2020
ELECTIONS
Trump refuses to denounce QAnon — and other key
moments from tonight’s town halls
The president also wouldn't say whether he was tested
for coronavirus before the first debate.
By MATTHEW
CHOI and NICK NIEDZWIADEK
10/15/2020
08:34 PM EDT
Updated:
10/15/2020 09:52 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/15/key-moments-trump-biden-town-halls-429751
The second
presidential debate was called off, but President Donald Trump and Joe Biden
still spent Thursday night on national TV, answering questions from voters in
separate town hall events.
The forums
came as Trump ramps his public schedule back up following his hospitalization
with coronavirus, which prompted the Commission on Presidential Debates to call
for a virtual debate — and led Trump to back out of the rematch with Biden
altogether.
The
Democratic ticket is dealing with its own brush with the virus, as at least
three people who have been around Biden or Sen. Kamala Harris announced
positive tests Thursday, temporarily sidelining the vice presidential nominee.
(Both members of the ticket tested negative Thursday.)
Here are
the key moments from the two events:
Trump won’t
say whether he was tested for Covid on day of first debate
Trump,
appearing on NBC from Miami, wouldn’t say whether he took a coronavirus test on
the day of the first presidential debate, saying he couldn’t recall.
“I don’t
know, I don’t even remember,” the president told the moderator, Savannah
Guthrie. “I test all the time. I can tell you this,” Trump said.
Trump said
he gets tested regularly and couldn’t remember whether he was tested just
before taking the debate stage on Sept. 29. The Commission on Presidential
Debates required all people in the debate venue to be tested before entering.
Candidates were tested by their campaigns and reported results largely based on
an honor system, according to moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.
Trump
tested positive for the virus only a few days after the debate. He was hospitalized
the following weekend to be treated for the disease.
Biden punts
on whether he’d support making a Covid vaccine mandatory
Asked
whether he would make a coronavirus vaccine mandatory, Biden acknowledged that
such a requirement would be tricky to implement, and beyond that, it’s unclear
just what the specifics of approved vaccines are going to be.
“It depends
on the state of the nature of the vaccine when it comes out, and how it's being
distributed,” Biden said.
Biden did
note that children are required to be inoculated against measles and other
infectious diseases in order to attend school. But he said he would lean on the
nation’s governors and other elected officials to implement the vaccination
recommendations put forward by medical experts.
Biden also
said he believes there is “real progress” toward having a safe and effective
vaccine, though it likely would not be widely available until early next year —
longer than the timeline Trump has said he wants — and that he would personally
get a vaccine once it is deemed safe.
Trump
refuses to denounce QAnon
Trump
refused to denounce the conspiracy theory QAnon, saying he doesn’t know whether
there is a secret government cabal of pedophiles as the theory claims.
When asked
about the viral phenomenon, which has been deemed a domestic terrorist threat
by the FBI, Trump said, “I know nothing about QAnon,” even though Guthrie had
just explained the theory to him.
“I do know
that they are very much against pedophilia,” Trump said. “I agree with that.”
Trump has
praised Republican candidates who espouse the theory, which has been repeatedly
debunked. Even after Guthrie pushed Trump, asking him whether there was a ring
of child traffickers in the heart of the government, the president said it was
impossible to know.
Covid
didn’t change Trump’s view on masks
Trump said
his stance on wearing masks hasn’t changed since contracting coronavirus,
adding that there are “two stories” on whether wearing them is necessary.
“You have a
story where they want, a story where they don't want,” Trump said.
The
president has repeatedly come under fire for not urging the public to wear
masks, despite the consensus among his health experts that it could help curb
the disease. Trump often asked reporters to remove their masks during White
House news briefings, and his campaign events frequently have scant enforcement
on mask wearing.
Trump cited
his adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, whom he misidentified as Scott Atkins, who has
cast doubt on the efficacy of mask wearing. But Guthrie pointed out Atlas is
not an infectious disease expert and that numerous studies have gone contrary
to his claims.
Biden says
’94 crime bill was a mistake
Biden said
he believed the 1994 criminal justice package he penned was flawed after it
contributed to mass incarceration, particularly for people of color.
After
answering a woman’s question about the law by touting its support at the time,
Biden was asked specifically if in hindsight the law was a mistake. “Yes, it
was,” Biden said, though he maintained that the main problem was how the new
law was implemented at the state and local level.
Biden said
that “things have changed drastically” in the quarter-century since his crime
bill’s passage, and some of its components have not aged well.
“It had a
lot of other things in it that turned out to be both bad and good,” Biden said.
Biden
touted other legislation he’s supported — including the Violence Against Women
Act and a ban on assault weapons that has expired — and argued his record
should be viewed in its entirety.
Trump and
his allies have hammered Biden over the bill, particularly in the hope of
drawing away traditionally Democratic-leaning Black and Latino voters.
Biden also
said he still supports his decades-old comments endorsing more police officers
on the streets — “if they’re involved with community policing, not jump
squads.”
Biden has
also fended off accusations by Trump that he supports the effort to “defund the
police,” repeatedly disavowing the idea.
Trump
doesn’t deny he owes over $400 million in debt
Trump
denied owing any money to foreign entities, but would not deny having a debt of
more than $400 million that was reported in an investigative report by The New
York Times.
When asked
whom he owed the debt to, Trump stumbled over his defense, saying The Times had
illegally obtained his tax records. He also claimed that amount of debt was
“peanuts” compared with his overall assets.
Guthrie
pushed Trump, saying he seemed to be confirming that he has over $400 million
in debt. Trump responded by saying, “What I'm saying is that it's a tiny
percentage of my net worth.”
He also
claimed that none of his debts are to foreign banks or Russian actors. He said
he “will probably, because it's so easy to solve … let you know who I owe money
to.” But when asked why he doesn’t release his tax returns as all other modern
presidents have done, Trump said that “common sense and intelligence” were
keeping him from releasing them.
Biden keeps
Supreme Court changes on the table
Biden said
that while he is “not a fan” of so-called “court packing” or otherwise
overhauling the federal judicial system, the calculus changes if Republicans
successfully push through Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination before
the election.
“It depends
on how this turns out,” Biden said. “It depends on how much they rush this.”
Biden has
been coy about his position on altering the Supreme Court, saying definitive
answers on the question would be a distraction and overshadow the GOP’s effort
to seat Barrett during the homestretch of a presidential election.
If Barrett
is confirmed, which is expected to happen barring any last-minute surprises,
Biden said he is “open to considering what happens from that point on,” and he
said he would make his position on the Supreme Court clear before Election Day.
But “it depends on how they handle this,” Biden said of Senate Republicans.
A voter has
a thing for Trump's face
The
president got some praise during his town hall — but not on his policies,
persona or the other aspects of his presidency that usually grab his
supporters’ attention.
Instead, a
voter had some choice words about his face.
“I have to
say, Mr. President, you have a great smile,” said a voter identified as
Paulette Dale. The president hesitantly thanked her as the audience applauded.
“You’re so
handsome when you smile,” she said with a wide grin.
Guthrie
introduced Dale as a registered Republican who voted for Hillary Clinton in
2016 and was leaning toward Biden. Dale followed up her comments by asking
Trump whether he planned to continue efforts to cut the DACA program for young
undocumented immigrants.
Trump says
Kavanaugh confirmation changed view on nominations
Trump said
his approach to nominating Supreme Court justices changed after the tumultuous
confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh.
“The whole
ball game changed when I saw the way they treated Justice Kavanaugh,” he said.
“I have never seen any human being — and I'm not just talking about Supreme
Court — I have never seen a human being treated so badly with false accusations
and everything else.”
Trump
brought up the justice in defending his push for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to
fill the seat left empty by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett’s
nomination comes only weeks before Election Day, and Guthrie pointed out that
Trump opposed President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination in the final
year of his presidency because it was an election year.
Most
Republicans have defended the party’s about-face on the issue by arguing the
same party now controls both the White House and the Senate, unlike when Obama
nominated Judge Merrick Garland in March 2016. But Trump’s acknowledgment on
Thursday broke from that narrative, implying a more personal motivation.
Kavanaugh
was accused of sexual assault by a number of women, including Dr. Christine
Blasey Ford, whose testimony of alleged assault gripped national attention for
weeks.
Biden: If I
lose, ‘I didn’t do a good job’
Biden
pondered what it would mean if he were to lose to Trump, answering that “it
could say I'm a lousy candidate, and I didn't do a good job.”
“I hope
that it doesn't say that we are as racially, ethnically and religiously at odds
with one another as it appears the president wants us to be,” Biden continued,
saying that he wanted to unify the country if he is elected.
He added
that he probably would continue to lecture at the University of Pennsylvania
and University of Delaware if he is not moving into the White House come
January.
Biden
quickly moved onto a more optimistic note, saying that “people need hope” and
that he’s “never been more optimistic” about America’s future.
The
77-year-old former vice president has previously said he sees himself as a
“bridge” between two eras of Democratic politics and he was inspired to run —
after forgoing a bid in 2016 — after watching the far-right demonstrations and
violence in Charlottesville in 2017 and Trump’s handling of the situation.
Maddow:
That was all NBC News, not us
MSNBC host
Rachel Maddow firmly differentiated her network from the organizers of the Trump
town hall, hinting at the internal conflict at NBC over its decision to hold an
event overlapping Biden’s ABC appearance.
“Well, that
happened,” Maddow said just after MSNBC’s airing of the town hall concluded.
“Let me remind you that what you just saw was a production of NBC News. We are
MSNBC. We did not produce that event.”
POLITICO
reported earlier Thursday that MSNBC head Phil Griffin strongly opposed NBC
News President Noah Oppenheim’s decision to host the town hall at the same time
as Biden’s event. ABC had scheduled Biden’s town hall before NBC announced its
own program with Trump, which aired in the same time slot. Critics of NBC said
the counterprogramming would be beneficial for the president, who refused to
participate in the debate originally planned for Thursday night because it had
been switched to a virtual format.
Maddow and
her colleague Chris Hayes have hinted on their shows their displeasure with NBC
News’ programming but stopped short of openly denouncing it. Hayes’ show got
skipped on MSNBC to make room for a broadcast of the town hall.
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