Election 2020: CNN town hall with Joe Biden

Joe Biden said it was “outrageous” that Attorney General Bill Barr recently said nationwide lockdowns to combat the coronavirus were the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties” in history “other than slavery.”

Biden has sought to keep the focus of the presidential election on the coronavirus and President Donald Trump’s missteps, believing that his failures on the matter will cost him reelection.

“It’s been the failure of this President to deal with this virus, and he knew about it,” Biden said, noting that in January he wrote an opinion piece on the coming pandemic. “He knew the detail of it. He knew it in clear terms.”

Barr’s comments came while he was addressing a Constitution Day celebration hosted by Hillsdale College. The event’s host asked Barr to explain the “constitutional hurdles for forbidding a church from meeting during Covid-19.”

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Former Vice President Joe Biden laid out his plan tonight to help Americans affected financially by the coronavirus pandemic.

The question on getting Americans back to work was raised by Sheila Shaufler, who voted for President Trump in 2016. She claimed that many frontline workers are making much less than people on unemployment who she said have benefited from the stimulus payments.

Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, said he would first address the need for additional health care workers and "pay them in ways that is a living wage."

"So they don't have to live hand to mouth," he said.

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Joe Biden defended peaceful protesters who gathered to protest racial injustice and police brutality over the summer, saying their gatherings were different than rallies President Donald Trump has held in recent weeks.

"Covid safety is a problem no matter where people are ... if they don't have a mask on," Biden said. But, he added, protesters "have a right to speak."

Biden said governors should institute mask mandates now.

"What takes away your freedom is not being able to see your kid; not being able to go to a football game or a baseball game; not being able to see your mom or dad, sick in the hospital," he said.

This is how the moment played out:

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made it clear tonight during CNN's town hall that he does not trust President Trump when it comes to determining when a Covid-19 vaccine would be safe to take.

Biden threw his support emphatically behind Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Muddled vaccine messaging: There’s no substantial disagreement between President Trump and the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the timeline for a coronavirus vaccine, Fauci said Thursday.

Fauci said Trump and CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield were “essentially” right Wednesday when they each gave what seemed like a different timeline for a potential coronavirus vaccine said Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Redfield told a Senate hearing that it would likely be the second or third quarter of next year – that means late spring or summer – before widespread vaccination could be underway in the US. Asked about this during a news conference later in the day, Trump said Redfield “made a mistake” and was “confused.” He said a vaccine will be available soon, possibly as early as next month.

Fauci did not see a big conflict.

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden slammed President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying if he had acted earlier he would have saved many thousands of lives. Biden called Trump's lagged actions and downplaying of the virus "close to criminal."

Biden denied ever seeing a scenario where he would downplay the virus or downplay critical information because he did not want to cause panic.

"Not at all," Biden said. "The idea that you are not going to not tell people what you have been told that this virus is incredibly contagious — seven times more contagious than the flu — you breathe the air and you get it sucked into your lungs — what has he done?"

Biden told CNN's Anderson Cooper that back in March, he was calling for the need to have masks and have Trump "stand and tell us what is going in."

"We have to make sure we lay out to the American people, the truth. Tell them the truth," Biden said regarding the messaging that is needed to protect Americans from the pandemic.

Biden said there has never been a time where the American people have not been able to "step up," and added that Trump should "step down."

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden shared words of solace for those who have lost loved ones due to the coronavirus pandemic, including Shani Adams whose sister died after contracting the virus.

Adams asked Biden tonight during CNN's town hall what he would do to protect people at work if elected president.

At the heart of Biden's plan is the need for more Covid-19 testing, he said.

Biden criticized President Trump for failing to enact a federal mask mandate.

"The President continues to think that masks don't matter very much, although he says it and has these large gatherings with everybody around with no masks on. And it's extremely dangerous. And so there's a lot of people, a lot of people hurt. A lot of people not being able to see their families," he added.

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CNN's town hall with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has begun. The former vice president will face questions from Pennsylvania voters in an unconventional setup due to the coronavirus pandemic — a drive-in town hall.

Biden's presidential campaign has made character its centerpiece, as the Democratic nominee casts the 2020 presidential race as a test of the "soul of the nation" against President Trump.

But he has also released a stream of policy proposals outlining what he would try to accomplish in office. And that platform is likely to be a focus tonight.

Here are some key policy issues that may take center stage:

Read about Biden's proposals on these topics here.

CNN is hosting its first political drive-in town hall of the 2020 presidential election tonight. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will face questions from viewers live in a setup in the parking lot of PNC Field in Moosic and CNN's Anderson Cooper will moderate the discussion.

Thirty-five cars will file into the parking lot, where a stage and monitors have been set up, and audience members and cars will be spaced out to comply with social distancing guidelines, according to Kate Lunger, the vice president of CNN's special events team.

There will be about 100 people in attendance at PNC Field, which is the home of the minor league baseball team the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The event location is a short drive from Biden's childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

CNN is following all of the local guidelines and restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lunger said, and everybody attending and working the town hall will have their temperatures taken and will answer screening questions. Outdoor events and gatherings of more than 250 people are prohibited, according to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and the state's Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. Wearing masks when outside of the home is mandatory.

Voters at the town hall will be able to sit in their car and tune to an FM station on their car radio to hear the town hall, or will be able to sit next to their car to watch the event, according to Lunger.

Lunger noted the array of new technical and logistical challenges that putting on this type of event poses. For example, the control room for Thursday's event will be located back in Washington, DC, which is unlike town halls the network has put on in the past, where everything has been on site.

"The good news is we have great teams across all the company who've done these town halls with us for the last few years, so everybody knows their role but everyone's trying to figure out how to operate in this new world in the same way while being Covid-safe," Lunger said.

CNN's Anderson Cooper previews how the event will work:

President Donald Trump’s appearance at the ABC town hall in Pennsylvania earlier this week was a reminder of one of his great weaknesses — his difficulty connecting to the life experiences and emotions that average Americans try to share with him.

Trump’s inability to empathize in those one-on-one encounters stems from his narcissism and his tendency to turn every policy observation into a discussion about himself (usually accompanied by grandiose praise of his own performance). His rival Joe Biden, on the other hand, does not have the same gifts as Trump in firing up an audience at a political rally, but he excels in situations that demand empathy.

In those hundreds of moments, Biden created an intimacy that often gave his listener a sense that he understood them and was on their side.

It has been much more difficult for Biden to create those moments in the coronavirus pandemic from a distance, but look for him to do so tonight as he tries to play up the huge contrast between his ability to emote and empathize and that of Trump.

Biden’s campaign and the Democratic convention were rooted in the notion that the former Delaware senator could be the “Healer-in-Chief.” He will have a rare opportunity to show that side — and why Democrats think it matters — as he strives to connect with his questioners at tonight’s CNN Presidential Town Hall, which begins at 8 p.m. ET.