Biden and Trump debate featured a fiery exchange, rambling answers, and what has been described as lies.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle in the United States between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was defined by rambling answers by the current president and misstatements by his predecessor.
EDITOR’S PICKS
Biden, his voice low and hoarse, stumbled through 90 minutes of his tightly controlled debate with Trump, speaking rapidly and at times losing his train of thought.
While Biden, 81, appeared incoherent, Trump, 78, dodged questions and spewed falsehoods with little opposition, says Costas Panagopoulos, head of Northeastern University’s political science department.
Here are the highlights and key moments from the presidential debate, as it happened:
Biden’s age problem got worse and caused panic in the Democratic Party
The most important job for Biden on Thursday night was to put to rest voters’ concerns about his biggest vulnerability — his age — and turn the election into a referendum on Trump.
He failed to do so.
Biden was hoarse and at times unintelligible. Words often ran together. He stumbled, particularly when he tried to cite statistics and legislation.
US media reports claim that some senior officials in his party have said the party is in trouble if Biden ends up being their nominee.
Trump was on the attack
As Biden rambled, Trump was quick to capitalize, going on the attack.
At one time, the former president said, “I don’t know what he [Biden] said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows either” in reaction to the current president losing his train of thought.
Biden also stumbled over a question about the national debt, trying to explain the benefits of raising taxes on the super-rich before losing steam and concluding with the declaration that, “We finally beat Medicare ”
“Well, he’s right: he did beat Medicare,” Trump shot back, “He beat it to death.”
The Biden campaign blamed his struggle on a cold he has had in recent days.
Trump ducks on deportations
The immigration section of the debate was mostly memorable for Biden’s stumble.
But Trump did not directly answer a question about whether the severe immigration crackdown he has promised would involve deporting those who have been in the US for decades, those with jobs and those whose spouses are US citizens.
Instead, he pivoted into an attack on Biden, arguing that the president bears the blame for crime committed by undocumented immigrants since he took office.
“We’re living right now in a rat’s nest. They’re killing our people,” Trump said. “They’re killing our citizens at a level we’ve never seen before.”
Biden, who had sought to emphasize that illegal border crossings have dropped recently, shot back: “Every single thing he said was a lie.”
Biden and Trump Blame Each Other for Inflation
Asked at the top of the debate about one of the most persistent headwinds facing his reelection bid – inflation – Biden said he inherited an economy that was “in freefall” caused by Trump’s stewardship of Covid-19.
Biden said the pandemic was “so badly handled” by his predecessor.
“We put things back together,” he said.
Trump, for his part, blamed the pandemic for halting an economy he said was “the greatest economy in the history of our country” – a familiar refrain from the former president.
“We got hit with Covid and when we did we spent the money necessary so we didn’t get hit with the great depression,” Trump said.
He added that Biden’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic was a “disaster” and said inflation was “absolutely killing us”.
Trump’s vow on abortion
Abortion is an issue Democrats think could help deliver a victory in November.
In 2016, he campaigned on overturning Roe vs Wade, a judgement that guaranteed abortion nationwide, and as president appointed three Supreme Court justices who provided the deciding votes revoking the 49-year right to the procedure.
In response to a question from the moderators, Trump vowed not to go further if he returns to the White House, where his administration would have the authority to outlaw the abortion pill mifepristone, which is widely used.
“As far as abortion’s concerned it’s back to the states,” Trump said, contending the Founding Fathers would have been happy with the end of Roe. “Everybody wanted it brought back.”
“The idea that the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making the decisions about women’s health is ridiculous,” Biden shot back.
Israel-Gaza war
During a discussion of Israel’s war against Hamas, Biden walked a tightrope.
The US president sought to both stress his support for Israel in the wake of the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US and European Union, and his push for more restraint in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
Hamas cannot be allowed to continue, Biden said. Trump said Israel should be allowed to “finish the job”.
“He’s become like a Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian, he’s a weak one,” Trump said.
Biden responded: “I’ve never heard so much foolishness”.
Ending the Ukraine war before January
Trump blamed Biden for the war in Ukraine and called on Europe to up spending to support Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin “would have never invaded Ukraine” if the United States “had a real president,” Trump said. Trump again claimed he would be able to “settle” the war if re-elected, even ahead of January 20, when he would be inaugurated if he won the presidency. He did not say how he would achieve that, however.
Trump on accepting 2024 election results
Though asked three times, Trump never directly affirmed that he would accept the election results, no matter who wins.
Several times, the former president noted that he would accept the results “if it’s a fair and legal and good election” but wouldn’t give a “yes” or “no” answer to moderator Dana Bash’s inquiries.
After the moderator asked Trump three times whether he would accept the results of the November election, Biden responded that he doubted Trump would “because you’re such a whiner”.
FURTHER READING
Trump is yet to concede that he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Click here to watch our video of the week:
Advertise or Publish a Story on EkoHot Blog:
Kindly contact us at [email protected]. Breaking stories should be sent to the above email and substantiated with pictorial evidence.
Citizen journalists will receive a token as data incentive.
Call or Whatsapp: 0803 561 7233, 0703 414 5611
