Answer:
Here’s a look at where Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.
1. The coronavirus
Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was exceptional, saying he acted early to impose travel restrictions from China; worked with states to acquire equipment like ventilators; and pushed for the development of treatments and vaccines.
The record, however, reveals that the president consistently played down the threat from the virus in the early days when it could have been contained, and ignored or resisted advice from his top health officials. The United States failed to provide enough testing to know how the virus was spreading, and Mr. Trump clashed with governors over the need for protective equipment.
There is also mounting evidence of the ways in which Mr. Trump and the White House put immense political pressure on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies to accept Mr. Trump’s demands that the country reopen more quickly than they thought was safe.
And the president’s demands for a vaccine that could be announced before the election have left the public health community wary of the effectiveness and safety of a vaccine when one is ready.
For many months, Mr. Biden has put a major focus on the virus, condemning Mr. Trump’s handling of the pandemic and making that a central argument as he asks voters to deny the president a second term.
2. The economy
Until the pandemic, one of Mr. Trump’s strongest arguments for re-election was the powerful performance of the economy, which had achieved low unemployment, strong growth and a soaring stock market.
Following the virus-induced shutdowns, the economy’s growth has stalled and unemployment has soared, even with some recovery in recent months. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump promises that the economy will recover — and get even better — if he is given a second term.
The president has also promised a future tax cut for the middle class, though he has not offered specifics, and he has said he wants to reduce the capital gains tax.
Though the economy has been a source of enduring strength for Mr. Trump in the polls, Mr. Biden is trying to chip away at the president’s standing. He can point to Mr. Trump’s handling of the pandemic to argue that the president’s mismanagement has worsened Americans’ economic pain. And he has portrayed Mr. Trump as fixated on the performance of the stock market and concerned only about wealthy people.
This summer, Mr. Biden rolled out his own set of economic proposals under the slogan “Build Back Better,” including plans to invest in clean energy and to ensure that procurement spending goes toward American-made products.
3. Race and violence in American cities
The president has seized upon unrest over racial justice as a defining difference between him and Mr. Biden, calling the protesters “rioters” and “anarchists” and overtly siding with the police in a bid to cast himself as a “law and order” leader.
The president and his campaign are using episodes of violence against the police to generate fear and support among his base. He has called for much more aggressive use of the National Guard to control disturbances, and has dismissed the Black Lives Matter organization as a radical, violent group.
When he is pressed for accomplishments, Mr. Trump cites the First Step Act, which made some reforms to federal sentencing laws, benefiting minorities. The bipartisan bill passed in 2018 and was signed into law by Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump has attacked Mr. Biden as anti-law enforcement, often in exaggerated terms — though at times the president has also tried to cast him as overly punitive because of his work on the 1994 crime bill that encouraged incarceration.
Mr. Biden has repeatedly said that he opposes defunding the police, though Republicans have still falsely claimed that he supports that movement. He has condemned violence as well.
Mr. Biden has called for racial healing and pledged to confront systemic racism, a starkly different approach from Mr. Trump’s. In July, Mr. Biden released a plan to address racial inequities in the economy.
Mr. Biden’s message ties back to the origin of his campaign and themes of American values, as he often talks about being motivated to run by Mr. Trump’s comments after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
