当地时间9月29日，美国总统大选首场电视辩论在俄亥俄州克利夫兰举行。
谋求连任的共和党总统候选人唐纳德·特朗普和民主党总统候选人乔·拜登，迎来了他们的第一次正面交锋。
不仅如此，拜登团队还推出 “我交的税比特朗普多”周边贴纸。而特朗普及其支持者们也不甘示弱。他们称拜登在辩论时会带上隐形耳机作弊，特朗普则称拜登在上场前需要接受“药检”。拜登在推特上晒出一张耳机与冰淇淋照片进行“反击”：“今晚是辩论夜，所以我准备好我的耳机和体能增强剂。”
辩论中，特朗普和拜登就“特朗普及拜登的过往纪录”（The Trump and Biden Records）、“最高法院”（The Supreme Court）、“新冠疫情”（Coronavirus pandemic）、“经济”（The Economy）、“美国种族和暴力问题”（Race and Violence in our Cities）以及“选举公平性”（The Integrity of the Election）六大议题进行了辩论。根据BBC的报道统计，特朗普讲话时间约有39分钟，拜登则为44分钟。两人耗时最长的议题是新冠疫情，讨论持续约21分钟。辩论中，特朗普一共打断对方73次，企图以此 “控场”，拜登则直呼“你能闭嘴了吗”、“骗子”、“最糟糕总统”。互相打断、口头攻击不仅使双方一度偏离预定的讨论话题，也让辩论主持人、福克斯知名新闻主播克里斯·华莱士（Chris Wallace）招架不住。华莱士在辩论中多次调停争吵，维持辩论秩序，仍无法避免 “失控”的局面。美国最高法院大法官金斯伯格（Ruth Bader Ginsburg）去世后，特朗普提名保守派人士巴雷特(Amy Coney Barrett)接任大法官。拜登认为应当等到11月大选结束后由新总统提名大法官。特朗普则认为现在有充裕时间提名最高法院大法官的人选，并强调现届政府已获选民授权，可以提名大法官人选。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…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…Trump: We won the election. Elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the White House, and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all. 拜登抨击特朗普对新冠疫情的处理不当，称其抗疫毫无计划可言，并指控特朗普试图隐瞒病毒的严重性。特朗普反驳说，如果美国听了拜登的计划，那么“将有数百万人丧生，而不是20万人”，并表示自己在2月份颁布旅行限制政策遏制疫情蔓延以及在疫苗开发方面做出诸多努力。此外，特朗普还在辩论台上拿出口罩，否认自己质疑口罩的有效性。Biden: The President has no plan. He hasn’t laid out anything. He knew all the way back in February how serious this crisis was. He knew it was a deadly disease. What did he do? He’s on tape as acknowledging he knew it. He said he didn’t tell us or give people a warning of it because he didn’t want to panic the American people. You don’t panic. He panicked. In addition to that, what did he do?Trump: If we would’ve listened to you, the country would have been left wide open, millions of people would have died, not 200,000…But if you look at what we’ve done, I closed it and you said, “He’s xenophobic. He’s a racist and he’s xenophobic,” because you didn’t think I should have closed our country…And now we’re weeks away from a vaccine. We’re doing therapeutics already.拜登批评特朗普对美国经济造成了严重打击，上届奥巴马政府卸任时交给特朗普的是蓬勃发展的经济，可是特朗普却“搞砸了”。特朗普回应表示，他促进了美国制造业的恢复发展，并为美国带来了70万个工作岗位。Biden: I was asked to bring it back. We were able to have an economic recovery that created the jobs you’re talking about. We handed him a booming economy, he blew it.Trump: They said it would take a miracle to bring back manufacturing. I brought back 700,000 jobs. They brought back nothing. They gave up on manufacturing.拜登指责特朗普在担任总统期间几乎没有为非洲裔美国人做任何事，并称特朗普是一位激起美国社会仇恨、种族主义矛盾和分裂的总统。特朗普则回应称拜登在1994年通过《美国犯罪法案》“导致警察对非裔美国人的拘留数量大大增加”，而他在任期内签署的刑事司法改革则“让很多人出狱。” Biden: This man is as a savior of African-Americans? This man cares at all? This man’s done virtually nothing. Look, the fact is that you have to look at what he talks about. You have to look at what he did. And what he did has been disastrous for the African-American community.Trump: You did a crime bill, 1994, where you call them super predators. African-Americans are super predators and they’ve never forgotten it. They’ve never forgotten it… So you did that and they call you a super predator and I’m letting people out of jail now, that you have treated the African-American population community, you have treated the black community about as bad as anybody in this country. 特朗普称自己在2016年和2017年缴纳了“数百万美元”的联邦所得税，拜登要求其展示缴税记录。Trump: I paid millions of dollars in taxes, millions of dollars of income tax…I paid $38 million one year, I paid $27 million one year.Biden: Show us your tax returns.特朗普称《巴黎气候协定》对美国来说是一个“灾难”。针对美国近来频发的山火，特朗普称未来将加强森林管理。拜登则表示，一旦当选他将重新加入《巴黎气候协定》。Trump: If you look at the Paris Accord, it was a disaster from our standpoint. And people are actually very happy about what’s going on because our businesses are doing well. As far as the fires are concerned, you need forest management.Biden: And the first thing I will do, I will rejoin the Paris Accord. 今年因为疫情关系，许多选民选择以邮寄方式投票，特朗普再次质疑邮寄投票的真实性，称其将导致选举欺诈。拜登表示自己无论输赢都会接受选举结果，并批评特朗普质疑邮寄投票造假是因为害怕选举失败。Trump: They’re being sent all over the place. They sent two in a Democrat area. They sent out a thousand ballots. Everybody got two ballots. This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen.Biden: 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.
辩论结束后，特朗普在推特上晒出一张图片，暗示自己此次辩论“以一敌二”。
拜登的团队则推出了一款T恤，上面印有特朗普头像及拜登的辩论“金句”——“你能闭嘴吗，先生？”
“混乱”、“一团糟”、“史上最差”、“灾难”……美国媒体用了这些关键词来形容首场总统候选人电视辩论。《纽约时报》在其最新一期的头版上称，特朗普的质问让这场辩论陷入彻底混乱，最终，任何有关政策和思想的讨论都没有了。《华盛顿邮报》头版文章称：“辩论陷入了激烈的争吵”。《华尔街日报》一篇评论文章指出：“没有人期待这场辩论会像林肯和道格拉斯的辩论一样精彩，但它一定要变成一场世界级的摔跤娱乐比赛吗？”而在推特上，一些知名人士也纷纷吐槽此次辩论的混乱无序。BBC主播凯蒂·凯：“这场辩论看得让人极其痛苦，我只能听到三个白人男子在台上叫喊。”
美国外交政策委员会主席理查德·哈斯：“这是我记忆中最让人丧气、最令人忧郁和不安的90分钟。如果没看（辩论），也不会如此担忧这个国家的未来。”
美国电视节目《每日秀》主持人特雷弗·诺亚：“主持人克里斯·华莱士在辩论场上的表现很好地提醒了我们,幼儿园老师的工资太低了。”
美国知名作家斯蒂芬·金：“在下一场辩论中，应该让主持人决定辩论者是否该‘闭麦’。”
今年美国总统候选人第二、三场辩论将分别于10月15日和22日在佛罗里达州迈阿密和田纳西州纳什维尔举行。此外，共和党副总统候选人迈克·彭斯和民主党副总统候选人卡玛拉·哈里斯将于10月7日在犹他州盐湖城举行唯一一场副总统候选人辩论。