there hasn't been a war or a long range missile test, and yet North Korea recently rolled out its biggest ever intercontinental ballistic missile and continues to develop its nuclear arsenal.

Kristen Welker

00:43:33 - 00:43:39 (6 sec)

Do you see that as a betrayal of the relationship you forged? Just 30 seconds here because we need to get onto the next one.

Donald Trump

00:43:39 - 00:44:03 (24 sec)

So, when I met with Barack Obama, we sat in the White House right at the beginning, had a great conversation. It was supposed to be 15 minutes and it was well over an hour. He said the biggest problem we have with North is North Korea. He indicated we will be in a war with North Korea. Guess what, it would be a nuclear war, and he does have plenty of nuclear capability.

Donald Trump

00:44:03 - 00:44:23 (19 sec)

In the meantime, I have a very good relationship with him, different kind of a guy, but he probably thinks the same thing about me. We have a different kind of a relationship. We have a very good relationship and there's no war. And you know, about two months ago, he broke into a certain area. They said, there's going to be trouble.

Donald Trump

00:44:23 - 00:44:43 (20 sec)

I said no, they're not because he's not going to do that. And I was right. Look, instead of being in a war where millions of people -- Seoul, you know, is 25 miles away, millions and millions -- 32 million people in Seoul, millions of people would be dead right now.

Kristen Welker

00:44:43 - 00:44:59 (16 sec)

President Trump, that's 30 seconds, thank you. Vice President Biden, to you, North Korea conducted four nuclear tests under the Obama administration. Why do you think you would be able to rein in this persistent threat?

Joe Biden

00:44:59 - 00:45:20 (21 sec)

Because I'd make it clear which we are making clear to China, they had to be part of the deal because here's the route, I made it clear and a -- as spokesperson of the administration when I went to China, that they said why are you moving your missile defense up so close? Why are you moving more forces here?

Joe Biden

00:45:20 - 00:45:40 (20 sec)

Why are you continue to do military maneuvers with South Korea? I said because North Korea is a problem and we're going to continue to do it so we can control them. We're going to make sure we can control them and make sure they cannot hurt us. And so if you want to do something about it, step up and help.

Joe Biden

00:45:40 - 00:45:57 (17 sec)

If not, it's going to continue. What has he done? He's legitimized North Korea. He's talked about his good buddy who's a thug, a thug, and he talks about how we're better off and they are have much more capable missiles able to reach U.S. territory much more easily than ever did before.

Kristen Welker

00:45:57 - 00:46:11 (13 sec)

Let me follow up with you, Vice President Biden. You've said you wouldn't meet with Kim Jong Un without preconditions. Are there any conditions under which you would meet with him?

Joe Biden

00:46:11 - 00:46:19 (8 sec)

On the condition that he would agree that he would be drawing down his nuclear capacity to get the -- the Korean Peninsula should be nuclear free zone.

Kristen Welker

00:46:19 - 00:46:23 (4 sec)

All right, let's move on to American families. Very quickly, 10 seconds, President.

Donald Trump

00:46:23 - 00:46:29 (6 sec)

They tried to meet with him, he wouldn't do it. He didn't like Obama. He didn't like him. He wouldn't do it.

Kristen Welker

00:46:29 - 00:46:33 (4 sec)

OK. I got to give him a chance to respond to that before we move on.

Joe Biden

00:46:33 - 00:46:34 (1 sec)

You know what --

Donald Trump

00:46:34 - 00:46:46 (12 sec)

And that's OK. You know what, North Korea, we're not in a war. We have a good relationship. You know, people don't understand. Having a good relationship with the leaders of other countries is a good thing.

Kristen Welker

00:46:46 - 00:46:55 (10 sec)

President Trump, we have to move on because we have a lot of country, we have of a lot of questions to get to. Your response.

Joe Biden

00:46:55 - 00:47:17 (21 sec)

And we had a good relationship with Hitler before he, in fact, invaded Europe, the rest of Europe. Come on. Here's the reason he would not meet with President Obama is because President Obama said we're going to talk about denuclearization. We're not going to legitimize you. We're going to continue to put stronger and stronger sanctions on you.

Joe Biden

00:47:17 - 00:47:18 (1 sec)

That's why he wouldn't meet with us.

Kristen Welker

00:47:18 - 00:47:19 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:47:19 - 00:47:22 (3 sec)

And it didn't happen, excuse me.

Kristen Welker

00:47:22 - 00:47:27 (5 sec)

Let's move on and talk about American family. President Trump, OK, we do need to move on.

Donald Trump

00:47:27 - 00:47:38 (11 sec)

They left me a mess. North Korea was a mess. And in fact, if you remember the first two or three months, there was a very dangerous period in my first three months before we sort of worked things out a little bit.

Kristen Welker

00:47:38 - 00:47:38 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:47:38 - 00:47:44 (6 sec)

There was a very da -- they left us a mess and Obama would be, I think, the first to say, it was the single biggest problem he thought that our country.

Kristen Welker

00:47:44 - 00:48:17 (33 sec)

OK, let's move on to American families and the economy. One of the issues that's most important to them is health care as you both know. Today, there was a key vote on a new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and health care is at the center of her confirmation fight. Over 20 million Americans get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It's headed to the Supreme Court and your administration, Mr. President, is advocating for the court to overturn it. If the Supreme Court does overturn that law, there's 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance almost overnight.

Kristen Welker

00:48:17 - 00:48:25 (8 sec)

So what would you do if those people have their health insurance taken away? You have two minutes uninterrupted.

Donald Trump

00:48:25 - 00:48:45 (20 sec)

First of all, I've already done something that nobody thought was possible. Through the legislature, I terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of Obamacare as we call it. The individual mandate where you have to pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance.

Donald Trump

00:48:45 - 00:49:06 (21 sec)

I terminate it. It's gone. Now, it's in court because Obamacare is no good. But then I made a decision, run it as well as you can to my people, great people. Run it as well as you can. I could've gone the other route and made everybody very unhappy. They ran it. Premiums are down, everything's down. Here's the problem.

Donald Trump

00:49:06 - 00:49:26 (20 sec)

No matter how well you run it, it's no good. What we'd like to do is terminate it. We have the individual mandate done. I don't know that it's going to work. If we don't win, we will have to run it and we'll have Obamacare. But it'll be better one. But it no longer is Obamacare because without the individual mandate, it's much different.

Donald Trump

00:49:26 - 00:49:44 (18 sec)

Pre-existing conditions will always stay. What I would like to do is a much better health care, much better, will always protect people with pre-existing. So I'd like to terminate Obamacare, come up with a brand new beautiful health care. The Democrats will do it because there'll be tremendous pressure on them.

Donald Trump

00:49:44 - 00:50:10 (26 sec)

And we might even have the house by that time. And I think we're going to win the House, OK. You'll see, but I think we're going to win the House. But come up with a better health care, always protecting people with pre-existing conditions. And one thing very important, we have 180 million people out there that have great private health care, far more than we're talking about with Obamacare.

Donald Trump

00:50:10 - 00:50:34 (24 sec)

Joe Biden is going to terminate all of those policies. These are people that love their health care. People that have been successful. Middle income people, been successful. They have a 180 million plans, 180 million people, families. Under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine.

Donald Trump

00:50:34 - 00:50:43 (9 sec)

He won't even have a choice. They want to terminate 180 million plans. We have done an incredible job on health care and we're going to do even better.

Kristen Welker

00:50:43 - 00:50:59 (16 sec)

OK. Vice President Biden, yes, this is for you. Your health care plan calls for building on Obamacare. So my question is, what is your plan if the law is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? You have two minutes uninterrupted.

Joe Biden

00:50:59 - 00:51:17 (18 sec)

What I'm going to do is pass Obamacare with a public option, become Bidencare. The public option is an option that says that if you, in fact, do not have the wherewithal to be -- if you qualify for Medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal, then your state to get Medicaid, you're automatically enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies.

Joe Biden

00:51:17 - 00:51:35 (18 sec)

That's what's going to happen. Secondly, we're going to make sure we reduce the premiums and reduce drug prices by making sure that there's competition that doesn't exist now by allowing the Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the insurance companies. Thirdly, the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance.

Joe Biden

00:51:35 - 00:51:57 (21 sec)

The reason why I had such a fight for it with 20 candidates for their nomination was I support private insurance. That's why I didn't -- not one single person of private insurers would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under Obamacare. They did not lose their insurance unless they chose they wanted to go to something else.

Joe Biden

00:51:57 - 00:52:24 (28 sec)

Lastly, we're going to make sure we're in a situation that we actually protect pre-existing. There's no way he can protect preexisting conditions, none, zero. You can't do it in the ether. He's been talking about this for a long time. There is no -- he's never come up with a plan. I guess we're gonna get the pre-existing condition plan the same time we get the infrastructure plan that we've been waiting since 17, 18, 19 and 20. The fact -- I still go for a few more minutes, I know you're getting anxious.

Joe Biden

00:52:24 - 00:52:47 (23 sec)

The fact is that there -- he's already cost the American people because of his terrible handling of the COVID virus and the economic spillover. 10 million people have lost their private insurance and he wants to take away 22 million more people who have it under Obamacare and over 110 million people with pre-existing conditions and all the people from COVID are going to have pre-existing conditions.

Joe Biden

00:52:47 - 00:52:49 (2 sec)

What are they going to do?

Kristen Welker

00:52:49 - 00:53:08 (19 sec)

I have a follow up for you, Vice President Biden, it relates to something that President Trump said he's accusing you of wanting socialized medicine. What do you say to people who have concerns that your health care plan, which includes a government insurance option, takes the country one step closer to a health care system run entirely by the government?

Joe Biden

00:53:08 - 00:53:26 (18 sec)

I'd say it's ridiculous. It's like saying that, you know, we're -- the idea that -- the fact that there's a public option that people can choose that makes it a socialist plan? Look, the difference between the President -- and I think healthcare is not a privilege, it's a right. Everyone should have the right to have affordable health care.

Joe Biden

00:53:26 - 00:53:43 (17 sec)

And I am very proud of my plan. It's gotten endorsed by all the major labor unions, as well as -- as well as a whole range of other people who, in fact, are concerned in the medical field. This is something that's going to save people's lives and this is going to give some people an opportunity, an opportunity to have health care for their children.

Joe Biden

00:53:43 - 00:53:59 (16 sec)

How many of you home are worried and rolling around in bed tonight wondering what in God's name you're going to do if you get sick because you've lost your home insurance, your -- your health insurance your company is gone under? We have to provide health insurance for people and at an affordable rate, and that's what I do.

Kristen Welker

00:53:59 - 00:54:00 (1 sec)

President Trump --

Donald Trump

00:54:00 - 00:54:26 (25 sec)

Excuse me, he was there for 47 years. He didn't do it. He was now there as Vice President for eight years and it's not like it was 25 years ago, it was three and three quarters. It was just a little while ago, right, less than four years ago. He didn't do anything. He didn't do it. He wants socialized medicine and it's not that he wants it, his Vice President I mean.

Donald Trump

00:54:26 - 00:54:59 (33 sec)

She is - is more liberal than Bernie Sanders and wants it even more. Bernie Sanders wants it. The Democrats want it. You're going to have socialized medicine, just like you want with fracking. We're not going to have fracking. We're going to stop fracking. We're going to stop fracking. Then he goes to Pennsylvania after he gets a nomination where he got very lucky to get it and he goes to Pennsylvania and he says, we're going to have fracking, and you never asked that question.

Donald Trump

00:54:59 - 00:55:09 (10 sec)

And by the way, so far, I respect very much the way you're handling this, I have to say. But somebody should ask the question, he goes for a year, there will no fracking --

Kristen Welker

00:55:09 - 00:55:19 (10 sec)

We have a -- we have a -- we do have a number of -- we have a number of topics we got to, [Inaudible] We're going to -- we're going to get to --

Donald Trump

00:55:19 - 00:55:21 (2 sec)

The same thing with socialized medicine.

Joe Biden

00:55:21 - 00:55:22 (1 sec)

I have to respond.

Kristen Welker

00:55:22 - 00:55:26 (3 sec)

Vice President, your response, please.

Joe Biden

00:55:26 - 00:55:47 (22 sec)

My response is people deserve to have affordable health care period, period, period, period, and the Bidencare proposal will, in fact, provide for that affordable health care, lower premiums. What we're going to do is going to cost some money. It's going to cost over $750 billion over 10 years to do it and they're going to be able to lower premiums.

Joe Biden

00:55:47 - 00:56:01 (13 sec)

You can buy into the better plans, the cheaper plans, lower your premiums, deal with un -- un -- unexpected billing and have your drug prices drop significantly. He keeps talking about it. He hasn't done a thing for anybody on health care, not a thing.

Kristen Welker

00:56:01 - 00:56:03 (2 sec)

Very quick, then I want to talk about [Inaudible]

Donald Trump

00:56:03 - 00:56:26 (23 sec)

When he says public option, he's talking about socialized medicine and when he -- and -- and health care. When he talks about a public option, he's talking about destroying your Medicare, totally destroyed, and destroying your Social Security. And this whole country will come down. You know, Bernie Sanders tried it in his state.

Donald Trump

00:56:26 - 00:56:31 (5 sec)

He tried it in his state. His governor was a very liberal governor. They want to make it work.

Kristen Welker

00:56:31 - 00:56:39 (8 sec)

OK. Let's hear -- let's [Inaudible] Vice President Biden's response. Vice President Biden, your response.

Joe Biden

00:56:39 - 00:57:13 (34 sec)

He's a very confused guy. He thinks he's running against somebody else. He's running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them. Joe Biden, he's running against. And the idea that we're in a situation that are going to destroy Medicare. This is the guy that the actuary Medicare said if in fact at -- at Social Security, if in fact he continues to withhold his plan to withhold the tax on Social Security, Social Security will be bankrupt in by 2023, with no way to make up for it. This is the guy who's tried to cut Medicare.

Joe Biden

00:57:13 - 00:57:20 (6 sec)

So though -- I don't -- I mean the idea that Donald Trump is lecturing me on Social Security and Medicare, come on.

Donald Trump

00:57:20 - 00:57:31 (12 sec)

He tried to get rid of -- he tried to hurt Social Security years ago, years ago. Go back and look at the records. He tried to hurt Social Security years ago.

Kristen Welker

00:57:31 - 00:57:38 (7 sec)

All right. Let's move on. I'm going to move on. Let me -- Mr. President, I have to move on to the next question or else we're not going to have time to it.

Donald Trump

00:57:38 - 00:57:42 (4 sec)

The stock market will boom if I'm elected. If he's elected, the stock market will crash.

Kristen Welker

00:57:42 - 00:57:46 (4 sec)

OK. Let's move on to the next question. Very quickly.

Joe Biden

00:57:46 - 00:58:12 (26 sec)

Look, the idea that the stock market is booming is his only measure of what's happening. Where I come from is Scranton and Claymont, that people don't live off of the stock market. Just in the -- just in the last three -- three years during this crisis, s -- said the -- the billionaires in this country made according to The Wa -- Wall Street, $700 billion more , $700 billion more dollars because that's his only measure.

Joe Biden

00:58:12 - 00:58:16 (4 sec)

What happens to the ordinary people out there? What happens to them?

Kristen Welker

00:58:16 - 00:58:22 (6 sec)

Let's talk about what's happening on Capitol Hill. We're -- we're going to move on.

Donald Trump

00:58:22 - 00:58:25 (4 sec)

401 case are through the roof.

Kristen Welker

00:58:25 - 00:58:29 (3 sec)

We're going to move on.

Donald Trump

00:58:29 - 00:58:42 (13 sec)

People's stock are through the roof and he doesn't come from Scranton. That's like one of the -- he lived there for a short period of time before he even knew and he left. And the people of Pennsylvania will show you that.

Kristen Welker

00:58:42 - 00:59:00 (19 sec)

Let me move on to my next question, gentlemen. As, of tonight more than 12 million people are out of work and as of tonight, 8 million more Americans have fallen into poverty and more families are going hungry every day. Those hit hardest are women and people of color. They see Washington fighting over a relief bill.

Kristen Welker

00:59:00 - 00:59:06 (5 sec)

Mr. President, why haven't you been able to get them the help they need? 30 seconds here.

Donald Trump

00:59:06 - 00:59:10 (4 sec)

Because Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to approve it. I do.

Kristen Welker

00:59:10 - 00:59:11 (1 sec)

But you're the President.

Donald Trump

00:59:11 - 00:59:35 (23 sec)

I do, but I still have to get, unfortunate. That's one of the reasons I think we're going to take over the house because of her. Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to approve anything because she'd love to have some victories on a date called November 3rd. Nancy Pelosi does not want to approve it. We are ready, willing and able to do something.

Donald Trump

00:59:35 - 00:59:50 (16 sec)

Don't forget, we've already approved three plans and it's gone through including the Democrats, in all fairness. This one, she doesn't want us near the election because she thinks it helps her politically. I think it hurts her politically.

Kristen Welker

00:59:50 - 00:59:53 (3 sec)

All right, Mr. Vice President, let --

Joe Biden

00:59:53 - 01:00:03 (10 sec)

[Inaudible] how the Republican leader in the -- in -- in the United States Senate said he can't pass it. He will not be able to pass it. He does not have Republican votes. Why isn't he talking to his Republican friends?

Kristen Welker

01:00:03 - 01:00:07 (4 sec)

Let me follow up with you, Vice President Biden.

Donald Trump

01:00:07 - 01:00:09 (2 sec)

If we made a deal, the Republican --

Kristen Welker

01:00:09 - 01:00:19 (10 sec)

Let me -- let me ask Vice President Biden a question. You are the leader of the Democratic Party. Why have you not pushed the Democrats to get a deal for the American people?

Joe Biden

01:00:19 - 01:00:57 (37 sec)

Well, I have, and they have pushed you it. Look, they passed this act all the way back in the beginning of the summer. This is like -- it's not new, it's been out there. This Heroes Act have been sitting there, and look at what's happening. When I was in charge of the Recovery Act with $800 billion, I was able to get $145 billion to local communities that have to balance their budgets, the states have to balance their budgets, so then have to fire -- fire -- they have to fire firefighters, teachers, first responders, law enforcement officers, so they can keep their cities and counties running.

Joe Biden

01:00:57 - 01:01:05 (8 sec)

He will not support that. They have not done a thing for them. And Mitch McConnell said, let them go bankrupt, let them go bankrupt. Come on, what's the matter these guys?

Donald Trump

01:01:05 - 01:01:25 (20 sec)

The bill that was passed in the house was a bailout of badly run high crime Democrat, were all run by Democrats, cities and states. It was a way of getting a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars to this state. It was also a way of getting a lot of money from our people's pockets to people that come into our country illegally.

Donald Trump

01:01:25 - 01:01:46 (21 sec)

We were going to take care of everything for them and what that does and I'd love to do that. I'd love to help them. But what that does, everybody all over the world will start pouring into our country. We can't do it. This was a way of taking care of them. This was a way of spending on things that had nothing to do with COVID as for your question.

Donald Trump

01:01:46 - 01:01:50 (5 sec)

But it was really a big bailout for badly run Democrat cities and states.

Kristen Welker

01:01:50 - 01:01:53 (2 sec)

All right, I want to --

Joe Biden

01:01:53 - 01:02:19 (26 sec)

If get elected, I'm not going to -- I'm running as a proud Democrat, But I'm going to be an American President. I don't see red states and blue states. What I see is American, United States. And folks, every single state out there finds themselves in trouble. They're going to start laying off whether they're red or blue, cops, firefighters, first responders, because -- teachers because they have to balance their budget, and the founders were smart.

Joe Biden

01:02:19 - 01:02:25 (6 sec)

They allowed the federal government to deficit spend to compensate for the United States of America.

Kristen Welker

01:02:25 - 01:02:38 (13 sec)

I want to talk about the minimum wage, gentlemen. Mr. Vice President, we are talking a lot about struggling small businesses and business owners these days. Do you think this is the right time to ask them to raise the minimum wage [Inaudible] support a $15 federal minimum?

Joe Biden

01:02:38 - 01:03:02 (24 sec)

I do, because I think one of the things we're going to have to do is we're going to have to bail them out too. We should be bailing them out now, those small businesses. You got one in six of them going under. They're not going to be able to make it back. They passed the pre -- a package that allows us to be able to called PPP. Money is supposed to go to help them do everything from organize, how they can deal with their businesses being open safely.

Joe Biden

01:03:02 - 01:03:19 (17 sec)

Schools, how they can make classrooms smaller, how they can hire more teachers, how they can put ventilation systems in. They need the help, the businesses, as well as the schools need the help. But this -- because these guys will not help them. He's not giving them any of the money.

Kristen Welker

01:03:19 - 01:03:22 (3 sec)

We are going to move on to immigration but I want to get your reaction --

Donald Trump

01:03:22 - 01:03:35 (13 sec)

He said we have to help our small businesses by raising the minimum wage? That's not helping. I think it should be a state option. Alabama is different than New York. New York is different from Vermont. Every state is different. It should be a state option.

Kristen Welker

01:03:35 - 01:03:36 (1 sec)

You said very recently --

Donald Trump

01:03:36 - 01:03:49 (13 sec)

We have to help -- it's very important. We have to help our small business. How are you helping your small businesses when you're forcing wages, what's going to happen and what's been proven to happen is when you do that, these small businesses fire many of their employees.

Kristen Welker

01:03:49 - 01:03:59 (9 sec)

You said very recently you will consider raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. You said recently you would consider raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Is that still the case?

Donald Trump

01:03:59 - 01:04:02 (4 sec)

And I would consider it and to an extent. But what I really like --

Kristen Welker

01:04:02 - 01:04:03 (1 sec)

In a second administration?

Donald Trump

01:04:03 - 01:04:19 (16 sec)

What I really -- in a second administration. But not to a level that's going to put all these businesses out of business. It should be a state option. Look, in different places I know different places, they're all different. In some places, $15 is not so bad. In other places, other states, $15 is a [Inaudible]

Kristen Welker

01:04:19 - 01:04:23 (4 sec)

OK, President Trump. Thank you. Quick response, Vice President Biden.

Joe Biden

01:04:23 - 01:04:47 (25 sec)

Two jobs, one job below poverty. People are making six, seven, eight bucks an hour. These first responders, we all clap for as they come down the street because they've allowed us to make it. What's happening? They deserve a minimum wage of $15 dollars, anything below that puts you below the poverty level and there is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business.

Joe Biden

01:04:47 - 01:04:49 (2 sec)

That is simply not true.

Kristen Welker

01:04:49 - 01:05:09 (19 sec)

We're going to talk about immigration. We're going to talk about immigration now, gentlemen, and we're going to talk about families within this context. Mr. President, your administration separated children from their parents at the border, at least 4,000 kids. You've since reversed your zero tolerance policy, but the United States can't locate the parents of more than 500 children.

Kristen Welker

01:05:09 - 01:05:11 (2 sec)

So how will these families ever be reunited?

Donald Trump

01:05:11 - 01:05:32 (21 sec)

Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they're brought here and they used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as we've ever had. We're over 400 miles of brand new wall. You see the numbers and we let people in, but they have to come in legally and they come in through [Inaudible]

Kristen Welker

01:05:32 - 01:05:35 (3 sec)

But are you reuniting kids with their family, Mr. President?

Donald Trump

01:05:35 - 01:05:52 (17 sec)

Let me just tell you. They built cages. You know, they used to say I built the cages and then they had a picture in a certain newspaper and it was a picture of these horrible cages and they said look at these cages, President Trump built them. And then it was determined they were built in 2014. That was him.

Kristen Welker

01:05:52 - 01:05:54 (2 sec)

Do you have a plan to reunite the kids with their parents?

Donald Trump

01:05:54 - 01:06:02 (8 sec)

Yes, we're working on it very -- we're -- we're trying very hard. But a lot of these kids come out without the parents. They come over through cartels and through coyotes and through gangs.

Kristen Welker

01:06:02 - 01:06:06 (4 sec)

Vice President Biden, let me bring you into this conversation. Quick response and then another question to you.

Joe Biden

01:06:06 - 01:06:32 (26 sec)

These 500 plus kids came with parents. They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. They grill tough. We're really strong. And guess what, they cannot -- it's not coyotes didn't bring them over. Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents and it makes us a laughingstock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation.

Kristen Welker

01:06:32 - 01:06:34 (1 sec)

Let me ask you a follow up.

Donald Trump

01:06:34 - 01:06:37 (3 sec)

Kirsten, they did it. We changed the policy.

Kristen Welker

01:06:37 - 01:06:38 (1 sec)

Your response to that.

Joe Biden

01:06:38 - 01:06:40 (2 sec)

We did not separated --

Donald Trump

01:06:40 - 01:06:42 (2 sec)

Who built the cages? Who built the cages?

Joe Biden

01:06:42 - 01:07:02 (20 sec)

Let's talk about what we're talking about. What happened? Parents were ripped, their kids were ripped from their arms and separated, and now they cannot find over 500 of sets of those parents and those kids are alone, nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. It's criminal, it's criminal.

Kristen Welker

01:07:02 - 01:07:04 (1 sec)

Let me ask you about --

Donald Trump

01:07:04 - 01:07:13 (9 sec)

Kirsten, I will say this. They went down. We brought reporters, everything. They are so well taken care of. They're in facilities that was so clean.

Kristen Welker

01:07:13 - 01:07:14 (2 sec)

But some of them haven't been reunited with their family.

Donald Trump

01:07:14 - 01:07:20 (5 sec)

But just ask one question, who built the cages? I'd love you to ask of that. Who built the cages?

Kristen Welker

01:07:20 - 01:07:37 (17 sec)

Let me ask about your immigration policy, Mr. Vice President. The Obama administration did fail to deliver immigration reform, which had been a key promise during the administration, and also presided over record deportations as well as family detentions at the border before changing course. So why should voters trust you with an immigration overhaul now?

Joe Biden

01:07:37 - 01:07:58 (21 sec)

Because we made a mistake, it made too -- it took too long to get it right, took too long to get it right. I'll be President of United States, not Vice President of United States. And the fact is, I've made it very clear, within 100 days, I'm going to send the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people.

Joe Biden

01:07:58 - 01:08:23 (25 sec)

And all those so-called Dreamers, those DACA kids, they're going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship. The idea that they are being sent home by this guy and they want to do that is they're going to a country they've never seen before. I can imagine, you're five years old, your parents are taking across the r -- r -- the Rio Grande r -- r -- River and it's -- and it's -- and it's illegal.

Joe Biden

01:08:23 - 01:08:37 (14 sec)

And you say, no, mom, leave me here. I'm not going to go with you. They bet here. Many of them are model citizen. Over 20,000 of them are first responders, out there taking care of people during this crisis. We owe them. We owe them.

Kristen Welker

01:08:37 - 01:08:39 (2 sec)

President Trump.

Donald Trump

01:08:39 - 01:09:01 (22 sec)

Kirsten, he had eight years to do what he said he was going to do. And I've changed without having a specific, we got rid of catch and release, we got rid of a lot of horrible things that they put in and that they lived with. But he had eight years, he was Vice President. He did nothing except build cages to keep children in.

Kristen Welker

01:09:01 - 01:09:03 (2 sec)

Vice President Biden, your response.

Joe Biden

01:09:03 - 01:09:25 (22 sec)

The catch and release, you know what's he's talking about there? If, in fact, you had a family came across and they were arrested. They, in fact, were given a date to show up for their hearing. They were released. And guess what? They showed up for a hearing. This is the first President in history of United States of America, does anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country.

Joe Biden

01:09:25 - 01:09:41 (16 sec)

That's never happened before in America. That's never happened before in America. You come to the United States and you make your case that I seek asylum based on the following -- on the following premise, why I deserve it under American law. They're sitting in squalor on the other side of the river.

Kristen Welker

01:09:41 - 01:09:44 (4 sec)

President Trump, your response, 30 seconds and then we move on.

Donald Trump

01:09:44 - 01:10:07 (23 sec)

It just shows that he has no understanding of immigration or the laws. Catch and release is a disaster. A murderer would come in, a rapist would come in, a very bad person would come in, we would take their name. We have to release them into our country and then you say they come back. Less than 1% of the people come back.

Donald Trump

01:10:07 - 01:10:30 (23 sec)

We have to send ICE out and border patrol out to find them. We would say come back in two years, three years. We're going to give you a court case. You did Perry Mason. We're going to give you a court case. When you say they come back, they don't come back, Joe. They never come back. Only the really -- I hate to say this, but those with the lowest IQ, they might come back.

Kristen Welker

01:10:30 - 01:10:34 (4 sec)

OK, President, let's give Vice President Biden a chance to respond and then we're going to move on to the next section.

Donald Trump

01:10:34 - 01:10:35 (1 sec)

You don't know the law, Joe.

Kristen Welker

01:10:35 - 01:10:37 (2 sec)

Vice President Biden, your response.

Joe Biden

01:10:37 - 01:10:39 (2 sec)

Know the law, what he's telling you is simply not true.

Donald Trump

01:10:39 - 01:10:41 (2 sec)

Well, check it out, they don't come back.

Joe Biden

01:10:41 - 01:10:41 (0 sec)

Kristen Welker

01:10:41 - 01:10:44 (3 sec)

All right, let's move on to the next section.

Donald Trump

01:10:44 - 01:10:46 (2 sec)

But we don't have to worry about it because I terminated it. So we don't have to worry it.

Kristen Welker

01:10:46 - 01:10:47 (1 sec)

Let's move on about that right on to the next section.

Joe Biden

01:10:47 - 01:10:51 (4 sec)

And you have 525 kids not knowing where in God's name they're going to be and lost their parents.

Donald Trump

01:10:51 - 01:10:52 (0 sec)

Kristen Welker

01:10:52 - 01:11:19 (27 sec)

All right. Let's talk about our next section, which is race in America. And I want to talk about the way black and brown Americans experience race in this country. Part of that experience is something called the talk. It happens regardless of class and income. Parents who feel they have no choice but to prepare their children for the chance that they could be targeted, including by the police for no reason other than the color of their skin.

Kristen Welker

01:11:19 - 01:11:27 (9 sec)

Mr. Vice President, in the next two minutes, I want you to speak directly to these families. Do you understand why these parents fear for their children?

Joe Biden

01:11:27 - 01:12:02 (35 sec)

I do -- I do. You know, my daughter is a social worker and she's all -- she's written a lot about this. She's a -- has her graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in social work. And you know, one of the reasons why I ended up working on the east side of Wilmington, Delaware, which is 90% African-American was to learn more about what was going on. What I didn't -- I never had to tell my daughter if she's pulled over, make sure she puts for traffic stop, put both hands on top of the wheel and don't reach for the glove box because someone may shoot you.

Joe Biden

01:12:02 - 01:12:29 (27 sec)

But a black parent no matter how wealthy or how poor they are has to teach their child when you're walking down the street don't have a hoodie on when you go across the street. Making sure that you, in fact, if you get pulled over, just yes sir, no sir, hands on top of the wheel because you are, in fact, the victim whether you're a person making 300,000 [Inaudible] $300,000 a year person or someone who is on -- on -- on food stamps.

Joe Biden

01:12:29 - 01:12:50 (20 sec)

The fact of the matter is there is institutional racism in America and we have always said we've never lived up to it. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women are created equal. And guess what, we have never ever lived up to, but we've all constantly been moving the needle further and further to inclusion, not exclusion.

Joe Biden

01:12:50 - 01:13:13 (24 sec)

This is the first President to come along and says that's the end of that. We're not going to do that anymore. We have to provide for economic opportunity, better education, better health care, better access to schooling, better access to opportunity to borrow money to start businesses. All the things we can do, and I've laid out a clear plan as to how to do those things just to give people a shot.

Joe Biden

01:13:13 - 01:13:19 (6 sec)

It's about accumulating the ability to have wealth as well as it is to be free from violence.

Kristen Welker

01:13:19 - 01:13:29 (10 sec)

President Trump, same question to you and let me remind you of the question. I would like you to speak directly to these families. Do you understand why these parents fear for their children?

Donald Trump

01:13:29 - 01:13:53 (24 sec)

Yes, I do. And again, he's been in government 47 years. He never did a thing except in 1994 when he did such harm to the black community and they were called and he called them super predators. And he said that, he said it, super predators, and they could never live that down. 1994, your crime bill, the super predators.

Donald Trump

01:13:53 - 01:14:21 (29 sec)

Nobody has done more for the black community than Donald Trump. And if you look, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, possible exception. But the exception of Abraham Lincoln, nobody has done what I've done. Criminal justice reform, Obama and Joe didn't do it. I don't even think they tried because they had no chance at doing it. They might have wanted to do it. But if you had to see the arms I had a twist to get that done.

Donald Trump

01:14:21 - 01:14:40 (19 sec)

It was not a pretty picture and everybody knows it, including some very liberal people that cried in my office. They cried in the Oval Office. Two weeks later, they're out saying, gee, we have to defeat him. Criminal justice reform, prison reform, opportunity zones with Tim Scott, a great Senator from South Carolina.

Donald Trump

01:14:40 - 01:14:59 (19 sec)

He came in with this incredible idea for opportunity zones. It's one of the most successful programs. People don't talk about it. Tremendous investment is being made. Biggest beneficiary, the black and Hispanic communities, and then historically black colleges and universities after three years of coming to the office.

Donald Trump

01:14:59 - 01:15:22 (23 sec)

I love some of those guys, they were great. They came into the office and they said, I said, what are you doing? After three years, I said, why do you keep coming back? Because we have no funding. I said you don't have to come back every year. We have to come back because President Obama would never give them long term funding and I did 10 year long term funding and I gave them more money than they asked for because they said I think you need more.

Donald Trump

01:15:22 - 01:15:33 (11 sec)

And I said the only bad part about this is I may never see you again because I got very friendly with them and they like me and I like them, but I saved [Inaudible] colleges and universities.

Kristen Welker

01:15:33 - 01:15:37 (4 sec)

OK. And we're going to talk about both of your record. But your response to that Vice President.

Joe Biden

01:15:37 - 01:15:59 (22 sec)

My response to that is I never ever said what he accused me of saying. The fact of the matter is in 2000 though after the crime bill had been in -- in -- in the law for a while, this is guy who said the problem with the crime bill, there's not enough people in jail. There's not enough people in jail. And go on my website, get the quote, the date when he said it, not enough people.

Joe Biden

01:15:59 - 01:16:18 (19 sec)

He talked about marauding gangs, young gangs and the people who were going to maraud our cities. This is a guy who in the Central Park, five -- five innocent black kids, he continued to push for making sure that they got the death penalty. None of them were -- none of them were guilty of what the crime -- of the crimes they were suggested.

Joe Biden

01:16:18 - 01:16:50 (32 sec)

Look, and talk about he granted, he did, in fact, that 20 people he commuted 20 people sentences. We commuted over a 1,000 people sentences, over 1,000. The very law he's talking about is the law that, in fact, initiated by Barack Obama. And secondly, we're in a situation here where we -- the federal prison system was reduced by 38,000 people under our administration and one of those things we should be doing, there should be no, no minimum ma -- mandatories in the law.

Joe Biden

01:16:50 - 01:17:07 (17 sec)

That's why I'm offering $20 billion to states to change their state laws to eliminate minimum mandatories and set up drug courts. No one should be going to jail because they have a drug problem. They should be going to rehabilitation, not to jail. We should fundamentally change the system and that's what I'm going to do.

Donald Trump

01:17:07 - 01:17:14 (6 sec)

But why didn't he do it four years ago? Why didn't you do that? Four years ago, even less than that, why didn't you do it?

Joe Biden

01:17:14 - 01:17:14 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

01:17:14 - 01:17:23 (9 sec)

You're Vice President. You keep talking about all these things you're going to do and you're going to do this. But you were there just a short time ago and you guys did nothing.

Joe Biden

01:17:23 - 01:17:23 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

01:17:23 - 01:17:38 (15 sec)

Joe, I -- I ran because of you, I ran because of Barack Obama because you did a poor job. If I thought you did a good job, I would have never run. I would have never run. I ran because of you. I'm looking at you now, you're a politician. I ran because of you.

Kristen Welker

01:17:38 - 01:17:42 (4 sec)

All right, Vice President Biden, your response to that. And then I do have some questions for both of you.

Joe Biden

01:17:42 - 01:18:04 (22 sec)

Well, I tell you what, I -- I hope he does look at me because what's happening here is you know who I am, you know who he is, you know his character, you know my character, you know our reputations for honor and telling the truth. I am anxious to have this race. I'm anxious to see this take place. I am the character of the country is on the ballot.

Joe Biden

01:18:04 - 01:18:06 (2 sec)

Our characters on the ballot. Look at us closely.

Kristen Welker

01:18:06 - 01:18:09 (3 sec)

Let me ask them, follow up, please respond and then we're going to have follow up.

Donald Trump

01:18:09 - 01:18:23 (14 sec)

If this is [Inaudible] true about Russia, Ukraine, China, other countries, Iraq. If this is true, then he's a corrupt politician. So don't give me the stuff about how you're this innocent baby. Joe, they're calling you a corrupt politician. [Crosstalk]

Kristen Welker

01:18:23 - 01:18:28 (4 sec)

President Trump, I want to stay on the issue of race. We're talking about the issue.

Donald Trump

01:18:28 - 01:18:29 (1 sec)

Laptop from hell.

Kristen Welker

01:18:29 - 01:18:34 (6 sec)

President Trump, we're talking about race right now and I do want to stay on the issue of race. President Trump, you've --

Joe Biden

01:18:34 - 01:18:35 (1 sec)

I have to respond to that.

Kristen Welker

01:18:35 - 01:18:37 (2 sec)

Please, very quickly.

Joe Biden

01:18:37 - 01:18:58 (21 sec)

Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this is -- has all the care -- four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except them, his and his good friend, Rudy Giuliani.

Donald Trump

01:18:58 - 01:19:02 (4 sec)

You mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia -- [Crosstalk]

Joe Biden

01:19:02 - 01:19:05 (3 sec)

That's exactly what -- that's exactly what it's all.

Donald Trump

01:19:05 - 01:19:08 (3 sec)

This is where he's going. The laptop is Russia. [Crosstalk]

Kristen Welker

01:19:08 - 01:19:11 (3 sec)

Gentlemen, I want to stay on the issue of race.

Donald Trump

01:19:11 - 01:19:13 (2 sec)

You have to be kidding here. We go again with Russia.

Kristen Welker

01:19:13 - 01:19:30 (16 sec)

We're going to continue on the issue of race. Mr. President, you've described the Black Lives Matter movement as a symbol of hate. You've shared a video of a man chanting white power to millions of your supporters. You've said that black professional athletes exercising their First Amendment rights should be fired.

Kristen Welker

01:19:30 - 01:19:36 (7 sec)

What do you say to Americans who say that kind of language from a President is contributing to a climate of hate and racial strife?

Donald Trump

01:19:36 - 01:19:55 (19 sec)

Well, you have to understand, the first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter, they were chanting pigs in a blanket, talking about police, pigs, pigs, talking about our police. Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon. I said that's a horrible thing and they were marching down the street, and that was my first glimpse of Black Lives Matter.

Donald Trump

01:19:55 - 01:20:08 (13 sec)

I thought it was a terrible thing. As far as my relationships with all people, I think I have great relationships with all people. I am the least racist person in this room.

Kristen Welker

01:20:08 - 01:20:11 (3 sec)

But what do you say to Americans who are concerned by that rhetoric?

Donald Trump

01:20:11 - 01:20:32 (21 sec)

I don't -- I -- I mean I don't know what to say. I got criminal justice reform done in prison reform and opportunity zones. I took care of black colleges and universities. I don't know what to say. They can say anything. I mean, they can say anything. It's a very -- it's makes me sad because I am -- I am the least racist person.

Donald Trump

01:20:32 - 01:20:39 (7 sec)

I can't even see the audience because it's so dark. But I don't care who's in the audience. I'm the least racist person in this room.

Kristen Welker

01:20:39 - 01:20:44 (5 sec)

OK. Vice President, Biden. Let me ask you very quickly and then I have a follow up question for you.

Joe Biden

01:20:44 - 01:21:07 (23 sec)

Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist Presidents we've had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire. Every single. one started off his campaign coming down the escalator saying is getting rid of those Mexican rapists. He's banned Muslims because they're Muslims. He has moved around and made everything worse across the board.

Joe Biden

01:21:07 - 01:21:17 (11 sec)

He says to them about the poor boys, last time we were on stage here, you said I told you to stand down and stand ready. Come on this guy is a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn.

Kristen Welker

01:21:17 - 01:21:21 (4 sec)

President Trump, I'm going to give you 10 seconds to respond and then I have follow up.

Donald Trump

01:21:21 - 01:21:24 (3 sec)

You made a reference to Abraham Lincoln, where did that come in?

Joe Biden

01:21:24 - 01:21:26 (2 sec)

You said Abrahal Lincoln.

Donald Trump

01:21:26 - 01:21:33 (7 sec)

Where did it -- No, no, you see -- I said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I've done for the black community.

Joe Biden

01:21:33 - 01:21:34 (1 sec)

And I'm saying --

Donald Trump

01:21:34 - 01:21:46 (12 sec)

I didn't say I'm Abraham Lincoln. I said, not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I've done for the black community. Now, you have done nothing, other than the crime bill which put --

Joe Biden

01:21:46 - 01:21:47 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

01:21:47 - 01:21:51 (4 sec)

-- tens of thousands of black men mostly in jail.

Kristen Welker

01:21:51 - 01:21:52 (1 sec)

All right. Let me, [Crosstalk]

Donald Trump

01:21:52 - 01:22:03 (11 sec)

You know what, they remembered because if you look at what's happening with the voting right now. [Crosstalk] They remembered that you treated them very, very badly. Just take a look at what's happening out there.

Kristen Welker

01:22:03 - 01:22:22 (20 sec)

Vice President Biden, let me give you a chance to respond within this context. Crime bills that you supported in the 80s and 90s contributed to the incarceration of tens of thousands of young black men who had small amounts of drugs in their possession. They are sons, they are brothers, their fathers, their uncles, whose families are still to this day, some of them suffering the consequences.

Kristen Welker

01:22:22 - 01:22:25 (2 sec)

So speak to those families, why should they vote for you?

Joe Biden

01:22:25 - 01:22:48 (23 sec)

One of the things is that in the 80s, we passed 100%, all 100 Senators voted for it, a bill on drugs and how to deal with drugs. It was a mistake, I've been trying to change this since and particularly the portion on cocaine. That's why I've been arguing that in fact, we should not send anyone to jail for a pure drug offense.

Joe Biden

01:22:48 - 01:23:17 (28 sec)

They should be going into treatment across the board. That's what we should be spending money. That's why set up drug courts which never funded by our Republican friends. They should not be going to jail for a drug or an alcohol problem. They should be going into treatment, treatment. That's what we've been trying to do. That's what I'm going to get done because I think maybe the American people have now seen that in fact, it was a mistake to pass those laws relating to the drug.

Joe Biden

01:23:17 - 01:23:18 (1 sec)

But they were not in the crime bill.

Donald Trump

01:23:18 - 01:23:24 (6 sec)

But why didn't he get it done? See it's all talk, no action with these politicians. Why didn't he get it done?

Joe Biden

01:23:24 - 01:23:27 (3 sec)

That's what I'm going to do when I become President.

Donald Trump

01:23:27 - 01:23:39 (12 sec)

You were Vice President along with Obama as your President, you're a leader for eight years. Why didn't you get it done yet? You have eight years to get it done? Now you're saying you're going to get it done because you're all talk and no action, Joe.

Joe Biden

01:23:39 - 01:23:44 (5 sec)

We got a lot of it done. We released 38 [Crosstalk] we got 38,000 prisoners left from --

Donald Trump

01:23:44 - 01:23:45 (1 sec)

You got nothing done.

Joe Biden

01:23:45 - 01:24:01 (16 sec)

38,000 prisoners were released from federal prison. We have -- there were over a 1,000 people who were given clemency. We make -- in fact we're the ones that put in the legislation saying we could look at pattern and practice of police departments and what they were doing, how they're conducting themselves.

Joe Biden

01:24:01 - 01:24:11 (10 sec)

I could go on, but we began the process, we began the process, we lost an election. That's why I'm running to win back that election and change is terrible policy.

Donald Trump

01:24:11 - 01:24:31 (20 sec)

I just asked one question. Why didn't you do it in the eight years? A short time ago. Why didn't you do it? You just said I'm going to do that. I'm going to do this. You put tens of thousands of mostly black young men in prison. Now you're saying you're going to get -- you're going to undo that. Why didn't you get it done?

Donald Trump

01:24:31 - 01:24:36 (5 sec)

You had eight years with Obama? You know why, Joe? Because you're all talk and no action.