What Went Down During The First Presidential Debate
Biden said up front that he is not going to continuously fact-check Trump. It appears his strategy is to laugh repeatedly while Trump is talking, which gets picked up on the split-screen and seems to distract Trump but doesn’t get dinged as an interruption.
The top issue for respondents who lean towards Biden is COVID-19: 44 percent say it’s the most important thing. This reflects quite a difference to Trump supporters, who prioritize the economy above any other issue.
Voters who lean toward Biden care most about COVID-19
Among respondents who were more likely to vote for Biden than Trump, share who named each issue as the top one facing the U.S., according to a FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll
| issue | share of | biden supporters |
|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 | 43.7% | |
| Racial inequality | 11.5 | |
| Health care | 9.9 | |
| The economy | 9.6 | |
| Climate change | 8.4 | |
| Economic inequality | 4.2 | |
| The Supreme Court | 4.2 | |
| Violent crime | 1.8 | |
| Education | 1.5 | |
| Other | 1.4 | |
| Immigration | 1.1 | |
| Gun policy | 0.8 | |
| Abortion | 0.1 |
Trump says “we’re weeks away from a vaccine.” But even if that’s true, most Americans say they wouldn’t trust a vaccine that comes out before Election Day. A KFF poll found that, if a free coronavirus vaccine is developed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration before the election, just 42 percent of Americans would want to get it. Why? Sixty-two percent of respondents said they worried that political pressure would lead the FDA to rush to approve the vaccine before it is proven to be safe and effective.