General election · 29 September 2020
Presidential Debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio
Full transcript: The American Presidency Project (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Speaking turns
848
18,730 words transcribed
Candidates' share
75%
2 candidates
Moderators' share
25%
moderators, panellists, questioners
Crosstalk markers
42
118 turns end on a dash
The debate, turn by turn
Read left to right: each block is one turn, placed where it falls in the running word count and as wide as it is long.
Candidates Moderators, panellists, questioners Audience, recorded clips, unidentified
Share of words
A stand-in for talk time.
- Trump39.2%337 turns
- Biden35.7%266 turns
- Wallace25.1%245 turns
How long each turn ran
Ticks are single turns; boxes span the middle half; the heavy bar is the median.
Every speaker
Show the full speaker table
| Speaker | Role | Turns | Words | Share | Median turn | Longest | Ends on a dash | Reading grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trump | Candidates | 337 | 7,337 | 39.2% | 8 | 422 | 34 | 2.9 |
| Biden | Candidates | 266 | 6,688 | 35.7% | 6 | 380 | 40 | 3.5 |
| Wallace | Moderators, panellists and questioners | 245 | 4,705 | 25.1% | 8 | 224 | 44 | 4.9 |
As the 2025 scraper split it
The notebook's own Participants and Moderators fields, reproduced exactly by the TypeScript port.
- Participants
- Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and; President Donald Trump (R)
- Moderators
- No moderators block in this transcript
- Listing date
- September 29, 2020