The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden is a 2020television documentary film about theRepublican andDemocratic Party nominees for the2020 United States presidential election: PresidentDonald Trump and former Vice PresidentJoe Biden respectively. Produced by the investigative journalism programFrontline forPBS, it aims to better inform American voters in their choice by recounting the two major nominees' character and past deeds. Co-produced and directed by Michael Kirk, the film premiered on PBS and simultaneously made available to stream on the broadcaster's website andYouTube channel on September 22, 2020.[3][4] Biden would ultimately be electedPresident of the United States that November, setting a record for the most votes ever received by a presidential candidate. He also became the first man to defeat an incumbent president in 28 years and received the highest percentage of the popular vote over an incumbent president sinceFranklin Roosevelt in 1932.
The Choice 2020 is the ninth installment ofThe Choice, a series of television films produced by the American investigative journalism programFrontline beginning in 1988, with each film aiming to better inform American voters about the two major candidates of a respective presidential election.[17] The installment was first discussed at aTelevision Critics Association press tour by directorMichael Kirk andFrontline executive producerRaney Aronson-Rath on July 28, 2020,[2] and was later formally announced on August 7.[18] A three-minute trailer was released on the same day of its announcement.[6]
Kirk explained that he approached the film seeking a new way of telling the stories of PresidentDonald Trump and former Vice PresidentJoe Biden, as they are "two people who have been in the public eye for a half century".[17] Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic afflicting the United States during the 2020 election season, the film's production team could not fully conduct face-to-face interviews as done in previous installments ofThe Choice. Kirk stated that the team had to use thevideotelephony software programZoom for most of their interviews, stating that "I’m used to interviewing people for hours at a time. Doing that over Zoom is a challenge in its own."[17] At the same time, Kirk considersThe Choice 2020 to be the "most important and essential" out of the five installments he has made so far due to the nation's deep political divide, along with the pandemic, aweakened economy, andrenewed grievances against systemic racism.[17]
As the film was aired during what Rath described as a "perilous time" for the United States,Frontline decided to release some of its interviews in advance of the film's premiere as part of the program's ongoing Transparency Project, beginning on September 14 withMary Trump's interview.[4][19]
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