{"id":10993,"date":"2020-10-22T23:29:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T06:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10993"},"modified":"2020-10-23T03:36:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T10:36:43","slug":"post3-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10993","title":{"rendered":"“Donald Trump & Joe Biden Final Presidential Debate Transcript 2020”, Rev.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oct 22, 2020<\/p>\n

Full transcript of the second and final 2020 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The debate was moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (00:18<\/a>)
\nGood evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for being here. It is such an honor for me to moderate this debate tonight, the final debate. I want to welcome the first family and the first lady. We\u2019re so glad and thankful that you are feeling better. I want to welcome the Biden family, Dr. Jill Biden. Thank you all for being here tonight. We are so excited. We\u2019re looking forward to a really robust discussion. And the only thing I would reiterate are the CPD guidelines that when the candidates are talking, please hold any applause or any other reactions. Except of course, when they walk out, make sure you cheer and loud and applause so that everyone can hear you. Thank you for having me. This is really the honor of a lifetime. I am going to sit down and just get organized and get settled and the show will start very soon. Thank you for being here. (silence). Good evening from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. I\u2019m Kristen Welker of NBC News. And I welcome you to the final 2020 presidential debate between President Donald J. Trump and former vice president Joe Biden. Tonight\u2019s debate is sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. It is conducted under health and safety protocols designed by the Commission\u2019s health security advisor. The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent. No cheers, boos, or other interruptions, except right now, as we welcome to the stage, former vice president Joe Biden and President Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:37<\/a>)
\nHow are you doing? How are you?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:58<\/a>)
\nAnd I do want to say a very good evening to both of you. This debate will cover six major topics. At the beginning of each section, each candidate will have two 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 two minutes have expired. After that, both microphones will remain on. But on behalf of the voters, I\u2019m going to ask you to please speak one at a time.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (08:27<\/a>)
\nThe 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 you\u2019re ready, let\u2019s start. And 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 two of you last shared a stage, 16,000 Americans have died from COVID. So please be specific. How would you lead the country during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis? Two minutes, uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (09:03<\/a>)
\n\u2026 during this next stage of the coronavirus crisis. Two minutes uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:04<\/a>)
\nSo as you know, 2.2 million people modeled out, were expected to die. We closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from China. It\u2019s a worldwide pandemic. It\u2019s 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 other country. And we\u2019re fighting it and we\u2019re fighting it hard. There is a spike. There was a spike in Florida and it\u2019s now gone.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:41<\/a>)
\nThere was a very big spike in Texas. It\u2019s now gone. There was a very big spike in Arizona. It\u2019s now gone. And there was some spikes and surges and other places, they will soon be gone. We have a vaccine that\u2019s coming. It\u2019s ready. It\u2019s going to be announced within weeks. And it\u2019s going to be delivered. We have Operation Warp Speed, which is the military is going to distribute the vaccine.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (10:04<\/a>)
\nI can tell you from personal experience, I was in the hospital. I had it and I got better. And I will tell you that I had something that they gave me, a therapeutic, I guess they would call it. Some people could say it was a cure, but I was in for a short period of time. And I got better very fast or I wouldn\u2019t be here tonight. And now they say I\u2019m immune. Whether it\u2019s four months or a lifetime, nobody\u2019s been able to say that, but I\u2019m immune. More and more people are getting better. We have a problem that\u2019s a worldwide problem. This is a worldwide problem, but I\u2019ve been congratulated by the heads of many countries on what we\u2019ve been able to do. If you take a look at what we\u2019ve done in terms of goggles and masks and gowns and everything else, and in particular ventilators we\u2019re now making ventilators all over the world, thousands and thousands a month distributing them all over the world. It will go away. And as I say, we\u2019re rounding the turn. We\u2019re rounding the corner. It\u2019s going away.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:06<\/a>)
\nOkay. Former Vice President Biden to you. How would you lead the country out of this crisis? You have two minutes uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:13<\/a>)
\n220,000 Americans dead. You hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this. Anyone who is responsible for not taking control. In fact, not saying I take no responsibility initially. Anyone is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America. We\u2019re in a situation where there are a thousand deaths a day now. A thousand deaths a day. And there are over 70,000 new cases per day. Compared to what\u2019s going on in Europe as the New England Medical Journal said, they\u2019re starting from a very low rate. We\u2019re starting from a very high rate.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:56<\/a>)
\nThe expectation is we\u2019ll have another 200,000 Americans dead between now and the end of the year. If we just wore these masks, the president\u2019s own advisors have told him, we can save a 100,000 lives. And we\u2019re in a circumstance where the president thus far and still has no plan, no comprehensive plan.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:19<\/a>)
\nWhat I would do is make sure we have everyone encouraged to wear a mask all the time. I would make sure we move into the direction of rapid testing, investing in 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 wherewithal, the financial resources to be able to do that.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:41<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re in a situation now where the New England Medical Journal, one of the serious, most serious journals in the whole world said for the first time ever that the way this president has responded 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.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (13:01<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, I\u2019d like to follow up with you and your comments. You talked about taking a therapeutic, I assume you\u2019re referencing Regeneron. You also said a vaccine will be coming within weeks. Is that a guarantee?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:13<\/a>)
\nNo, it\u2019s not a guarantee, but it will be by the end of the year. But I think it has a good chance. There are two companies, I think within a matter of weeks and it will be distributed very quickly.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (13:22<\/a>)
\nCan you tell us which companies?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:23<\/a>)
\nJohnson & Johnson is doing very well. Moderna is doing very well. Pfizer is doing very well and we have numerous others. Then we also have others that we\u2019re working on very closely with other countries, in particular Europe.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (13:35<\/a>)
\nLet me follow up with you and because this is new information. You have set a vaccine is coming soon within weeks now. Your own officials say, \u201cIt could take well into 2021 at the earliest for enough Americans to get vaccinated.\u201d And even then they say, \u201cThe country will be wearing masks and distancing into 2022.\u201d Is your timeline realistic?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:53<\/a>)
\nNo, I think my timeline is going to be more accurate. I don\u2019t know that they\u2019re counting on the military the way I do, but we have our generals lined up, one in particular that\u2019s the head of logistics and this is a very easy distribution for him. He\u2019s ready to go. As soon as we have the vaccine and we expect to have a 100 million vials. As soon as we have the vaccine, he\u2019s ready to go.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (14:13<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your reaction. And 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 approved?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (14:26<\/a>)
\nMake sure it\u2019s totally transparent. Have the scientists of the world see it, know it, look at it, go through all the processes. And by the way, this is the same fellow who told you, \u201cThis is going to end by Easter\u201d last time. This is the same fellow who told you that, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, we\u2019re going to end this by the summer.\u201d We\u2019re about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter and he has no clear plan. And there\u2019s no prospect that there\u2019s going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (14:54<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, your reaction. He says, you have no plan.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (14:56<\/a>)
\nI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have a dark winter at all. We\u2019re opening up our country. We\u2019ve learned and studied and understand the disease, which we didn\u2019t at the beginning. When I closed and banned China from coming in heavily infected and then ultimately Europe, but China was in January. Months later, he was saying I was xenophobic. I did it too soon. Now he\u2019s saying, \u201cOh, I should have moved quicker,\u201d but he didn\u2019t move quicker. He was months behind me, many months behind me.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (15:24<\/a>)
\nAnd frankly, he ran the H1N1 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 it was a far less lethal disease. Look, his own person who ran that for him, who, as you know, was his chief of staff said, \u201cIt was catastrophic. It was horrible. We didn\u2019t know what we were doing.\u201d Now he comes up and he tells us how to do this.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:01<\/a>)
\nAlso, everything that he said about the way every single move that he said we should make, that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done. We\u2019ve done all of it. But he was way behind us.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:10<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your response.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (16:12<\/a>)
\nMy response is he is xenophobic, but not because he shutdown access from China. And he did it late after 40 countries had already done that. In addition to that, what he did, he made sure that we had 44 people that were in there in China trying to get the Wuhan to determine what exactly the source was. What did the president say in January? He said, \u201d No.\u201d He said, \u201cHe\u2019s being transparent. The president of China is being transparent. We owe him a debt of gratitude. We have to thank him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (16:38<\/a>)
\nAnd then what happened was we started talking about using 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, \u201cOh, don\u2019t worry. It\u2019s all going to be over soon.\u201d Come on. There\u2019s not another serious scientist in the world who thinks it\u2019s going to be over soon.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (17:03<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, your reaction?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (17:04<\/a>)
\nI didn\u2019t say over soon. I say we\u2019re learning to live with it. We have no choice. We can\u2019t lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does. He has the ability to lock himself up. I don\u2019t know. He\u2019s obviously made a lot of money someplace, but he has this thing about living in a basement. People can\u2019t do that. By the way I as the president couldn\u2019t do that. I\u2019d 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 can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (17:31<\/a>)
\nAnd Kirsten, every meeting I had, every meeting I had and I\u2019d meet a lot of families, including gold star families and military families. Every meeting I had and I had to meet them, I had to. It would be horrible to have canceled everything. I said, \u201cThis is dangerous and you catch it.\u201d And I caught it. 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-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (18:03<\/a>)
\n99% of people recover. We have to recover. We can\u2019t close up our nation. We have to open our school and we can\u2019t close up our nation, or you\u2019re not going to have a nation.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:11<\/a>)
\nAnd, of course, the CDC has said young people can get sick with COVID-19 and can pass it. Vice President Biden, I want to talk broadly about strategy though.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (18:20<\/a>)
\nCan I respond to that?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:21<\/a>)
\n30 seconds, please. Then I have a question.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (18:23<\/a>)
\nNumber one, he says that we\u2019re learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it. You folks home will have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning. That man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch, there out of habit, where their wife or husband was, is gone. Learning to live with it. Come on. We\u2019re dying with it, because he\u2019s never said. See, you said, \u201cIt\u2019s dangerous.\u201d When\u2019s the last time? Is it really dangerous still? Are we dangerous. You tell the people it\u2019s dangerous now. What should they do about the danger? And you say, \u201cI take no responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:56<\/a>)
\nLet me talk about your Tuesday-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (18:58<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. I take full responsibility. It\u2019s not my fault that it came here. It\u2019s China\u2019s fault. And you know what? It\u2019s not Joe\u2019s fault that it came here either. It\u2019s China\u2019s fault. They kept it from going into the rest of China for the most part, but they didn\u2019t keep it from coming out to the world, including Europe and ourselves.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (19:16<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (19:17<\/a>)
\nThe fact is that when we knew it was coming, when it hit, what happened? What did the President say? He said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. It\u2019s going to go away. It\u2019ll be gone by Easter. Don\u2019t worry. Warm weather. Don\u2019t worry. Maybe inject bleach.\u201d He said he was kidding when he said that, but 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. We\u2019re about to lose 200,000 more people.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (19:43<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (19:44<\/a>)
\nLook, perhaps just to finish this, I was kidding on that, but just to finish this, when I closed he said I shouldn\u2019t have closed. And that went on for months. Nancy Pelosi said the same thing. She was dancing on the streets in Chinatown, in San Francisco. But when I closed, he said, \u201cThis is a terrible thing, you xenophobic.\u201d I think he called me racist even, because I was closing it to China. Now he says I should have closed it earlier. Joe, it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:13<\/a>)
\nI didn\u2019t say either of those things.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (20:14<\/a>)
\nYou certainly did. You certainly did.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:17<\/a>)
\nI talked about his xenophobia in a different context. It wasn\u2019t about closing the border to Chinese coming to the United States.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (20:24<\/a>)
\nAll right, I want to talk about both of your different strategies to handling this.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (20:27<\/a>)
\nHe thought I shouldn\u2019t have closed the border, that\u2019s obvious.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (20:31<\/a>)
\nDo you want to respond to that quickly, Vice President Biden?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:33<\/a>)
\nNo.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (20:33<\/a>)
\nOkay. Let\u2019s talk about your different strategies toward dealing with this. Mr. Vice President you suggested you would support new shutdowns if scientists recommended it. 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 to the virus?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:54<\/a>)
\nWhat I would say is, I\u2019m going to shut down the virus, not the country. It\u2019s his ineptitude that caused the country to have to shut down in large part, why businesses have gone under, why schools are closed, why so many people have lost their living, and why they\u2019re concerned. Those other concerns are real. That\u2019s why he should have been, instead of in a sand trap at his golf course, he should have been negotiating with Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats and Republicans about what to do about the acts they were passing for billions of dollars to make sure people had the capacity.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (21:23<\/a>)
\nBut you haven\u2019t ruled out more shut downs?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (21:25<\/a>)
\nOh, well, no. I\u2019m not shutting down today, but there are \u2026 Look, you need standards. The standard is, if you have a reproduction rate in a community that\u2019s above a certain level, everybody says, \u201cSlow up. More social distancing. Do not open bars and do not open gymnasiums. Do not open until you get this under control, under more control.\u201d 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 be open. They need to deal with ventilation systems. They need to deal with smaller classes, more teachers, more pods, and he\u2019s refused to support that money, or at least up to now.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (22:04<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s talk about schools, President Trump-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (22:06<\/a>)
\nI think we have to respond, if I might.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (22:07<\/a>)
\nPlease. And then I have a follow-up.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (22:09<\/a>)
\nThank you, and I appreciate that. Look, all he does is talk about shut downs. But forget about him. His Democrat Governors, Cuomo in New York, you look at what\u2019s going on in California, you look at Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Democrats, Democrats all, they\u2019re shut down so tight and they\u2019re dying. They\u2019re dying. And he supports all these people. All he talks about is shut downs. No, we\u2019re not going to shut down. And we have to open our schools. And it\u2019s like, as an example, I have a young son, he also tested positive. By the time I spoke to the doctor the second time, he was fine. It just went away. Young people, I guess, it\u2019s their immune system.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (22:47<\/a>)
\nLet me follow up with you, President Trump. You\u2019ve demanded schools open in person and insist they can do it safely. But just yesterday, Boston became the latest city to move its public school system entirely online after a coronavirus spike. What is your message to parents who worry that sending their children to school will endanger not only their kids but also their teachers and family?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:05<\/a>)
\nI want to open the schools. The transmittal rate to the teachers is very small. But I want to open the schools. We have to open our country. We\u2019re not going to have a country. You can\u2019t do this. We can\u2019t keep this country closed. This is a massive country with a massive economy. People are losing their jobs. They\u2019re committing suicide. There\u2019s depression, alcohol, drugs at a level that nobody\u2019s ever seen before. There\u2019s abuse, tremendous abuse. We have to open our country. I\u2019ve said it often, the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself, and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening. And he wants to close down. He\u2019ll close down the country if one person in our massive bureaucracy says we should close it down.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:50<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your response.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:51<\/a>)
\nSimply not true. We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We ought to be able to safely open, but they need resources to open? You need to be able to, for example, if you\u2019re going to open a business, have social distancing within the business. You need to have, if you have a restaurant, you need to have plexiglass dividers so people cannot infect one another. You need to be in a position where you can take testing rapidly and know whether the person is in fact infected. You need to be able to trace. You need to be able to provide all the resources that are needed to do this. And that is not inconsistent with saying that we\u2019re going to make sure that we\u2019re going to open safely. And by the way, all you teachers out there, not that many of you are going to die, so don\u2019t worry about it. So don\u2019t worry about it. Come on.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:38<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, let me follow up with you quickly.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:40<\/a>)
\nBy the way, I will say this, If you go and look at what\u2019s happened to New York, it\u2019s a ghost town. It\u2019s a ghost town. And when you talk about plexiglass, these are restaurants that had dying. These are businesses with no money. Putting up plexiglass is unbelievably expensive, and it\u2019s not the answer. I mean, you\u2019re going to sit there in a cubicle wrapped around with plastic. These are businesses that are dying, Joe. You can\u2019t do that to people. You just can\u2019t. Take a look at New York and what\u2019s happened to my wonderful city. For so many years, I loved it. It was vibrant. It\u2019s dying. Everyone\u2019s leaving New York.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (25:15<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (25:15<\/a>)
\nTake a look at what New York has done in terms of turning the curve down, in terms of the number of people dying. And I don\u2019t look at this in terms of the way he does, blue states and red states. They\u2019re all the United States. And look at the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus. They\u2019re the red states, they\u2019re the states in the Midwest, they\u2019re the states in the upper Midwest. That\u2019s where the spike is occurring significantly. But they\u2019re all Americans. They\u2019re all Americans. And what we have to do is say, wear these masks, number one. Make sure we get the help that the businesses need. That money\u2019s already been passed to do that. It\u2019s been out there since the beginning of the summer, and nothing\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (25:55<\/a>)
\nKristen, New York has lost more than 40,000 people, 11,000 people in nursing homes.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:02<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, what about-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:02<\/a>)
\nWhen you say spike, take a look at what\u2019s happening in Pennsylvania where they\u2019ve had it closed. Take a look at what\u2019s happening with your friend in Michigan, where her husband\u2019s the only one allowed to do anything. It\u2019s been like a prison. Now, it was just ruled unconstitutional. Take a look at North Carolina, they\u2019re having spikes and they\u2019ve been closed, and they\u2019re getting killed financially. We can\u2019t let that happen, Joe. You can\u2019t let that happen. We have to open up. And we understand the disease. We have to protect our seniors. We have to protect our elderly. We have to protect especially our seniors with heart problems and diabetes problems. And we will protect. We have the best testing in the world by far. That\u2019s why we have so many cases.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:44<\/a>)
\nLet me follow up with you before we move on to our next section. President Trump, this week, you called Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation\u2019s best known infectious disease expert \u201ca disaster.\u201d You described him and other medical experts as \u201cidiots.\u201d If you\u2019re not listening to them, who are you listening to?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:58<\/a>)
\nI\u2019m listening to all of them, including Anthony. I get along very well with Anthony.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (27:02<\/a>)
\n\u2026 think to all of them, including Anthony. I get along very well with Anthony, but he did say, \u201cDon\u2019t wear masks.\u201d He did say, as you know, \u201cThis is not going to be a problem.\u201d I think he\u2019s a Democrat, but that\u2019s okay. He said, \u201cThis is not going to be a problem. We are not going to have a problem at all.\u201d When Joe says that I said, Anthony Fauci said, and others, and many others. And I\u2019m not knocking him, nobody knew. Look, nobody knew what this thing was. Nobody knew where it was coming from, what it was. We\u2019ve learned a lot. But Anthony said \u201cDon\u2019t wear masks,\u201d now he wants to wear masks. Anthony also said, if you look back, exact words, here\u2019s his exact words. \u201cThis is no problem. This is going to go away soon.\u201d So he\u2019s allowed to make mistakes. He happens to be a good person.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (27:44<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your response quickly, and then we\u2019re going to move on to the next section.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (27:48<\/a>)
\nMy response is that think about what the President knew in January and didn\u2019t tell the American people. He was told this was a serious virus that spread in the air, and it was much worse, much worse, than the flu. He went on record and said to one of your colleagues, recorded, that in fact he knew how dangerous it was but he didn\u2019t want to tell us. He didn\u2019t want to tell us because he didn\u2019t want us to panic. He didn\u2019t want us\u2026 Americans don\u2019t panic. He panicked. But guess what, in the meantime, we find out in the New York Times the other day, that in fact his folks went to Wall Street and said, \u201cThis is a really dangerous thing.\u201d And a memo out of that meeting \u2014 not from his administration, but from some of the brokers \u2014 said, \u201cSell short, because we\u2019ve got to get moving. It\u2019s a dangerous problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (28:31<\/a>)
\nWell, this is what I-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (28:31<\/a>)
\nI\u2019m going to give you 30 seconds to respond and then we\u2019re going to move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (28:34<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:28:34] I don\u2019t know. Somebody went through Wall Street. You\u2019re the one that takes all the money from Wall Street. I don\u2019t take it.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (28:39<\/a>)
\nI haven\u2019t-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (28:39<\/a>)
\nJoe, you have raised a lot of money, tremendous amounts of money. And every time you raise money deals are made, Joe. I could raise so much more money. As President, and as somebody that knows most of those people, I could call the heads of Wall Street, the heads of every company in America. I would blow away every record. But I don\u2019t want to do that because it puts me in a bad position. And then you bring up Wall Street? You shouldn\u2019t be bringing up Wall Street, because you\u2019re the one that takes the money from Wall Street, not me. I could blow away your records like you wouldn\u2019t believe. We don\u2019t need money. We have plenty of money. In fact, we beat Hillary Clinton with a tiny fraction of the money that she was able to [crosstalk 00:29:15]<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (29:15<\/a>)
\nAll right, gentlemen, we\u2019re going to move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (29:16<\/a>)
\nDon\u2019t tell me about [crosstalk 00:29:17].<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (29:18<\/a>)
\nAverage contribution, $43.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (29:19<\/a>)
\nAll right. We\u2019re going to move on to our next section, which is national security. And I do want to start with the security of our elections and some breaking news from overnight. Just last night, top intelligence officials confirmed again that both Russia and Iran are working to influence this election. Both countries have obtained US voter registration information, these officials say, and Iran sent intimidating messages to Florida voters. This question goes to you, Mr. Vice President. What would you do to put an end to this threat? You have two minutes, uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (29:49<\/a>)
\nI made it clear and I asked everyone else to take the pledge. I made it clear that any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price. And it\u2019s been overwhelmingly clear this election \u2014 I won\u2019t even get into the last one \u2014 this election, that Russia has been involved, China\u2019s been involved to some degree, and now we learn that Iran is involved. They will pay a price if I\u2019m elected. They\u2019re interfering with American sovereignty. That\u2019s what\u2019s going on right now. They\u2019re interfering with American sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (30:23<\/a>)
\nAnd to the best of my knowledge, I don\u2019t think the President has said anything to Putin about it. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s talking to them a lot. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s said a word. I don\u2019t know why he hasn\u2019t said a word to Putin about it, and I don\u2019t know what he has recently said, if anything, to the Iranians. My guess is he\u2019d probably be more outspoken with regard to the Iranians.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (30:40<\/a>)
\nBut the point is this, folks. We are in a situation where we have foreign countries trying to interfere in the outcome of our election. His own National Security Advisor told him that what is happening with his buddy\u2026 Well, I shouldn\u2019t\u2026 Well, I will. His buddy Rudy Giuliani. He\u2019s being used as a Russian pawn. He\u2019s being fed information that is Russian that is not true. And then what happens? Nothing happens. And then you find out that everything that\u2019s going on here, about Russia is wanting to make sure that I do not get elected the next President of the United States, because they know I know them, and they know me.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (31:20<\/a>)
\nI don\u2019t understand why this President is unwilling to take on Putin when he\u2019s actually paying bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, when he\u2019s engaged in activities that are trying to destabilize all of NATO. I don\u2019t know why he doesn\u2019t do it, but it\u2019s worth asking the question. Why isn\u2019t that being done? Any country that interferes with us will, in fact, pay a price, because they\u2019re affecting our sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:45<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, same question to you. [crosstalk 00:31:48] Let me ask the question. You\u2019re going to have two minutes to respond. For two elections in a row now, there has been substantial interference from foreign adversaries. What would you do in your next term to put an end to this? Two minutes, uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:58<\/a>)
\nWell, let me respond to the first part, as Joe answered. Joe got $3.5 million from Russia and it came through Putin, because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow and it was the mayor of Moscow\u2019s wife. And you got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million. And someday you\u2019re going to have to explain, why did you get three and a half? I never got any money from Russia. I don\u2019t get money from Russia.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (32:22<\/a>)
\nNow, about your thing last night. I knew all about that. And through John \u2014 who is John Ratcliffe, who is fantastic, DNI \u2014 he said the one thing that\u2019s common to both of them.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (00:00<\/a>)
\nThey both want you to lose because there has been nobody tougher to Russia between the sanctions, nobody tougher than me on Russia, between the sanctions, between all of what I\u2019ve done with NATO. I\u2019ve got the NATO countries to put up an extra $130 billion going to $420 billion a year. That\u2019s to guard against Russia. I sold, while he was selling pillows and sheets, I sold tank busters to Ukraine. There has been nobody tougher on Russia than Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (00:33<\/a>)
\nAnd I\u2019ll tell you, they were so bad. They took over the submarine port, you remember that very well, during your term, during you and Barack Obama. They took over a big part of what should have been Ukraine. You handed it to them. But you were getting a lot of money from Russia. They were paying you a lot of money, and they probably still are. But now, with what came out today, it\u2019s even worse. All of the emails, the emails, the horrible emails of the kind of money that you were raking in, you and your family. And Joe, you were vice-president when some of this was happening, and it should have never happened. And I think you owe an explanation to the American people. Why is it, somebody just had a news conference a little while ago who was essentially supposed to work with you and your family, but what he said was damning. And regardless of me, I think you have to clean it up and talk to the American people. Maybe you can do it right now.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (01:29<\/a>)
\nVice-President Biden, you may respond-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (01:31<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:01:31].<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (01:31<\/a>)
\n\u2026 and then I do want to follow up on the election security.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (01:33<\/a>)
\nI have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life. We learned that this president paid 50 times the tax in China as a secret bank account with China, does business in China, and in fact, is talking about me taking money? I have not taken a single penny from any country, whatsoever, ever, number one.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (01:57<\/a>)
\nNumber two, this is a president\u2026 I have released all of my tax returns, 22 years, go look at them, 22 years of my tax return. You have not released a single solitary year of your tax return. What are you hiding? Why are you unwilling? The foreign countries are paying you a lot. Russia\u2019s paying you a lot. China\u2019s paying you a lot on your hotels and all your businesses all around the country, all around the world. And China\u2019s building a new road to a new golf course you have overseas. So, what\u2019s going on here? Release your tax return or stop talking about corruption.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (02:32<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, your response.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (02:33<\/a>)
\nFirst of all, I called my accountants, underwrote it, I\u2019m going to release them as soon as we can. I want to do it. And it\u2019ll show how successful, how great this company is. But much more importantly than that, people were saying $750. I asked them a week ago, I said, \u201cWhat did I pay?\u201d They said, \u201cSir, you prepaid tens of millions of dollars.\u201d I prepaid my tax, over the last number of years, tens of millions of dollars, I prepaid, because at some point, they think it\u2019s an estimate. They think I may have to pay tax. So I already prepaid it. Nobody told me that. Nobody told you that.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (03:11<\/a>)
\nDid your accountant tell you [crosstalk 00:03:11]?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (03:11<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. And it wasn\u2019t written. Whenever they write this, they keep talking about $750, which I think is a filing fee, but let me just tell you, I prepaid millions and millions of dollars in taxes, number one.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (03:23<\/a>)
\nNumber two, I don\u2019t make money from China. You do. I don\u2019t make money from Ukraine. You do. I don\u2019t make money from Russia. You made $3.5 million, Joe, and your son gave you, they even have a statement that we have to give 10% to the big man. You\u2019re the big man, I think. I don\u2019t know, maybe you\u2019re not, but you\u2019re the big man, I think. Your son said we have to give 10% to the big men. Joe, what\u2019s that all about? It\u2019s terrible.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (03:50<\/a>)
\nAll right, gentlemen. I want to ask you both some questions about all of this, but\u2026<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (03:52<\/a>)
\nI have to respond to that.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (03:53<\/a>)
\nI\u2019m going to let you both respond very quickly. You just said you spoke to your accountant about potentially releasing your taxes, did he tell you when you can release them? Do you have a deadline for when you\u2019re going to release them to the American people?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (04:02<\/a>)
\nAs soon as the auditors finish. I get treated worse than the tea party got treated, because I have a lot of people in there-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (04:07<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:04:06].<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (04:08<\/a>)
\n\u2026 deep down in the IRS, they treat me horribly. We made a deal, it was all settled until I decide to run for president. I get treated very badly by the IRS, very unfairly, but we had a deal all done. As soon as we\u2019re completed with the deal, I want to release it, but I have paid millions and millions of dollars and it\u2019s worse than paying. I paid in advance. It\u2019s called prepaying your taxes. I paid [crosstalk 00:04:32].<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (04:31<\/a>)
\nOkay. I want to ask you both about questions regarding your potential foreign entanglements and questions that have been raised to give you both a chance to talk about this more broadly. Respond very quickly, and then I\u2019ll get to my question.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (04:43<\/a>)
\nWhy did he\u2026 he\u2019s been saying this for four years, show us, just show us, stop playing around. You\u2019ve been saying for four years you\u2019re going to release your taxes.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (04:52<\/a>)
\nEverybody knows.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (04:53<\/a>)
\nNobody knows, Mr. President. What they do know is you\u2019re not paying your taxes, or you\u2019re paying taxes that are so low, when last time he said, what he paid, he said, I only pay that little because I\u2019m smart. I know how to game the system. Come on. Come on, folks.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:10<\/a>)
\nSo\u2026<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (05:11<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:05:11] President Trump, and then I want to get to two questions to both of you on this.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (05:13<\/a>)
\nSure.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:14<\/a>)
\nI was put through a phony witch hunt for three years. It started before I even got elected. They spied of my campaign. No president should ever have to go through what I went through. Let me just say this, Mueller and 18 angry Democrats and FBI agents all over the place spent $48 million. They went through everything I had, including my tax returns, and they found absolutely no collusion and nothing wrong. $48 million. I guarantee you, if I spent $1 million on you, Joe, I could find plenty wrong because the kind of things-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (05:52<\/a>)
\nAll right.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:52<\/a>)
\n\u2026 that you\u2019ve done and the kind of monies that your family has taken, I mean, your brother made money in Iraq-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (05:58<\/a>)
\nLet me\u2026<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:58<\/a>)
\n\u2026 millions of dollars. Your other brother made a fortune, and it\u2019s all through you, Joe. And they say you get some of it. And you do live very well, you have houses all over the place. You live very well.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (06:08<\/a>)
\nAll right, gentlemen. Let me just ask some questions about all of this broadly. Vice-President Biden, there have been questions about the work your son has done in China and for a Ukrainian energy company when you were vice-president, in retrospect, was anything about those relationships inappropriate or unethical?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:24<\/a>)
\nNothing was unethical. Here\u2019s what the deal. With regard to Ukraine. We had this whole question about whether or not, because he was on the board, I later learned of Burisma, a company that somehow, I had done something wrong, yet every single solitary person, when he was going through his impeachment, testifying under oath, who work for him, said I did my job impeccably. I carried out U.S. policy, not one single solitary thing was out of line, not a single thing, number one.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:57<\/a>)
\nNumber two, the guy who got in trouble in Ukraine was this guy trying to bribe the Ukrainian government to say something negative about me, which they would not do and did not do because it never ever, ever happened. My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China. I have not had\u2026 the only guy who made money from China is this guy. He\u2019s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:25<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:25<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:07:25]\u2026<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:26<\/a>)
\n\u2026 let me ask my question to you [crosstalk 00:07:28]\u2026<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:28<\/a>)
\nBut could I just one thing?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:29<\/a>)
\nVery quickly.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:29<\/a>)
\nHis son didn\u2019t have a job for a long time, was, sadly, no longer in the military service, I won\u2019t get into that, and he didn\u2019t have a job. As soon as he became vice-president, Burisma, not the best reputation in the world, I hear they paid him $183,000 a month, listen to this, $183,000, and they gave him a $3 million upfront payment, and he had no energy experience. That\u2019s 100% dishonest.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:55<\/a>)
\nAll right. I\u2019m going to let the vice-president respond to that quickly, and then I need to get to a question to you. Very quickly, Mr. Vice-President.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (08:01<\/a>)
\nNo basis for that. Everybody investigated that. No one said anything he did was wrong in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (08:03<\/a>)
\nOkay. President Trump, this is for you. Since you took office, you\u2019ve never divested from your business. You\u2019ve personally promoted your properties abroad. A report this week, which was referenced, does indicate that your company has a bank account in China. So how can voters know that you don\u2019t have any foreign conflicts of interest?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (08:19<\/a>)
\nI have many bank accounts and they\u2019re all listed and they\u2019re all over the place. I mean, I was a businessman doing business. The bank account you\u2019re referring to, which is, everybody knows about it, it\u2019s listed, the bank account was in 2013. That\u2019s what it was. It was opened. It was closed in 2015, I believe. And then I decided, because I was going to do\u2026 I was thinking about doing a deal in China, like millions of other people, I was thinking about it and I decided I\u2019m not going to do it, didn\u2019t like it, I decided not to do it, had an account open and I closed it.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (08:54<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (08:54<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. And then, unlike him where he\u2019s vice-president and he does business, I then decided to run for president after that. That was before. So I closed it before I even ran for president, let alone became president, big difference. He is the vice-president of the United States and his son, his brother, and his other brother are getting rich. They\u2019re like a vacuum cleaner. They\u2019re sucking up money [crosstalk 00:09:20].<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (09:19<\/a>)
\nOkay. President Trump, thank you. We do need to move on.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:21<\/a>)
\nNot true.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (09:22<\/a>)
\nI do want to ask you, Vice-President Biden, about China. Let\u2019s talk about China more broadly. There have, of course, President Trump has said that they should pay for not being fully transparent in regards to the coronavirus. If you were president, would you make China pay? And please be specific, what would that look like?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:41<\/a>)
\nWhat I\u2019d make China do is play by the international rules, not like he has done. He has caused the deficit of the China to go up, not down, with China, up, not down. We are making sure that in order to do business in China, you have to give all your intellectual property. You have to have a partner in China. It\u2019s 51%, we would not do that at all, number one.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (10:03<\/a>)
\nNumber two, we\u2019re in a situation where China would have to play by the rules internationally as well. When I met with Xi and when I was still vice-president, he said we\u2019re setting up air identification zones in the South China Sea. You can\u2019t fly through them. I said we\u2019re going to fly through them. We just flew B-52, B-1 bombers through it. We\u2019re not going to pay attention. They have to play by the rules. And what\u2019s he do? He embraces guys like the thugs, like in North Korea and the Chinese president and Putin and others, and he pokes his finger [inaudible 00:10:36] all of our friends, all of our allies. We make up only\u2026 we\u2019re 25%, 25% of the world\u2019s economy. We need to be having the rest of our friends with us saying to China, \u201cThese are the rules. You play by them, or you\u2019re going to pay the price for not paying by them economically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (10:54<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s the way I will run it, and that\u2019s what we did and upholding steel tariffs and a range of other things when we were president and vice-president.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:01<\/a>)
\nAll right. Let\u2019s talk about North Korea.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:02<\/a>)
\nNo, no, no.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:03<\/a>)
\nLet\u2026<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:03<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. No, I have to\u2026<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:03<\/a>)
\n\u2026 and Vice President.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:03<\/a>)
\nAll right, let\u2019s talk about North Korea-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:03<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. No, I have to respond to that.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:05<\/a>)
\nOkay. Very quickly, and then we\u2019re going to move on to North Korea.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:07<\/a>)
\nHis son walked out with a billion and a half dollars from China to \u2026<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:08<\/a>)
\nNot true.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:10<\/a>)
\n\u2026 after spending 10 minutes in office and being in Air Force Two. Number one. Number two, there\u2019s a very strong email talking about your family wanting to make $10 million a year for introductions.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:22<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, on China policy-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:24<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:24<\/a>)
\n\u2026 though, what specifically-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:24<\/a>)
\nNo, but wait a minute.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:25<\/a>)
\nWhat are you going to do, what specifically are you going to do to make China pay? You\u2019ve said you\u2019re going to make them pay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:30<\/a>)
\nFirst of all, China is paying. They\u2019re paying billions and billions of dollars. I just gave $28 billion.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:35<\/a>)
\nNew sanctions?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:36<\/a>)
\nI just gave $28 billion to our farmers.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:39<\/a>)
\nTax payer\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:41<\/a>)
\nIt\u2019s what?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:42<\/a>)
\nTaxpayer\u2019s money. Didn\u2019t come from China.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:44<\/a>)
\nNo, no. You know who the taxpayer is? It\u2019s called China.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:46<\/a>)
\nNot true.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:46<\/a>)
\nChina pays 28 billion, and you know what they did to pay it, Joe? They devalued their currency and they also paid up, and you know got the money? Our farmers, our great farmers, because they were targeted. You never charged them anything. Also, I charged them 25% on dumped steel, because they were killing our steel industry. We were not going to have a steel industry.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:06<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (12:06<\/a>)
\nAnd now we have a steel industry.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:07<\/a>)
\nOkay. Vice President Biden, your response, please.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:09<\/a>)
\nMy response is, look, there\u2019s a reason why he\u2019s bringing up all this malarkey. There\u2019s a reason for it. He doesn\u2019t want to talk about the substantive issues. It\u2019s not about his family and my family. It\u2019s about your family, and your family\u2019s hurting badly. If you\u2019re a middle-class family, you\u2019re getting hurt badly right now. You\u2019re sitting at the kitchen table this morning deciding, \u201cWell, we can\u2019t get new tires. They\u2019re bald, because we have to wait another month or so.\u201d Or, \u201cAre we going to be able to pay the mortgage?\u201d Or, \u201cWho\u2019s going to tell her she can\u2019t go back to community college?\u201d They\u2019re the decisions you\u2019re making, and the middle-class families like I grew up in Scranton and Claymont, they\u2019re in trouble. We should be talking about your families, but that\u2019s the last thing he wants to talk about.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (12:53<\/a>)
\nThat is a typical statement.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:54<\/a>)
\nI want to talk about North Korea.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (12:56<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. Just for one second, please.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:57<\/a>)
\n10 seconds, Mr. President. 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (12:59<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s a typical political statement. Let\u2019s get off this China thing, and then he looks, \u201cThe family around the table, everything.\u201d Just a typical politician when I see that. I\u2019m not a typical politician.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (13:07<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s talk about North Korea now.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:08<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s why I got elected. Let\u2019s get off the subject of China. Let\u2019s talk about sitting around the table. Come on, Joe. You could do better.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (13:16<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to talk about North Korea now. President Trump, you\u2019ve met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un three times. You\u2019ve talked about your beautiful letters with him. You\u2019ve touted the fact that there hasn\u2019t been a war or a long range missile test, and yet North Korea recently rolled out its biggest ever intercontinental ballistic missile and continues to develop its nuclear arsenal. Do you see that as a betrayal of the relationship you forged.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:38<\/a>)
\nNo.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (13:38<\/a>)
\nJust 30 seconds here because we need to get onto the next topic.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:40<\/a>)
\nSo when I met with Barack Obama, we sat in the White House, right at the beginning, had a great conversation. Was supposed to be 15 minutes and it was well over an hour. He said, \u201cThe biggest problem we have is North Korea.\u201d He indicated we will be in a war with North Korea. Guess what? It would be a nuclear war. And he does have plenty of nuclear capability. In the meantime, I have a very good relationship with him. Different kind of a guy, but he probably thinks the same thing about me. We have a different kind of a relationship. We have a very good relationship and there\u2019s no war. And about two months ago, he broke into a certain area. They said, \u201cOh, there\u2019s going to be trouble.\u201d I said, \u201cNo, they\u2019re not, because he\u2019s not going to do that.\u201d And I was right. Look, instead of being in a war where millions of people, Seoul is 25 miles away, millions and millions, 32 million people. Millions of people would be dead right now. We don\u2019t have a war and I have a good relationship.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (14:31<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, that\u2019s 30 seconds. Vice President Biden to you. North Korea conducted four nuclear tests under the Obama administration. Why do you think you would be able to reign in this persistent threatening?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (14:42<\/a>)
\nBecause I\u2019d make it clear, which we were making clear to China, they had to be part of the deal, because I made it clear as a spokesperson for the illustration when I went to China that I said, \u201cWhy are you moving your missile defense up so close? Why are you moving more forces here? Why are you continue to do military maneuvers with South Korea?\u201d I said, \u201cBecause North Korea is a problem, and we\u2019re going to continue to do it so we can control them. We\u2019re going to make sure we can control them and make sure they can not hurt us. And so if you want to do something about it, step up and help. If not, it\u2019s going to continue.\u201d What has he done? He\u2019s legitimized North Korea. He\u2019s talked about his good buddy, who\u2019s a thug, a thug. And he talks about how we\u2019re better off. And they have much more capable missiles, able to reach us territory much more easily than they ever did before.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (15:31<\/a>)
\nLet me follow up with you, Vice President Biden. You\u2019ve said you wouldn\u2019t meet with Kim Jong-un without preconditions. Are there any conditions under which you would meet with him?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (15:39<\/a>)
\nOn the condition that he would agree that he would be drawing down his nuclear capacity. The Korean Peninsula should be a nuclear free zone.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (15:48<\/a>)
\nAll right. Let\u2019s move on to American families.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (15:51<\/a>)
\nKristen.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (15:51<\/a>)
\nVery quickly, 10 seconds, President Trump.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (15:53<\/a>)
\nThey tried to meet with him. He wouldn\u2019t do it. He didn\u2019t like Obama. He didn\u2019t like him. He wouldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (15:59<\/a>)
\nOkay, I\u2019ve got to give him a chance to respond to that before we move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:01<\/a>)
\nI know for a fact. They tried. We wouldn\u2019t do it. And that\u2019s okay. You know what? North Korea, we\u2019re not in a war. We have a good relationship. People don\u2019t understand. Having a good relationship with leaders of other countries is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:12<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, we have to move on, because we have a lot of questions to get to. Your response.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (16:15<\/a>)
\nWe had a good relationship with Hitler before he, in fact, invaded Europe, the rest of Europe. Come on. The reason he would not meet with President Obama is because President Obama said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to talk about denuclearization. We\u2019re not going to legitimize you and we\u2019re going to continue to push stronger and stronger sanctions on you.\u201d That\u2019s why he wouldn\u2019t meet with us.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:36<\/a>)
\nAll right, let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:38<\/a>)
\nAnd it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:38<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s move on and talk about American families.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:38<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. He left me a mess. Kristen.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:40<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump. Okay<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:41<\/a>)
\nThey left me a mess. North Korea was a mess, and in fact, if you remember the first two or three months. It was a very dangerous period in my first three months before we worked things out a little bit.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:54<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:54<\/a>)
\nThere was a very day. They left us a mess, and Obama would be, I think, the first to say it, was the single biggest problem he thought that our country [crosstalk 00:17:03].<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (17:03<\/a>)
\nOkay, let\u2019s move on to American families and the economy. One of the issues that\u2019s most important to them is healthcare, as you both know. Today, there was a key vote on a new Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, and healthcare is at the center of her confirmation fight. Over 20 million Americans get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It\u2019s headed to the Supreme Court and your administration, Mr. President, is advocating for the court to overturn it. If the Supreme Court does overturn that law, there\u2019s 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance almost overnight. So what would you do if those people have their health insurance taken away? You have two minutes uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (17:40<\/a>)
\nFirst of all, I\u2019ve already done something that nobody thought was possible. Through the legislature, I terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of Obamacare, as we call it. The individual mandate where you have to pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance, I terminated. It\u2019s gone. Now, it\u2019s in court, because Obamacare is no good. But then I made a decision, run it as well as you can, to my people, great people, run it as well as you can. I could have gone the other route and made everybody very unhappy. They ran it. Premiums are down. Everything\u2019s down. Here\u2019s the problem. No matter how well you run it, it\u2019s no good. What we\u2019d like to do is terminate it. We have the individual mandate done. I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s going to work. If we don\u2019t win, we will have to run it and we\u2019ll have Obamacare, but it\u2019ll be better run. But it no longer is Obamacare, because without the individual mandate, it\u2019s much different.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (18:36<\/a>)
\nPre-existing conditions will always stay. What I would like to do is a much better healthcare, much better. We\u2019ll always protect people with pre-existing. So I\u2019d like to terminate Obamacare, come up with a brand new, beautiful healthcare. The Democrats will do it, because there\u2019ll be tremendous pressure on them. And we might even have the House by that time. And I think we\u2019re going to win the House. You\u2019ll see, but I think we\u2019re going to win the House. But come up with a better healthcare, always protecting people with pre-existing conditions. And one thing very important, we have 180 million people out there that have great private healthcare. Far more than we\u2019re talking about with Obamacare. Joe Biden is going to terminate all of those policies. These are people that love their healthcare. People that have been successful, middle-income people, been successful. They have 180 million plans, 180 million people, families. Under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine, he won\u2019t even have a choice, they want to terminate 180 million plans. We have done an incredible job at healthcare, and we\u2019re going to do even better. Just you watch.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (19:43<\/a>)
\nOkay. Vice President Biden, yes, this is for you. Your healthcare plan calls for building on Obamacare. So my question is, what is your plan if the law is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? You have two minutes uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (19:56<\/a>)
\nWhat I\u2019m going to do is pass Obamacare with a public option, and become Bidencare. The public option is an option that says that if you in fact do not have the wherewithal, if you qualify for Medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal in your state to get Medicaid, you automatically are enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies. That\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen. Secondly, we\u2019re going to make sure we reduce the premiums and reduce drug prices by making sure that there\u2019s competition, that doesn\u2019t exist now, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the insurance companies. Thirdly, the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance, the reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination was I support private insurance. That\u2019s why. Not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under Obamacare. They did not lose their insurance unless they chose they wanted to go to something else.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:59<\/a>)
\nLastly, we\u2019re going to make sure we\u2019re in a situation that we actually protect pre-existing. There\u2019s no way he can protect pre-existing conditions. None, zero. You can\u2019t do it in the ether. He\u2019s been talking about this for a long time. He\u2019s never come up with a plan. I guess we\u2019re going to get the pre-existing condition plan the same time we got the infrastructure plan that we waited for since \u201917, \u201918, \u201919, and 20. I still have a few more minutes. I know you\u2019re getting anxious. The fact is that he\u2019s already cost the American people, because of his terrible handling of the COVID virus and economic spillover. 10 million people have lost their private insurance, and he wants to take away 22 million more people who have it under Obamacare and over 110 million people with pre-existing conditions. And all the people from COVID are going to have pre-existing conditions, what are they going to do?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (21:51<\/a>)
\nI have a follow-up for you Vice President Biden. It relates to something that President Trump said. He\u2019s accusing you of wanting socialized medicine. What do you say to people who have concerns that your healthcare plan, which includes a government insurance option, takes-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (22:03<\/a>)
\nConcerns that your healthcare plan, which includes a government insurance option, takes the country one step closer to a healthcare system run entirely by the government. What\u2019s your response to that?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (22:09<\/a>)
\nI say it\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s like saying that the fact that there\u2019s a public option that people can choose, that makes it a socialist plan. Look, the difference between the president and I\u2026 I think healthcare is not a privilege, it\u2019s a right. Everyone should have the right to have affordable healthcare, and I am very proud of my plan. It\u2019s gotten endorsed by all the major labor unions, as well as a whole range of other people who, in fact, are concerned in the medical field. This is something that\u2019s going to save people\u2019s lives. And this is going to give some people an opportunity to have healthcare for their children. How many of you at home are worried and rolling around in bed tonight, wondering what in God\u2019s name you\u2019re going to do if you get sick, because you\u2019ve lost your health insurance and your company\u2019s gone under? We have to provide health insurance for people at an affordable rate, and that\u2019s what I do.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:00<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:00<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. He was there-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:01<\/a>)
\n\u2026 your response.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:02<\/a>)
\n\u2026 for 47 years. He didn\u2019t do it. He was now there as vice president for eight years. And it\u2019s not like it was 25 years ago. It was three and three quarters\u2026 It was just a little while ago, right? Less than four years ago. He didn\u2019t do anything. He didn\u2019t do it. He wants socialized medicine. And it\u2019s not that he wants it. His vice president, she is more liberal than Bernie Sanders and wants it even more. Bernie Sanders wants it. The Democrats want it. You\u2019re going to have socialized medicine, just like you want it with fracking. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to have fracking. We\u2019re going to stop fracking. We\u2019re going to stop fracking.\u201d Then he goes to Pennsylvania after he gets a nomination, where he got very lucky to get it. And he goes to Pennsylvania, and he says, \u201cOh, we\u2019re going to have fracking.\u201d And you never ask that question. And by the way, so far, I respect very much the way you\u2019re handling this, I have to say.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:50<\/a>)
\nBy the way-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:50<\/a>)
\nBut somebody should ask the question.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:52<\/a>)
\nYou can ask it.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:52<\/a>)
\nHe goes for a year, there will be no fracking.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:55<\/a>)
\nWe do have a number-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:56<\/a>)
\nThere will be no petroleum-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:56<\/a>)
\nWe have a number of topics we\u2019re going to get to.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:00<\/a>)
\nNo, no. But that\u2019s a big question.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:01<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to get to a number of topics-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:01<\/a>)
\nIt\u2019s the same thing with socialized medicine.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:03<\/a>)
\nI have to respond to healthcare.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:04<\/a>)
\nVice President, your response please.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:04<\/a>)
\nMy response is, people deserve to have affordable healthcare, period. Period, period, period. And the Biden care proposal will in fact provide for that affordable healthcare, lower premiums. What we\u2019re going to do is going to cost some money. It\u2019s going to cost over $750 billion over 10 years to do it. And they\u2019re going to have lower premiums. You can buy into the better plans, the cheaper plans, lower your premiums, deal with unexpected billing, and have your drug prices drop significantly. He keeps talking about it. He hasn\u2019t done a thing for anybody on healthcare. Not a thing.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:37<\/a>)
\nKristen, when he says-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:38<\/a>)
\nVery quickly, then I want to talk about what\u2019s happening on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:39<\/a>)
\nWhen he says public option, he\u2019s talking about socialized medicine and healthcare. When he talks about a public option, he\u2019s talking about destroying your Medicare, totally destroying-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:49<\/a>)
\nWrong.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:49<\/a>)
\n\u2026 and destroying your Social Security. And this whole country will come down. Bernie Sanders tried it in his state.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:56<\/a>)
\nBernie.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:56<\/a>)
\nHe tried it in his state. His governor was a very liberal governor. They wanted to make it work.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (25:00<\/a>)
\nOkay. Let\u2019s hear-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (25:01<\/a>)
\nIt was impossible to work.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (25:02<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s let Vice President Biden respond-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (25:04<\/a>)
\nIt doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (25:05<\/a>)
\nHe\u2019s a very confused guy. He thinks he\u2019s running against somebody else. He\u2019s running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them. Joe Biden, he\u2019s running against. And the idea that we\u2019re in a situation that is going to destroy Medicare\u2026 This is the guy that the actuary of Medicare said, \u201cIf in fact\u2026\u201d That\u2019s Social Security. \u201cIf in fact he continues his plan to withhold the tax on Social Security, Social Security will be bankrupt by 2023 with no way to make up for it.\u201d This is the guy who\u2019s tried to cut Medicare. The idea that Donald Trump is lecturing me on Social Security and Medicare? Come on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (25:48<\/a>)
\nHe tried to get rid of-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (25:49<\/a>)
\n10 seconds, Mr. President, and then I have to go to another question.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (25:49<\/a>)
\nHe tried to hurt Social Security years ago. Years ago. Go back and look at the records. He tried to hurt Social Security years ago. One thing. But this is the guy-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (25:57<\/a>)
\nAll right. Let\u2019s move on. I\u2019m going to move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (25:59<\/a>)
\n\u2026 that when they announced last week-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:00<\/a>)
\nMr. President, I have to move on to the next question or else we\u2019re not going to have time to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:02<\/a>)
\nThey say the stock market will boom if I\u2019m elected. If he\u2019s elected, the stock market will crash.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:09<\/a>)
\nOkay. Let\u2019s move on to the next question.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:09<\/a>)
\nThe biggest analysts are saying that.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (26:10<\/a>)
\nMay I respond?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:10<\/a>)
\nVery quickly.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (26:12<\/a>)
\nLook, the idea that the stock market is booming is his only measure of what\u2019s happening. Where I come from in Scranton and Claymont, the people don\u2019t live off of the stock market. Just in the last three years, during this crisis, the billionaires in this country made, according to Wall Street, 700 billion more dollars. 700 billion more dollars. Because that\u2019s his only measure. What happens to the ordinary people out there? What happens to them?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:41<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s talk about what\u2019s happening on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:44<\/a>)
\n401(k)s. Kristen, 401(k)s are through the roof.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:45<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:46<\/a>)
\nPeople\u2019s stock are through the roof.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:47<\/a>)
\nAll right.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:48<\/a>)
\nAnd he doesn\u2019t come from Scranton. He lived there for a short period of time before he even knew it.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:54<\/a>)
\nOkay. We\u2019re going to move on to the next question.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:55<\/a>)
\nAnd he left. And the people of Pennsylvania will show you that.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:57<\/a>)
\nLet me move on to my next question, gentlemen.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (26:57<\/a>)
\nThey understand.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:58<\/a>)
\nAs of tonight, more than 12 million people are out of work. And as of tonight, 8 million more Americans have fallen into poverty, and more families are going hungry every day. Those hit hardest are women and people of color. They see Washington fighting over a relief bill. Mr. President, why haven\u2019t you been able to get them the help they need? 30 seconds here.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (27:18<\/a>)
\nBecause Nancy Pelosi doesn\u2019t want to approve it. I do.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (27:20<\/a>)
\nBut you\u2019re the president.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (27:22<\/a>)
\nI do. But I still have to get, unfortunately\u2026 That\u2019s one of the reasons I think we\u2019re going to take over the House, because of her. Nancy Pelosi doesn\u2019t want to approve anything because she\u2019d love to have some victories on a date called November 3rd. Nancy Pelosi does not want to approve it. We are ready, willing, and able to do something. Don\u2019t forget, we\u2019ve already approved three plans. And it\u2019s gone through, including the Democrats, in all fairness. This one, she doesn\u2019t want. It\u2019s near the election. Because she thinks it helps her politically. I think it hurts her politically.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (27:50<\/a>)
\nAll right, Mr. Vice President-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (27:51<\/a>)
\nBy the way, as you know, the Republican leader in the United States Senate said he can\u2019t pass it. He will be able to pass it. He does not have Republican votes. Why isn\u2019t he talking to his Republican friends?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (28:02<\/a>)
\nLet me follow up with you, Vice President Biden because-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (28:04<\/a>)
\nIf we made a deal, the Republicans will pass it.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (28:05<\/a>)
\nLet me ask Vice President Biden a question. You are the leader of the Democratic party. Why have you not pushed the Democrats to get a deal for the American people?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (28:13<\/a>)
\nI have, and they have pushed it. Look, they passed this act all the way back in the beginning of the summer. It\u2019s not new. It\u2019s been out there. This HEROES Act has been sitting there. And look at what\u2019s happening. When I was in charge of the recovery act with $800 billion, I was able to get $145 billion to local communities that have to balance their budgets and states that have to balance their budgets. And then they have to fire firefighters, teachers, first responders, law enforcement officers, so they could keep their cities and counties running. He will not support that. They have not done a thing for them. And Mitch McConnell said, \u201cLet them go bankrupt. Let them go bankrupt.\u201d Come on. What\u2019s the matter with these guys?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (28:56<\/a>)
\nThe bill that was passed in the House was a bailout of badly run, high crime, Democrat, all run by Democrat cities and states. It was a way of getting a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars, to these guys. It was also a way of getting a lot of money from our people\u2019s pockets to people that come into our country illegally. We were going to take care of everything for them. And I\u2019d love to do that. I\u2019d love to help them. But what that does, everybody all over the world will start pouring into our country. We can\u2019t do it. This was a way of taking care of them. This was a way of spending on things that had nothing to do with COVID, as per your question. But it was really a big bailout for badly run Democrat cities and states.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (29:39<\/a>)
\nAll right. I want to-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (29:40<\/a>)
\nBy the way, if I get elected, I\u2019m not going to\u2026 I\u2019m running as a proud Democrat, but I\u2019m going to be an American president. I don\u2019t see red states and blue states. What I see is American United States. And folks, every single state out there finds themself in trouble. They\u2019re going to start laying off, whether they\u2019re red or blue, cops, firefighters, first responders, teachers, because they have to balance their budget. And the founders were smart. They allowed the federal government to deficit spend to compensate for the United States of America.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (30:10<\/a>)
\nI want to talk about the minimum wage, gentlemen. Mr. Vice President, we are talking a lot about struggling small businesses and business owners these days. Do you think this is the right time to ask them to raise the minimum wage? You of course support a $15 federal minimum wage.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (30:24<\/a>)
\nI do, because I think one of the things we\u2019re going to have to do is we\u2019re going to have to bail them out too. We should be bailing them out now, those small businesses. You got one in six of them going under. They\u2019re not going to be able to make it back. They passed a package that allows us to be able\u2026 They call it PPP. Money is supposed to go to help them do everything from organize how they can deal with their businesses being open safely, schools, how they can make classrooms smaller, how they can hire more teachers, how they can put ventilation systems in. They need the help. The businesses, as well as the schools, need the help. These guys will not help them. It\u2019s not giving them any of the money.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:05<\/a>)
\nWe are going to move on to immigration, but I want to get-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:06<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. One thing very quickly. He said we have to help our small businesses by raising the minimum wage. That\u2019s not helping. I think it should be a state option. Alabama is different than New York. New York is different from Vermont. Every state is different. It should be a state option.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:21<\/a>)
\nYou said very recently-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:22<\/a>)
\nIt\u2019s very important. We have to help our small businesses.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:25<\/a>)
\nYou said-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:25<\/a>)
\nHow are you helping your small businesses when you\u2019re forcing wages? What\u2019s going to happen, and what\u2019s been proven to happen, is when you do that, these small businesses fire many of their employees.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:35<\/a>)
\nYou said very recently-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (31:35<\/a>)
\nNot true, by the way.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:36<\/a>)
\n\u2026 you would consider raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:39<\/a>)
\nSay it. Say it.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:39<\/a>)
\nYou said recently you would consider raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:44<\/a>)
\nWhat I really like, and I would consider it to an extent-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (31:46<\/a>)
\nIn a second administration?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:47<\/a>)
\nBut what I really like\u2026 In a second administration. But not to a level that\u2019s going to put all these businesses out of business. It should be a state option. Look, I\u2019ve lived-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (31:55<\/a>)
\nEvery-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (31:56<\/a>)
\n\u2026 in different places. I know different places. They\u2019re all different. Some places, $ 15 is not so bad. In other places, other states, $15 would be ruinings.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (32:05<\/a>)
\nOkay, President Trump, thank you. Quick response Vice President Biden.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (32:09<\/a>)
\nNo one should work one job, be below poverty. People are making six, seven, eight bucks an hour. These first responders we all clap for as they come down the street because they\u2019ve allowed us to make it. What\u2019s happening? They deserve a minimum wage of $15. Anything below that puts you below the poverty level. And there is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business. That is simply not true.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (32:34<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to talk about immigration.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (32:35<\/a>)
\nIt\u2019s an [crosstalk 00:32:35]-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (32:37<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to talk about immigration now, gentlemen. And we\u2019re going to talk about families within this context. Mr. President, your administration separated children from their parents at the border, at least 4,000 kids. You\u2019ve since reversed your zero tolerance policy, but the United States can\u2019t locate the parents of more than 500 children. So how will these families ever be reunited?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (32:57<\/a>)
\nChildren are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels\u2026<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (33:02<\/a>)
\n[inaudible 00:33:00] and lots of bad people, cartels, and they\u2019re brought here and they used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as we\u2019ve ever had. We\u2019re over 400 miles of brand new wall. You see the numbers. And we let people in, but they have to come in legally and they come in through [crosstalk 00:00:17]-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (33:17<\/a>)
\nBut how will you reunite these kids with their families, Mr. President?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (33:20<\/a>)
\nBut let me just tell you. Let me just tell you. They built cages. They used to say I built the cages, and then they had a picture in a certain newspaper, and it was the picture of these horrible cages and they said, \u201cLook at these cages. President Trump built them.\u201d And then it was determined they were built in 2014. That was him. They built cages.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (33:39<\/a>)
\nDo you have a plan to reunite the kids with their families?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (33:39<\/a>)
\nYes. We\u2019re working on it very\u2026 We\u2019re trying very hard. But a lot of these kids come out without the parents. They come over through cartels and through coyotes and through gangs.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (33:48<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, let me bring you into this conversation. Quick response, and then another question to you.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (33:52<\/a>)
\nThese 500-plus kids came with parents. They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. \u201cBe real tough. We\u2019re really strong.\u201d And guess what? They cannot\u2026 Coyotes didn\u2019t bring them over. Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents. And it makes us a laughingstock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (34:18<\/a>)
\nLet me ask you a followup question.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (34:19<\/a>)
\nKristen, they did it. We changed the policy. They did it. We changed.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (34:22<\/a>)
\nYour response to that?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (34:22<\/a>)
\nWe did not separate the [crosstalk 00:34:25]-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (34:26<\/a>)
\nThey built the cages. Who built the cages, Joe?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (34:27<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s talk about what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (34:28<\/a>)
\nWho built the cages, Joe?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (34:29<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s talk about what we\u2019re talking about. What happened? Parents were ripped\u2026 Their kids were ripped from their arms and separated, and now they cannot find over 500 of the sets of those parents, and those kids are alone. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. It\u2019s criminal. It\u2019s criminal.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (34:49<\/a>)
\nLet me ask you about [crosstalk 00:34:50] in 10 seconds and then I need to ask [crosstalk 00:34:53].<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (34:50<\/a>)
\nKristen, I will say this. They went down. We brought reporters, everything. They are so well taken care of. They\u2019re in facilities that were so clean.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (34:58<\/a>)
\nBut some of them haven\u2019t been reunited with their families.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (35:00<\/a>)
\nThey have gotten such good\u2026 But just ask one question. Who built the cages? I\u2019d love you to ask him that. Who built the cages, Joe?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (35:05<\/a>)
\nLet me ask about your immigration policy, Mr. Vice President. The Obama Administration did fail to deliver immigration reform, which had been a key promise during the administration. It also presided over record deportations, as well as, family detentions at the border before changing course. So why should voters trust you with an immigration overhaul now?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (35:23<\/a>)
\nBecause we made a mistake made. It took too long to get it right. Took too long to get it right. I\u2019ll be President of the United States, not Vice President of the United States. And the fact is I\u2019ve made it very clear. Within a 100 days, I\u2019m going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people. And all of those so-called dreamers, those DACA kids, they\u2019re going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship. The idea that they are being sent home by this guy and they want to do that is they\u2019ve gone to they\u2019ve never seen before. I can imagine. You\u2019re five years old. Your parents are taking across the Rio Grande River and it\u2019s illegal. And you say, \u201cOh, no, Mom. Leave me here. I\u2019m not going to go with you.\u201d They been here. Many of them are model citizens. Over 20,000 of them are first responders out there taking care of people during this crisis. We owe them. We owe them.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (36:24<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, your reaction.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (36:24<\/a>)
\nKristen, he had eight years to do what he said he was going to do. And I\u2019ve changed. Without having a specific, we got rid of catch and release. We got rid of a lot of horrible things that they put in and that they lived with. But he had eight years he was Vice President. He did nothing except build cages to keep children in.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (36:47<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your response.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (36:48<\/a>)
\nThe catch and release, you know what he\u2019s talking about there? If in fact you had a family came across and they were arrested, they in fact were given a date to show up for their hearing. They were released. And guess what? They showed up for a hearing. And this is the first President in the history of the United States of America that anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That\u2019s never happened before in America. That\u2019s never happened before in America. You come to the United States and you make your case that, \u201cI seek asylum based on the following premise, why I deserve it under American law.\u201d They\u2019re sitting in squalor on the other side of the river.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (37:27<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, your response. 30 seconds. And then we\u2019ll move on.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (37:29<\/a>)
\nSo important. It just shows that he has no understanding of immigration, of the laws. Catch and release is a disaster. A murderer would come in. A rapist would come in. A very bad person would come in. We would take their name. We have to release them into our country. And then you say they come back. Less than 1% of the people come back. We have to send ICE out and Border Patrol out to find them. We would say, \u201cCome back in two years, three years. We\u2019re going to give you a court case. You did Perry Mason. We\u2019re going to give you a court case.\u201d When you say they come back, they don\u2019t come back, Joe. They never come back. Only the really\u2026 I hate to say this, but those with the lowest IQ, they might come back, but there are very, very few.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (38:15<\/a>)
\nOkay, President Trump. Let\u2019s give Vice President Biden a chance to respond, and then we\u2019re going to move on to the next section.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (38:20<\/a>)
\nYou don\u2019t know the law, Joe.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (38:21<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your response.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (38:22<\/a>)
\nKnow the law, what he\u2019s telling you is simply not true. Check it out.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (38:25<\/a>)
\nWell, check it out. They don\u2019t come back.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (38:26<\/a>)
\nCheck it out.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (38:27<\/a>)
\nAll right. Let\u2019s move on to the next section.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (38:28<\/a>)
\nBut we don\u2019t have to worry about it, because they terminated it. So we don\u2019t have to worry about it anymore, Joe.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (38:30<\/a>)
\nLet\u2019s move on to the next section.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (38:32<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s right. And you 525 kids not knowing where in God\u2019s name they\u2019re going to be and lost their parents.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (38:36<\/a>)
\nGo ahead.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (38:37<\/a>)
\nAll right. Let\u2019s talk about our next section, which is race in America. And I want to talk about the way Black and Brown Americans experience race in this country. Part of that experience is something called the talk. It happens regardless of class and income, parents who feel they have no choice, but to prepare their children for the chance that they could be targeted, including by the police, for no reason other than the color of their skin. Mr. Vice President, in the next two minutes, I want you to speak directly to these families. Do you understand why these parents fear for their children?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (39:14<\/a>)
\nI do. I do. My daughter is a social worker and she\u2019s written a lot about this. She has her graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in social work. And one of the reasons why I ended up working on the East Side of Wilmington, Delaware, which is 90% African-American, was to learn more about what was going on. I never had to tell my daughter if she\u2019s pulled over, make sure she puts\u2026 For a traffic stop. \u201cPut both hands on top of the wheel and don\u2019t reach for the glove box because someone may shoot you.\u201d But a Black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are, has to teach their child, \u201cWhen you\u2019re walking down the street, don\u2019t have a hoodie on when you go across the street.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (00:00<\/a>)
\nMaking sure that you, in fact, if you get pulled over just, yes, sir, no, sir. Hands on top of the wheel. Because you are in fact, the victim, whether you\u2019re a person making 300,000 \u2026 child of a $300,000 a year person or someone who\u2019s on food stamps. The fact of the matter is, there is institutional racism in America. And we have always said, we\u2019ve never lived up to it, that we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal. Well, guess what, we have never, ever lived up to it. But we\u2019ve always constantly been moving the needle further and further to inclusion, not exclusion. This is the first president to come along and says, that\u2019s the end of that. We\u2019re not going to do that anymore. We have to provide for economic opportunity, better education, better healthcare, better access to schooling, better access to opportunity to borrow money to start businesses, all the things we can do. And I\u2019ve laid out a clear plan as to how to do those things just to give people a shot. It\u2019s about accumulating the ability to have wealth as well as it is to be free from violence.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (01:06<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, same question to you, and let me remind you of the question. I would like you to speak directly to these families, do you understand why these parents fear for their children?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (01:15<\/a>)
\nYes, I do. And again, he\u2019s been in government 47 years, he never did a thing, except in 1994, when he did such harm to the black community, and they were called \u2026 and he called them superpredators. And he said that, he said it, superpredators. And they never lived that down. 1994, your crime bill, the superpredators. Nobody has done more for the black community than Donald Trump. And if you look, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, possible exception, but the exception of Abraham Lincoln, nobody has done what I\u2019ve done. Criminal justice reform, Obama and Joe didn\u2019t do it. I don\u2019t even think they tried because they had no chance at doing it. They might\u2019ve wanted to do it. But if you had to see the arms I had to twist to get that done, it was not a pretty picture. And everybody knows it, including some very liberal people that cried in my office. They cried in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (02:15<\/a>)
\nTwo weeks later, they\u2019re out saying, \u201cGee, we have to defeat him.\u201d Criminal justice reform, prison reform, Opportunity Zones with Tim Scott, a great Senator from South Carolina. He came in with this incredible idea for Opportunity Zones. It\u2019s one of the most successful programs. People don\u2019t talk about it. Tremendous investment is being made, biggest beneficiary, the black and Hispanic communities. And then Historically Black Colleges and Universities, after three years of coming to the office, I love some of those guys, they were great. They came into the office and I said, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d After three years, I said, \u201cWhy do you keep coming back?\u201d Because we have no funding.\u201d I said, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to come back every year.\u201d \u201cWe have to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (02:57<\/a>)
\nBecause President Obama would never give them long-term funding and I did. 10 year long-term funding and I gave them more money than they asked for because I said, \u201cI think you need more.\u201d And I said, \u201cThe only bad part about this is I may never see you again.\u201d Because I got very friendly with them and they like me and I like them. But I saved Historically Black Colleges and Universities.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (03:19<\/a>)
\nOkay, and we\u2019re going to talk about both of your records, but your response to that Vice President.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (03:23<\/a>)
\nMy response to that is I never ever said what he accused me of saying. The fact of the matter is in 2000 though, after the crime bill had been in the law for awhile, this is a guy who said, \u201cThe problem with the crime bill, there\u2019s not enough people in jail. There\u2019s not enough people in jail.\u201d And go on my website, get the quote, the date when he said it, \u201cnot enough people.\u201d He talked about marauding gangs, young gangs, and the people who are going to maraud our cities. This is a guy who in the Central Park Five, five innocent black kids, he continued to push for making sure that they got the death penalty. None of them were guilty of the crimes they were suggested. Look and granted, he did in fact, let 20 people \u2026 he commuted 20 people\u2019s sentences.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (04:12<\/a>)
\nWe commuted over 1,000 people\u2019s sentences, over 1,000. The very law he\u2019s talking about is a law that in fact, initiated by Barack Obama. And secondly, we\u2019re in a situation here where the federal prison system was reduced by 38,000 people under our administration. And one of those things we should be doing, there should be no, no minimum mandatories in the law. That\u2019s why I\u2019m offering $20 billion to states to change their state laws to eliminate minimum mandatories and set up drug courts. No one should be going to jail because they have a drug problem. They should be going to rehabilitation, not to jail. We should fundamentally change the system and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (04:53<\/a>)
\nBut why didn\u2019t he do it four years ago? Why didn\u2019t you do that four years ago? Even less than that. Why didn\u2019t you when you vice president? You keep talking about all these things you\u2019re going to do, and you\u2019re going to do this, but you were there just a short time ago and you guys did nothing.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (05:09<\/a>)
\nWe did-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:09<\/a>)
\nYou know Joe, I ran because of you. I ran because of Barack Obama, because you did a poor job. If I thought you did a good job, I would\u2019ve never run. I would\u2019ve never run. I ran because of you. I\u2019m looking at you now, you\u2019re a politician, I ran because of you.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (05:24<\/a>)
\nAll right, Vice President Biden, your response to that. And then I do have some questions for both of you.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (05:28<\/a>)
\nWell, I\u2019ll tell you what I hope he does look at me because what\u2019s happening here is, you know who I am. You know who he is, you know his character, you know my character, you know our reputations for honor and telling the truth. I am anxious to have this race. I\u2019m anxious to see this take place. I am \u2026 The character of the country is on the ballot. Our character\u2019s on the ballot, look at us closely.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (05:52<\/a>)
\nLet me ask some follow up-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:53<\/a>)
\nExcuse me-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (05:53<\/a>)
\nPlease respond and then we\u2019re going to have follow up questions.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (05:55<\/a>)
\nIf this stuff is true about Russia, Ukraine, China, other countries, Iraq. If this is true, then he\u2019s a corrupt politician. So don\u2019t give me the stuff about how you\u2019re this innocent baby. Joe, that calling you a corrupt politician-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:09<\/a>)
\nNobody\u2019s calling me-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (06:10<\/a>)
\nThey\u2019re calling it the laptop from hell.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (06:10<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, I want to stay on the issue of race. We\u2019re talking about the issue-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (06:13<\/a>)
\nExcuse me, [crosstalk 00:06:13] the laptop from hell.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:13<\/a>)
\nNobody.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (06:14<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, we\u2019re talking about race right now. And I do want to stay on the issue of race. President Trump you-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:20<\/a>)
\nI have to respond to that. Because look-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (06:21<\/a>)
\nPlease, very quickly.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:22<\/a>)
\nThere are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he\u2019s accusing me of is a Russian plant. They have said that this has all the \u2026 five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he\u2019s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend, Rudy Giuliani.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (06:44<\/a>)
\nYou mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax? You got to be kidding me-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (06:51<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s exactly what was told.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (06:51<\/a>)
\nThis is where he\u2019s going. The laptop is Russia, Russia, Russia?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (06:55<\/a>)
\nGentlemen, I want to stay on the issue of race.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (06:56<\/a>)
\nYou have to be kidding, here we go again with the Russia. Boy, oh, boy.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (06:59<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to continue on the issue of race.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:01<\/a>)
\nCan\u2019t believe that one.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:01<\/a>)
\nMr. President you\u2019ve described the Black Lives Matter movement as a symbol of hate. You\u2019ve shared a video of a man chanting white power to millions of your supporters. You\u2019ve said that black professional athletes exercising their First Amendment rights should be fired. What do you say to Americans who say that kind of language from a president is contributing to a climate of hate and racial strife?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:24<\/a>)
\nWell, you have to understand the first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter, they were chanting, \u201cPigs in a blanket,\u201d talking about police, pigs, pigs, talking about our police. \u201cPigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon.\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s a horrible thing.\u201d And they were marching down the street. And that was my first glimpse of Black Lives Matter, I thought it was a terrible thing. As far as my relationships with all people, I think I have great relationships with all people. I am the least racist person in this room.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (07:55<\/a>)
\nWhat do you say to Americans who are concerned by that rhetoric [crosstalk 00:00:07:58]?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (07:58<\/a>)
\nI don\u2019t know. I mean, I don\u2019t know what to say. I got criminal justice reform done and prison reform and Opportunity Zones-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (08:03<\/a>)
\n\u2026 got criminal justice reform done, and prison reform, and Opportunity Zones, I took care of Black colleges and universities, I don\u2019t know what to say, they can say anything, I mean, they can say anything. It\u2019s a very\u2026 Makes me sad, because I am the least racist person, I can\u2019t even see the audience because it\u2019s so dark, but I don\u2019t care who\u2019s in the audience, I\u2019m the least racist person in this room.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (08:26<\/a>)
\nOkay. Vice President Biden, let me ask you very quickly and then I have a follow-up question for you.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (08:30<\/a>)
\nAbraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we\u2019ve had in modern history, he pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one. Started off his campaign coming down the escalator saying he\u2019s getting rid of those Mexican rapists, he\u2019s ban Muslims because they\u2019re Muslims, he has moved around and made everything worse across the board. He says to\u2026 About the Proud Boys, last time we were on stage here he said, \u201cI tell them to stand down and stand ready.\u201d Come on, this guy has a dog whistle about as big as a foghorn.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (09:04<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, I\u2019m going to give you 10 seconds to respond and then I have a follow-up question.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:07<\/a>)
\nNo, he made a reference to Abraham Lincoln, where did that come in? I mean-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:10<\/a>)
\nYou said you\u2019re Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:12<\/a>)
\n\u2026 where did that\u2026.. No.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:13<\/a>)
\nYou said-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:14<\/a>)
\nI said, \u201cNot since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I\u2019ve done for the Black community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:19<\/a>)
\nAnd I\u2019m saying-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:20<\/a>)
\nI didn\u2019t say, \u201cI\u2019m Abraham Lincoln,\u201d I said, \u201cNot since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I\u2019ve done for the Black community.\u201d Now, you have done nothing other than the Crime Bill, which put-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:32<\/a>)
\nOh, God.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:33<\/a>)
\nTens of thousands of Black men, mostly, in jail.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (09:39<\/a>)
\nNot true.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (09:39<\/a>)
\nAll right, let me ask Vice President Biden a question.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (09:41<\/a>)
\nAnd you know what? They remember it because if you look at what\u2019s happening with the voting right now, they remember that you treated them very, very badly, just take a look at what\u2019s happening out there.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (09:49<\/a>)
\nLet me ask Vice President Biden about\u2026 Vice President Biden, let me give you a chance to respond within this context, crime bills that you supported in the \u201980s and \u201990s contributed to the incarceration of tens of thousands of young Black men who had small amounts of drugs in their possession, they are sons, they are brothers, they are fathers, they are uncles, whose families are still to this day, some of them suffering the consequences. So, speak to those families, why should they vote for you?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (10:11<\/a>)
\nOne of the things is that in the \u201980s we passed 100 percent, all 100 senators voted for a bill on drugs and how to deal with drugs, it was a mistake. I\u2019ve been trying to change since then particularly the portion on cocaine. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been arguing that in fact we should not send anyone to jail for a pure drug offense, they should be going into treatment across the board, that\u2019s what we should be spending money. And that\u2019s why I set up drug courts which were never funded by our Republican friends. They should not be going to jail for a drug or an alcohol problem, they should be going into treatment. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been trying to do, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to get done because I think the American people have now seen that in fact it was a mistake to pass those laws relating to drugs, but they were not in the Crime Bill.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:04<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:11:04].<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:04<\/a>)
\nBut, why didn\u2019t he get it done? See, it\u2019s all talk, no action with these politicians, why didn\u2019t he get it? \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do when I become president.\u201d You were vice president along with Obama as your president, your leader, for eight years, why didn\u2019t you get it done? You had eight years to get it done, now you\u2019re saying you\u2019re going to get it done because you\u2019re all talking and no action, Joe.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:25<\/a>)
\nYour response.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:25<\/a>)
\nWe got a lot of it done. We released 38,000-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:27<\/a>)
\nYou didn\u2019t get anything done.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:28<\/a>)
\nWe got 38,000 prisoners [ crosstalk 00:11:30]-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:30<\/a>)
\nYou got nothing done.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (11:31<\/a>)
\n38,000 prisoners were released from federal prison, we have\u2026 There were over a thousand people who were given clemency. [inaudible 00:03:38]. In fact, were the ones that put in the legislation saying we could look at pattern and practice of police departments and what they were doing, how they\u2019re conducting themselves. I could go on, but we began the process, we lost an election, that\u2019s why I\u2019m running to win back that election and change his terrible policy.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:57<\/a>)
\nI just have-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (11:57<\/a>)
\nYour response and then we\u2019re going to move on to climate change.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (11:58<\/a>)
\n\u2026 one question, why didn\u2019t you do it in the eight years, a short time ago? Why didn\u2019t you do it? You just said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do that, I\u2019m going to do this.\u201d You put tens of thousands of mostly Black young men in prison, now you\u2019re saying you\u2019re going to get\u2026 You\u2019re going to undo that, why didn\u2019t you get it done? You had eight years with Obama. You know why, Joe? Because you\u2019re all talk and no action.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:22<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:00:12:23].<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:22<\/a>)
\nAll right, Vice President Biden, and then we\u2019re going to move on to the next section.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:25<\/a>)
\nWe had a Republican Congress, that\u2019s the answer.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:31<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (12:32<\/a>)
\nWell, you got to talk them into it, Joe, sometimes you got to talk them into it.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:35<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re going to move on to our next section which is climate change.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (12:37<\/a>)
\n\u2026 like I did with criminal justice reform, I had to talk Democrats into it.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (12:41<\/a>)
\nYou did what we already had done.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (12:41<\/a>)
\nGentlemen, we\u2019re running out of time so we got to get onto climate change, please. You both have very different visions on climate change. President Trump, you say that environmental regulations have hurt jobs in the energy sector, Vice President Biden, you have said you see addressing climate change as an opportunity to create new jobs. For each of you, how would you both combat climate change and support job growth at the same time? Starting with you, President Trump, you have two minutes uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (13:08<\/a>)
\nSo, we have the trillion trees program, we have so many different programs, I do love the environment, but what I want is that cleanest crystal clear water, the cleanest air. We have the best lowest number in carbon emissions, which is a big standard that I noticed Obama goes with all the time, not Joe, I haven\u2019t heard Joe use the term because I\u2019m not sure he knows what it represents or means, but I have heard Obama use it. And we have the best carbon emission numbers that we\u2019ve had in 35 years under this administration, we are working so well with industry, but here\u2019s what we can\u2019t do. Look at China, how filthy it is, look at Russia, look at India, it\u2019s filthy, the air is filthy. The [Paris Accord 00:00:13:55], I took us out because we were going to have to spend trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (14:03<\/a>)
\nWhen they put us in there, they did us a great disservice, they were going to take away our businesses. I will not sacrifice tens of millions of jobs, thousands and thousands of companies because of the Paris Accord, it was so unfair. China doesn\u2019t kick in until 2030, Russia goes back to a low standard, and we kicked in right away, it would have been\u2026 It would have destroyed our businesses. So, you ready? We have done an incredible job environmentally, we have the cleanest air, the cleanest water, and the best carbon emission standards that we\u2019ve seen in many, many years.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (14:41<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (14:41<\/a>)
\nAnd we haven\u2019t destroyed our industries.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (14:44<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, two minutes to you uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (14:47<\/a>)
\nClimate change, global warming is an existential threat to humanity. We have a moral obligation to deal with it. And we\u2019re told by all the leading scientists in the world we don\u2019t have much time, we\u2019re going to pass the point of no return within the next 8 to 10 years. Four more years of this man eliminating all the regulations that were put in by us to clean up the climate, to clean up\u2026 To limit the emissions, will put us in a position where we\u2019re going to be in real trouble. Here\u2019s where we have a great opportunity. I was able to get both all the environmental organizations as well as the labor, the people worried about jobs, to support my climate plan.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (15:32<\/a>)
\nBecause what it does, it will create millions of new good paying jobs, we\u2019re going to invest in, for example, 500,000\u2026 Excuse me, 50,000 charging stations on our highways so that we can own the electric car market of the future. In the meantime, China is doing that. We\u2019re going to be in a position where we\u2019re going to see to it that we\u2019re going to take 4 million existing buildings and 2 million existing homes and retrofit them so they don\u2019t leak as much energy, saving hundreds of millions of barrels of\u2026<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (16:03<\/a>)
\nSo they don\u2019t leak as much energy saving hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in the process and creating significant number of jobs. By the way, the whole idea of what this is all going to do, it\u2019s going to create millions of jobs and it\u2019s going to clean the environment. Our health and our jobs are at stake. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening and what right now, by the way, Wall Street firms indicated that my plan, my plan will in fact, create 18.6 million jobs, 7 million more than his. This is from Wall Street and I\u2019ll create $1 trillion more in economic growth than his proposal does. Not on climate, just on economy.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (16:41<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump, your response.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:42<\/a>)
\nThey came out and said very strongly $6,500 will be taken away from families under his plan, that his plan is an economic disaster. If you look at what he wants to do, if you look at his plan, his-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (16:56<\/a>)
\n[crosstalk 00:16:56].<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (16:57<\/a>)
\n\u2026 his environmental plan, do you know developed it? AOC plus three, they know nothing about the climate. I mean, she\u2019s got a good line of stuff, but she knows nothing about the climate and they\u2019re all hopping through hoops for AOC plus three. Look, their real plan cost a hundred trillion dollars. If we had the best year in the history of our country for a hundred years, we would not even come close to a number like that. When he says buildings, they want to take buildings down because they want to make bigger windows into smaller windows. As far as they\u2019re concerned, if you had no window, it would be a lovely thing.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (17:32<\/a>)
\nThis is the craziest plan that anybody has ever seen and this wasn\u2019t done by smart people. This wasn\u2019t done by anybody. Frankly, I don\u2019t even know how it can be good politically. They want to spend a hundred trillion dollars. That\u2019s their real number. He\u2019s trying to say it was six. It\u2019s a hundred trillion dollars. They want to knock down buildings and build new buildings with little, tiny, small windows and many other things-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (17:57<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (17:57<\/a>)
\nAnd many other things. And many other things.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (17:58<\/a>)
\nOkay, let me have the vice-president respond.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (17:58<\/a>)
\nIt is crazy.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (17:59<\/a>)
\nWe\u2019re running out of time and we have a lot more questions to get back to.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (18:01<\/a>)
\nYou\u2019ll destroy our country.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:02<\/a>)
\nSo let\u2019s hear from the vice president. I have a number of more question..<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (18:07<\/a>)
\nI don\u2019t know where he comes from. I don\u2019t know where he comes up with these numbers.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:09<\/a>)
\nQueens.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (18:09<\/a>)
\nA hundred trillion dollars, give me a break. This plan has been endorsed by every major, every major environmental group and every labor group, labor, because they know the future lies. The future lies in us being able to breathe and they know they\u2019re good jobs and getting us there.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (18:29<\/a>)
\nBy the way, the fastest growing industry in America is the electric, excuse me, solar energy and wind. He thinks wind causes cancer, windmills. It\u2019s the fastest growing jobs and they pay good prevailing wages, 45, 50 bucks an hour. We can grow and we can be cleaner if we go the route I\u2019m proposing.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:54<\/a>)
\nPresident Trump-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (18:55<\/a>)
\nExcuse me.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (18:55<\/a>)
\nPlease respond and then I have his follow up.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (18:56<\/a>)
\nWe are energy independent for first time. We don\u2019t need all of these countries that we had to fight war over because we needed their energy. We are energy independent. I know more about wind than you do. It\u2019s extremely expensive. Kills all the birds. It\u2019s very intermittent. It\u2019s got a lot of problems and they happen to make the windmills in both Germany and China and the fumes coming up, if you\u2019re a believer in carbon emission, the fumes coming up to make these massive windmills is more than anything that we\u2019re talking about with natural gas, which is very clear.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (19:29<\/a>)
\nOne other thing, solar-<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (19:31<\/a>)
\nFind me a scientist who says that.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (19:31<\/a>)
\nI love solar, but solar doesn\u2019t quite have it yet. It\u2019s not powerful yet to really run our big, beautiful factories that we need to compete with the world.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (19:42<\/a>)
\nFalse.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (19:42<\/a>)
\nIt\u2019s all a pipe dream, but you know what we\u2019ll do? We\u2019re going to have the greatest economy in the world, but if you want to kill the economy, get rid of your oil industry you want. And what about fracking?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (19:54<\/a>)
\nLet me-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (19:54<\/a>)
\nNow we have to ask him about fracking.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (19:56<\/a>)
\nLet me allow the Vice President Biden to respond.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (19:57<\/a>)
\nI never said I oppose fracking.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (20:00<\/a>)
\nYou said it on tape.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:02<\/a>)
\nShow the tape, put it on your website.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (20:04<\/a>)
\nI\u2019ll put it on.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:05<\/a>)
\nPut it on the website. The fact of the matter is he\u2019s flat lying.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (20:09<\/a>)
\nWould you rule out about banning fracking?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:11<\/a>)
\nI do rule out banning fracking because the answer we need, we need other industries to transition, to get to ultimately a complete zero emissions by 2025. What I will do with fracking over time is make sure that we can capture the emissions from the fracking, capture the emissions from gas. We can do that and we can do that by investing money in doing it, but it\u2019s a transition to that.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (20:38<\/a>)
\nI have one more question in this pile then-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (20:40<\/a>)
\nExcuse me. He was against fracking. He said it. I will show that to you tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:45<\/a>)
\nGood.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (20:45<\/a>)
\nI am against fracking. Until he got the nomination, he went to Pennsylvania. Then he said, \u201cBut you know what Pennsylvania?\u201d He\u2019ll be against it very soon because his party is totally against it.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (20:54<\/a>)
\nFracking on federal land. I said, no fracking and\/or oil on federal land.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (20:59<\/a>)
\nLet me ask this final question in this section and then I want to move on to our final section. President Trump, people of color are much more likely to live near oil refineries and chemical plants. In Texas, there are families who worry the plants near them are making them sick. Your administration has rolled back regulations on these kinds of facilities. Why should these families give you another four years in office?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (21:21<\/a>)
\nThe families that we\u2019re talking about are employed heavily and they are making a lot of money, more money than they\u2019ve ever made. If you look at the kind of numbers that we\u2019ve produced for Hispanic, for Black, for Asian, it\u2019s nine times greater the percentage gain than it was under in three years than it was under eight years of the two of them to put it nicely, nine times more.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (21:48<\/a>)
\nNow somebody lives, I have not heard the numbers or the statistics that you\u2019re saying, but they\u2019re making a tremendous amount of money. Economically, we saved it and I saved it again a number of months ago, when oil was crashing because of the pandemic. We saved it.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (22:04<\/a>)
\nSay what you want to bet relationship. We got Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Russia to cut back, way back. We saved our oil industry and now it\u2019s very vibrant again and everybody has very inexpensive gasoline. Remember that.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (22:17<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, your response and then we\u2019re going to have a final question for both of you.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (22:21<\/a>)
\nMy response is that those people live on what they call fence lines. He doesn\u2019t understand this. They live near chemical plants that in fact, pollute, chemical plants and oil plants and refineries that pollute.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (22:33<\/a>)
\nI used to live near that when I was growing up in Claymont, Delaware and there are more oil refineries in Marcus Hook and the Delaware River than there is any place, including in Houston at the time. When my mom get in the car and when there are first frost to drive me to school, turning the windshield wiper, there\u2019d been oil slick in the window. That\u2019s why so many people in my state were dying and getting cancer. The fact is those frontline communities, it\u2019s not a matter of what you\u2019re paying them. It matters how you keep them safe. What do you do? You impose restrictions on the pollutions that if the pollutants coming out of those fence line communities.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:07<\/a>)
\nOkay. I have one final question called.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:08<\/a>)
\nWould he close down the oil industry?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:10<\/a>)
\nIt falls-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:10<\/a>)
\nWould you close dow the oil industry?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:12<\/a>)
\nBy the way, I have a transition from the old industry, yes.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:15<\/a>)
\nOh, that\u2019s a big statement.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:15<\/a>)
\nI will transition. It is a big statement.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:17<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s a big statement.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:18<\/a>)
\nBecause I would stop.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:19<\/a>)
\nWhy would you do that?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:21<\/a>)
\nBecause the oil industry pollutes, significantly.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:24<\/a>)
\nOh, I see. Okay.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:24<\/a>)
\nHere\u2019s the deal-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:25<\/a>)
\nThat\u2019s a big statement.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:26<\/a>)
\nWell if you let me finish the statement, because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time, over time, and I\u2019d stopped giving to the oil industry, I\u2019d stop giving them federal subsidies. You won\u2019t get federal subsidies to the gas, oh, excuse me to solar and wind.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:45<\/a>)
\nYeah.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (23:46<\/a>)
\nWhy are we giving it to oil industry?<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:47<\/a>)
\nWe actually give it to solar and wind. That\u2019s maybe the biggest statement. In terms of business, that\u2019s the biggest statement.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:53<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:53<\/a>)
\nBecause basically what he\u2019s saying is-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (23:55<\/a>)
\nWe have one final question, Mr. President.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (23:55<\/a>)
\n\u2026 he is going to destroy the oil industry. Will you remember that Texas? Will you remember that Pennsylvania, Oklahoma?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:03<\/a>)
\nOkay, Vice President Biden, let me give you 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:03<\/a>)
\nOkay.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:03<\/a>)
\nRemember that Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, is-<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:03<\/a>)
\nVice President Biden, let me give you 10 seconds to respond-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:04<\/a>)
\nOhio.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:05<\/a>)
\n\u2026 and then I have to get to the final question. Vice President Biden.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:07<\/a>)
\nHe takes everything out of context, but the point is, look, we have to move toward net zero emissions. The first place to do that by the year 2035 is in energy production, by 2050 totally.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:21<\/a>)
\nAll right. One final question to both of you-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:22<\/a>)
\nIs he going to get China to do it?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:23<\/a>)
\nNo, we\u2019re finished with this-<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:23<\/a>)
\nIs he going to get China to do it?<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:24<\/a>)
\nWe have to move onto our final question.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:25<\/a>)
\nNo, I\u2019m going to rejoin Paris Accord and make China abide by what they agreed to.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump: (24:30<\/a>)
\n[Crosstalk 00:24:31].<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (24:30<\/a>)
\nAll right. This is about leadership, gentlemen. And this first question does go to you, President Trump. Imagine this is your inauguration day. What will you say in your address, to Americans who did not vote for you? You\u2019ll each have one minute, starting with you, Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (24:47<\/a>)
\nWe have to make our country totally successful, as it was prior to the plague coming in from China. Now we\u2019re rebuilding it and we\u2019re doing record numbers, 11.4 million jobs in a short period of time, et cetera. But, I will tell you, go back.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (25:01<\/a>)
\nBefore the plague came in, just before, I was getting calls from people that were not normally people that would call me. They wanted to get together. We had the best Black unemployment numbers in the history of our country. Hispanic, women, Asian, people with diplomas, with no diplomas, MIT graduates; number one in the class, everybody had the best numbers. And you know what? The other side wanted to get together. They wanted to unify.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (25:28<\/a>)
\nSuccess is going to bring us together. We are on the road to success. But I\u2019m cutting taxes, and he wants to raise everybody\u2019s taxes and he wants to put new regulations on everything. He will kill it. If he gets in, you will have a Depression, the likes of which you\u2019ve never seen. Your 401(k)s will go to hell, and it\u2019ll be a very, very sad day for this country.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (25:49<\/a>)
\nAll right. Vice President Biden, same question to you: what will you say during your inaugural address to Americans who did not vote for you?<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (25:57<\/a>)
\nI will say, I\u2019m an American President. I represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me, and I\u2019m going to make sure that you\u2019re represented. I\u2019m going to give you hope. We\u2019re going to move; we\u2019re going to choose science over fiction. We\u2019re going to choose hope over fear. We\u2019re going to choose to move forward because we have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities to make things better.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (26:19<\/a>)
\nWe can grow this economy, we can deal with the systemic racism. At the same time, we can make sure that our economy is being run and moved and motivated by clean energy, creating millions of new jobs. That\u2019s the fact, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. And I\u2019m going to say, as I said at the beginning, what is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency, honor, respect. Treating people with dignity, making sure that everyone has an even chance. And I\u2019m going to make sure you get that. You haven\u2019t been getting it the last four years.<\/p>\n

Kristen Welker: (26:53<\/a>)
\nAll right, I want to thank you both for a very robust hour and a half, a fantastic debate. Really appreciate it. President Trump, Former Vice President Joe Biden. Thank you to Belmont University for hosting us tonight, and most importantly, thank you to those watching tonight. Election day is November 3rd. Don\u2019t forget to vote. Thank you everyone and have a great night.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden: (27:16<\/a>)
\nThank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oct 22, 2020 Full transcript of the second and final 2020 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The debate was moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. Kristen Welker: (00:18) Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for being here. It is such an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10993"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11000,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10993\/revisions\/11000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}