3dfoto/iStockBy ABC News
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden face off in the second — and final — presidential debate of 2020 Thursday night in Nashville, Tennessee.
The planned topics include fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership.
Below, ABC News will fact check what both candidates say throughout the 90-minute debate, moderated by NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker.
Please refresh this page for updates.
Trump misleads when comparing COVID-19 pandemic to H1N1, Obama administration response
TRUMP’S CLAIM: “Frankly, [Biden] 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.”
FACT CHECK: While Trump is correct that the H1N1 virus was much less lethal than COVID-19, it is misleading to call the Obama administration’s response a “failure.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates up to 575,000 lives were lost to the swine flu worldwide. Of those, fewer than 13,000 were American, due in part to the Obama administration’s “complex, multi-faceted and long-term response,” the CDC later wrote. Thus far, COVID-19 has taken the lives of over 210,000 Americans, a little over eight months since the first known case of the virus was discovered in the United States.
“The team, in my opinion, in 2009, really demonstrated that the planning was worth it. Nothing is ever perfect. But I felt just so impressed and so proud of the job CDC did in 2009,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, a CDC director during the George W. Bush administration, told ABC News.
–John VerhovekCopyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.