Donald Trump and Joe Biden grasp for votes across crucial duelling town hall events

That's it from the SBS News team on the town hall events. You can read more on the US election on our website.

Peace out and thanks for following! 

- Rashida Yosufzai

Some commentators have noticed the vastly different tone in the town hall events:

There's also been praise for the moderator of Mr Trump's town hall, NBC's Savannah Guthrie.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump's niece Mary (who's not exactly a fan of the president) had this reaction:

It will be interesting to see the viewer TV ratings for each town hall, given Mr Trump’s past enthusiasm for ratings and audience records.

His event may be over but Joe Biden is still answering questions from those left in the room.

Over at Team Trump, the Donald is speaking to attendees too:

Mr Trump's event finished half an hour earlier than Mr Biden's

Here’s what we learnt from his event:

• Donald Trump refused to denounce QAnon, the baseless conspiracy movement that believes Mr Trump has been elected to combat pedophilia.
• He falsely claimed 85 per cent of people who wear masks get coronavirus. A CNN fact check citing the American CDC has found where he may have got that 85 per cent figure from: it’s the percentage of people surveyed in a CDC study who said they wore a mask before the onset of their illness.
• He said his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett would make up her own mind about whether she’d rule for him. He also said it would be inappropriate for him to talk to her about overruling abortion rights.
• He said he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

As things start to wrap-up in Philadelphia, Joe Biden does his best to strike a unifying chord. 

"I've never been more optimistic for the prospects of this country than I am today. I really mean that," he says. 

"I'm a Democrat, but I'm going to be an American president. We need to heal this nation. We can't do it divided."

It seems some viewers are noticing the strikingly different tone between the Trump and Biden town halls. 

An audience member asks Mr Biden whether Mr Trump deserves some credit, even just a little bit, for recent foreign policy accomplishments such as brokering a deal between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE. 

READ MORE

Donald Trump hails 'dawn of a new Middle East' as Israel signs landmark deals with UAE and Bahrain

Mr Biden pays some credit, but not much. 

"A little but not a whole lot. We are more isolated than we've ever been. We find ourselves having our NATO allies saying they can't count on us," he says. 

"I complement the President on the deal with Israel recently. But we're not very well trusted around the world."

The president has an admirer in audience member, Paulette Dale.

"I have to say you have a great smile," she says.

"You're so handsome when you smile."

Mr Trump looks pleased:

Joe Biden is now being asked about fracking, which is another issue on which Republicans are trying to paint him into a corner. 

"I do not propose banning fracking," he says. 

"(But) the future rests in renewable energy, the single fastest-growing energy source in the world right now.

"Every time we talk about global warming the president thinks it's a joke."

Confused about where the two candidates stand on climate change? Here's a piece we wrote earlier.

READ MORE

Climate change is one of the most divisive issues in the US. How do Joe Biden and Donald Trump compare?

The president says it would be inappropriate for him to talk to his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett about abortion rights.

Judge Barrett, a practicing Catholic, has given rulings and written legal articles indicating her opposition to abortion rights.

Progressives and Democrats in America fear her appointment to the Supreme Court could allow a legal challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which would revoke the constitutional right of women to access abortions across the United States.

“I don’t want to do anything to influence her,” Mr Trump says.

“I have not talked to her about it. I think it would be inappropriate to talk to her about it.”

Mr Trump is asked by a daughter of two doctors about mask-wearing.

He says he’s fine with mask-wearing but insists there’s no evidence masks are useful.

He also claims “'85% of people who wear masks get the virus”.

To be clear, the science shows very clearly that masks are saving lives during the pandemic.

CNN's John Harwood has this point:

She asks why he played down the threat of the virus early in the pandemic.

"I knew it was a big threat," Mr Trump replies.

"At the same time, I don't wanna panic this country. I don't want to go out and say, everybody's going to die, everybody's going to die."

Here's the background to this. 

In public, Mr Trump has always told Americans that they shouldn't consider the virus much of a danger and that it would "disappear" by itself. Audio recordings between veteran US journalist Bob Woodward and him revealed earlier last month that he tried to play it down.

Read more here.

Law and order, which Mr Trump is trying to turn into a major campaign issue, is up next for Mr Biden. 

Mr Biden gives - for a politician - a very free and frank take on drug crime in the states. 

"No one should go to jail for drug use, they should go into mandatory rehabilitation," he says. 

"We should decriminalise marijuana. In addition to that we've got to change the system. From punishment to rehabilitation."

"They spied on my campaign, and they tried to take down a newly elected sitting president, and then they talk about will you commit to a peaceful transfer, and the answer is yes," Mr Trump says.

“I absolutely want that. But ideally I don’t want to transfer because I want to win.”

As Joe Biden is grilled on his economic plan, his running mate Senator Kamala Harris has taken to Twitter to lend a hand. 

The Republicans have been peppering Mr Biden's campaign with criticism over his tax plan. 

Mr Trump is asked about why he failed to condemn white supremacy at the last presidential debate.

“I denounced white supremacy,” he says.

Asked about QAnon, he says: “I know nothing about QAnon".

“I do know they are very against pedophilia…. And I agree with that," he adds.

Mr Trump shifts the question to the “radical left” and Antifa.

“Why aren’t you asking me about me about [them]?”, he says, adding they were “vicious” and “violent”.

The last many of us would've seen of Joe Biden was his chaotic presidential debate with Mr Trump.

Without the president's constant interruptions, Mr Biden is looking a lot more settled in this town hall setting.

In case you missed it, or if you're a glutton for punishment and want to re-live it, here's our re-cap of the last debate.

READ MORE

Chaotic debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden 'humiliated America in front of the world'

In Miami, Mr Trump says he currently has no COVID symptoms.

Asked if he took a COVID test the day of the first presidential debate, Mr Trump initially says he can’t remember.

When pressed he says: “I probably did take a test the day of the debate”.

"Possibly I did, possibly I didn't," he adds.

He says he tested positive on the Thursday, the day after the debate.

“That’s when I first found out.”

No surprises that coronavirus is first on the agenda over there too.

Mr Biden takes a swipe at Mr Trump's response.

"I argued we should be keeping people in China. I suggested we should be seeking access to the source of the problem. To the best of our knowledge Trump never pushed that," Mr Biden said."Americans don't panic. He panicked."

While we're waiting for the shows to start, here's a refresher of what's happening around the US Election today:

• The reason why we're watching two separate events is because the organisers of the presidential debates wanted a virtual format, citing Mr Trump's coronavirus infection, and the president refused to accept the arrangement. Read more here.
• Joe Biden has tested negative for COVID-19 today. His running mate Kamala Harris says she does not need to quarantine after her communications director tested positive.
• Americans are voting early in record numbers with more than 17 million casting their ballots already ahead of the 3 November election.
• Mr Trump's son Barron had tested positive but is now in the clear.

Good morning and welcome to SBS News’ rolling coverage of the dueling town halls between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. 

My name is Rashida Yosufzai and I’ll be bringing you the most important developments of their discussion with voters. 

The town halls are in separate cities: Mr Trump's is being held at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami while the Biden town hall is at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Both events will take place at the same time but Mr Biden's will run half an hour longer than Mr Trump's one-hour town hall.

Audiences will obviously have to pick which televised event they'll watch but SBS will give you the rundown of both so you don't have to have split screens!