Nbc news because of the rockets nature of the first debate between these 2 candidates, the microphones will be muted at certain times during the debate there are 6 topics for discussion tonight. Fighting covid19 American Families race in america Climate ChangeNational Security and leadership also because of concerns over the coronavirus and because President Trump had a recent diagnosis for the illness there were plans for plexiglass partitions between the game than this however weve got minutes ago that were that those plans were dropped there will not be plexiglass however both candidates did have to test negative for the virus and today they did also because of covid only about 200 people will be allowed inside that auditorium there were. The debate is being held at Belmont University in nashville representative with the commission on president ial debates. Well use the mute button backstage to ensure that each candidate has 2 minutes on interrupted to deliver opening answers to the 6 major topics the Trump Campaign has complains that the policy was that Foreign Policy was not included as a debate topic tonight we also want you to know the kron 4 will have complete debate wrapup and analysis tonight with Catherine Heenan thats going to begin at 7. 30 see of course is the host of inside bay area politics and we will have continuing coverage all evening on our evening. Newscasts so we are expecting the debate to begin momentarily. We are waiting for the arrival of President Trump and former Vice President joe biden take their positions at the podiums it will be interesting pam to see if they come in wearing mask, we expect biden will come in wearing a mask, dont know if the president well do the same especially since hes effectively still recuperating from positive diagnosis with this is happening at a very crucial time for both of both of these candidates, the election is less than 2 weeks away in fact just 12 days to go and it really is high stakes for both sides tonight. All bay area counties by the way are reporting record Voter Registration were seeing that happen across the country millions of people have already voted so for them. This debate probably is meaningless theyve made up their minds safe cast their ballots and that is in but there are still a number of people out there who have not voted and it will be interesting to see how for many of them those few that have not made up their minds might be swayed one way or the other they are expecting millions of people to watch tonight even though mines have been largely made up across the nation of this debate is occurring as the fbi indicated just yesterday. All ball and now heres the moderator, lets look good evening from Belmont University in nashville, tennessee. Im Kristen Welker of nbc news and i welcome you to the final 2020 president ial debate between president Donald J Trump and former Vice President joe biden tonights debate is sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. It is conducted under health and safety protocols designed by the commissions Health Security adviser, the audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent. No cheers foods or other interruptions except right now as we welcome to the stage former Vice President joe biden and president Donald J Trump. And i do want to say a very good evening to both of you this debate will cover 6 major topics at the beginning of each section each candidate will have 2 minutes uninterrupted to answer my first question the Debate Commission will then turn on their microphone only when it is their turn to answer and the commission will turn it off exactly when the 2 minutes of expire after that both microphones will remain on. But on behalf of the voters im going to ask you to please speak one at a time. The goal is for you to hear each other and for the American People to hear every word of what you both have to say and so with that if youre ready. Lets start. We will begin with the fight against the coronavirus President Trump, the first question is for you. The country is heading into a dangerous new phase more than 40,000 americans are in the hospital tonight with covid including record numbers here in tennessee and since the 2 of you last shared a stage 16,000 americans have died from covid so please be specific how would you leave the country during this next stage of the Coronavirus Crisis 2 minutes uninterrupted so as you know 2. 2 Million People. Modeled out were expected today. We closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from china. Its a worldwide pandemic so all over the world you see the spikes in europe and many other places right now. If you notice the mortality rate is down 85 . The excess mortality rate is way down and much lower than almost any of the country and were fighting it were finding it hard there is a spike there was a spike in florida and its no gun. There was a very big spike in texas. Its now gone. There was a very big spike in arizona. Its now gun. And there is some spikes in searches and other places they will soon be gun. We have a vaccine. Thats coming its ready. Its going to be announced within weeks and its going to be delivered we have operation warp speed which is the military is going to distribute the vaccine. I can tell you from personal experience i was in the hospital i had it. And i got better and i will tell you had something that they gave me a therapeutic i guess they would call it some people who say was a cure. I was in for a short period of time and i got better very fast or we wouldnt be here tonight. And now they say im immune whether its 4 months or a lifetime, nobodys been able to say that but im in more and more people are Getting Better we a problem thats a worldwide problem, this is a worldwide problem, but ive been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what weve been able to do with the if you if you take a look at what weve done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and Everything Else and in particular ventilators all over the world thousands and thousands a month, distributing them all over the world. It will go away and as i say were rounding the turn were rounding the corner its going away, okay, former Vice President biden to you how would you leave the country out of this crisis. You have 2 minutes uninterrupted. 220,000 americans dead. Here nothing else. I say tonight. To this. Anyone who is responsible for not taking control. In fact not saying im i take no responsibility initially. Anyone whos response for that many deaths should not remain as president United States of america. Were in a situation where there are 1000 deaths a day now 1000 s today and there are over 70,000 new cases per day. Compared to whats going on in europe as the new england medical journal said theyre starting from a very low rate. Were starting from a very high rate. The expectation is well have another 200,000 americans dead. The time between now and the end of the year. For just wore these masks the president s own advisers told him you can save a 100 1000 lives. And were in a circumstance for the president thus far it still has no plan. No comprehensive plan what i would do is make sure we have everyone encouraged to wear a mask all the time i would make sure we move in the direction of Rapid Testing invested Rapid Testing i would make sure that we set up National Standards as to how to open up schools and open up businesses so they can be safe and give them the where with all the Financial Resources to be able to do that were in a situation now where the new england medical journal one of the serious most serious journals and the and the whole world said for the First Time Ever that this the way this president has respond to this crisis has been absolutely tragic and so folks. I will take care of this i will end this i will make sure we have a plan. President trump id like to follow up with you and your comments you talked about taking a therapeutic i assume youre referencing regeneron you also said a vaccine will be coming within weeks this is that it guarantee its not a guarantee, but it will be by the end of the year, but i think it has a good chance or 2 companies i think within a matter of weeks and it will be distributed very quickly tell us which johnson and johnson is doing very well mode earners doing very well pfizer is doing very well and we have numerous others. Then we also have others that were working on very closely with other countries in particular europe. Let me follow up with you because this is new information you have said a vaccine is coming soon within weeks now your own Officials Say it could take well into 2021 at the earliest for enough americans to get vaccinated and even then they say the country will be Wearing Masks and distancing in 2 2022 is your timeline realistic do i think my timeline is going to be more accurate. I dont know that there. Counting on the military the way i do, but we have our generals lined up one in particular thats the head of logistics and this is a very easy distribution for him is ready to go soon as we have the vaccine. And we expect to have a 100 million viles as soon as we have the vaccine, hes ready to go Vice President biden your reaction in just 40 of americans say they would definitely agree to take a Coronavirus Vaccine if it was approved by the government what steps would you take to give americans confidence in a vaccine if it were proved make sure she totally transparent. Have the science world see it know it look at it go through all the processes and by the way. He this is the same fellow told you this going to end by easter last time this the same fellow who told you that dont worry were going to end this by the summer were about to go into a dark winter. A dark winter. And he has no clear plan and theres no prospect that theres going to be a vaccine available for the majority the American People before the middle of next year. President trump, your reaction no plan to have a dark winter and at all were opening up our country weve learned and studied and understand the disease which we didnt at the beginning when i closed and bands china from coming in heavily infected and then ultimately europe but china was in january months later he was saying i was in a phobic i did it too soon now we i should have i should have you know move quicker. But he didnt move quicker. He was months behind me many months behind me and frankly here and the h one n one swine flu. And it was a total disaster far less lethal. But it was a total disaster had that had this kind of numbers. 700,000 people would be dead right now. But is a far less lethal disease. Look his own person who ran that for him who as you know was chief of staff said it was catastrophic. It was horrible. We didnt know what we were doing. Now he comes up and tells us how to do this. Also everything that he said about the way every single move that he said we should make. Thats what weve done weve done all of it. But he was way behind us Vice President biden response for sponsors. He isnt a phobic but not because he shut down access from china and he did it late after 40 countries have already done that. In addition to that what he did he make sure that we had 44 people that were in there. In china trying to get to wuhan to determine what exactly the source was what did the president say in january. He said no we should this is it hes being transparent. The president of chinas be transparent. We owe him a debt of gratitude we we have to thank him and and then what happened was we started talking about using that the defense act to make sure we go out and get whatever is needed out there to protect people and again i go back to this he had nothing he did virtually nothing and then he gets out of the hospital and he talks about were this dont worry its all the meals are shown. Theres not another serious scientists in world thinks is going to be over soon President Trump your over soon, i say were learning to live with that we have no choice we cant lock ourselves up in a basement like you know does he is we has the ability to lock himself up i dont know hes obviously made a lot of money someplace. But he has this thing about living in a basement people can do that by the way i as the president couldnt do that id love to put myself in the basement or in a beautiful room in the white house and go away for a year and a half until it disappears i cant do that and kiss and every to every meeting i had every meeting ahead and admit a lot of families including gold star families and military families. Every meeting i had and i had to meet him i had to it would be horrible to have canceled everything. I said you know, this is dangerous and you catch it and you know i could i learned a lot i learned a lot great doctors great hospitals. And now i recovered. 99. 9 of young people recover 99 of people recover. We have to recover we cant close up our nation. We have to open our school and we cant close up our nation or youre not going to have a nation. And of course the cdc has said young people can get sick with covid19 and can pass it. Vice President Biden want to talk broadly about strategy though you respond to that 30 seconds please and i have a number one. He says that were you know were learning to live with people are learning to die with it. You folks home will have an empty chair at the Kitchen Table this morning that manner wife going to bed tonight a region over to try to touch her out of habit where their wife or husband was is gone, learning to live with it were dying with it because hes never said hes he said its dangerous was the last time is a really dangerous still we dangerous to tell the people as dangerous now what should they do about the danger. And you say i take no responsibility. Let me talk about your choosing and to carry it takes full responsibility. Its not my fault that he came here, its chinas fault, and you know what its not joes fault that he came here is that its chinas fault, they kept it from going into the rest of china for the most part but they didnt keep it from coming out to the world, including europe and ourselves. Vice President Biden the fact is that when we knew was coming when it hit. What happened with the president say he said dont worry its going to go away begun by easter dont worry you can warm weather dont worry maybe inject bleach. He said he was kidding when he said that a lot of people thought it was serious a whole range of things the president has said even today he thinks we are in control were about to lose 200,000 more people. President trump look perhaps just to finish this. I was kidding and that but just to finish this. One eye closed. He said i shouldnt have closed. And that went on for months what nancy pelosi said the same thing she was dancing in the streets in chinatown in san francisco. But one eye closed. He said this is a terrible thing is but i think he called me racist even and because i was closing it to china now he says they should have closed it earlier. It just joe it i did say either of those things you certainly get and talked about is be in a different context, it wasnt about. Closing the border to chinese im coming to the United States all right i want to talk about both of your different strategies to hand the thought i shouldnt have closed the border, lets thats obvious. Is that you would respond to that quickly Vice President ok, lets talk about your different strategies for dealing with this mister Vice President you suggested he would support new shutdowns of sci ntists recommended what do you say to americans who are fearful that the cost of shutdowns the impact on the economy. The higher rates of hunger depression, domestic and Substance Abuse outweighs the risk of exposure for the virus when i would say is im going to shut down the virus, not the country. Its his ineptitude the cause the virus across the country to have to shut down in large part. Why businesses got under way schools are closed why so many people have lost or are living and why theyre concerned those other concerns are real thats why he should have been instead of in a sand trap of this golf course he should have been negotiating with nancy pelosi and the rest of the democrats republicans about what to do about the acts their passion for billions of dollars to make sure people had the capacity for you havent ruled out more shutdowns no i im not shutting but there are look. They need standards the standard is if you have a reproduction rate in the community. Thats above a certain level, everybody says slow up. More social disses see do not open bars and do not open gymnasiums do not open to see you get this under control or control. But when you do open give the people the capacity to be able to open and have the capacity to do it safely for example schools, schools, they need a lot of money to grow up and they need to do a ventilation system they need to do with smaller classes or teachers, more pods and hes refused to support that money or least up to now lets talk about schools. We have to respond police and then i have a song like you and i appreci