In bell month university in nashville, tennessee. Just this week the Debate Commission made a change in the debate rules. One candidates microphone will now be muted while his opponent delivers an initial two minute long answer at the start of each of six topic segments. The topics tonight chosen by the moderator are fighting covid19. American families. Race in america. Climate change. National security. And leadership. The final debate has in the past focused on foreign policy, and the Trump Campaign complained about the changes made as a result of the cancelation of the second debate which the commission decided would have to be done virtually. This debate on the latest kal ender date in recent his it tree comes as the Coronavirus Infection rate is again rising across the United States. And after the president himself contracted the virus three weeks ago. This matchup comes as early voting continues and at an historic pace in all 50 states with more than 47 million americans having a
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 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 so the American People can 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 dange
Candidates will face off for the final time. You are looking at live pictures from the debate hall at can the bell in nashville, tennessee. Were seeing records broken already. Nearly 50 million americans have voted, and thats more ballots cast before election day in 2016. A rot of people. This is presidenPresident Trumpt opportunity to go face to face with a former Vice President. As you remember, their second debate was canceled when mr. Trump balked at a virtual format after he tested positive for covid19. Now, each candidate held an individual town hall one week ago. Both were tame affairs, compared to that first meeting, which you can describe as an overthetop slugfest, marred by insults and interruptions that left many wishing the organizers could simply just cut the microphones. So tonight, while one candidate is answering a direct question for two minutes, the other candidates microphone will be muted. The moderator, nbcs Kristen Welker, has chosen six topics fighting covid19, A
Situation for a while here that , and greg, thanks for the introduction, i do appreciate it. One of the things about the iron workers is that i think youre all crazy. [laughter] you know what i mean . I remember iron workers endorsed me early on when i first ran for the senate as a kid. A guy name tommy shrank, and i used to walk in the union all the time and say anybody whos crazy enough to walk up 16 stories on beam and shoot a rivet has to be nuts. But thank god you are. Where i grew up, you either joined a trade, you became a cop, you became a firefighter or a priest. I wasnt competent at being any one of them, so look what happened to me. [laughter] folks look, conner thank you for being here and thank you for all youve done. Ladies and gentlemen, you know, this is about more than just an election this time out. Theres an awful lot at stake, and, of course, youre going to send conner back. Thats all right, im used to babies. Babies are allowed to cry, and anybodys allowed to cry i