US Presidential Debates 2020: Highlights

Learn English while you watch the highlights of the first and final of the US Presidential Election 2020. The 2020 United States presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the major candidates in the 2020 United States presidential election, were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The first debate took place on September 29, 2020. The next debate was scheduled to take place on October 15 but was later canceled due to Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and refusal to appear remotely rather than in person. As a result, 2020 had the fewest debates since 1996. The final debate took place on October 22. Additionally, a debate between the vice-presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris took place on October 7. Enjoy our Speeches with subtitles, and keep your English learning journey.

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US Presidential Debates 2020 – FULL TRANSCRIPT:

“Highlights From the First 2020 Presidential Debate

President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. went head to head on their records, civil unrest, election integrity and more.

“The last four years, you have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but you have never in these four years come up with a plan, a comprehensive plan —” “Yes, I have.” “— to replace Obamacare.” “Of course I have.” “Well, I’ll give you —” “We got rid of the individual mandate.” “I’m going to give you an opportunity —” “Excuse me. I got rid of the individual mandate.” “I’m not here to call out his lies — everybody knows he’s a liar.” “But you agreed — Joe, you’re the liar.” “I want to make sure —” “You graduated last in your class, not first in your class.” “I — [laughs] — God. I want to make sure —” “Mr. President, could you let him finish, sir?” “The question is, the question is —” “A lot of new Supreme Court justices, radical left —” “Will you shut up, man?” “One of the big debates we had with 23 of my colleagues trying to win the nomination that I won were saying that Biden wanted to allow people to have private insurance still. They can, they do, they will, under my proposal.” “That’s not what you’ve said, and it’s not what your party has said.” “That is simply a lie.” “Your party doesn’t say it — your party wants to go socialist medicine.” “My party is me. Right now, I am the Democratic Party.” “And they’re going to dominate you, Joe, you know that.” “I am the Democratic Party right now. The platform of the Democratic Party —” “Not according to Harris.” “— is what I, in fact, approved of.” “Is it true that you paid $750 in federal income taxes each of those two years?” “I’ve paid millions of dollars in taxes, millions of dollars of income tax. Let me just say something, that it was the tax laws. I don’t want to pay tax. Before I came here, I was a private developer, I was a private business people. Like every other private person, unless they’re stupid, they go through the laws, and that’s what it is.” “I’m going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts.” “Good.” “And we’re going to, I’m going to eliminate those tax cuts —” “OK.” “— and make sure that we invest in the people who in fact need the help. People out there need help.” “But why didn’t you do it over 20, the last 25 years?” “Because you weren’t — because you weren’t president screwing things up.” “You were a senator —” “You’re the worst president America has ever had. Come on.” “You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other left-wing —” “That’s right.” “— extremist groups. But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups —” “Sure.” “— and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland.” “Sure, I’m willing to do that, but —” “Then do it.” “Go ahead, sir.” “I would say, I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing.” “So what are you, what are you saying —” “I’m willing to do anything — I want to see peace.” “Well, then do it, sir.” “Say it. Do it. Say it.” “You want to call them — what do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name.” “White supremacists and —” “Go ahead, who would you like me to condemn?” “Proud Boys.” “Who?” “White supremacists and right-wing militia.” Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing —” “His own F.B.I. director said the threat is —” Are you questioning —” “No, I think masks are OK. You have to understand, if you look, I mean, I have a mask right here. I put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it. Tonight as an example, everybody’s had a test, and you’ve had social distancing and all of the things that you have to — but I wear masks when needed. When needed, I wear masks.” “OK, let me ask —” “I don’t wear masks like him — every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from — he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” “Masks make a big difference. His own head of the C.D.C. said if we just wore masks between now — if everybody wore masks in social distance between now and January, we’d probably save up to 100,000 lives. It matters.” “And they’ve also said the opposite. They’ve also said —” “No serious person said the opposite.” “The fact is that there are going to be millions of people because of Covid that are going to be voting by mail-in ballots, like he does by the way. And this is all about trying to dissuade people from voting, because he’s trying to scare people into thinking that it’s not going to be legitimate.” “As far as the ballots are concerned, it’s a disaster. A solicited ballot, OK? Solicited is OK. You’re soliciting, you’re asking. They send it back. You send it back. I did that. This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen. The other thing: It’s nice, on Nov. 3, you’re watching and you see who won the election. And I think we’re going to do well, because people are really happy with the job we’ve done. But you know what? We won’t know, we might not know for months — because these ballots are going to be all over.” “Now that millions of mail-in ballots have gone out, what are you going to do about it? And are you counting on the Supreme Court, including a Justice Barrett, to settle any dispute?” “Yeah, I think I’m counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely. I don’t think we’ll — I hope we don’t need them in terms of the election itself, but for the ballots, I think so. I am urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that’s what has to happen. I am urging them to do it. I am urging my people — I hope it’s going to be a fair election. If it’s a fair election —” “You’re urging them what?” “— I am 100 percent on board. But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that.” “Here’s the deal: They count the ballots. As you’ve pointed out, some of these ballots in some states can’t even be opened until Election Day. And if there’s thousands of ballots, it’s going to take time to do it. No one has established at all that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots, that somehow it’s a fraudulent process.” “It’s already been established.” “He has no idea what he’s talking about. Here’s the deal. The fact is, I will accept it, and he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared, after all the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that will be the end of it.”

Highlights From the Final 2020 Presidential Debate

President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a more subdued debate, but split over issues such as the pandemic, race relations and immigration.

“If we just wore these masks, the president’s own advisers have told him, we could save 100,000 lives. And we’re in a circumstance where the president, thus far, still has no plan, no comprehensive plan.” “You also said a vaccine will be coming within weeks.” “Yes.” “Is that a guarantee? Is —” “No, it’s 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.” “This is the same fellow who told you this was going to end by Easter last time. This is the same fellow who told you that, don’t worry, we’re going to end this by the summer. We’re about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter. And he has no clear plan, and there’s no prospect that there’s going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.” “President Trump, your reaction. He says you have no plan.” “I don’t think we’re going to have a dark winter at all. We’re opening up our country. We’ve learned and studied and understand the disease.” “He says that we’re, you know, we’re learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it. You folks home who 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 their — out of habit, where their wife or husband was — is gone. Learning to live with it? Come on. We’re dying with it.” “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault that it came here. It’s China’s fault. And you know what? It’s not Joe’s fault that it came here either. It’s China’s fault. First of all, I’ve already done something that nobody thought was possible: Through the legislature, I terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of Obamacare. He’s talking about socialized medicine, and when he — and health care. When he talks about a public option, he’s talking about destroying your Medicare —” “Wrong.” “Totally destroyed. And destroying your Social Security. And this whole country will come down. You know, Bernie Sanders tried it in his state. He tried it in his state. His governor was a very liberal governor. They wanted to make it work —” “O.K, let’s hear, let’s let Vice President Biden respond —” “It’s impossible to work — it doesn’t work.” “He’s a very confused guy. He thinks he’s running against somebody else. He’s running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them. Joe Biden he’s running against.” “Mr. President, your administration separated children from their parents at the border, at least 4,000 kids. You’ve since reversed your zero-tolerance policy, but the United States can’t locate the parents of more than 500 children. So how will these families ever be reunited?” “Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels. And they’re brought here, and they used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as we’ve ever had. We’re over 400 miles of brand-new wall. You see the numbers. And we let people in, but they have to come in legally.” “These 500-plus kids came with parents. They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. Big, real tough — we’re really strong. And guess what? They cannot — it’s not, coyotes didn’t 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. A black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are, has to teach their child, when you’re walking down the street, don’t have a hoodie on when you go across the street. Making sure that you, in fact, if you get pulled over, ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, sir,’ hands on top of the wheel. Because you are, in fact, the victim, whether you’re a person making, child of a $300,000-per-year person or someone who’s on food stamps.” “I got criminal justice reform done and prison reform and opportunity zones. I took care of Black colleges and universities. I don’t know what to say. They can say anything. I mean, they can say anything. It’s a very — it makes me sad because I am, I am the least racist person. I can’t even see the audience because it’s so dark, but I don’t care who’s in the audience: I’m the least racist person in this room.” “He pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one. He started off his campaign coming down the escalator, saying he’s going to get rid of those Mexican ‘rapists.’ He’s banned Muslims because they’re Muslims. He has moved around and made everything worse across the board.” “I have one final question —” “Would he close down the oil industry? Would you close down the oil industry?” “By the way, I would transition from the oil industry, yes.” “Oh, that’s a big statement!” “I would transition — it is a big statement.” “That’s a big statement!” “Because I would stop —” “Why would you do that?” “Because the oil industry pollutes significantly.” “Oh, I see!” “Here’s the deal.” “That’s a big statement.” “But you can’t do that — well, if you let me finish the statement — because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time, over time. And I’d stop giving to the oil industry, I’d stop giving them federal subsidies.” “Ooh!” “He won’t give federal subsidies to the gas, excuse me, to the, to solar and wind.” “Yeah.” “Why are we giving it to oil industry?” “Imagine this is your inauguration day. What will you say in your address to America, to Americans who did not vote for you?” “We have to make our country totally successful as it was prior to the plague coming in from China. Success is going to bring us together. We are on the road to success. But I’m cutting taxes, and he wants to raise everybody’s taxes. And he wants to put new regulations on everything.” “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’m going to make sure you get that. You haven’t been getting it the last four years.”[/read]

US Presidential Debates 2020

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