tonight, entering the final stretch of the 2020 race. a presidential debate centering on policy differences. >> if we just wore these masks, president's own advisers have told him, we could save 100,000 lives. >> we have to open our schools and we can't close up our nation or you're not going to have a nation. >> pitching their plans on how to end the pandemic. repair the economy. and handle election interference. >> any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in american elections, will pay a price. >> there has been nobody tougher to russia, between the sanctions, nobody tougher than me on russia. >> did donald trump and joe biden change the minds of any voters? this s thinking about your financial plan...

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♪ thanks for joining us. tonight, donald trump and joe biden squaring off one last time on a debate stage before election day. did tonight's showdown seal the deal for either of them? in a last-ditch effort to appeal to a large audience of american voters, president trump and

former vice president joe biden began with what some would consider a traditional debate. >> we're about to go into 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, which we didn't at the beginning. >> reporter: their policy differences on the pandemic front and center. >> that's what's happening, and he wants to close down, he'll close down the country if one person in our -- in our massive bureaucracy says we should close it down. >> vice president biden? >> simply 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're going to open a business, have social distancing within the business. >> reporter: it was quite the contrast to the first debate. >> why wouldn't you answer that question?

>> because the question is -- >> reporter: the president initially restrained tonight. >> 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. they kept it from going into the rest of china, for the most part, but they didn't keep it from coming out to the world, including europe and ourselves. >> reporter: defending his response to the virus. >> we closed up the greatest economy in the world in order to fight this horrible disease that came from china. it's a worldwide pandemic. it's all over the world. you see the spikes in europe and many other places right now. i say we're learning to live with it. we have no choice. we can't lock ourselves up in a basement like joe does. >> reporter: biden in turn hammering the president. >> 220,000 americans dead. you hear nothing else i say tonight, hear this. anyone who's responsible for not taking control, in fact, not

saying -- i take no responsibility initially, anyone responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of america. >> reporter: the battle on the airwaves, on social media, on the ground. biden continues to hold a consistent lead in polls nationally as well as in many must-win states. at least 47 million americans have already voted, demonstrating intense interest in the outcome this year. even astronaut kate rubin voting from outer space today. since his recovery from covid, the president has been holding rallies in contested states every day, despite scientists' warnings against large gatherings. >> we are going to keep on working. we are going to keep on fighting. we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning. >> reporter: while biden, by comparison, stayed off the trail, instead unleashing the democrats' strongest not so secret weapon, former president obama. his mission, to make sure

minorities and young voters who sat out the 2016 election don't stay home this time. >> in the end, pennsylvania, that's what voting's about, making things better. not making things perfect, but putting us on track so that a generation from now, we can look back and say, things got better starting now. >> reporter: looming over tonight's debate, the almost predictable news from the intelligence community that iran and russia are engaging in election interference, sending intimidating emails threatening vote percent they don't vote for president trump. >> now we learn that iran is involved. they will pay a price if i'm elected. they're interfering with american sovereignty. >> reporter: president trump arguing that there is no way russia wants him to win. >> there has been nobody tougher to russia, between the sanctions -- nobody tougher than me on russia. >> reporter: then pivoting to attack joe biden's son hunter and his business dealings abroad in ukraine. >> i hear they paid him $183,000

a month, listen to this, 183, gave him a $3 million up-front payment -- >> all right, i'm going to let the vice president respond quickly -- >> no basis for that. everybody investigated that. no one said anything he did was wrong in ukraine. >> reporter: president trump launching another attack using unverified accusations about the biden family's business dealings. pier this stuff is true about russia, ukraine, china, other countries, iraq. if this is true, then he's a corrupt politician. >> there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he's accusing me of is a russian plant. both parties say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. >> reporter: nbc news' kristin welker questioned the president about a recent "new york times" report claiming the president maintains a bank account in china. >> i have many bank accounts, and they're all listed, and they're all over the place. i mean, i was a businessman doing business. the bank account was in 2013.

that's what it was. it was opened in -- it was closed in 2015, i believe. >> reporter: after months of unrest and calls for racial justice, both men asked if they understand the lived experience of black and brown americans. >> 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've done. >> abraham lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history. he pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one. this guy has a dog whistle big as a fog horn. >> reporter: on one of the most crucial issues for voters, health care, president trump declining to provide any specifics about his plans for replacing obamacare, a 2016 campaign promise he has yet to fulfill. >> we'll always protect people with pre-existing. so i'd like to terminate

obamacare, come up with a brand-new beautiful health care -- >> reporter: biden saying he'd expand obamacare with a public option, calling it biden care. >> public option is an option that says that, if you, in fact, do not have the wherewithal to be -- if you qualify for medicaid and you do not have the wherewithal in your state to get medicaid, you're automatically enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies. >> reporter: biden going on offense, challenging the president on recent reports that the government cannot find the parents of 545 children still separated at the border under president trump's immigration policies. >> do you have a plan to reunite the kids? >> yes, we're working on it very -- we're 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. >> 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. >> they are so well taken care of.

they're in facilities that were so clean. >> reporter: each candidate offered the opportunity to give a unifying message, which each attempted but then reverted to attacks. >> 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. he will kill it. if he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you've never seen. your 401(k)s will go to hell. and it will be a very, very sad day for this country. >> i will say, i'll be an american president. i'll represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me. 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. >> reporter: with only 12 days to go, they'll no doubt be back at it tomorrow. coming up next, abc's linsey davis breaks down the final presidential debate with our powerhouse political team.

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♪ "nightline" continues. here now, linsey davis. >> welcome back, everyone. joining us now to break down tonight's debate, our powerhouse roundtable. matt dowd, rahm emanuel, former mayor of chicago, chris christie, former governor of new jersey, yvette simpson, ceo of the of democracy for america. governor christie, i'd like to start with you. it wasn't a repeat of the last debate, but president trump went after joe biden aggressively. you've certainly coached him before. do you think that the change in

tone helped the president tonight? and is it too late to make a difference? >> it absolutely helped the president tonight, the change in tone. because it did two things. one, it lowered the heat so that people could actually listen to what the two candidates were saying. and secondly, it allowed joe biden room to talk about what he wanted to talk about, which i've been advocating for the president to do right from the beginning. because joe biden to me made a strategic mistake tonight. he said he's going to go to zero carbon by 2025, in five years, and phase out the oil industry. i am confident that voters in the middle of pennsylvania and in certain places of ohio in particular are going to be hearing that loud and clear tonight, knowing that joe biden is going to be eliminating their jobs in five years or less, if we're going to go to zero carbon by 2025. i think this is a big, big mistake by joe biden tonight, and i think he's going to pay for it and could very well pay for it by losing pennsylvania.

>> rahm, how would you score joe biden tonight on the way he handled those personal attacks by the president? >> i think he was most passionate when he talked to the american people about the challenges their lives have and how they provide for their families and their children's future. he clearly had it in a very personal way, understanding the pressure points. joe biden, in my view, did a good job, and better than a good job, for himself. he was aggressive, he didn't sit on a lead, he was concise, he had a plan, he spoke to it. donald trump never really effectively made this a binary choice. if you think of the debate as a whole, as a closing argument to the voters, at the end of the day, the architecture of this race is a referendum on donald trump, and it continues to be that, not only on the policies but the coarseness of his rhetoric that has actually ripped america apart. joe biden embraced that, yes, character is on the ballot. >> sara, voters got to hear two candidates express full-sentence

differences on policies tonight. the president has been consistently touting his economic record. who do you think made a better case tonight for bringing the economy back? >> i think the president, when we're talking about the economy, is usually winning the debate. i thought he was particularly strong on what he's done to improve the lives of minorities. he talked at length about everything from historically black colleges, to his criminal justice reform, to job growth for these communities. he did a pretty good job of putting that together tonight. i think it's actually a stronger argument. he makes the mistake too many times -- he didn't do it tonight, but too many times he gets caught up in statements that are considered racially insensitive. he did not do that tonight. he focused on the policy and on economic policy he does pretty well with most voters. >> yvette, your thoughts on what sara just said? >> i think that he was donald trump. you know, you say you're the

least racist president, then you say you're the least racist person in the room, with an african-american female moderator. then he says the room is dark, and i just love everyone in the room. it's tone deaf, it's insensitive. it just shows more of his embellishment, his being divorced from reality. the fact that he really doesn't understand the needs of african-americans. i think one of the things that joe biden did for the first time was bringing forward the central park 5 and the way that he handled that situation, which is really, really sensitive for african-americans. i think he also did a good job of talking about the fact that many of the reforms that donald trump takes credit for, including the low unemployment among african-americans and hispanics, started under the obama/biden administration. so i think he could have said that more and more and more. this is the first time i actually got, i think, a very clear answer from him on that. >> matt dowd, we have less than two weeks to go. where does biden need to be focusing his attention and spending his time on the trail?

and what message should he especially be hammering home? >> well, since we already have almost 50 million people voted and as of tomorrow 11 days away from election day, and most of all of the votes will be cast by next friday, by a week from friday, the majority of votes will be cast, i think biden keeps doing what he's doing. donald trump was talking to fox news viewers tonight. almost everything he said was presumed from information that people got on fox news. joe biden was speaking to the broad swath of america. so if i were joe biden, he's got the lead, keep doing what you're doing, keep speaking to the broad american public because he's got the lead right now. unless something drastically changes, he's going to keep that lead. >> covid-19, of course, remains the number one issue in this campaign. we're certainly seeing a resurgence in many states. chris, you seem to have had a new appreciation of the disease since you caught it. the president, perhaps, is taking that a little bit differently.

would you think that he would fare better if he showed a little more empathy? >> listen, what i've learned in politics is you have to be yourself. you have to be authentic. and you have to say what you really believe and feel, and people can tell that when you do. so what i would say to the president is, say what's in your heart, tell people what you really think. >> rahm, what do we read into that intense enthusiasm? >> well, the fact is, going back to 2018, you had the biggest midterm election. you're going to have and all of us had predicted massive turnout in the presidential. that was true in the primaries. there is passion on both sides. but the passion is also driven not only by democrats who are angry at donald trump and what he's done to the country, but independent voters, suburban voters, college-educated voters, senior voters, who were anti-hillary last time, have become anti-trump this time. and they are there to cast that

ballot. when you have energized democrats with exhausted independents who are going to choose a safe democrat, that is a very robust political coalition. at no time did trump engage the american people about where they were. he was giving himself credit for what he got done. that's not where the country is and that's not what they want to hear from their president. it's about them, not him. >> back to you, juju. up next, what do voters in swing states have to say about the debate. nored. if you still have symptoms of crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis even after trying other medications, it may be a sign of damaging inflammation, which left untreated, could get much worse. please make an appointment to see your gastroenterologist right away. or connect with them online. once you do, seeing the doctor is one less thing to worry about. need help finding a doctor? head to crohnsandcolitis.com

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♪ finally tonight, debate reaction from voters. >> i'm really excited to see

that joe biden has a plan. >> tonight my husband and i watched the debate here at home. president trump, he's always calm, cool, and collected. he's always got his points together. so he knows his facts. he always seems to be right on point. >> we're going to have to address the climate crisis and what it's going to take is investment. joe biden made sure to talk about the investment and how it's going to be worth every cent. >> my husband's a 28-year law enforcement officer, air force veteran. president trump has been extremely supportive and dedicated to our law enforcement. >> people are eager to see which way north carolina leans this time around. i really do believe we'll be able to flip blue. just the increase in youth involvement and youth awareness through social media. i really do feel like that's also going to have a big say in how this election turns out. >> we have a high rate of drug trafficking, a high rate of human trafficking, that passes

through maricopa county. when he talks about protecting our borders, standing up against human trafficking, those things are important to us because we see the impacts here in maricopa county. we feel them every day. >> the most prominent thing that is in my mind leaving this debate is that we have steps moving forward. we have a candidate that wants to unite the country, not, you know, with red or blue states, but as american citizens. >> the voices of voters. that's "nightline." thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.