President Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off last night in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, a 90-minute affair that was explained through incoherent responses from the current president and lies and misstatements from his predecessor.
Applicants answered questions about the economy, abortion, the Middle East, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump’s recent felony conviction and much more. CNN hosted the debate in Atlanta, with hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash as moderators. The microphone is muted when it’s not your turn to speak and there’s no audience present in the studio.
Biden stumbled over many of his answers at the beginning of the debate and it seemed like he was wasting his voice, supposedly because he was battling a cold. Although he took a step forward during the night, he lost the exercise of his ideas and had difficulty communicating his ideas. positions on various issues. Its functionality alarmed many of his fellow Democrats. “I’ve never noticed such a panic,” one House Democrat told CBS News, referring to the reaction from party lawmakers.
By comparison, Trump seemed full of life, even as he misinterpreted his record and many presidential positions that night. He has continually lied about a variety of issues, adding abortion, his recent felon conviction, and Mr. S. ‘s immigration history. S. . Biden.
Here are the highlights and key moments from the first presidential debate of 2024, as it unfolded:
The two applicants took their desks at the debate level in Atlanta shortly after 9 p. m. , as the debate began. They did not shake hands.
With no opening statements, moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash jumped straight into the questions.
Biden called for responding to the economic hardships Americans are feeling from inflation, from groceries to the housing market. The president pointed the finger at Trump, figuratively speaking.
“We have to take a look at what I was left with when I became president, what Mr. Trump left me,” the president said in a visibly hoarse voice. “We had an economy in slow decline. The pandemic has been so mismanaged. . . What we had to check to get things back on track, and that’s precisely what we started doing. ”
The president pointed to steps his administration has taken to reduce charges for Americans, adding that the cost of insulin dropped to more than $15 instead of $400.
Trump insisted that the United States “had the largest economy in the history of our country” when he was president, and pointed the finger at Biden.
“Inflation is killing our country, it’s surely killing us,” Trump said.
Trump’s claim that during his presidency the United States had “the largest economy in the history of the country” is false through many of the signs commonly used to judge economic performance. It is difficult to reach an agreement with GDP. During the 2020 pandemic, the expansion after inflation under Trump averaged 2. 67%, according to World Bank figures. That’s a far cry from the GDP expansion under Democratic President Bill Clinton, of 4%, according to World Bank data. Including the post-COVID era, this average drops to 1. 45%.
Trump claimed, erroneously, that the jobs created through Biden were aimed at “illegal immigrants” and that jobs were “recovering” after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump also defended his proposal to impose a 10% tariff on all U. S. foreign goods.
“This will make them go up,” Trump insisted, contradicting the opinion of many economic experts. “It’s just going to charge a lot of money to countries that have been letting us down for years, like China and many others, in all honesty for China. “
Trump took aim at the president’s record questions about either candidate’s economic policies, saying “we’ve become a third-world nation” during Trump’s tenure. Biden claimed that his own tax cuts “boosted the biggest economy we’ve ever had. “I’ve never seen,” touting his economic approach as well as his track record on COVID-19.
“I put him in a situation,” Trump said of Biden, adding that the current president had done a “very bad job. “
“Around the world, we no longer have a reputation as a country,” Trump said. “They don’t respect our leaders, they don’t respect America anymore. “
Trump said he agreed with this month’s Supreme Court ruling preserving abortion pills, when the justices rejected a challenge aimed at the availability of mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill. Trump said he agreed with the resolution and “will not block it. “
“It’s been 51 years of Roe v. Wade and everyone sought to get it passed to the states, everyone,” Trump said, touting the appointment of three justices to the court who voted to overturn the resolution guaranteeing abortion rights. in 2022.
The former president said that from now on the States are “getting there. “He said he believes there deserve to be exceptions for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother, a position he has repeated in recent months after pronouncing in April that abortion restrictions deserve to be left to the states and not the federal government.
Biden said Trump’s statement that “everyone” opposed Roe v. Wade was “ridiculous. “
“The fact is that the vast majority of constitutional experts supported Roe when the resolution was adopted, Roe supported. And. . . This concept that everyone was opposed to it is just ridiculous,” he said.
Biden stumbled in the first few minutes of the debate and struggled to nominate Medicare while answering a question about the tax rate for wealthy Americans.
“We have a trillion dollars in the United States; I am referring to billionaires in the United States. And what happens? They are in a scenario where, in fact, they pay 8. 2% in taxes, if they only paid 24%, 25%, any of the figures. “We would raise $500 million (billions of dollars, I mean) over a 10-year period,” he said, listing a number of priorities such as investment in child care, physical care and “making sure that we’re able to make each and every single one of us every lone user eligible for what I’ve been able to do with COVID, excuse me, with, manage each and every one of the things that you consider us, eh. . . ”
Then the president paused and struggled to speak.
“Sorry,” he said, “for taking care of what we have to do with . . . »
Then the president paused again.
“Look, we still beat Medicare,” he continued.
“Thank you, President Biden,” Tapper said. President Trump? »
“He beat Medicaid, beat him to death,” Trump said.
Trump criticized Biden for immigrants who crossed the border illegally, some immigrants who committed crimes.
“He wants to open our border, open our country to other people who come from prisons, other people who come from psychiatric institutions, insane asylums, terrorists. Lately we have the highest number of terrorists coming into our country, all terrorists, all “All over the world, not just in South America, they come from the Middle East, from everywhere,” Trump said.
Trump insisted that the United States had “the most secure border in history” when he was president.
“There’s never been anything like this, and other people are dying everywhere, adding to those arriving in the trailers,” Trump said.
Biden responded.
“The only terrorist who did anything by crossing the border was the one who came in and killed 3 — under his direction — a member of Al Qaeda under his direction — and killed 3 American soldiers,” Mr. Biden said. “I killed 3 American soldiers. ” He is the only terrorist who. . . I’m not saying that any terrorists have managed to get out of there, but the concept that they empty their prisons, that we welcome these people, is simply false, it exists. There is no knowledge to verify it. ” I said what he said. Once again he exaggerates, he lies.
Tapper called on Trump to respond to the electorate involved about a repeat of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“After you gathered your supporters that day, some of them stormed the Capitol to prevent the recount, which is required by the Constitution,” Tapper said. “As president, you have sworn to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution. Are you telling the electors that you violated this oath by your movements and movements of January 6 and that they are afraid to do it again?”
“Well, I don’t think many will, and let me tell you about Jan. 6,” Trump said. “On January 6 we had a large border. No one passed, very few. On January 6 we were independent in terms of energy. On January 6th, we had the lowest taxes in history. We had the lowest regulations in history. On January 6th, we had the lowest taxes in history. . . 6, We had good reputation all over the world, all over the world, we had good reputation. And then he comes along and now they laugh at us like a bunch of stupid people.
Tapper pressed Trump to pop the question.
“Well, I didn’t say that to anybody, I said it ‘peacefully and patriotically,'” Trump responded, before criticizing former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The verbal exchange revolved around Trump’s conviction last month at his “hush money” trial in New York. Biden took aim at the former president who wondered about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying “the only user on this scene who is a convicted felon, is the guy I’m chasing right now. “
But Trump temporarily tried to deflect attention, pointing the finger at Mr. Biden, Hunter, before suggesting that the president himself might also be a convicted felon.
“When you’re talking about a convicted felon, your child is a convicted felon,” Trump said. “He may just be a convicted felon as soon as he leaves office. . . Joe may simply be a convicted felon with everything he’s done. “
Trump is lately awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on his claim that presidents have “absolute immunity” for acts committed while in office.
Biden pointed to the fees Trump has charged in four felon cases and asked how much the former president owes in civil cases.
“He has the character of a stray cat,” Biden said.
Trump responded by saying, “I haven’t slept with a porn star. “
Forty-five minutes after the start of the debate, sources close to the preparation of the presidential debate showed that Biden had had a bloodletting in recent days. Hence this hoarse voice.
A senior official said Biden got the test through the White House doctor at Camp David, who showed he had a cold. The president tested negative for COVID, two of the sources said.
During one exchange, the two applicants abandoned their answers to more substantive questions to complain about the other, calling him the worst president the country has ever known.
“He’s the worst president,” Trump said in reaction to his desire to make child care more affordable. “He’s the worst president in the history of our country. ”
Biden flatly rejected the claim, blaming it on Trump and that experts say Trump is the worst president in U. S. history.
“They said it was the worst in all of presidential history,” Biden said, citing a recent poll of political scientists. “That’s a fact. “
On the opportunity to answer the question about childcare, Trump promised that “if they give me 4 years, I’ll be the best. “
The moderators called on Biden to address voters’ concerns about his age. He is currently 81 years old, but would be 86 at the end of his second term.
“Well, first of all, I’ve spent part of my career being criticized for being the youngest user in politics,” Biden said, alluding to the fact that he was only 30 years old when he was sworn in as a senator in 1973. I’m the second-youngest user elected to the U. S. Senate, and I’m now the oldest. This guy is 3 years younger and much less competent.
The president went straight back to his record in terms of jobs, 800,000 more in the productive industry. Biden also highlighted his efforts to bring jobs back to the United States.
“I’ve never before heard a president communicate the concept that we’re a bankrupt country like that,” Biden said. “We are the envy of the whole world. ”
Trump, who will be 82 at the end of his second term, also asked about voters’ concerns about his age.
“Well, I took two tests, cognitive tests, I passed them, both, as you know, we made them public,” Trump said. “He didn’t answer any, I would like him to answer one, only one. a very simple one. How to answer the first five questions, he couldn’t do it. “
“We knock on wood anywhere we have wood and I’m in very good health,” Trump added, before turning to golf. “I just won two club championships, not even seniors, two normal club championships. To do that, “You have to be smart enough and you have to be smart enough to hit the ball very far. ”
When the debate turned to whether Trump would settle for the effects of the November election, Trump said, after being questioned a second time, that he would settle for the effects of the election “if the election was fair, legal and good, absolutely. “”
“I will, absolutely, I wouldn’t do anything,” Trump said, adding that he would have “far preferred” to settle for the outcome of the 2020 election, but claimed that “the fraud and everything else was ridiculous. ”
There is no widespread fraud that could have superseded the final results of the 2020 election.
The former president also stated, when asked about political violence, that it is “totally unacceptable. “
Biden called the former president a “complainer” of Trump’s election denial that “not a single court in the United States has said that any of his claims have any merit . . . however, you continue to publicize this lie. ”
“I tell you one thing, I doubt he’ll settle for that because he’s actually a whiner,” Mr. Biden said. The concept that if you lose again, you settle for anything, you can’t bear the loss, something broke. you when you lost last time. ”
House Democrats are concerned about the functionality of Mr. Biden’s debate. They had hoped that the debate could propel Mr. Biden into the summer, but that didn’t happen.
“I’ve never noticed a panic like this,” said a House Democrat familiar with conversations between lawmakers Thursday night. The user cautioned that it’s unclear how seriously some Democrats would push for Biden to drop out of the race.
The president’s former White House communications director, Kate Bedingfeld, expressed her fear on CNN, calling it a “really disappointing debate. ”
“I don’t think there’s any other way to divide it,” he said. His biggest challenge was to prove to other Americans that he had the energy, the stamina, and he didn’t. “
– Ed O’Keefe and Kathryn Watson