Here is the second half or the second part of the transcript of the first of three official debates between Trump and Biden.

Transcript

First 49 minutes | Second Half of the debate

Transcript

The First Debate

Transcript - First Half of the first debate

The Transcript

The second half of the debate, 50:09 minutes to 1 hour and 33 minutes

50:09 WALLACE

One second, sir.

50:10 BIDEN

Second point I'd make, is that when Floyd was killed -- when Mr. Floyd was killed, there was a peaceful protest in front of the White House. What did he do? He came out of his bunker, had the military to use tear gas on em so he could walk across to a church and hold up a bible. And then what happened after that? The Bishop of that very church said that it was a disgrace. The general who was with him said he only, all he ever wants to do is divide people, not unite people at all. This is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racist hatred, racist division. This is a man who in fact, he talks about helping African Americans, one in 1000 African Americans has been killed because of the coronavirus. And if he doesn't do something quickly by the end of the year, one in 500 will have been killed. One in 500 African Americans. This man? This man is a savior of African Americans? This man cares at all? This man has done virtually nothing. Look, the fact is that you have to look at what he talks about. You have to look at what he did. And what it did has been disastrous for the African American community. So --

51:24 WALLACE

President Trump you have two minutes. Why should Americans trust you over your opponent to deal with race?

51:30 TRUMP

He did a crime bill, 1994, where you call them super predators. African Americans are super predators. And they've never forgotten it. They've never forgotten it, Joe.

51:40 WALLACE

Sir, it’s his two minutes.

51:41 TRUMP

So you did that and they called you super predator. And I'm letting people out of jail now that -- You have treated the African American population, community -- You've treated the black community about as bad as anybody in this country. You did the 199 -- And that's why, if you look at the polls, I'm doing better than any Republican has done in a long time. Because they saw what you did. You called them super predators, and you've called them worse than that. Because you look back at your testimony over the years you've called them a lot worse than that. As far as the church is concerned and as far as the generals are concerned, we just got the support of 200-250 military leaders in total support. Law enforcement, almost every law enforcement group in the United States. I have Florida, I have Texas, I have, Ohio. I have every, excuse me. Portland, the sheriff just came out today and he said ‘I support President Trump.’ I don't think you have any law enforcement. You can't even say the word law enforcement because if you say those words, you're gonna lose all of your radical left supporters. And why aren't you saying those words, Joe? Why don't you say the words law enforcement? Because you know what, if they called us in Portland, we would put out that fire in a half an hour. But they won't do it because they’re run by radical left Democrats. If you look at Chicago, if you look at any place you want to look, Seattle, they heard we were coming in the following day and they put up their hands and we got back Seattle. Minneapolis, we got it back, Joe. Because we believe in law and order but you don’t. The top 10 cities, and just about the top 40 cities are run by Democrats. Just radical left. And they've got you wrapped around their finger, Joe. To a point where you don't say anything about law and order. And I'll tell you what, the people of this country want and demand law and order and you're afraid to even say it.

53:30 WALLACE

Alright, I want to return to the question of race. Vice President Biden, after the grand jury in the Brianna Taylor case decided not to charge any of the police with homicide, you said it raises the question “Whether justice could be equally applied in America”. Do you believe that there is a separate but unequal system of justice for blacks in this country?

53:54 BIDEN

Yes, there is a systemic injustice in this country. In education, in the law enforcement and the way in which it’s enforced. But look, the vast majority of police officers are good, decent honor men and women that risk their lives every day to take care of us. But there are some bad apples and when they occur, when they find them, they have to be sorted out. They have to be held accountable. They have to be held accountable. And what I'm going to do is president of the United States is call together, an entire group of people at the White House. Well, everything from the civil rights groups, to the police officers, to police chiefs, and we're going to work this out. We're going to work this out so we change the way in which we have more transparency. And when these things happen, these cops aren't happy to see what happened to George Floyd. These cops aren't happy to see what happened to Brown and Taylor. Most don't like it, but we have to have a system report, held accountable. When, and by the way, violence in response is never appropriate. Never appropriate. Peaceful protests is. Violence is never appropriate.

55:00 TRUMP

What is peaceful protest? When they run through the middle of town and burned down your stores and kill people all over the place?

55:04 WALLACE

Mr. President, Mr. President. President Trump, I’d like to continue with this. I promise we're gonna get to the issue of law and order in a moment. Your administration directed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity training that addresses white privilege or critical race theory. Why did you decide to do that, end with sensitivity training? And do you believe that there is systemic racism in this country, sir?

55:37 TRUMP

I ended it because it's racist. I ended it because a lot of people were complaining that they were asked to do things that were absolutely insane. That it was a radical revolution that was taking place in our military, in our schools, all over the place. And you know it and so does everybody else. And he would know it.

55:54 WALLACE

What is radical -- What is radical about racial sensitivity training?

55:59 TRUMP

If you were a certain person, you had no status in life, it's sort of a reversal. And if you look at the people, we would pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach very bad ideas and frankly very sick ideas. And really, they were teaching people to hate our country. And I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to allow that to happen. We have to go back to the core values of this country. They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place, it's a racist place, and they were teaching people to hate our country. And I'm not gonna allow that to happen.

56:31 WALLACE

Vice President Biden?

56:33 BIDEN

Nobody’s doing that. He's just, he’s racist. Here's the deal, I know a lot more --

56:38 WALLACE

Let him finish.

56:40 BIDEN

The fact is that there is racial insensitivity. People have to be made aware of what other people feel like, what insults them, what is demeaning to them. It's important that people know they don't want to, many people don't want to hurt other people's feelings. But it makes a big difference. It makes a gigantic difference in the way a child is able to grow up and have a sense of a sense of self esteem. It's a little bit like how this guy and his friends looked down on so many people. They look down their nose on people like Irish Catholics like me who grew up in Scranton. They look down on people who don't have money. They look down on people who are of a different faith. They look down on people who are a different color. In fact, we're all Americans. The only way we're going to bring this country together is bring everybody. There's nothing we cannot do, if we do it together. We can take this on and we can defeat racism.

57:35 WALLACE

Vice President -- I mean, President Trump, sir.

57:37 TRUMP

During the Obama-Biden administration, there was tremendous division. There was hatred, you look at Ferguson, you look at, you go to very many places. Look at Oakland. Look what happened in Oakland. Look what happened in Baltimore. Look what happened- Frankly, it was more violent than what I'm even seeing now,

57:55 BIDEN

Oh my god, this is ridiculous.

57:56 TRUMP

But the reason is that the Democrats that run these cities don’t want to talk, like you, about law and order.

58:03 BIDEN

Violent crime -- Violent crime --

58:03 TRUMP

You still haven’t mentioned, are you in favor of law and order?

58:04 BIDEN

I'm in favor of law. You --

58:07 TRUMP

Are you in favor of law and order?

58:13 BIDEN

Law and order with justice where people get treated fairly. And the fact of the matter is violent crime went down 17%, 15% percent in our administration. It’s gone up on his watch.

58:24 TRUMP

It’s gone down much more.

58:28 WALLACE

Alright, alright. Mr. President -- Mr. President, you’re now gonna be very happy because we’re gonna talk about law and order.

58:34 TRUMP

The places we had trouble with Democratic-run cities --

58:39 WALLACE

That's exactly my question. There have been a dramatic increase in homicides in America this summer, particularly. And you often blame that on Democratic mayors and Democratic governors, but in fact there have been equivalent spikes in Republican-led cities, like Tulsa, and Fort Worth. So the question is, is this really a party issue?

58:59 TRUMP

I think it's a party issue. You could bring in a couple of examples, but if you look at Chicago, what's going on in Chicago where 53 people were shot and eight died. Shot. If you look at New York where it's going up like these never seen anything. The numbers are going up 100, 150, 200% crime. It is crazy what's going on, and he doesn't want to say law and order because he can't. Because he'll lose his radical left supporters, and once he does that it's over with. But if he ever got to run this country, and they ran it the way he would want to run it, we would have -- Our suburbs would be gone, our suburbs would be gone, and you would see problems like you’ve never-

59:38: BIDEN

He wouldn’t know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn.

59:39 TRUMP

Oh, I know suburbs.

55:43 BIDEN

I was raised in the suburbs. This is not 1950. All of these dog whistles and racism don't work anymore. Suburbs are by and large integrated. There's many people today driving their kids to soccer practice, or to black and white and Hispanic in the same car, as there have been any time in the past. What really is the threat to the suburbs and their safety has to deal with COVID? They're dying in the suburbs. His failure to deal with the environment. They're being flooded. They're being burned out, because he has refusal to do anything. That's why the suburbs are in trouble.

1:00:15 WALLACE

I do want to talk about this issue of law and order, though. And in the joint recommendation that came from the Biden-Bernie Sanders Task Force you talk about “reimagining policing”. First of all, what does re-imagining policing mean? And do you support- Let me finish the question. What does re-imagining policing mean? And do you support the Black Lives Matter call for for community control of policing?

1:0046 BIDEN

Look, what I support is the police having the opportunity to deal with the problems they face. And I'm not totally opposed to defending the police officers. Matter of fact, police, local police, they only want defunding in his budget calls for a $400 million cut in local law enforcement assistance. They need more assistance. They need when they show up for a 911 call to have someone with him as a psychologist or psychiatrist to keep them from having to use force and be able to talk people down. We have to have community police, like we had before, where the officers get to know the people in the communities. That's when crime went down. It didn’t go up, it went down. And so we have to be --

1:01:25 TRUMP

That’s not what they're talking about, Chris. That’s not what they’re talking about. That’s about defunding the police.

1:01:31 BIDEN

That is not true.

1:01:35 TRUMP

He doesn't have any law - He has no law enforced -

1:01:39 BIDEN

That is not true. That’s not --

1:01:39 TRUMP

Oh really? Who do you have? Name one group that supports you. Name one group that came out and supported you, go ahead, like we have time.

1:01:46 BIDEN

We don't have time to do anything --

1:01:53 WALLACE

Gentleman, I’m gonna take back control. And I want to get to another subject, which is the issue of protests in many cities that have turned violent. In Portland, Oregon, especially, we had more than 100 straight days of protests, which I think you would agree about peaceful protests. Many of those turned into riots. Mr. Vice President, you say that people who commit crimes should be held accountable. The question I have though is as the Democratic nominee, and earlier tonight you said that you are the Democratic Party right now. Have you ever called the Democratic mayor of Portland the Democratic governor of Oregon and said ‘Hey, you gotta stop this. Bring in the National Guard. Do whatever it takes. That you'd stop the days and months of violence in Portland?

1:02:40 BIDEN

I don't hold public office now. I am a former Vice President. I've made it clear, I've made it clear in my public statements that the violence should be prosecuted. Anyone who committed it --

1:02:53 WALLACE

But you've never called for the people- Excuse me, sir. You’ve never called for the leaders in Portland, and in Oregon, to call in the national office and knock off 100 days of riots.

1:03:05 BIDEN

They can, in fact, take care of it if he’d just stay out of the way. Look-

1:03:11 TRUMP

Oh really? Oh really? -- The killer of a young man in the middle of the street and they shot him. For three days Portland didn’t do anything.

1:03:18 WALLACE

President Trump. President Trump. I interrupt- President Trump

1:03:22 TRUMP

I had to send the US Marshals to take care of business --

1:03:24 WALLACE

Go ahead, sir

1:03:25 BIDEN

And by the way, you know, his own former spokesperson said, you know, riots and chaos and violence help his cause. That's what this is all about.

1:03:34 TRUMP

I don’t know who said that.

1:03:35 BIDEN

I do.

1:03:35 TRUMP

Who?

1:03:36 BIDEN

I think it was Kellyanne Conway.

1:03:37 TRUMP

I don't think she said that.

1:03:39 BIDEN

She said that. And so here's, here's the point. The point is that is that that's what he is keeps trying to rile everything up. He doesn't want to calm things down. Instead of going in and talking to people and say, ‘let's get everybody together, figuring out how to deal with this’, what he does he do? He just poured gasoline on the fire. Constantly, at every single solitary time.

1:04:00 WALLACE

And to end this, button up this segment, I’m going to give you a minute to answer, sir. You have repeatedly warned us-

1:04:07 TRUMP

-answer his stuff.

1:04:08 WALLACE

You have- No, you've been talking-

1:04:11 TRUMP

He made a statement- I would love to end it.

1:04:12 WALLACE

I’m asking you- You know, sir- You know, if you want to switch seats-

1:04:17 TRUMP

Very quickly, we could do that but if - the National Guard it would be over. There’d be no problem, but they don’t want to accept the national guard.

1:04:23 WALLACE

Okay, you have repeatedly criticized the Vice President for not specifically calling out antifa and other left-wing groups. But are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups? 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, as we've seen in Portland? Are you prepared specifically to do that?

1:04:46 TRUMP

Sure, I’m prepared to do it. I would say- I would say, almost everything I see is from the left-wing, not from the right wing-

1:05:55 WALLACE

So what do you, what do you say-

1:04:56 TRUMP

I'm willing to do anything I want to see peace.

1:04:57 WALLACE

Then do it, sir.

1:04:59 BIDEN

Say it, do it, say it.

1:05:00 TRUMP

You want to call them -- What do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me --

1:05:04 WALLACE

White supremacists and, white supremacists and right-wing --

1:05:07 BIDEN

The Proud Boys.

1:05:07 TRUMP

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 problem

1:05:19 BIDEN

His own FBI director said -- white supremacists. Antifa is an idea not an organization. Militia --

1:05:27 TRUMP

Oh you’ve got to be kidding me

1:05:27 BIDEN

His FBI said --

1:05:28 TRUMP

Well then, you know what --

1:05:29 WALLACE

Gentlemen, we’re done, sir. We’re going to go on to the next-

1:05:39 BIDEN

Everybody in your administration tells you the truth that that’s a bad to bad idea. You have no idea.

1:05:43 TRUMP

Antifa is a dangerous, radical group --

1:05:46 WALLACE

Gentleman, we're now moving on to the Trump and Biden records.

1:05:50 TRUMP

-- they overthrow you

1:05:51 WALLACE

President, I'm gonna ask you a question. When the President seats a second term, it’s generally a referendum on his record. But Vice President Biden you'd like to quote your dad's sayings which is ‘Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative’. And in this case, sir, you are the alternative. Looking at both of your records, I'm going to ask each of you, why should voters you, President over your opponent. In this segment, President Trump you'll go first. 10 minutes.

1:06:19 TRUMP

Because there has never been an administration or president who has done more than I've done in a period of three and a half years, and that's despite the impeachment hoax. And you saw what happened today with Hillary Clinton where a whole big con job. But despite going through all these things, where at a fight both flanks, behind me and above, there has never been an administration, that's done what I've done. The greatest, before COVID came in, the greatest economy in history. Lowest unemployment numbers. Everything was good, everything was go -- And by the way, there was unity. People were calling me. For the first time in years they were calling, and they were saying ‘it's time maybe’. And then what happened? We got hit but now we're building it back up again. A rebuilding of the military including space force and all of the other things. A fixing of the VA, which was a mess under him. 308,000 people died. They didn't have proper health care. He was a mess. And we now got a 91% approval rating at the VA. Our vets, we take care of our vets. But we've rebuilt our military. The job that we've done- And I'll tell you so some people say me the most important, by the end of the first term, I'll have approximately 300 federal judges, Court of Appeals judges 300. And hopefully, three great Supreme Court judges, justices. That is a record, the likes of which very few people- And you know one of the reasons I have so many judges? Because President Obama and him left me 128 judges to fill. When you leave office, you don't leave any judges. That's like, you just don't do that. They left 128 openings. And if I were a member of his party, because they have a little different philosophy, I'd say ‘if you left us 128 openings, you can't be a good president. You can't be a good Vice President’. But I want to thank you because it gives us almost, it'll probably be above that by the end of this term, 300 judges. It's a record.

1:08:22 WALLACE

Looking at both your records, why should voters elect you president, as opposed to President Trump -- You get two minutes uninterrupted.

1:08:29 BIDEN

Under this president we become weaker, sicker. poorer, more dividing and more violent. When I was Vice President, we inherited a recession. I was asked to fix it, I did. We left a booming economy, and he caused the recession. With regard to be weaker, the fact is that I've gone head to head with Putin and made it clear to him we're not going to take any of his stuff. He's Putin’s puppy. He still refuses to even say anything to Putin about the bounty on the heads of American soldiers.

1:09:01 TRUMP

Your son --

1:09:02 WALLACE

No, no, no --

1:09:03 BIDEN

And by the way --

1:09:04 WALLACE

Mr. President. Wait a minute. Mr. President, your campaign agreed that both sides would get two answers uninterrupted. Your side agreed to it. Why don't you observe what your campaign agreed to as a ground rule. Okay, sir?

1:09:18 BIDEN

Never keeps his word.

1:09:19 WALLACE

No, I’m not asking. That was rhetorical question.

1:09:23 BIDEN

Can you go back 30 seconds?

1:09:25 WALLACE

Yeah, yes you may. Go ahead.

1:09:26 BIDEN

So, thirdly we’re poorer. The billionaires have gotten much, much more wealthy by a tune of over four three to $400 billion more, just since COVID. You in the home, you got less. You're in more trouble than you were before. In terms of being more violent, when we were in office there were 15% less violence in America than there is today. He's president of the United states. It’s on his watch. And with regard to more divided, the nation can't stay divided. We can't be this way. And speaking of my son, the way you talk about the military, the way you talk about them be losers and being, and just being suckers. My son was in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got, he got the Bronze Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes.

1:10:23 TRUMP

Really? You talking about Hunter? Are you talking about Hunter?

1:10:23 BIDEN

and I resent -- I’m talking about my son, Beau Biden. You’re talking about --

1:10:30 TRUMP

I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged for cocaine use.

1:10:37 BIDEN

That's not true, he wasn’t dishonorably discharged. None of that is true.

1:10:39 TRUMP

-- and he didn't have a job until you became vice president. Once you became vice president he made a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow and various other places --

1:10:48 BIDEN

That is simply not true.

1:10:49 TRUMP

He made a fortune and he didn’t have a job.

1:10:50 BIDEN

My son -- My son -- My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know I had a drug problem. He's overtaken it. He's fixed it. He's worked on it. And I'm proud of him.

1:11:02 TRUMP

But why was he given tens of millions of dollars?

1:11:05 BIDEN

He wasn't given tens of millions of dollars

1:11:08 WALLACE

President Trump you’ve --

1:11:11 BIDEN

Already been discredited

1:11:13 WALLACE

We've already been through this, I think the American people would rather hear about more substantial subjects. Well, you know, as the moderator sir I'm going to make a judgement call there.

1:11:20 TRUMP

-- 3.5 million dollars. Let’s talk about Moscow --

1:11:24 BIDEN

That is not true. That report is totally discredited.

1:11:25 WALLACE

Gentlemen --

1:11:27 BIDEN

Mitt Romney on that committee said it wasn't worth taxpayers money. That report was written for political reasons.

1:11:33 WALLACE

You know, I'd like to talk about climate change.

1:11:36 BIDEN

So would I --

1:11:37 WALLACE

Okay, the forest fires in the West, are raging now. They have burned millions of acres. They have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. When state officials there blame the fires on climate change, Mr. President, you said, ‘I don't think the science knows.’ Over your four years, you have pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate accord. You have rolled back a number of Obama environmental records. What do you believe about the science of climate change? And what will you do in the next four years to confront it?

1:12:11 TRUMP

I want crystal clean water and air. I want beautiful clean air. We have now the lowest carbon, if you look at our numbers right now, we are doing phenomenally. But I haven't destroyed our businesses, our businesses are put out of commission. If you look at the Paris accord, it was a disaster from our standpoint. And people are actually very happy about what's going on, because our businesses are doing well as far as the fires are concerned, you need forest management, in addition to everything else. The forest floors are loaded up with trees, dead trees, that a years old and they're like Tinder, and leaves and everything else. You drop a cigarette and then the whole forest burns. You've got to have forest management-

1:12:52 WALLACE

What do you, what do you believe about the science of climate change, sir?

1:12:57 TRUMP

I believe that we have to do everything we can to have immaculate air, immaculate water and do whatever else we can that's good. You know we're planting a billion trees, the billion tree project, and it's very exciting.

1:13:08 WALLACE

Do you believe that human pollution, gashouse, greenhouse gas emissions contributes to the global warming of this planet?

1:13:15 TRUMP

I think a lot of things do, but I think to an extent yes. I think, to an extent, yes. But I also think we have to do better management of our forests. Every year, I get the call. ‘California is burning California's burning.’ If that was cleaned, if that were, if you had forest management, good forest management, you wouldn't be getting those calls. You know in Europe they live that, forest cities, they call forest cities. They maintain their forests. They manage their forests. I was with the head of a major country. It's a forest city. He said, ‘Sir, we have trees that are far more, they ignite much easier than California, there shouldn't be that problem’. I spoke with the governor about it. I'm getting along very well with the governor, but he said you know at some point, he can't every year have hundreds of thousands of acres of land just burned to the ground. That's burning down because of a lack of management.

1:14:07 WALLACE

But sir, if you believe in the science of climate change, why have you rolled back the Obama Clean Power Plan, which limited carbon emissions in power plants? Why have you relaxed --

1:14:16 TRUMP

Because it was driving energy prices through the sky --

1:14:22 WALLACE

Why have you relaxed fuel economy standards that are going to create more pollution from cars?

1:14:27 TRUMP

Not really, because what's happening is the car is much less expensive and it's a much safer car. And you're talking about a tiny difference. And then what would happen, because of the cost of the car, you would have at least double and triple the number of cars purchased. We have the old slugs out there that are 10-12 years old. If you did that the car would be safer, it would be much cheaper-

1:14:48 WALLACE

In California, they simply ignored --

1:14:51 TRUMP

Take a lot of cars off the market because people would be able to afford a car. Now, so, and by the way we're gonna see how that turns out, but a lot of people agree with, many people. The car has gotten so expensive because they have computers all over the place for an extra little bit of gasoline. And I'm okay with electric cars too. I think I'm all for electric cars with big incentives or electric cars. But what they've done in California is just-

1:15:17 WALLACE

Vice President Biden I'd like you to respond to the President's climate change record, but I also want to ask you about a concern. You proposed $2 trillion in green jobs you talk about new limits, not abolishing, but new limits on fracking. Ending the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity by 2035. And zero, net emission of greenhouse gases by 2050. The president says, a lot of these things would tank the economy and cost millions of jobs.

1:15:46 BIDEN

He's absolutely wrong, number one. Number two, if in fact, when -- During our administration Recovery Act I was able to bring down the cost of renewable energy to cheaper than, or as cheap as coal, and gas, and oil. Nobody's going to build another coal fire plant in America. No one's going to build another oil fire in America. They're going to move to renewable energy, number one. Number two, we're going to make sure that we are able to take the federal fleet and turn it into a fleet that's run on their electric vehicles. Making sure that they can do that we're gonna put 500,000 charging stations in all of the highways that we're going to be building in the future. We're going to build a economy, that in fact, is going to provide for the ability, us to take 4 million buildings and make sure that they in fact are weatherized. In a way that, in fact, they'll, they'll emit significantly less gas and oil because the heat will not be going out. There’s so many things we can do now to create thousands and thousands of jobs. We can get to net zero in terms of energy production by 2035. Not only not costing people jobs, creating jobs. Creating millions of jobs. Not 15 bucks an hour, but prevailing wage. By having a new infrastructure that in fact is green. And the first thing I will do, I will rejoin the Paris accord. I will join the Paris accord because with us out look what's happening. It's all falling apart. And talk about someone who has no no relationship with foreign policy. Brazil, the rainforest to Brazil are being torn down, are being ripped down. More, more carbon is absorbed in that rainforest than every bit of carbon that's admitted the United States. Instead of doing something about that, I would be gathering up and making sure we had the countries of the world coming up with 20 billion dollars. And say, ‘Here's $20 billion. Stop, stop, tearing down the forest. And if you don't, then you're going to have significant economic consequences’.

1:17:52 WALLACE

What about the argument that President Trump basically says that you have to balance, environmental interests, and economic interests? And he's drawn a line

1:18:02 BIDEN

But if he hadn't drawn a line. He still, for example, makes sure that we- He wants to make sure that methane is not a problem. We could, you could now emit more methane without it being a problem. Methane. This is a guy who says that we don't have to have mileage standards for automobiles that exist now. He says that, the fact that it's all true and here’s the deal --

1:18:22 TRUMP

He’s talking about the Green New Deal. And it's not 2 billion or 20 billion as you said, it's $100 trillion.

1:18:31 BIDEN

I'm talking about -

1:18:31 TRUMP

You wanna rip down buildings and rebuild the buildings -- where airplanes are out of business. Where there are two car systems or where they want to take out the cows.

1:18:40 BIDEN

That’s not true. Not true. Not true. Not true.

1:18:43 TRUMP

That's not true either, right? Now, this is a, this is a 100. That's more money than our country could make in a hundred years.

1:18:50 BIDEN

That is simply not true.

1:18:55 WALLACE

Let me -- Let me -- Wait a minute, sir. I actually have studied your plan, and it includes upgrading 4 million buildings, weatherizing 2 million homes over four years, building one and a half million energy efficient homes. So the question becomes, the president said, I think some people who support the president would say, ‘That sounds like it's going to cost a lot of money and hurt the economy.’

1:19:18 BIDEN

What it's gonna do, it’s gonna create thousands and millions of jobs. Good-paying jobs-

1:19:22 WALLACE

Let him finish, sir.

1:19:23 BIDEN

He doesn’t know how to do that. The fact it’s going to create millions of good paying jobs. And these tax incentives to people to weatherize, where he wants to get her get rid of, is going to make the economy much safer. Look how much we're paying now to deal with the hurricanes, with a deal with- By the way he has an answer for hurricanes. He said, ‘Maybe we should drop a nuclear weapon on them, they may' --

1:19:44 TRUMP

I never said that you made it up. You make up a lot.

1:19:46 BIDEN

And here's the deal, we are going to be in a position where we can create, hard, hard good jobs by making sure the environment is clean, and we all are in better shape. We spend billions of dollars now, billions of dollars, on floods, hurricanes rising seas. We're in real trouble. Look what's happened just in the Midwest with these storms that come through and wipe out entire sections and counties in Iowa. They didn't happen before. There because of global warming. We make up 15% of the world's problem. We in fact- But the rest of the world we got to get them to come along. That's why we have to get back into, back into the Paris accord.

1:20:32 WALLACE

All right, gentlemen.

1:20:33 TRUMP

Chris, so why didn't he do it for 47 years? You were vice president. Why didn't you get the world- China sends up real dirt into the air. Russia does. India does. They all do. We're supposed to be good. And by the way, he made a couple of statements, the Green New Deal is 100 trillion dollar plan --

1:20:48 BIDEN

That is not my plan. The Green New Deal is not my plan.

1:20:56 WALLACE

Gentlemen, gentleman --

1:20:58 TRUMP

You said I said something about the military. He and his friends made it up, and then they went with it. I never said it. What he did is he said- He called the military stupid bastards

1:21:06 WALLACE

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Vice President -- Please, stop.

1:21:15 TRUMP

I would never say that.

1:21:18 WALLACE

Mr. Vice President answer his question his final question.

1:21:21 BIDEN

The final question is I can't remember which of all is real.

1:21:24 WALLACE

I’m having a little trouble myself. But about the economy, and about this question of what it's going to cost. The Green New Deal and the idea of what, what your environmental changes to --

1:21:38 BIDEN

The Green New Deal will pay for itself as we move forward. You're not going to build plants that in fact are great polluting plans.

1:21:44 WALLACE

Do you support the Green New Deal?

1:21:46 BIDEN

Pardon me?

1:21:47 WALLACE

Do you support the Green New Deal?

1:21:49 BIDEN

No, I don't support the Green New Deal.

1:21:50 TRUMP

Oh you don't? Well that’s a big statement. You just lost the radical left.

1:21:55 BIDEN

I support the Biden plan that I put forward.

1:21:59 WALLACE

OK.

1:22:00 BIDEN

The Biden Plan, which is different than what he calls the radical Green New Deal.

1:22:02 WALLACE

All right, gentlemen, final segment. Election integrity. As we meet tonight, millions of Americans are receiving mail-in ballots or going to vote early. How confident should we be that this will be a fair election and what are you prepared to do over the next five plus weeks, because it'll not only be the election day but also counting some ballots mailing ballots after election day. What are you prepared to do to reassure the American people that the next President will be the legitimate winner of this election? In this final segment, Mr. Vice President, you go first.

1:22:41 BIDEN

Prepared to let people vote. You should go to Iwillvote.com. Decide how they're going to vote, when they're going to vote and what means by which they're going to vote. His own Homeland Security director, as well as the FBI director, says there's no evidence at all that mail-in ballots are a source of being manipulated and cheating. They said that. The fact is that they're 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. He sits behind the Resolute desk and sends his ballot to Florida, number one. Number two, we're going to make sure that those people who want to vote in person are able to vote because enough poll watchers are there to make sure they can socially distance, the polls are open on time and they'll pull stay open until the votes are counted. And this is all about trying to dissuade people from voting because he's trying to scare people into thinking that it's not gonna be legitimate. Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of this election. Vote. Vote. Vote. If you're able to vote early in your state, vote early. If you're able to vote in person, vote in person. Vote whatever way is the best way for you because you will- He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of this election. Whether or not when the votes are counted, and they're all counted, that will be accepted. If I win, that will be accepted.If I lose, it will be accepted. But, by the way, if, in fact, he says he's not sure what he's gonna accept, let me tell you something, it doesn't matter. Because if we get the votes, it’s going to be all over. He's going to go. He won’t stay in power. It won't happen. It won't happen. So vote. Just make sure you understand you have it in your control to determine what this country is going to look like the next four years. Is it going to change or are we gonna get four more years of these lies?

1:24:31 WALLACE

Mr. President, two minutes.

1:24:32 TRUMP

So when I listened to Joe talking about a transition, there's been no transition from when I won. I won that election. And if you look at crooked Hillary Clinton, if you look at all of the different people, there was no transition. Because they came after me trying to do a coup. They came after me spying on my campaign. They started on the day I won and even before I won. From the day I came down the escalator with the First Lady, they were a disaster, a grace to our country. And we've caught them. We've caught them all. We've got it all on tape. We've caught them all. And by the way, you gave the idea for the Logan act against General Flynn. You better take a look at that because we caught you in a sense. And President Obama was sitting in the Oval office. He knew about it too so don't tell me about a free transition. As far as the ballots is concerned, it's a disaster. A solicited ballot. Okay, so listen it is okay. You're soliciting, you're asking they send it back, you send it back. I did that. If you have an unsolicited, they're sending millions of ballots all over the country. There’s fraud. They found them in creeks. They found some with the name Trump, just happen to have the name Trump, just the other day. In wastepaper baskets. They’re being sent all over the place. They sent two, in a Democratic area they sent out 1000 ballots. Everybody got two ballots. This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen. The other thing, it's nice for November 3, you're watching and you see who won the election. And I think we're gonna do well because people are really happy with the job they've done. But you know what, we won't know, we might not know for months. Because these balances are going to be all over. Take a look at what happened in Manhattan. Take a look at what happened in New Jersey. Take a look at what happened in Virginia and other places. They're not losing 2%, 1%, which by the way is too much. An election can be won or lost with that. They’re losing 30 and 40%. A fraud, and it's a shame. And can you imagine where they say, ‘you have to have your ballot in by November 10’. November 10. That means 7 days after the election, in theory, should have been announced. We have major states with that. All run by Democrats. All run by Democrats. It’s a rigged election.

1:26:40 WALLACE

Okay, okay, sir. President Trump, you’re gonna be able to continue. You have been charging for months and mail-in balloting is going to be a disaster. You say it's going to lead to fraud. But in 2018, the last midterm election, 3, million people voted mail-in voting. That was a quarter, more than a quarter, of all the voters that year cast their ballots by mail. 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 on a disputes?

1:27:17 TRUMP

Yeah, I think we're getting them to look at the ballots, differently. I don't think I want them in terms of the election itself, but for the ballots I'd say. Because what’s happening is incredible. I just heard, I read today where 1% of the ballots for 2016 were invalidated. They, they take them ‘we don't like them. we don't like them’.

1:27:36 WALLACE

There are millions of ballots going out right now.

1:27:39 TRUMP

You do a solicited ballot.

1:27:42 WALLACE

No, no, I'm asking you about the fact that millions of people --

1:27:46 TRUMP

You go and vote. You go and vote, like they used to do. You either do a solicited ballot, where you're sending it in and sending it back in and your sending. We have mailmen with lots of a- Did you see what's going on, take a look at West Virginia, mail-in ballots. They're being sold. They're being dumped in rivers. This is a horrible thing for our country. This is no -- This is not going to end well.

1:28:12 BIDEN

There is no evidence of that. Five states have had mail-in ballots in the last decade or sol, including two republican states. And you don't have to solicit the ballot. It's sent to you, and sent to your home. All we're saying is, they're saying is, that there has to be a postmark, by the time by Election Day. If it just doesn't get in until the seventh, eighth, ninth, it still should be counted. He’s just afraid of counting the votes because-

1:28:38 TRUMP

You’re wrong. You’re wrong

1:28:41 WALLACE

And I want to continue with you on this -- Vice President Biden --

1:28:44 TRUMP

Chris, he’s so wrong when he makes a statement like that

1:28:45 WALLACE

Excuse me. Vice President Biden, the biggest problem, in fact, over the years, with mail-in voting has not been fraud, historically. It has been that sizable number, sometimes hundreds of thousands of ballots, are thrown out because they have not been properly filled out or there is some other irregularity they just see through that deadline. So the question I have is, are you concerned that the Supreme Court with a justice Barrett will settle any disputes?

1:29:12 BIDEN

I'm concerned that any court would settle this. Because here's the deal, when you, when you get a ballot and you fill it out, you're supposed to have an affidavit. If you didn't know, you have someone say that this is me. You should be able to, if in fact you can verify that’s you when the, before the ballot is thrown out, that's sufficient to be able to count the ballot, because someone made a mistake in not dotting the correct i. Who they voted for, testify, say who they voted for, say to you ‘that is totally legitimate’

1:29:46 WALLACE

Alright --

1:29:49 TRUMP

When you have 80 million ballots sent in and swamping the system -- You know it can't be done, you know it can’t. And already there have been --

1:29:56 WALLACE

Alright, so wait a minute. Final question is, in eight states, election workers are prohibited, currently by law in eight states, from even beginning to process ballots, even take them out of the envelopes and flatten them, until Election Day. That means that it's likely, because there's going to be a huge increase in mail-in balloting, that we are not going to know on election night who the winner is. And it could be days, it could be weeks.

1:30:25 TRUMP

Could be months.

1:30:28 WALLACE

-- until we know who the new president is. So I first for you sir. Finally, for the, for the vice president. I hope neither of you will interrupt the other. Will you urge our supporters to stay calm during this extended period, not to engage in any civil unrest? Will you pledge tonight that you will not declare victory until the election has been independently certified? President Trump will go first.

1:30:54 TRUMP

I’m 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. As you know, today there was a big problem. In Philadelphia, they went into watch, they were called poll watchers, a very safe very nice thing. They were thrown out. They weren't allowed to watch. You know why? Because bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things. And I am urging, I am urging my people- I hope it's gonna be a fair election. If it's a fair election, I am 100% on board. But if I see 10s of thousands of ballots being manipulated. I can't go along with that.

1:32:31 WALLACE

Does that mean you are gonna tell your people to take to the streets?

1:32:32 TRUMP

I’ll tell you what it means. It means you have a fraudulent election. You're not equipped to, these people aren't equipped to handle it, number one. Number two, they cheat. They cheat. Hey, they found balance in a wastepaper basket days ago and they all had the name, military fellas. They were military, they all had the name, Trump on them. You think that’s good?

1:31:51 WALLACE

Vice President Biden, final question for you. Will you urge your supporters to stay calm while the vote is counted? And will you pledge not to declare victory until the election is independently certified?

1:32:05 BIDEN

Yes. Here's the deal, they count the ballots, as you pointed out some of these ballots in some states can't even be open until Election Day. And if there's thousands of ballots, it’s gonna take time to do it. And by the way, our military. They've been voting, by ballots since the end of the Civil War in effect. And that's what's happened gonna happen. Why was it not, why is it for them to somehow not fraudulent? It's the same process. It's honest. No one has established at all, that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots. That somehow it's a fraudulent --

1:32:41 TRUMP

It's already been established. Look at --

1:32:45 WALLACE

You had an opportunity to respond. Go ahead.

1:32:48 BIDEN

He has no idea what he's talking about. Here's the deal, the fact is, I will accept it and he will too. Because you know why? Because once the winner is declared, after all the, all the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that'll be the end of it. That'll be the end of it. And if it's me, in fact, fine. And if it's not me, I'll support the outcome. And I'll be a president, not just for the Democrats. I'll be president for Democrats and Republicans. And this guy --

1:33:16 TRUMP

I want us to --

1:33:21 WALLACE

Gentlemen? Will you say that’s the end of it? This is the end of this debate. We're going leave it there. To be continued in more debates as we move on. President Trump, Vice President Biden, it's been an interesting hour and a half. I want to thank you both for participating in the first of three debates that you have agreed to engage in. We want to thank Case Western Reserve University, and the Cleveland Clinic for hosting this event. The next debate, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, will be one week from tomorrow. October 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The two vice presidential nominees Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris will debate at 9pm Eastern that we hope you watch. Until then, thank you and good night.