(CNN)On ABC, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was explaining his plan to raise taxes on people making more than $400,000 per year. On NBC, President Donald Trump was equivocating about the existence of a satanic cult of pedophiles.
The problem with their town halls, which were drastically different in tone and substance: Americans could only pick one to watch. Visit CNN's Election Center for full coverage of the 2020 race. With the second presidential debate scrapped in the wake of Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, the two candidates instead agreed to nationally televised town halls, with Biden taking questions from voters in Philadelphia and Trump doing so in Miami. The two are scheduled to debate just one more time. Here's are five takeaways from the dueling town halls:Trump's alternate reality
No hour has better illustrated the alternate reality in which Trump exists than Thursday's 60-minute town hall.Trump claimed the science is still out on wearing masks, despite the universal view of health experts -- including within his own administration -- that it can mitigate the spread of coronavirus. He refused to say whether or not he believed Democrats were running a satanic pedophile ring, shrugging when pressed and saying only, "I have no idea."He claimed with no evidence that ballots with his name on them had been found in garbage cans.And he would not affirm that a conspiratorial tweet he retweeted claiming Osama Bin Laden is still alive is false, saying, "People can decide for themselves." "I don't get that," moderator Savannah Guthrie said after that last equivocation. "You're the President, not somebody's crazy uncle."Contained within Trump's regular venues of conservative television and Twitter, the upside-down world in which he exists sometimes loses its impact. But in front of everyday voters, his answers appeared wildly detached from any accepted version of reality. Voters deciding between Trump and Biden find themselves choosing less between two candidates than two entirely opposite planets.Trump vs. Guthrie
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Trump refuses to denounce QAnon conspiracies 02:24Since leaving the hospital, Trump has been dialing into friendly outlets to recount his ordeal and trash Biden. Over the past week, he's phoned Fox News or Fox Business five times, along with chats on Newsmax and Rush Limbaugh.The warmth of a conservative safe space is where Trump has thrived for most of his presidency. When he emerged onto NBC's set, things felt much colder.A lawyer by training, Guthrie would not let up when Trump evaded questions about his coronavirus diagnosis, whether he was tested the day of the last debate, his stance on white supremacy, his views on QAnon or his view of mail-in voting.Trump was conducting a town hall instead of a debate by choice; he pulled out of a second face-off with Biden when the Commission on Presidential Debates insisted it be virtual. But the result was 20 minutes of contentious live grilling with only himself in the spotlight -- a rarity for a President who sticks mostly to a friends in conservative media.Without a rival on the stage, Trump was alone in fielding the questions. And he had no opponent to pepper with his own attacks. Instead, Trump found himself on the defensive and increasingly angry -- including scoffing at a question Guthrie asked by calling her "cute."It's the type of performance some of Trump's advisers had hoped to avoid, recognizing it is that type of behavior that has turned off women voters and senior citizens. During one of the commercial breaks, Trump's strategic communications director Alyssa Farah came out and spoke to Guthrie before joining other aides to speak with the President.Trump appeared more moderated when answering questions from the town hall participants. But the ease of conducting four years of friendly interviews became clear when it came time for his final question: Why should voters give him a second term? Instead of laying out what he'd do differently, Trump listed only what he'd accomplished so far and concluded with: "Next year is going to be better than ever before."Biden's policy-focused contrast
The contrast between the candidates' approaches and their town halls' topics was dramatic -- especially when confronted with controversial remarks they'd made in the past. One clear window into Biden's tactics in a town-hall setting, with voters pressing him one-on-one, came when a young Black man recalled the former vice president's flip comment to radio host Charlamagne tha God that if someone was struggling to decide between supporting him and Trump, "you ain't Black." "Besides 'you ain't Black," the man asked, how could Biden convince Black voters to take part "in a system that has failed to protect them?" Instead of addressing his controversial remark, Biden delved into a several-minutes-long litany of policy specifics aimed at helping Black people. On his list: Tripling Title I funding for low-income schools; helping first-time homebuyers with a $15,000 credit for downpayments so that low-income families can begin to build wealth; $70 billion in new funding for historically Black colleges and universities; and government-backed loans for young Black entrepreneurs. Asked if he'd heard enough, the young man responded, "Uh, I think so." Then Biden offered to continue their conversation after the town hall ended.It was one of a number of long-winded answers from Biden on Thursday night, and underscored Biden's style and his efforts to use the town hall to focus on how his plans would affect ordinary Americans. It's the implicit contrast Biden has long sought to offer voters: Sobriety in the face of Trump's bombast, and a connection to the concerns of low- and middle-income Americans who he says have been ignored by Trump. Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp tweeted during Biden's town hall that watching it "feels like I am watching an episode of Mister Rodgers Neighborhood." That was exactly the tone Biden was aiming for.Biden's position on court-packing 'depends'
