Transcripts For CSPAN Presidential Debates Trump-Biden Second Debate 20240712

For amy coney barrett, and today they will begin floor debate on whether to approve the judge nominated by donald trump. They have been asking republican members to hold off, the democrats, but Mitch Mcconnell filed a motion on the barrett nomination, setting up a sunday vote and a confirmation vote for monday. The senate will be back in session on saturday at noon. Follow coverage on cspan2. Announcer 10 days left until election day, on november 3, when Voters Decide who will occupy the white house next year. Stay with cspan. Watch coverage every day on cspan. And read more on demand on cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app, your place for an unfiltered view of politics. Trump and President Joe Biden met on thursday for the final president ial debate. It was held at Belmont University in nashville and covered topics from the pandemic response, to national security, foreign policy, Climate Change and race. Kristen welker moderated. Ms. Welker good evening from Belmont University in nashville, tennessee. I am kristen welker, and i welcome you to the 2020 residential debate between President Trump and former vice President Joe Biden. Tonights debate is sponsored by the commission on president ial debates, and conducted under health and safety protocols. The audience in the hall has promised to remain silent. No cheers, boos, or other interruptions except for right now as we welcome to the stage former vice President Joe Biden, and president donald j. Trump. [applause] ms. Welker i want to say good evening to both of you. This will cover six major topics. At the beginning of each section, each candidate will have two minutes to answer without interruption. The debate will turn on your Debate Commission will then turn on your microphone only when it is your time to answer, and turn it off exactly when two minutes expire. After that, both microphones will remain on, but please speak one at a time. The goal is to hear each other , and for the American People to hear every word of what you have to say. If you are ready, lets start. We will begin with the fight against the coronavirus. President trump, the first question is to 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 in tennessee. Since you last shared a stage, 16,000 americans have died. Please be specific, how would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus . Pres. Trump as you know, 2. 2 Million People were expected to die. We closed the greatest economy in the world to fight this horrible disease that came from china. It is a worldwide pandemic, all over the world, you see spikes in europe and other places now. The mortality rate is down, 85 . The excess mortality rate is way down and lower than any other country. We are fighting it hard. There is a spike, there was a spike in florida that is gone. There was a spike in texas that is gone. There was a spike in arizona, it is gone. There were spikes in other places that will soon be gone. We have a vaccine that is ready and it will be announced within weeks and it will be delivered. We have operation warp speed, the military will distribute the vaccine. From personal experience, i was in the hospital, i had it, i got gowns, everything else. We are making ventilators and distributing them all over the world. Thousands and thousands a month. It will go away. We are rounding the turn, we are rounding the corner. It is going away. Ms. Welker former Vice President , how would you lead the country out of this crisis. You have two minutes uninterrupted. Mr. Biden 220,000 americans dead. If you hear nothing else i say hear this,re this anyone who is responsible for not taking control. Not saying, i take no responsibility initially. Anybody who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of United States of the america. We are in a situation where there are a thousand deaths a day, a thousand deaths a day. Over 70,000 new cases per day. Compared to what is going on in europe, as the new england medical journal said, they are the expectation is we will have another 200,000 americans dead between now and the end of the year. If we just wore these masks, the president s advisers told him, we could save 100,000 lives. We are in a circumstance where the president still has no plan. No comprehensive plan. I would make sure we have everyone encouraged to wear a mask all the time, make sure we move in the direction of rapid testing, and invest in rapid testing. I would make sure we set up National Standards how to open schools and businesses so they can be safe. And give them the Financial Resources to be able to do that. We are in a situation now where the new england medical journal, one of the most serious journals in the world said for the first time ever, that the way this president has responded to this crisis has been tragic. I will take care of this and end this, i will make sure we have a plan. Ms. Welker President Trump, i would like to follow up on your comments. You talked about a therapeutic, you are referencing regeneron. You said a vaccine is coming within weeks. Is that a guarantee . Pres. Trump no, it is not a guarantee, but it has a good chance. Two companies within a matter of weeks. Ms. Welker which companies . Pres. Trump Johnson Johnson is doing very well, moderna is doing well. Pfizer is doing very well. And we have numerous others. And we have others we are working on with other countries, particularly europe. Ms. Welker this is new information. You say a vaccine is coming within weeks, your Officials Say it could take well into 2021, at the earliest, for americans to get vaccinated. But even then, they stay the say the country will be Wearing Masks into 2022. Is your timeline realistic . Pres. Trump no, i think my timeline is more accurate. I dont think they count on the military as i do, we have a general who is head of logistics. This is an easy distribution. He is ready to go. We expect to have a vaccine and 100 million vials. As soon as we have the vaccine, he is ready to go. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, your reaction. If a vaccine was approved, what steps would you take to give americans confidence in a vaccine if approved . Mr. Biden make sure it is totally transparent. Have the scientists of the world see it go through the processes. , this is the same fellow who told us it would end by easter, who told you dont worry, we end this by summer. We are about to go through a dark winter, and he has no clear plan and no prospect that there will be a vaccine available for the middle of next year. Ms. Welker your reaction . He says you have no plan. Pres. Trump i dont think we will have a dark winter. We have opened the country, we have learned, studied and we understand the disease. Which we didnt have at the beginning. When i closed and banned china, and ultimately europe, china was in january months later he said i was xenophobic, now he is saying i should have moved quicker. He did not move quicker. He was many months behind me. He ran the h1n1 swine flu, and it was a disaster. It was a disaster. Had that had these kind of numbers, 700,000 people would be dead now. But it was a far less lethal disease. His own person who ran that for him, as you know was his chief of staff, said it was catastrophic, horrible, we didnt know what we are doing. Now he tells us how to do this. Everything he said about every move that we should make, that is what we have done. We have done all of it. He was way behind us. Mr. Biden my response is he is xenophobic, but not because he china, heccess from did it after 40 countries had done that. He made sure we had 44 people in china trying to get to wuhan to determine what exactly the source was what did he say in january . He said, no. He said the president of china is being transparent and we owe a debt of gratitude. We have to think him. Then he started talking about using the defense act to get what we need to protect people. He had nothing he did, virtually nothing then he gets out of the hospital and says dont worry, it will be over soon. Come on, there is not another serious scientist in the world who thinks it will be over soon. Pres. Trump we cannot lock ourselves in a basement like joe does. He has the ability to lock himself up he has made a lot of money someplace. He has this thing about living in a basement. I, as the president , could not do that. I would love to put myself in a basement and go away for a year and a half i cant do that. Every meeting i have, and i meet a lot of families including gold star families every meeting and i had to meet them it would have been horrible to cancel i said this is dangerous. You catch it. I caught it. I learned a lot. Great hospitals. Now i recovered. 99. 9 of young people recovered. 99 of people recover. We have to recover. We cannot close our nation. We have to open schools, we cannot close our nation. Ms. Welker the cdc has said young people can get sick and pass it. Vice president biden, i want to talk about strategy. Mr. Biden may i respond to that . Ms. Welker 30 seconds. Then i have a question. Mr. Biden he says we are learning to live with it people are learning to die with it. You folks who have an empty chair at the Kitchen Table, that man or woman reaching over where their wife or husband was is gone learning to live with it . Come on, we are dying with it. Ause he has never said when is the last time is it really dangerous . Will you tell the people it is dangerous now . What should we do about the danger question mark you say, i take no responsibility. Pres. Trump excuse me, it is not my fault that it came here. It is not joes fault, it is chinas fault. They kept it from going into the rest of china but not coming out to the world, including europe and ourselves. Mr. Biden the fact is when we knew it was coming, when it hit, what happened . What did the president say . He said, dont worry, it will go away, it will be gone by easter, the warm weather. Inject bleach he said he was , kidding, a lot of people think he was serious. A whole range of what he has said, he thinks we are in control. We are about to lose 200,000 more people. Ms. Welker President Trump. Pres. Trump i was kidding on that. To finish this, when i closed, he said i should not have closed, and that went on for months. Nancy pelosi said the same thing. Nancy pelosi was dancing in the streets in chinatown in san francisco. When i closed he said this is a , terrible thing, you are a xenophobe, i think he called me racist. Now he says i should have closed it earlier. Mr. Biden i did not say either of those things. I talked about his xenophobia in a different context, not about closing the border to chinese coming to the United States. Ms. Welker i want to talk about your different strategies. Pres. Trump he thought i should not have closed the border. Ms. Welker lets talk about your different strategies towards dealing with this. Mr. Vice president , you suggested you would support shutdowns if scientists recommended it. What you say to americans who fear the cost on the economy, depression, domestic Substance Abuse outweighs exposure to the virus . Mr. Biden i would say i will shut down the virus and not the country. It is his ineptitude that caused the country to shut down in large part, why businesses have gone under, so many people have lost their living, those concerns are real. Instead of being on his golf course, he should have been those inng with congress to make sure people had the capacity. Ms. Welker you have not ruled out more shutdowns . Mr. Biden no. We need standards. The standard is if you have a reproduction rate in a community above a certain level, everybody says slow up. More social distancing. Do not open bars and gymnasiums, do not open until you get this under more control. When you do open, give people the capacity to open, and do it safely. Schools need a lot of money, they need to deal with ventilation systems and smaller classes, more teachers. He has refused to support that money up until now. Pres. Trump i have to respond. All he does is talk about shutdowns. Forget about him, his democratic governors, cuomo in new york, look at california, pennsylvania, north carolina, democrats have shut down so tight and they are dying. They are dying. He supports all these people read all he talks about is shutdowns. We will not shut down. We have to open our schools. I have a young son who also tested positive. By the time i spoke to the doctor, he was fine it went away. Young people, their immune system. Ms. Welker you have demanded schools open in person, but yesterday boston became the latest city to move its Public School system entirely online after a coronavirus spike. What is your message to parents who worried that sending kids to school will endanger them . Pres. Trump i want to open the schools, the transmittal rate to teachers is small. I want to open the schools and our country. We will not have a country. You cannot do this, we cannot keep this country closed. This is a massive country with a massive economy. People are losing their jobs, committing suicide, depression, alcohol, drugs at a level nobody has seen before. Tremendous abuse. We have to open our country. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. That is what is happening, and he will close down the country if one person in our massive bureaucracy says we should close it down. Mr. Biden simply not true. We ought to be able to walk and to gum at the same time. We ought to be able to safely open, but you need resources to open. If you are going to open a business, you need social distancing. If you have a restaurant, you need plexiglas dividers so people cannot infect one another. You need to be in a position to take testing rapidly and know if a person is in fact infected. You need to be able to trace and divide resources to do this. That is not inconsistent with saying we will make sure we open safely. All the teachers out there, not many of you will die, so dont worry about it come on. Pres. Trump if you look at what has happened to new york, it is a ghost town. When you talk about plexiglas, these are restaurants that are dying, businesses with no money. Putting up plexiglas is unbelievably expensive, and not the answer. You are going to sit there in a cubicle wrapped in plastic these businesses are dying. You cannot do that to people. Look at new york and what has happened to my wonderful city i loved it it is dying. Everyone is leaving new york. Mr. Biden take a look at what new york has done in turning the curve down in terms of people dying. I do not look at this as blue states and red states, we are the United States. Look at the states having a spike, they are the red states, the states in the midwest, in the upper midwest that is where the spike is occurring significantly. They are all americans, and what we have to do is say wear these masks and get help that businesses need. Money has already been passed to do that, it has been out there since the beginning of the summer, and nothing has happened. Pres. Trump new york has lost 11,000 people. Take a look at what is happening in pennsylvania, where they have had it closed. Look at what is happening with your friend in michigan where her husband is the only one allowed to do anything it is like a prison. It was ruled unconstitutional. Look at north carolina, they have spikes and they have been closed, they are getting killed financially. We cannot let that happen. We have to open up. We have to protect our seniors and elderly, we have to protect our seniors with heart problems and diabetes problems. We have the best testing in the world by far that is why we have so many cases. Ms. Welker let me followup, you called dr. Fauci, the best known Infectious Disease expert, a, a disaster. You described medical experts as idiots. If you are not listening them, who were you listening to . Pres. Trump i listen to all of them, including anthony, but he did say do not wear a mask. He did say this is not going to be a problem. I think he is a democrat, but that is ok. We are not going to have a problem at all. When joe says that i said dr. Fauci said and others i am not knocking them. Nobody knew what this was or where it was coming from. We have learned a lot. Anthony said do not wear a mask, now he says to wear a mask. His exact words, this is no problem, it will go away soon. He is allowed to make mistakes. He is a good person. Mr. Biden my response, think about what the president knew in january and did not tell the American People. He was told this was a serious virus spread in the air, and much worse than the flu. He went on record and said to one of your colleagues, recorded, that he knew how dangerous it was but he did not want to tell us because he did not want us to panic. Americans do not panic. He panicked. In the meantime, we find out in the New York Times that his folks went to wall street and said this is dangerous and a memo out of that meeting, not from his administration, but from brokers said to sell short. Ms. Welker i will give you 30 seconds to respond. Pres. Trump you are the one who takes all the money from wall street. You have raised a lot of money, tremendous amounts of money, and every time you make money, deals are made. I could make so much more money, i could call the heads of wall street, of every company in america, i would blow away every record. That puts me in a bad position. You should not bring up wall street. You take money from wall street. I could blow away your records like you would not believe. We have plenty of money. We beat Hillary Clinton with a tiny fraction of the money. Ms. Welker we are going to move on to the next session, national security. I want to start with the security of elections and breaking news overnight. Intelligence officials confirmed russia and iran are working to influence this election. They have obtained Voter Registration information. Iran sent intimidating messages to florida voters. Mr. Vice president , what would you do put an end to this threat . Mr. Biden i made it clear that any country, no matter who, if they interfere with american elections, they will pay a price. It has been overwhelmingly clear this election that russia has been involved, china has been involved, and now we learn that iran is involved. They will pay a price if i am elected. Interfering with american sovereignty, that is what is going on. American sovereignty. To the best of my knowledge, the president has not said anything to putin a lot. I do not know why he has not said a word to putin about it. My guess is he would be more outspoken with regard to the iranians. The point is this, we are in a situation where we have Foreign Countries trying to interfere in the outcome of our election. His own notional security advisor told him what is happening with his buddy his buddy, Rudy Giuliani he is being used as a russian pawn, fed information that is not true. Then what happens, nothing. Then you find out everything going on about russia is wanting to make sure i do not get elected as the next president of the United States, because they know that i know them, and they know me. I dont understand why this president is unable to take on putin when he is paying bounties to kill american soldiers in afghanistan. I do not know why he does not do it. It is worth asking the question, why isnt that being done . Any country that interferes will pay a price, because they are affecting our sovereignty. Ms. Welker President Trump, same question to you. For two elections in a row there is substantial interference by foreign adversaries. Pres. Trump let me respond to the first part. Joe got 3. 5 million from russia that came through putin because he was friendly with the mayor of moscow, and it was his wife. 3. 5 million, and someday you have to explain why. I never got any money from russia. I never get money from russia. About your thing last night, i knew about that. Through john, who is fantastic, one thing that is common to both of them, they want you to lose, because there is nobody tougher on russia. Nobody tougher than me on russia between the sanctions, between all of what i have done with nato i got nato to put up an extra 130 billion going to 420 billion a year against russia. I sold, while he was selling pillows and sheets, i sold tank busters to ukraine. There has been nobody tougher on russia than donald trump. I will tell you they were so , bad, they took over the submarine port you remember that well, during your term, you and barack obama, they took over a big part of what should have been ukraine. But you were getting a lot of money from russia. Russia was paying you a lot of money, and they probably still are. What came out today is worse, all of the emails, the horrible emails of the money you were we. Joe, you were Vice President with some of this was happening. It should have never happened. I think you owe an explanation to the American People. Someone just had a News Conference who was essentially supposed to work with you and your family. Hat he said was damning i think you have to clean it up and talk to the American People. Maybe you can do it right now . Ms. Welker Vice President biden, you may respond. Mr. Biden i have not taking it taking a penny from any foreign source in my life. We learned this president paid 50 times the tax in china has a ,ecret bank account with china and is talking about me taking money . I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever, ever. Number two, this is a president i have released all of my tax returns. 22 years. Go look at them. You have not released a single, solitary year of your tax return. What you hiding . Why are you unwilling . The Foreign Companies are paying you a lot. China is paying you a lot. Your hotels, all of your businesses, all around the world. China is building a road to a new golf course you have overseas. What is going on here . Release your tax returns or stop talking about corruption. Ms. Welker your response . Mr. Biden i called my accountants under audit. How successful, how great this company is, but much more importantly, people were saying, 750. I asked them a week ago, i said, did i pay . Prepaid tensyou of thousands of dollars. Tens of millions of dollars, i prepaid, because at some point they think it is an estimate. They think i might have to pay tax. I already prepaid it. Ms. Welker did your accountant tell you pres. Trump excuse me. 750 keep talking about dollars, which i think its a filing fee. I prepaid millions and millions of dollars in taxes. Number two, i dont make money from china. You do. I dont make money from ukraine, you do. I dont make money from russia. You made 3. 5 million, joe. They even have a statement that we have to give 10 to the big man. You are the big man, i think. Maybe not, but you are the big man, i think. Joe, what is that all about . Ms. Welker i want to ask you first some questions. Im going to let you both respond. You said you spoke to your accountant. Did he tell you when you could release them . I get treated worse than the Tea Party Gets treated. The irs, they treat me horribly. We made a deal, it was settled until i decide to run for president. I get treated very unfairly. We had a deal done. As soon as we are completed i want to release it, but i have paid millions and millions of dollars. It is worse than pain. I paid in advance, it is called prepaying your taxes. To ask you i want about questions involving your foreign entanglements. To give you a chance to talk about this. Respond quickly and i will get to my question. Mr. Biden he has been saying this for four years. Show us. Just show us. Stop playing around. You have been saying it for four years. What they do know is you are not paying your taxes or you are paying taxes that are so low when last time he said what he paid, he said, i only paid a little because im smart. I know how to game the system. Come on. Come on, folks. Ms. Welker i want to get to two questions to both of you. Host pres. Trump i was put through a phony witchhunt. They spied on my campaign. No president should ever have to go through when i went through. Let me just say this. Democratsd 18 angry and fbi agent all over the place spent 48 million. With do everything i had, including my tax returns, and they found absolutely no collusion and nothing wrong. 48 million. I guarantee you if i spent 1 million on you, joe, i could find plenty wrong. The kind of money your family has taken your brother made money in iraq. You are the brother made a fortune, and it is all through you. They say you get some of it and you do live very well. Ask somer let me questions about this broadly. There has been some questions about the work youre sun has done your son has done in china. Was anything about those relationships unethical . Mr. Biden nothing was unethical. With regard to ukraine, we had this whole question about whether or not he was on the board i later learned of richemont, a company that somehow i had done something wrong. Persony single solitary testifying under oh through work for him said, i did my job impeccably. Carried out u. S. Policy not one solitary thing was out of line. Not a single thing. Who gotwo, the guy trouble 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 happened. My son has not make money, and terms of this thing about what are you talking about china. The only guy who made money from china is the sky. The only one. Nobody else has made money from china. Ms. Welker let me ask my question to you. Pres. Trump one thing . His son did not have a job for a long time, was sadly no longer in the military service. As soon as he became Vice President , burisma not the best reputation in the world, i hear they paid him 183,000 a month. A 3 million him upfront payment. Auntie had no energy. Mr. Biden no basis for that. Nobody said anything he did was wrong in ukraine. President trump, since you took office you have never divested. Report this week that was referenced does indicate your country your company has a bank account in china. How can voters know you dont have any conflicts of interest. I have many bank accounts. I was a businessman doing business. The bank account you are referring to, the bank account was in 2013. That was what it was. It was closed in 2015, i believe. I was thinking about doing a deal in china, like millions of other people i was thinking about it and that set, im not going to do it. I decided not to do it, had an account open, and i closed it. Him, ime, then unlike 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. They are like a vacuum cleaner they are sucking up money. Mr. Biden not true. Ms. Welker i do want to ask you, Vice President biden, about china. Lets talk about china more broadly. President trump has said they should pay for not being fully transparent in regards to the coronavirus. If you were president , would you make china pay . Please be specific. What would that look like . Mr. Biden what i would do is make china play by the international rules. He has caused the deficit with 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 of your intellectual property and have a partner with 51 . We would not do that at all. Number two, we are in a situation where china would have to play by the rules internationally as well. When i met with xi, he said we are setting up air identification zones in the South China Sea and he said you cannot fly through them. And i said we are going to fly through them. We just flew bombers through it. We are not going to pay attention. They have to play by the rules, and what does he do . He embraces guys like the thugs like in north korea and the chinese president and putin and others, and he pokes his finger in the eyeball of our friends, all of our allies. We make up 25 of the worlds economy. We need to be having the rest of our friends with us saying to china, these are the rules. You play by them, or youre going to pay the price for not playing by them, economically. Thats the way i will run it, and thats what we did when we were president and Vice President. Pres. Trump i have to respond to that. After spending 10 minutes in office and being in air force two. Number two, there is a very strong email talking about your family wanting to make 10 million a year for introductions. Trump, on president china policy, what specifically are you going to do to make china pay . Pres. Trump first of all, china is paying. They are paying billions and billions of dollars. I just gave 28 billion i just gave 28 billion to our farmers. Mr. Biden taxpayers money. Pres. Trump its what . Mr. Biden taxpayers money. It did not come from china. Pres. Trump its not the taxpayers. Its called china. You know what they did to pay it . They devalued their currency and also paid up. You know who got the money . Our farmers, our great farmers, because they were targeted. You never charged them anything. Also, i charged them 25 on dumped steel. Because they were killing our steel industry. We were not going to have a steel industry. And now we have a steel industry. Ms. Welker ok, Vice President biden, your response. Mr. Biden my responses theres one. A reason hes bringing up all of this malarkey. Theres a reason for it. He doesnt want to talk about the substantive issues. Its not about his family and my family. Its about your family and your family is hurting badly. If youre making less than if you are a middleclass family, you are getting hurt badly right now. Youre sitting at the Kitchen Table this morning deciding, we cannot get new tires, they are bald, but we have to wait another month or so. Are we going to be able to pay the mortgage . Is our daughter who is going to tell our daughter she cannot go back to Community College . Those are the decisions youre making in the middle class families. Like the one i grew up with. They are in trouble. We should be talking about you, but thats the last thing he wants to talk about. Ms. Welker i do want to turn 10 seconds, mr. President. Pres. Trump typical political statements. Lets get off this china thing, then he looks to family and everything just a typical politician. I am not a typical politician. Thats why i got elected. Lets get off the subject of china. Lets talk about sitting around the table . Come on, joe, you can do better than that. Ms. Welker you met with north Korean Leader kim jongun three times. You talked about your beautiful letters with him. You touted the fact that there has not been a war or longrange missile test and yet, north korea just rolled out its biggest ever Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and continues to develop its nuclear arsenal. Do you see that as a betrayal of your relationship . Cash of the relationship you forged . Just 30 seconds here. We need to get onto the next topic. Pres. Trump i sat with barack obama in the white house, right at the beginning, it was a great relationship. It was supposed to be 15 minutes, and it was well over an he said we would be in a war hour. With north korea, and it would be a nuclear war. He indicated we will be in a war. Guess what . It would be a nuclear war. And he does have plenty of nuclear capability. In the meantime, i have a very Good Relationship with him. Different kind of a guy, but he probably think the same about me. We have a different kind of relationship. We have a very Good Relationship and theres no war. And you know, about two months ago he broke into a certain area, they said theres going to be trouble i said, no theres not, because hes not going to do that. And i was right. Instead of being in a war where millions of people you know there are 32 Million People in seoul millions of people would be dead right now. We dont have a war. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, north korea conducted four Nuclear Tests under the Obama Administration. Why do you think you would be able to rein in this persistent threat . Mr. Biden because i would make it clear to china they have to be part of the deal. I made it clear as a spokesperson of the administration when i went to china. They said why are you moving your Missile Defense so close . Why are you moving more forces here . Why do you continue to do military maneuvers with south korea . I said, because north korea is a problem and we are going to continue to do it so we can control them. We are 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. If not, its going to continue. What has he done . He has legitimized north korea. He talked about his good buddy who is a thug, and talked about how we are better off, and they have much more capable missiles able to reach u. S. Territory much more easily than ever did before. Ms. Welker you said you would not meet with kim jongun without preconditions. Are there any conditions under which you would meet with him . Mr. Biden on the condition he would agree he would be drawing down his nuclear capacity, to get the Korean Peninsula to be a nuclearfree zone. Ms. Welker lets move on to American Families. Very quickly, 10 seconds. Pres. Trump pres. Trump they tried to do it with him. He would not do it. He did not like obama. He would not do it. He tried, you couldnt do it. North korea, we are not in a war. We have a Good Relationship. Having a Good Relationship with leaders of other countries is a good thing. Ms. Welker we have a lot of questions to get to. Mr. Biden we had a great relationship with hitler before he invaded europe. Come on. The reason that he would not meet with president obama is because president obama said we are going to talk about denuclearization. We are not going to legitimize you, but we are going to continue to push stronger and stronger sanctions on you. Thats why he would not meet with us. Pres. Trump and didnt happen. Ms. Welker we need to move on. Pres. Trump excuse me. They left me a mess. North korea was amassed. Was a mess. And in fact, there was a very dangerous period before we worked things out. They left us a mess. And obama would be, i think, the first to say it was the single biggest problem. Ms. Welker lets move onto American Families and our economy. One of the issues most important to them is health care, as we 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 is 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, 20 million americans could lose their Health Insurance almost overnight. What would you do if those people have their Health Insurance taken away . You have two minutes, uninterrupted. Pres. Trump first of all, ive already done something nobody thought was possible. Through the legislature, i terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of obama care as we call it. The individual mandate where you have to pay the fortune of not having to pay for bad Health Insurance. I terminated it. Its gone. Now it is in court because obamacare is no good. Then i made the decision run it as well as you can. My people, great people, run it as well as you can. I could have gone the other route and made everybody very unhappy. They ran it. Premiums are down. Everything is down. Heres the problem no matter how well you run it, it is no good. What we would like to do is terminate it. We have the individual mandate done. I dont know that it is going to work. If we do not win, we will have to run it. You will have obamacare, it will be better run. But it is no longer obamacare because without the individual mandate, its much different. Preexisting conditions will always stay. What i would like to do is a much Better Health care much better will always protect people with preexisting. So i would like to terminate obamacare. Come up with a brandnew , Beautiful Health care. The democrats will do it because there will be tremendous pressure on them and we might even have the house by that time, and i think we are going to win the house. You will see, but i think we are going to win the house. But come up with a Better Health care, always protecting people with preexisting conditions, and one thing very important we have 180 Million People out there that have great private health care. Far more than what we are talking about with obamacare. 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 180 Million People, families. Under what he wants to do, it will basically be socialized medicine you wont even have a choice they want to terminate 180 million plans. We have done an incredible job on health care, and we are going to do even better. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, your health plan calls for building on obamacare. My question is, what is your plan if the law is held is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court . You have two minutes. Ms. Welker what im going to do is pass obamacare with a public option. It becomes bidencare or the public option would be if you in fact do not have the wherewithal in your state to get medicaid, you are automatically enrolled. Providing competition for insurance companies, that is whats going to happen. Secondly, we will make sure we reduce the premiums and reduce drug prices by making sure that theres competition that does not exist now, by allowing medicare to negotiate drug prices with insurance companies. Thirdly, the idea that i want to eliminate private insurance the reason why i had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination was, i support private insurance. That is why not one Single Person in private insurance 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. Lastly, we are going to make sure that we are in a situation that we actually protect preexisting conditions. Theres no way he can protect preexisting conditions. None, zero. You cant do it in the ether. He has been talking about this a long time. He has never come up with a plan. I guess we are going to get the preexisting condition plan the same time we get the infrastructure plan that we waited for since 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. I still have a few more minutes. I know you are getting anxious. [laughter] fact is, he has already cost the American People because his terrible handling of the covid virus and its 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 preexisting conditions, and all the people from covid are going to have preexisting conditions, what are they going to do . Ms. Welker i have a followup for you, Vice President biden, that relates to something President Trump said. He accuses you of wanting to wanting socialize medicine. What do you say to people who are concerned that your plan takes the country one step closer to a Health Care System run by government . Mr. Biden i say its ridiculous. Its like saying the idea that, the fact that there is a public option, that people can choose, that makes it a socialist plan . Look, the difference between the president and i, i think health care is not a privilege, it is a right. Everyone should have the right to have Affordable Health care. I am very proud of my plan. It has gotten endorsed by major labor unions, as well as a range of other people who are in fact concerned in the medical field. This is something that will save peoples lives and this is going to give people an opportunity to have health care for their children. How many people at home are worried, rolling around in bed tonight worried about what is going to happen if you get sick . Because you have lost your Health Insurance your company has gone under . We have to provide an Health Insurance for people at an affordable rate, and thats what i would do. Ms. Welker President Trump. Your response. Pres. Trump he was there for 47 years. He did not do it. He was now there is Vice President for eight years, and its 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 didnt do anything. He wants socialized medicine, and its not that he wants it. His Vice President i mean, she is more liberal than Bernie Sanders and wants it even more. Bernie sanders wants it. The democrats want it. You are going to have socialized medicine. Just like he went on fracking, we are not going to have fracking. We are going to stop fracking. Then he goes to pennsylvania after he gets the nomination he got very lucky to get it he goes to pennsylvania and says, oh, we are going to have fracking. And you never ask that question. By the way, so far, i respect the way you are handling this, but somebody should ask the question. He goes for a year ms. Welker we have a number of topics to get to. We are going to get to this [crosstalk] pres. Trump the same thing with socialized medicine. Mr. Biden i have to respond. Ms. Welker your response, please. Mr. Biden my response is people deserve to have health care, period. Period, period, period. The biden proposal will provide for that Affordable Health care, lower premiums. Its going to cost some money. Its going to cost over 750 billion over 10 years to do it, and they are going to have lower premiums. You can buy into the better lower the cheaper plans, your premiums. Deal with unexpected billing. You can have your drug prices drop significantly. He keeps talking about it. He has not done a thing for anybody on health care. Not a thing. Ms. Welker quickly, then i want to talk about what is happening on capitol hill. Pres. Trump hes talking about socialized medicine and health care. When he talks about the public option, hes talking about destroying your medicare and destroying your Social Security, and this whole country will come down. You know, Bernie Sanders tried it in his state. He tried it for his state. His governor was a very liberal governor. They wanted to make it work ms. Welker ok, lets let Vice President biden respond. Vice president biden, please respond. Mr. Biden he is a very confused guy. He thinks he is running against someone else. He is running against joe biden. I beat all those people because i disagreed with them. Joe biden, he is running against. The idea that we are in a situation that we are going to destroy medicare, this is the guy who if in fact he continues his plan to withhold the tax on Social Security, Social Security will be bankrupt by 2023 with no way to make up for it. This is the guy who has tried to cut medicare. The idea that donald trump is lecturing me on Social Security and medicare . Come on. Pres. Trump 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. Ms. Welker lets move on. I am going to move on. Mr. President , i have to move on to the next question. Or else we are not going to have time to talk about it. Pres. Trump if he is elected, the stock market will crash. Ms. Welker lets move onto to the next question. Very quickly. Mr. Biden look, the idea that the stock arc it is booming it is his only measure. Where i come from in scranton and claremont, people dont live off the stock market. Just in the last three years during this crisis, the billionaires in this country made, according to wall street, 700 billion more dollars because thats his only measure. What happens to the ordinary people out there . What happens to them . Ms. Welker lets talk about what is happening on capitol hill. We are going to move on. Are through 401ks the roof. He does not come from scranton. He lived there for a short period of time before he even knew it ms. Welker let me move on to my next question. Pres. Trump they understand. Ms. Welker 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 americans are going hungry every day. Those hit hardest are women and people of color. They see washington fighting over a relief bill. Mr. President , why have you not been able to get them the help they need . 30 seconds here. Pres. Trump because nancy pelosi does not want to approve it. I do. Ms. Welker but you are president. Pres. Trump i do. But i still have to get approval. Thats one reason why i think we will take over the house because of her. Nancy pelosi does not want to approve anything. She would love to have some victories on a date called november 3. Nancy pelosi does not want to approve it. We are ready, willing, and able to do something. Dont forget, we have already approved three plans. And it has gone through, including the democrats, in all fairness. This one she does not want, its near the election because she thinks it helps her politically. I think it hurts her politically. Ms. Welker mr. Vice president mr. Biden the republican leader in the United States senate said he cant pass it. He will not be able to pass it. He does not have the public and votes. Why is he not talking to his republican friends . Ms. Welker let me followup up with you, mr. Vice president. 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 . Mr. Biden i have, and they have pushed it. They passed this act all the way back at the beginning of the summer. This is like, it is not new. It has been out there. This heroes act has been sitting there. Look at what is happening. When i was in charge of the recovery act, i was able to get 145 billion for local communities that have to balance their budget, for states that have to balance their budget, so they did not have to fire firefighters, teachers, Law Enforcement officers so they can keep their cities and counties running. 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, whats the matter with that guy . Pres. Trump the bill that passed through the house was a bailout of badly run, high crime, democrat all run by democrats cities and states. It was a way of getting a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars to these guys. It was also a way of getting a lot of money from our peoples pockets to people that come into our country illegally. Mr. Biden [sighs] pres. Trump we were going to take care of everything for them. I would love to help them, but what that does, everybody all over the world will start pouring into our country. We cant 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. But it was a big bailout for badly run them a credit cities and states. Mr. Biden im running as a proud democrat. But im going to be an american president. I dont see red states and blue states. What i see is american, United States. Every single state out there finds themselves in trouble, they will starts laying off, if they are red or blue, cops, firefighters, First Responders. They cut teachers because they have to balance their budget, and the founders were smart. They allowed the federal government to deficit spend to compensate for the United States of america. Ms. Welker i want to talk about the minimum wage. Mr. Vice president , we are talking a lot about struggling Small Businesses. Do you think this is the right time to ask them to raise the minimum wage . You, of course, support a federal 15 minimum wage. Mr. Biden i do because one of the things we are going to have to do is bail them out, too. We should be bailing them out, now, those Small Businesses. You have one in six of them went under. They are not going to make it back. They passed a federal package that allows us to be able to call ppp. The money is supposed to help them do everything from organize how they can deal with their business is open safely, schools, how they can make classrooms smaller, how they can hire more teachers, how they can put ventilation systems in. They need the help. Businesses as well as the schools need the help. These guys will not help them. Not giving them any of the money. Ms. Welker we are going to move on to immigration. Pres. Trump Small Businesses, by raising the minimum wage . That is not helping. I think it should be a state option. Alabama is different from new york. New york is different from vermont. Every state is different. It should be a state option. We have to help it is very important we have to help our Small Businesses. How are you helping Small Businesses when you are forcing wages what has been proven to happen is when you do that, the Small Businesses fire many other of their employees. Ms. Welker you said recently that you would you consider raising the federal minimum wage to 15 per hour. Is that still the case . Pres. Trump i would consider it to an extent. In a second administration. But not to a level that is going to put all these businesses out of business. It should be a state option. I know different places, they are all different. Some places, 15 is not so bad. States, places, other 15 would be ruinous. Ms. Welker ok, President Trump. Thank you. Mr. Biden two jobs, one job, below poverty. People are making six dollars, seven dollars an hour. These First Responders, we all clap as they come down the street because they allowed us to make it. What is happening . They deserve a minimum wage of 15. 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. That is simply not true. Ms. Welker we are going to talk about immigration. We are going to talk about immigration now, gentlemen. We are going to talk about families within this context. Mr. President , your administration separated children from their parents at the border, at least 4000 kids. You have since reversed your zerotolerance policy, but the United States cant locate the parents of more than 500 children. So how will these families ever be reunited . Pres. Trump these children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they are brought here, and they used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as weve ever had. We are over 400 miles of brandnew wall. You see the numbers. We let people in, but they have to come in legally. Ms. Welker but how will you reunite these kids with their families . Pres. Trump 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. Ms. Welker do you have a plan to reunite the kids . Pres. Trump yes, we are trying very hard, but a lot of these kids come without the parents. They come over through cartels and coyotes and gangs. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, let me bring you into this conversation. Quick response and then another question to you. Plus kids these 500 came with parents. They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. Real tough, we are really strong . And guess what, it is not coyotes that brought them over, it was their parents. They got separated from their parents. And it makes us a laughingstock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation. Ms. Welker let me ask you a followup question. Pres. Trump they did it. We changed the policy. Mr. Biden we did not. Pres. Trump who built the cages . Who built the cages, joe . Mr. Biden lets talk about what we are talking about. What happened . Parents, their kids were ripped from their arms and separated and now they cannot find over 500 sets of those parents and those kids are alone. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. It is criminal. It is criminal. Ms. Welker let me ask 10 seconds, mr. President. Pres. Trump they went down, we brought reporters, everything, they are so well taken care of. They are in facilities that were so clean. Ms. Welker some of them havent been reunited with their parents. Pres. Trump one question who built the cages . Ms. Welker let me ask about your immigration policy. The Obama Administration did fail to deliver immigration reform, which had been a key promise during the administration. It 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 . Mr. Biden we made a mistake. It took too long to get it right. It took too long to get right. Ill be president of the United States, not Vice President. The fact is, i have made it very clear. Within 100 days im going to send to congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people. Socalled dreamers, those daca and all of those kids, they are going to be immediately certified again 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 are going to a country theyve never seen before. I can imagine, you are five years old, your parents are taking you across the rio grande river, and it is illegal. You say, oh no, mom. Leave me here. Im not going to go with you. Theyve been here. Many of them are model citizens. Over 20,000 of them are First Responders out there, taking care of people during this crisis. We owe them. We owe them. Ms. Welker President Trump. Pres. Trump he had eight years to do what he said he was going to do. And ive 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 they lived with. But he had eight years he was Vice President. He did nothing except build cages to keep children in. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, your response. Mr. Biden catch and release, you know what hes talking about there . If you had a family that came across and they were arrested, they in fact were given a date to show up for their hearing and released. And guess what . They showed up for a hearing. This is the first president in the history of the United States of america that if anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That has never happened before in america. That has never happened before in america. You come to the United States and you make your case. That i seek asylum based on the following premise, why i deserve it, under american law. They are sitting in squalor on the other side of the river. Ms. Welker President Trump, your response . 30 seconds, and then we will move on. Pres. Trump 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. We have to send ice out and Border Patrol out to find them. We would say come back in two years, three years, we are going to give you a court case. You would beep every mason. We are going to give you a court case. When you say they come back, they dont come back. They never come back. Only the really i hate to say this but those with the lowest iq, they might come back. Ms. Welker ok President Trump. Lets give Vice President biden a chance to respond. And then we are going to move on to the next section. Pres. Trump you dont know the law, joe. Mr. Biden what hes telling you is simply not true. Mr. Biden check it out. Pres. Trump they dont come back. They terminated it so we dont have to worry about it. Mr. Biden we have 525 kids not knowing where theyre going to be and lost their parents. Ms. Welker lets talk about our next section, which is race in america. 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 they could be targeted, including by the police, for no reason other than the color of their skin. 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 . Mr. Biden i do. I do. You know, my daughter is a social worker. Shes written a lot about this. She has her graduate degree from the university of pennsylvania. You know, one of the reasons why i ended up working on the east side of wilmington, delaware, which is 90 africanamerican, was to learn more about what was going on. I never had to tell my daughter, if shes pulled over, make sure she puts both hands on top of the wheel and dont reach for the glove box, because someone may shoot you. But a black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are, has to teach their child, when you are walking down the street, dont have a hoodie on, making sure that if you get pulled over, yes sir, no sir, hands on top of the wheel, because you are in fact the victim, whether you are a person making 300,000 a year or someone who is on food stamps. The fact of the matter is, there is institutional racism in saidca, and we have always we have never lived up to it. We hold these truths to be selfevident, all men and women are created equal. Guess what . We have never, ever lived up to it. But weve constantly been moving the needle further and further to inclusion, not exclusion. This is the first president that has come along and said, that is the end of that. We are 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 opportunities to borrow money to start businesses. All the things we can do and i have laid out a clear plan to do those things just to give people a shot. It is about the ability to have wealth as well as to be free from violence. Ms. Welker President Trump, same question to you. Let remind you let me remind you of the question. Do you understand why these parents fear for their children . Pres. Trump yes i do. Again, hes 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 it, super predators, and they have never lived that down. 1994, your crime bill, the super predators. Nobody has done more for the black community than donald trump. And if you look, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, possible exception, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, nobody has done what ive done. Criminal Justice Reform, obama and joe didnt do it. I dont 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 to twist to get that done, it was not a pretty picture, and Everybody Knows it, including some very liberal people that cried in my office. Office,ed in the oval two weeks later they are out saying, gee, we have to defeat him. Criminal Justice Reform, Prison Reform. Opportunity zones with tim scott, a great senator from south carolina, he came in with this incredible idea. It is one of the most successful programs. People dont 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 i love some of those guys, they were great. They came to the office and i said, what are you doing, why do you keep coming back . Because you because we have no funding. I said, you dont have to come back every year we have to come back. Because president obama would never give them longterm funding and i did. 10 year, longterm funding. And i gave them more money than they asked for. Because they said, i think you need more, 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 say to historically black colleges and universities. Ms. Welker we are going to talk about both of your records, but your response to that . Mr. Biden my response to that is i never, ever said what he accused me of saying. The fact of the matter is, in 2000, after the crime bill had been in the law for a while, this is a guy who said the problem with the crime bill is theres not enough people in jail. Theres not enough people in jail. And go on my website. Get the quote, the date when he said it. Not enough people. He talked about marauding gangs. Young gangs, and people who were maraudo the rod our cities. This is the guy the central park , five, five innocent black kids, he pushed for making sure they got the death penalty. None of them were guilty of the crimes that were suggested. Look, and talk about, granted, he did in fact, he commuted 20 people sentences. We commuted over 1000 peoples sentences. The very law hes talking about is a law initiated by barack obama. And secondly, we are in a situation here where the federal prison system is reduced by 38,000 people under our administration. One of the things that we should be doing there should be no minimum mandatory is in the law. Mandatorys in the law. That is why im offering 20 billion to states to change their state laws. To set up drug courts. No one should be going to jail because they have a drug problem. They should be going to rehabilitation, not jail. We should fundamentally change the system and that is what im going to do. Pres. Trump why didnt he do it four years ago . Why didnt you do that years four ago . Even less than that . You were Vice President. You keep talking about all these things you are going to do, but you were there just a short time ago and you guys did nothing. Ms. Welker we did. Mr. Biden we did. Pres. Trump i ran because of you. I ran because of barack obama. If i thought you did a good job, i would have never run. Im looking at you now. You are a politician. I ran because of you. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, your response to that. Then i do have some questions for both of you. Mr. Biden tell you what, i hope he does look at me because what is 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. Im anxious to have this race. Im anxious to see this take place. I am the character of the country is on the ballot. Our character is on the ballot. Look at us closely. Ms. Welker we will have some followup. Pres. Trump russia, ukraine, china, other countries iraq. If this is true, then hes a corrupt politician. So dont give me the stuff about how you are this innocent baby. Joe, they are calling you a corrupt politician. Mr. Biden nobody is calling me that. Ms. Welker i want to stay on the issue of race. President trump, we are talking about race right now and i want to stay on the issue of race. Mr. Biden i have to respond to that. Ms. Welker very quickly. Mr. Biden there are 50 former National Intelligence folks who said that what hes accusing me of is a russian plan. They have said this has all the characteristics five former heads of the cia, both parties, say what hes saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani. Pres. Trump you mean the laptop is now another russia russia russia, russia, russia hoax . This is where hes going. The laptop is russia . Ms. Welker gentlemen, i want to stay on the issue of race. Pres. Trump you have to be kidding. Here we go again with russia. Boy, oh boy. Cant believe that one. Ms. Welker mr. President , we are going to continue on the issue of race. You describe the black lives Matter Movement as a symbol of hate. You shared a video of a man chanting white power. You have said that black professional athletes exercising their First Amendment rights should be fired. What do you say to americans who who say that kind of language from a president is contributing to a climate of hate and racial strife . Pres. Trump 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. Talking about our police. Pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon. I said, that is a horrible thing. And they were marching down the street. And that was my first glimpse of black lives matter. 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. Ms. Welker what do you say to americans concerned by that rhetoric . Pres. Trump i dont know what to say. I got criminal Justice Reform and Prison Reform and opportunity zones. I took care of like colleges and universities. I dont know what to say. They can say anything. I mean, they can say anything. It makes me sad because i am the least racist person. I cant even see the audience because it is so dark, but i dont care who is in the audience. Im the least racist person in this room. Ms. Welker ok. Vice president biden, me ask you very quickly, and then i have a followup question for you. Mr. Biden Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist president s weve had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire. Every single started off his one. Campaign coming down the escalator, saying hes going to get rid of those mexican rapists. Hes banned muslims because they are muslims. He has moved around and made everything worse across the board. He says about the poor boys, last time we were on stage, he said stand down and stand ready. Come on. This guy is a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn. Ms. Welker President Trump, im going to give you 10 seconds to respond. Pres. Trump he made a reference to Abraham Lincoln. Where did that come in . Mr. Biden you said Abraham Lincoln. Pres. Trump i said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what ive done for the black community. I didnt say im Abraham Lincoln. I said not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what ive done for the black community. Now, you have done nothing other than the crime bill, which put tens of thousands of black men, mostly, in jail. Ms. Welker all right. [crosstalk] pres. Trump if you look at what is happening with the voting right now, they remembered that you treated them very, very badly. Just take a look at what is happening out there. Ms. Welker mr. Vice president let me give you a chance to , respond within this context. The crime bills you supported in the 1980s and 1990s contributed to the incarceration of tens of thousands of young black men who had small amounts of drugs in their possession. Theyare as someones are sons, fathers, and brothers who have families that are still to this day suffering the consequences. Speak to those families. Why should they vote for you . Mr. Biden in the 80s, we passed 100 , all senators voted for it, a bill on drugs and how to deal with drugs. It was a mistake. I have been trying to change it since then, particularly the portion on cocaine. That is why ive been arguing that we should not send anyone to jail for a pure drug offense. They should be going into treatment. Across the board, that is what we should be spending money. That is why i set up drug courts , which were never funded by republican friends. They should not be going to jail for a drug or alcohol problem. They should be going into treatment. Treatment. That is what we have been trying to do. That is what im going to get done. The American People have now seen that it was a mistake to pass those laws. But they were not in the crime bill. Pres. Trump but why didnt he get it done . See, it is all talk, no action. Why didnt he get it done . Thats what im going to do when i become president. You were Vice President along with obama as your president , your leader, for eight years. Why didnt you get it done . You had eight years to get it done. Now you are saying you are going to get it done, because you are all talk and no action. Mr. Biden we got a lot of it done. We got 38,000 Prisoners Released from federal prison. Pres. Trump you got nothing done. There were over 1000 people given clemency. We are the ones that put in the legislation saying we can look at pattern and practice of Police Departments and what they were doing, how they were conducting themselves. I could go on. But we began the process. We began the process. We lost an election. That is why im running, to win back that election and change his terrible policies. Ms. Welker your response. Pres. Trump i just asked him, why didnt you do it in the eight years, a short time ago you just said, im going to do that, im going to do this you put tens of thousands of mostly black young men in prison. Now you are going to say you are going to undo that . Why did you not get it done . You had eight years with obama. You know why you are all talk , joe . Because you are all talk and no action. Ms. Welker Vice President biden and then we are going to move on to the next section. Mr. Biden we had a republican congress. That is the answer. Pres. Trump youve got to talk them into it, joe. Sometimes you have to talk them into it. Like i did with criminal Justice Reform. I had to talk democrats into it. Ms. Welker gentlemen, we are running out of time. Have to get onto to Climate Change, please. You both have very different visions on Climate Change. President trump, you say environmental regulations have hurt jobs in the energy sector. Vice president biden, you said you see addressing Climate Change as an opportunity to create new jobs. For each of you, how would you both combat Climate Change and support job growth at the same time. Starting with you, President Trump. You have two minutes. Pres. Trump so we have the clean trees program, we have so many different programs, i do love the environment, but what i want is the cleanest, crystalclear water. The cleanest air. We have the best, lowest number in carbon emissions, which is a big standard that i noticed obama goes with all the time. Not joe. I have not heard joe use the term, because im not sure that he knows what it represents our or means. I have heard obama use it. And we have the best carbon emission numbers that weve had in 35 years under this administration. We are working so well with industry, but here is what we cant do. Look at china, how filthy it is. Look at russia. Look at india. It is filthy. The air is filthy. The paris accord, i took us out because we were going to have to spend trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly. When they put us in there, they did us a great disservice. They were going to take away our businesses. I will not sacrifice tens of millions of jobs, thousands and thousands of companies, because of the paris accord. It was so unfair. China doesnt kick in until 2030. Russia goes back to a low standard. And we kicked in right away. It would have destroyed our businesses. So, are you ready . We have done an incredible job. We have the cleanest air, the cleanest water, and the best carbon emission standards in many, many years. Ms. Welker Vice President biden. Pres. Trump we have not destroyed our industries. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, two minutes to you, uninterrupted. Mr. Biden Climate Change and climate warming, global warming, is an existential threat to humanity. We have a moral obligation to deal with it. And we are told by all the leading scientists in the world, we dont have much time. We are going to pass the point of no return within the next eight to 10 years. Four more years of this man eliminating all the regulations that were put in by us to clean up the climate, the cleanup, to limit emissions, will put us in a position where we are in real trouble. Here is where we have a great opportunity. I was able to get the both environmental organizations, as well as labor, the people worried about jobs, to support my climate plan. Because what it does, it will create millions of new good paying jobs. We are going to invest in, for example, 50,000 charging stations on our highways so we can own the electric car market of the future. In the meantime, china is not doing that. We are going to be in the position where we are going to see to it that we are going to take 4 million existing buildings and 2 million existing homes and retrofit them so they dont leak as much energy. Saving hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in the process , and creating significant number of jobs. And by the way, the whole idea of what this is all going to do, it is going to create millions of jobs and is going to clean the environment. Our health and jobs are at stake. That is what is happening. Right now, by the way, wall street firms indicated that my plan my plan will in fact create 18. 6 million jobs, 7 million more than his. This is from wall street. And ill create one trillion 1 trillion more in Economic Growth than his proposal. Not on climate, just the economy. Ms. Welker President Trump. Pres. Trump they came out and said very strongly, 6,500 will be taken away from families under his plan, that his plan is an economic disaster. If you look at what he wants to do you know, if you look at his plan. You know who developed it . Aoc plus three. They know nothing about the climate. Shes got a good line of stuff , but she knows nothing about the climate. And they are all hopping through hoops for aoc plus three. Look, the real plan costs 100 trillion. If we had the best year in the history of our country for 100 years we would not even come close to a number like that. When he says buildings, they want to take buildings down, because they want to make bigger windows into smaller windows. As far as they are concerned, if you had no window, it would be a lovely thing. This is the craziest plan. And this wasnt done by smart people. This wasnt done by anybody, frankly. I dont even know how it could be good politically. They want to spend 100 trillion. That is their real number. He is trying to say it was six. It is 100 trillion. They want to knock down buildings and build New Buildings with tiny small windows. And many other things. And many other things. Ms. Welker ok. Let me have the Vice President to respond. We are running out of time. We have a lot more questions to get to. I have a number of more questions. Mr. Biden i dont know where he comes up with these numbers. 100 trillion give me a break. This plan was this plan is endorsed by every major Environmental Group and every labor group. Labor, because they know the future lies in us being able to breathe and they know there are good jobs in getting us there. And by the way, the Fastest Growing industry in america is the electric excuse me, solar energy and wind. He thinks wind causes cancer, windmills. It is the Fastest Growing jobs and they pay good prevailing wages. 45, 50 an hour. We can grow and we can be cleaner. If we go the route i proposing. Am ms. Welker President Trump. Pres. Trump excuse me. We are Energy Independent for the first time. We dont need all these countries that we had to fight war over because we needed their energy. We are Energy Independent. I know more about wind than you do. It is extremely expensive, kills all the birds, it is very intermittent, got a lot of problems, and they happen to make the windmills in germany and china. And the fumes coming up if you are a believer in carbon emission the fumes coming up to make these massive windmills is more than anything that we are talking about with natural gas, which is very clean. One other thing. Mr. Biden find me a scientist who says that. Pres. Trump i love solar but solar doesnt have it yet. It is not powerful yet to really run our big, beautiful factories that we need to compete with the world. Mr. Biden false. Pres. Trump it is all a pipe dream, but you know what we will do . We are going to have the greatest economy in the world, but if you want to kill the economy, get rid of your oil industry. And what about fracking . Ms. Welker let me allow the Vice President biden to respond. Mr. Biden i never said i oppose fracking. Pres. Trump you said it on tape. Mr. Biden show the tape. Put it on your website. Pres. Trump i will put it on. Mr. Biden put it on the website. The fact of the matter is, hes flat lying. Ms. Welker would you rule out banning fracking . Mr. Biden i do rule out banning fracking. The answer is that we need other industries to transition to get to him what i will do with fracking over time is make sure we can capture the emissions from fracking, capture the emissions from gas. We can do that by investing money, and doing it, but it is a transition to that. Ms. Welker i have one more question. Pres. Trump excuse me he was against fracking. He said it. I will show it to you tomorrow. I am against fracking. Until he got the nomination, went to pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, he will be against it very soon. His party is totally against it. Mr. Biden fracking on federal land, i said. No fracking with oil on federal land. Ms. Welker let me ask this final question in this section. President trump, people of color are much more likely to live near Oil Refineries and chemical plants. In texas, there are families who worry the plants near them are making them sick. Your administration has rolled back regulations on these facilities. Why should these families give you another four years in office . Pres. Trump the families we are talking about are employed heavily and are making more money than they have ever made. If you look at the numbers we produced for hispanic or black or asian, it is nine times greater the percentage gained in three years than it was under eight years of the two of them, to put it nicely. Nine times more. Now, somebody lives, i have not heard the numbers or the statistics you are saying, but they are making a tremendous amount of money economically. I saved it again a number of months ago when oil was crashing because of the pandemic. We saved it. Say what you want about the relationship, we got saudi arabia, mexico and russia to cut way back. We saved our oil industry and now it is very vibrant. Ms. Welker all right. Pres. Trump everyone has very inexpensive gasoline. Remember that. Ms. Welker mr. Vice president , your response . Mr. Biden my response is those people live on what we call fence lines. He doesnt understand this. They live near chemical plants and refineries that pollute. I used to live near that when i was growing up in claymont, delaware. There are more Oil Refineries in the Delaware River than any place, including houston of the time. With the first frost and my mom driving me to school, we would turn on the windshield wipers and there would be oil slick on the window. That is why so many people in my state were dying of cancer. It doesnt matter what you are paying them, it matters how you keep them safe. You impose restrictions on the pollutants coming out of the fence line. Ms. Welker i have one final question. Pres. Trump would you close down mr. Biden i would transition from the oil industry, yes. That is a big statement. Ms. Welker why would you do that . Mr. Biden because the oil industry pollutes significantly. If you let me finish the statement, because it has to be replaced by Renewable Energy over time. Over time. I stopped giving the oil industry federal subsidies. He wont give federal subsidies to solar and wind. Why are we giving it to the oil industry . Pres. Trump we actually do give solar and wind. In terms of business, basically what he is saying is he is going to destroy the oil industry. Will you remember that, texas . Will you remember that, pennsylvania, oklahoma . Ms. Welker Vice President biden, respond and i will get to the final question. Mr. Biden he takes everything out of context. We have to move toward net zero emissions. By 2050 totally. The first place to do that is energy production. Ms. Welker we are finished with this. We have to move on to our final question. Mr. Biden i will rejoin the paris accord and make china abide by what they agreed to. Ms. Welker this first question does go to you, President Trump. Imagine this is your inauguration day. What will you say in your address to americans who did not vote for you . You will each have one minute. Pres. Trump we have to make our country totally successful as it was prior to the plague coming in from china. Now we are doing record numbers. 11. 4 million jobs in a short time, etc. Before the plague came in, i was getting calls from people that would not normally call me. They wanted to get together. We had the best black unemployment numbers in the history of our country, hispanic, women, asian, people with diplomas, with no diplomas, everyone had the best numbers. The other side wanted to unify. Success is going to bring us together. We are on the road to success, but i am cutting taxes and he wants to raise everybodys taxes and put new regulations on everything. If he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you have never seen. Your 401 k s will go to hell and it will be a sad day for this country. Ms. Welker Vice President biden, same question. What will you say in your inaugural address to americans who did not vote for you . Mr. Biden i will say i am an american president. I represent all of you whether you vote for me or against me. I will make sure you are represented. I will give you hope. We will choose science over fiction, hope over fear. We will choose to move forward because we have enormous opportunities. In normas opportunities to make things better. We can grow this economy. We can deal systemic racism we can deal with systemic racism. At the same time we can make sure our economy is being motivated by clean energy, creating millions of new jobs. That is what we are going to do. As i said at the beginning, what is on the ballot is the character of this country. Decency, honor, respect, treating people with dignity, making sure everyone has an even chance. Im going to make sure that youre going to get that. You have not been getting that the last four years. Ms. Welker i want to thank you for a robust hour and a half. Really appreciate it. President trump, former vice President Joe Biden. Thank you to Belmont University for hosting us and thank you to those watching tonight. Election day is november 3. Dont forget to vote. Thank you, everyone, and have a great night. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [camera shutters clicking] with 10 days left until election day, on november 3, when Voters Decide who will control congress and occupy the white house next year, stay with cspan. 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