In reality, Trump's performance was riddled with false claims, on topics ranging from the coronavirus to foreign policy to immigration. And while former Vice President Joe Biden made some missteps and stretched the truth at times, his comments essentially hewed to the truth.

Trump came into the debate needing to clean up from his first performance and he clearly listened to his advisers who urged him to turn down the heat and stop his incessant interruptions. But the President relied heavily on the same rhetoric that fills his raucous rallies and Twitter feed, just set at a lower volume. His lies ranged from the political, like when he falsely claimed the coronavirus was "going away" or that a vaccine to end the pandemic was ready, to the personal, like when he falsely said Biden has "houses all over the place" or lied about Biden receiving millions of dollars from Russia. And his lies were clearly aimed at politically important issues, like health care, the economy and coronavirus, three topics that voters say are critical to them as they head to the ballot box.

Biden's misstatements were more on the margins, like when he falsely claimed that he never said he opposed fracking, understated the number of people for whom Trump has granted clemency and made a misleading claim about health care coverage losses under Obamacare.

CNN's team watched the second and final presidential debate. Here are the facts.

Coronavirus

Trump: Coronavirus is 'going away'

Trump claimed the virus is going away. "We're rounding the corner. It's going away," Trump said.

Facts First: This is false. The US coronavirus situation -- as measured by newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and the test positivity rate -- is getting worse, not better. There is no basis for his vague claim that we are "rounding the corner."

Trump has baselessly claimed for eight months that the virus would disappear or was currently disappearing.

-- Holmes Lybrand

Biden: An additional 200,000 Americans will die from Covid-19 by the end of the year

Biden said: "The expectation is we'll have another 200,000 Americans dead the time between now and the end of the year."

Facts First: This needs context.

One study published in October in the medical journal JAMA showed that there were more than 225,000 excess deaths in a five-month period at the start of the year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, compared to past years. (Excess deaths are the number of deaths beyond what historic numbers of deaths have been in a similar time period.) The study then predicted that the total number of excess deaths would likely be greater than 400,000. But as of Thursday evening, 223,000 Americans have lost their lives to Covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

These are merely projections. The latest forecast from an influential coronavirus model projects about 315,000 deaths by December 31. That's about 92,000 additional American lives lost beyond the current death toll. There is

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Covid-19 vaccine myths debunked: Get the facts here | Health24

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