Joe biden. After months of lobbing longdance attacks, aides for both candidates say tonight the gloves and the masks will come off. The two men arrived at the debate hall at Case Western Reserve University in cleveland a short time ago. They were not expected to shake hands because of the coronavirus pandemic. Lets not forget as we come on the air tonight, this virus has killed more than 205,000 americans. This pandemic has led the u. S. Into its worst economic cracks since the great depression. More than 26 million americans are claiming unemployment benefits. And two late developments have thrown a lit match into an alreadyvolatile race. The republicans effort to quickly replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg with conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett and the latest revelations about President Trumps taxes. So the stage is set for this first showdown. There will be no opening statements. Chris wallace of fox news will be asking the questions. He was chosen by the president ial debate commission. And hes identified six main topics the trump and biden records, the Supreme Court, covid19, the economy, race and violence in cities, and the integrity of the election. Odonnell it is going to be quite a night ahead. Lets bring in cbs ben tracy at the white house. Ben, what are you hearing from the Trump Campaign . Reporter norah, were hearing that President Trump is ready to joust, and he feels joe bidens family and his cognitive abilities are fair game in this debate. Now, the president is expecting the first question out of the gate will be about his taxes, these revelations that he basically did not fay any federal income tax for years. Were also told by the campaign theyre trying to play down the president s preparation for this debate, that he actually has been practicing and they say hes ready for any question that may come his way. Odonnell ben tracy. Lets turn now to cbs ed okeefe. He is in the debate hall, where the anticipation is building. Ed. Reporter norah, good evening. Once they get rocking and rolling in cleveland, they expect to focus on two key things, the president s taxes and his handling of the coronavirus. His aides believe it is he stayed focused on those two issues he will maind his legal. He suggested earlier this month he wanted to be a fact checker help piz aides say hell speak directly to the American People. Here in the room, we counted 107 guests. Thats down from the 900 who observed these debates in person. Norah. Odonnell ed okeefe, thank you. And, john, does trump know that he has to change the trajectory of this race as it stands now . Reporter absolutely, you can hear ben tracy say it. He will be going all over the place because he wants to shake things up. Thats always been his way. Odonnell the debate is about to begin. Here now, the moderator, Chris Wallace. 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 twominute 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 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 . Gentlemen, a lot of people have been waiting for this night, so lets get going. Our first subject is the supreme amconerr ep, youated 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 in 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. 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 nomin nominee, respected by all, top, top academic, good in every way, good in every way. 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 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 that has served on that court. We really feel that. We have a professor at notre dame, highly respected by all, said 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. And, by the way, the democrats, they wouldnt even think about not doing it. The only difference is theyd try to 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. So we won the election, and we have the right to do it, chris. President trump, thank you. Same question to you, Vice President biden. You have two minute. Well, first of all, thank you for doing this, and looking forward to this, mr. President. Thank you, joe. 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 senators 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 std. Thousas of people have already voted. And so the thing that 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 stake here is the president s made it clear he wants to get 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 they if it goes into court. And the justice and i have nothing im not opposed to the justice. She seems like a very fine person. But shes written, before she went on the bench, which is her right, that he thinks the Affordable Care act is not constitutional. 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, a pregnancy. Were able to theyre able to charge a woman more for the same exact procedure a man gets. And that ended when we, in fact, passed the Affordable Care act. And there are 100 Million People who have preexisting conditions, and theyll be taken away as well. Those preexisting conditions, Insurance Companies are going to love this. 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. There arent 100 Million People with preexisting conditions. As far as a say is concerned, the people already had their say. They okay. Justice ginsburg said very powerfully, very strongly, at some point, 10 years ago, or so, she said a president and the senate is elected 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 hes elected to the next during that period of time, during that period of time, we have an opening. Im not elected for three years. Im elected for four years. The election has already started. Joe, the 100 Million People is totally wrong. I dont know where you got that number. The bigger problem you have is that youre going to extinguish 180 Million People with their private health care, that theyre happy with. Thats certainly not true. Youre going to sockist were not gentlemen, were now into open discussion. Open discussion. Open discussion, yes, i agree. Go ahead, Vice President. Number one, he knows what i proposed. What i proposed is that we expand obamacare and we increase it. We do not wipe any and one of the big debates we had with 23 of 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. Thats not what you said and thats not what your party has said. That is simply a lie. Your party said they want to go socialist medicine. My party is me. Right now i am the Democratic Party. I am the Democratic Party right now. The platform in the Democratic Party not according to harris. Is what i in fact approved of, what i approved of. Now, heres the deal, the deal is that its going to wipe out preexisting conditions by the way, the 200,000 people that have died on his watch, how many of those have survived . There are seven Million People that contracted covid. What does it mean for them Going Forward if you strike down the Affordable Care act . Joe, you have 308,000 military people dying because you couldnt provide them Proper Health care in the military. So dont tell me about this. Im happy to talk about this if you were here it wouldnt be 200. It would be two Million People because you were very late on the draw pup didnt want me to ban china, which was heavily infected. You didnt want me to ban all right, gentlemen, mr. President you would have been much later, joe, much later. Mr. President , mr. President. Youre not going to be able to shut him up. As moderator, we are going to talk about covid in the next segment, but go ahead. Let me finish, the point is, the president also is opposed to roe v. Wade. Thats on the ballot as well, and the court, in the court. And so thats also at stake right now. And so the election is all you dont know whats on the ballot. Why is it on the ballot . Because you said why is it on the ballot. Its not on the ballot. In the court. I dont think so. Theres nothing happening there. Donald, would you just be quiet for a minute. You dont know her view on roe v. Wade. All right, lets talk weve got a lot to unpack here, gentlemen. We have a lot of time. So. On health care, and then well come back to roe v. Wade. All right. 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. Obamacare, to end obamacare. You have spent the last because they want to give good health care. If i may ask my question, sir. Good health care. 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 plan yes, i have. To replace obamacare. Of course i have. Well, when iinish, im ing to give you an opportunity excuse me, i got rid of the individual mandate which was a big chunk that was absolutely a big thing. I didnt ask sir, let me ask my question. Well, ill ask joe. No, i the individual mandate was the most unpopular mr. President , mr. President. I would like you to im the moderator of this debate, and i would like you to let me ask my question, and then you can answer. Go ahead. In the course of these four years, you have never come up with a comprehensive plan to replace obamacare, and just this 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 . You know, all right, well, first of all, i guess im debating you, not him. But thats okay. Im not surprised. 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 farma. Drug prices will be coming down 80 or 90 . You could have done it during your 47year period in government but you didnt do it. Nobody has done it. Were Cutting Health care. He has not cut health care. Ill give you an example, insulin. 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 pay this is open discussion. Let me ask you about youll be happy, sir, im about to pick up on one of your points to ask the Vice President , which is he points out that you would like to add a public option to obamacare. Yes. And the argument that he makes, and other republicans make, is that, that is going to end private insurance it is not. If i can ask you the question. It will thats not what your party says, by the way. It will end private insurance and create a government takeover of health care. It does not. It is 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, you agreed. Rsars, who manifesto we call it, socialized medicine. Look, im not going to listen to him. The fact of the matter si beat Bernie Sanders. Not by much. I beat him by a whole hell of a lot. Pok poke hauntus would have t early. On super tuesday. You got lucky. I got very lucky, im going to get very lucky tonight as well. With what . You know, 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. I just want to make sure joe, youre the liar. I want to make sure you graduated last in your class, not first in your class. I want to make sure mr. President , can you let him finish, sir. He doesnt know how to do that. Youd be surprised. Youd be surprised, go ahead, joe. The wrong guy at the wrong time. You agreed with Bernie Sanders let him. There is no manifesto, number one. Let him speak. He just lost theost. You agreed with Bernie Sanders on a plan folks, folk, do you have any idea what this clown is doing . You know, mr. Mr. President socialized medicine. Mr. President ill tell you what, he is not for any help for people needing health care. Because his who, bernie . You know, 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 ever look you in the eye and say thats what he wants to do take it away. No, i want to give them Better Health care at a much l