President Donald Trump refused to participate in a virtual debate (open in new tab) with Joe Biden, but ended up debating someone else. President Trump is known for overwhelming his opponents with his sheer force of speech, but Guthrie came prepared, repeatedly calling out Trump's inaccurate statements and harshly confronting questions that Trump typically avoids.

On numerous occasions, Guthrie made it clear that he was lying, even when the president interrupted her and tried to deflect the conversation. Twitter praised Guthrie for doing what many of her rivals failed to do: forcing President Trump to answer questions without flailing or dodging, and for not allowing President Trump to interrupt her questions.