Trump makes a point early in the debate. Trump launched his bid to reclaim the White House in November 2022, aiming to become only the second commander in chief to win two nonconsecutive terms. Will Lanzoni/CNN
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.
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:
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.
US President Joe Biden flips through his notes during the debate in Atlanta. Austin Steele/CNN
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.
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.
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.
Ex-US President Donald Trump makes a point early in the debate. Photo: Will Lanzoni/CNN
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.”
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”.
Former President Donald Trump, left, and President Joe Biden take part in the CNN presidential debate on Thursday, June 27. Will Lanzoni/CNN
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.
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”.
The Bidens embrace after the debate. Austin Steele/CNN
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.
Though asked three times, Trump never directly affirmed that he would accept the election results, no matter who wins.
Trump exits the stage at the end of the debate. Will Lanzoni/CNN
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”.
Trump is yet to concede that he lost the 2020 presidential election.
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