First 2020 Presidential Debate: on Government Reform
Barack Obama:
FactCheck: Senate GOP blocked over 100 open judgeships
Trump said, "President Obama [& Biden] left me 128 judges to fill. When you leave office, you don't leave any judges. Maybe he got complacent." Is that true that Trump could appoint so many judges because President Obama left the positions unfilled?
We checked, and found that while it's true that Trump inherited 128 open judge positions, that was because the Senate blocked Obama's appointments.Excerpts from The Hill e-zine, March 29, 2018: "Republicans took control of the Senate in 2014 during
Obama's last two years in office and did not confirm many of his nominees. The Senate's top Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, teamed up to block Democratic efforts to push forward Obama's nominees, slowing down confirmations by the
most in six decades. Most notably, McConnell refused to hold a confirmation hearing on Obama's nominee for Supreme Court justice, Merrick Garland. The vacancies left behind by the Obama administration were not by choice.
Source: The Hill e-zine Fact-Check˙on First 2020 Presidential Debate
Sep 29, 2020
Donald Trump:
Obama left 128 openings for judges; I appointed 300
I'll tell you something, some people say maybe the most important by the end of the first term I'll have approximately 300 Federal judges and 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 one of the reasons I'll 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 number. By the end of this term, 300 judges. It's a record.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Donald Trump:
Solicited mail-in ballots ok; unsolicited ballots are fraud
TRUMP: As far as the ballots are concerned, it's a disaster. A solicited ballot, okay, solicited, 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. This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen. Q: In 2018, in the last midterm election, 31 million people voted mail-in voting. That was 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 any dispute?
TRUMP: I think I'm counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely. I hope we don't need them, in terms of the election itself. But for the ballots, I think so, because what's happening is incredible. This is not going to end well.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Donald Trump:
I'm urging my base to watch the polls on Election Day
I'm urging my supporters to go in to 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 in to watch. They're 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 my people. I hope it's going to be a fair election.
If it's a fair election I am 100% on board. But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go along with that. And I'll tell you why-
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Donald Trump:
Elections have consequences; I'm elected for four years
TRUMP: Elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the White House, and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all [Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court Justice]. Top, top academic; good in every way. Good in every way. We won the election
and therefore we have the right to choose her, and very few people knowingly would say otherwise. The Democrats, they wouldn't even think about not doing it. The only difference is they'd try and do it faster. There's no way they would give it up. They
had Merrick Garland, but the problem is they didn't have the election so they were stopped. A President is elected for four years. I'm not elected for three years.BIDEN: The American people have a right to have a say in who the Supreme Court nominee
is and that say occurs when they vote for United States Senators and when they vote for the President of United States. They're not going to get that chance now because we're in the middle of an election already. The election has already started.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Donald Trump:
FactCheck: 128 judgeships open because Senate GOP forced it
Trump said, "President Obama [& Biden] left me 128 judges to fill. When you leave office, you don't leave any judges. Maybe he got complacent." Is that true that Trump could appoint so many judges because President Obama left the positions unfilled?
We checked, and found that while it's true that Trump inherited 128 open judge positions, that was because the Senate blocked Obama's appointments.Excerpts from The Hill e-zine, March 29, 2018: "Republicans took control of the Senate in 2014 during
Obama's last two years in office and did not confirm many of his nominees. The Senate's top Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, teamed up to block Democratic efforts to push forward Obama's nominees, slowing down confirmations by the
most in six decades. Most notably, McConnell refused to hold a confirmation hearing on Obama's nominee for Supreme Court justice, Merrick Garland. The vacancies left behind by the Obama administration were not by choice.
Source: The Hill e-zine Fact-Check˙on First 2020 Presidential Debate
Sep 29, 2020
Joe Biden:
Mail voting works for military; should work for civilians
We count the ballots. Some of these ballots in some states can't even be opened until election day. If there's thousands of ballots, it's going to take time to do it. Our military. they've been voting by ballots since the end of the Civil War.
Why is it, for them, 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.
The fact is, I will accept it, and he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared after 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. If it's not me, I'll support the outcome.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Joe Biden:
Vote, vote, vote; then Trump can't stop you
His own Homeland Security director, and as well as the FBI director, says that there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are a source of being manipulated and cheating. There are going to be millions of people because of COVID that are going to be
voting by mail-in ballots like he does. This is all about trying to dissuade people from voting because he's trying to scare people into thinking that it's not going to be legitimate.Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of this election.
Vote, vote, vote. Vote whatever way is the best way for you. He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of this election. When the votes are all counted, that will be accepted. If I win, that will be accepted. If I lose, that'll be
accepted. If in fact he says, he's not sure what he's going to 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 can't stay in power. It won't happen.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Joe Biden:
Five states have done mail-in ballots for a decade or more
BIDEN: Five states have had mail-in ballots for the last decade or more. Five, including two Republican states. And you don't have to solicit the ballot. It's sent to you. It's sent to your home. What they're saying is that it has to be a postmark
by election day. If it doesn't get in until the seventh, eighth, ninth, it still should be counted. He's just afraid of counting the votes.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Joe Biden:
Americans express their view by who they elect president
TRUMP: Elections have consequences. They had Merrick Garland [as Obama's Supreme Court nominee in early 2016], but the problem is they didn't have the election [victory in 2016] so they were stopped.BIDEN: The American people have a right to have a
say in who the Supreme Court nominee is, and that say occurs when they vote for United States Senators and when they vote for the President of United States. They're not going to get that chance now [with Amy Coney Barrett nominated last week] because
we're in the middle of an election already. The election has already started. Tens of thousands of people already voted and so the thing that should happen is we should wait.
We should wait and see what the outcome of this election is because that's the only way the American people get to express their view is by who they elect as President and who they elect as Vice President.
Source: First 2020 Presidential Debate, moderated by Chris Wallace
Sep 29, 2020
Page last updated: Oct 07, 2020