There will be one in between facing the Vice President candidates at the university of utah in salt lake city. Real quickly joined by charles payne, lou dobbs. Lou, what do you think the president has to do tonight . Lou first and foremost, be himself. And to use his original mind, as im sure he will, and his sense of humor. Those are two advantages he has that he exploited in 2016 to his great and winning effect. I expect him to do precisely the same thing tonight. Neil you know, charles payne, debates were going up over these in the years dating back to 1976 with jimmy carter and gerald ford, you have to present yourself especially joe biden, youre as well known. Not quite as well known, obviously, as the president of the United States, but you have to reintroduce yourself. Both men, essentially, reintroducing themself. Likability come up as some intangible, george bush had that against al gore, ronald reagan, certainly, in that one and only debate with jimmy carter. Your thoughts on that intangible quality. Charles you know, thats ooh thats a great point, neil. Bidens been around for a long time, in d. C. For 47 years, but he is reinventing himself. And a lot of what hes going to do and say tonight will go against the older joe biden, and we have to believe that this is the new biden that will be the president of the United States if he wins, and these are the new policies and the new things that he believes in. So hes been lurching to the left trying to also convince the middle and other voters that hes not lurching too far. Hes really got to, you know, hes got to hes on the stage with President Trump, but hes also walking a very tight rope with respect to his own party and the far left which has all the energy and all the momentum. And then the broader voting electorate that does not want some of the more egregious, you know, wild ideas. So hes got a tight rope to walk. Neil all right. Gentlemen, i want to thank you very much. Just to give you a sense, 30 seconds away from crust wallace taking the Chris Wallace taking the stage. They will not a have a role for fact checker, the candidates will try to clarify themselves. The Debate Commission here was very strict on that rule. That is not Chris Wallaces job. It is distinctly possible, though, that the candidates will try to force that on chris. Good luck on that. Now, the start of the president ial debate. [background sounds] chris good evening from the Health Education campus of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. Im Chris Wallace of fox news, and i welcome you to the first of the 2020 president ial debates between president donald j. Trump and former Vice President joe biden. This debate is sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. The commission has designed the format, six roughly 15minute segments with 2minute answers from each candidate to the first question, then open discussion for the rest of each segment. Both campaigns have agreed to these rules. For the record, i decided the topics and the questions in each topic. I can assure you none of the questions has been shared with the commission or the two candidates. This debate is being conducted under health and safety protocols designed by the Cleveland Clinic which is serving as the Health Security adviser to the commission for all four debates. As a precaution, both campaigns have agreed the candidates will not shake hands at the beginning of tonights debate. The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent, no cheers, no boos or other interruptions so we and, more importantly, you can focus on what the candidates have to say. No noise except right now as we welcome the republican nominee, President Trump, and the democratic nominee, Vice President biden. [applause] how you doing, man . Im well. [applause] chris gentlemen, a lot of people have been waiting for this night, so lets get going. Our first subject is the Supreme Court. President trump, you nominated Amy Coney Barrett over the weekend to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court. You say the constitution is clear about your obligation and the senates to consider a nominee to the court. Vice President Biden, you say that this is an effort by the president and republicans to jam through an appointment and what you call an abuse of power. My first question to both of you tonight, why are you right and make the argument you make and your opponent wrong, and where do you think a Justice Barrett would take the court . President trump, in this first segment, you go first. Two minutes. President trump thank you very much, chris. I will tell you very simply, we won the election. Elections have consequences. We have the senate, we have the white house, and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all, top, top academic, good in every way. Good in every way with. In fact, some of her biggest endorsers are very liberal people from notre dame and other places. So i think shes going to be fantastic. We have plenty of time. Even if we did it after after the election itself. I have a lot of time after the election, as you know. So i think that she will be outstanding. Shes going to be as good as anybody the that has served on that court. We really feel that. We have a professor at notre dame, highly respected by all, says shes the single greatest student hes ever had. Hes been a professor for a long time at a great school, and we just we won the election and, therefore, we have the right to choose her, and very few people knowingly would say otherwise. By the way, the democrats, they wouldnt wouldnt even think about not doing it. The only difference is theyd try and do it faster. Theres no way they would give it up. They had merrick garland, but the problem is they didnt have the election, so they were stopped. And probably that would happen in reverse also, definitely would happen in reverse. Is so we won the election, and we have the right to do it, chris. Chris President Trump, thank you. Same question to you, Vice President biden. You have two minutes. Vice President Biden first of all, thank you for doing this, and looking forward to doing this, mr. President. I the American People have a right to have a say in who the Supreme Court nominee is, and that say occurs when they vote for a United States senator and when they vote for the president of the United States. Theyre not going to get that chance now because were in the middle of an election already. The election has already started. Tens of thousands of people have already voted. What should happen is we should wait. We should wait and see what the outcome of this election is, because thats the only way the American People get to express their view, is by who they elect as president and who they elect as Vice President. Now, whats at stalk here, the president s made it clear he wants to get are rid of the Affordable Care act. Hes been running on that, he ran on that, and he has been governing on that. Hes in the Supreme Court right now trying to get rid of the Affordable Care act which will strip 20 Million People from having insurance, Health Insurance now if it goes in the court. And the justice and i have nothing, im not opposed to the justice. She she seems like a very fine person. But shes written, before she went on the bench which is her right, that she thinks the Affordable Care act is not constitutional. The other thing and if its struck down, what happens . Womens rights are fundamentally changed. Once again, a woman could be held, pay more money because she has a preexisting condition of pregnancy. Theyre able to charge a woman more for the same exact procedure a man did gets. And that ended when we, in fact, passed the a Affordable Care act. And theres 100 Million People that have preexisting conditions. And theyll be taken away as well. Those preexisting conditions, Insurance Companies are going to love this. And so its just not appropriate to do this before this election. If he wins the election and the senate is democrat or republican, then he goes forward. If not, we should wait until february. President trump there arent 100 Million People with preexisting conditions. As far as the say is concerned, the people have already had their say. They okay. Justice ginsburg said very powerfully, very strong ily, at some point ten years ago or so, she said a president and the senate is collected for a period of time. But a president s elected for four years. Were not elected for three years. Im not elected for three years. So we have the senate, we have a president during that period of time we have an opening. Im not elected for three years, im elected for four years elections already started joe, 100 Million People is totally wrong. I dont know where you got that number. The bigger problem you have is youre going to extinguish 180 Million People with their private. Thats simply not true [inaudible conversations] chris were now into gentlemen, were now into open discussion. Open discussion. Chris go ahead, Vice President. Vice President Biden number one, he knows what ive proposed. What ive proposed is we ec expd obamacare and we increase it. And one of the big debates we had with 23 of i my colleagues trying to win the nomination that i won were saying that biden wanted to allow people to have private insurance still. They can, they do, they will under my proposal. Not what youve said, and its not what your party has said the party doesnt [inaudible conversations] your party wants to go socialist medicine. The party right now i am nominate you, joe, you know that. I am the Democratic Party right now. Not according to harris. Its what i, in fact, approved of, what i approved of. Now heres the deal, the deal is that its going to wipe out preexisting and, be by the way, the 20 the 200 million the 200,000 people that have died under his watch, how many of those have survived . Well, theres 7 Million People that contracted covid. What does it mean for them Going Forward if you strike down the awe Affordable Care act . Joe, youve had 308,000 military people dying because you couldnt provide them Proper Health care in the military, so dont tell me im happy to talk about heres the deal if you were here, it would be 2 Million People [laughter] because you were very late on the draw. Late on the draw china, which was heavily infected chris all right, gentlemen, were going to [inaudible conversations] chris mr. President , mr. President youre talking about 2 Million People. Chris moderator. We are going to talk about covid senate next segment, but go ahead. Met me finish. The point is the president also is opposed to roe v. Wade. And thats on the ballot as well in the court. In the court. Thats also at stake right now. And so the election you dont know its on the ballot. Why is it on the ballot . Because why is it its not on the ballot. Its on the ballot in the court. I dont think so. Theres nothing happening there. Donald you dont know her view on roe v. Wade. You dont know her view. Chris well, all right. Lets talk weve got a lot to unpack if here, gentlemen, weve got a lot of time. [laughter] so on health care, and then e well come back to roe v. Wade. All right. Chris mr. President , the Supreme Court will hear a case a week after the election in which the Trump Administration along with 18 state attorneys general are seeking to overturn thats right. Chris obamacare. To end obamacare. Because we want to chris if i may ask my question, sir. Over the last four years, you have promised to repeal and replace obamacare, but you have never in these four years come up with a plan, a comprehensive yes, i have. Chris to replace obamacare. Of course i have. Chris well, im going to excuse me, i got rid of the chris that is not a comprehensive that is absolutely a chris i did not hey, let me ask my question well, ill ask joe. Did you think the mandate was the most unpopular aspect of obamacare . I got rid of it chris mr. President , im the moderator of this debate, and i would like to let you ask my question, and then you can answer. Go ahead. Chris you, in the course of these four years have never come up with a comprehensive plan to replace obamacare and, just as last thursday, you signed a largely symbolic executive order to protect people with preexisting conditions five days before this debate. So my question, sir, is what is the Trump Health Care plan . All right. Well, first of all, i guess im debating you, not him, but thats okay, im not surprised. [laughter] let me just tell you something, theres nothing symbolic. Im cutting drug prices. Im going with favored nations which no president has the courage to do because youre going against big pharma. Drug prices will be coming down 8090 . You could have done it in your 47year period in government, but you didnt do it. [laughter] so were Cutting Health care what about i give you an example. Insulin, its going to it was destroying families, destroying people because im getting it for so cheap. Its like water, you want to know the truth, so cheap. Take a look at all of the drugs that what were doing, Prescription Drug prices. Were going to allow our governors now to go to other countries to buy drugs because they paw just a chris this is not open discussion. Let me sir, youll be happy im about to pick up on one of your points to ask the Vice President which is, as he points out that you would like to add a public option to obamacare yes. Chris and the argument that he makes and other republicans make is that that is going to end private insurance it is not. Chris im asking the question. Im sorry. [inaudible] by the way. Chris it will end private insurance and create a government takeover of health care. It does not. Its only for those people who are so poor they qualify for medicaid. They can get that free in most states except governors who want to deny people who are poor medicaid. Anyone who qualifies for medicare excuse me, medicaid would automatically be enrolled in the public option. The vast majority of the American People would still not be in that option. Number one. Joe, so you agree with Bernie Sanders and the far left can you socialized medicine. Look. The fact of the matter is i beat Bernie Sanders not by much. I beat him by a whole hell hell of a lot finish. Pocahontas would have left two days earlier [inaudible conversations] you got very lucky. Look, heres the deal. Im going to get very lucky tonight as well, and tonight im going to make sure because heres the deal, heres the deal, the fact is that everything hes saying so far is simply a lie. Im not here to call out his lies. Everybody knows hes a liar but you agree no, youre the liar. You were last in your class, not fist in your class. [laughter] i want to chris mr. President , can you let him finish, sirsome. He doesnt know how to do that. Youd be surprised. You picked the wrong guy, the wrong night, the wrong time. Listen, you agreed with Bernie Sanders there is no manifesto, number one. Chris please let him speak, or mr. President. You just lost the left. You just lost the left. You agreed with Bernie Sanders folks, do you have any idea what this clowns doing . Socialized medicine. Chris mr. President i tell you what, he is not for any help for people needing health care because he, in fact, already has cost 10 Million People their health care that they had from their employers because of his recession. Number one. Number two, there are 20 Million PeopleGetting Health Care through obamacare now that he wants to take it away. He wont look you in the eye and say thats what he wants to do no, i want to give them Better Health care at a much lower price because obamacare he doesnt know how he has never offered a plan. Obamacare, as you chris gentlemen, do you realize youre both speak at the same time . Let the president go ahead, sir. Obamacare is no good. We made it better. And i had a choice to make very early on. We took what e the individual mandate, with we guaranteed preexisting conditions but took away the not t