ATLANTA – O first general election debate of the 2024 season came to an end, with the US president Joe Biden and his Republican rival, donald trumpclashing over immigration and climate change and launching deeply personal attacks on each other Thursday night in Atlanta.
Biden, the current Democrat, had the opportunity to assure voters that, at 81 years old, he is able to guide the US through a series of challenges. Meanwhile, 78-year-old Trump could use the moment to try to pass his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he is temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office. Thursday’s debate in Atlanta marks at least a few firsts — never before have two White House candidates faced off at such advanced ages, and never before has CNN hosted a general election presidential debate.
At the moment:
– How the Biden-Trump debate could change the trajectory of the 2024 campaign
– Here it is what is at stake for Biden and Trump in this week’s presidential debate
— A look at False allegations candidates can present themselves in the middle of the debate
Here are the latest:
Georgia state Rep. Billy Mitchell, a prominent Democrat in Atlanta’s suburban Democratic heartland of DeKalb County, said he believed Joe Biden could surpass his debate performance.
“The bar was set so low by his opponent that he certainly exceeded it,” Mitchell said at Biden’s campaign watch party in downtown Atlanta. “The reality is we love Joe Biden because of where his heart is, even though it seems like he has a cold here and there.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said in a post on social platform X that “Biden had a very low barrier entering the debate and was unable to overcome even that barrier. He seemed unprepared, lost and not strong enough to effectively oppose Trump, who constantly lies.”
As the debate came to a close, retired police officer Nick Glaub, a Donald Trump supporter of Ross, Ohio, watched with his feet up on a nearby stage, a can of Corona beer on the table.
Glaub was pleased with Trump’s debate performance and said he noticed Trump’s lack of attack lines.
“I just think he kept his composure,” he said.
Chuck Thompson, a Trump supporter from Mason, Ohio, who attended the party dressed in an American flag button-down shirt, was also pleased with Trump’s debate performance, noting the difference in tone from Trump’s last debate against President Biden in 2020.
“He didn’t attack,” Thompson said. “He learned to control his temper.
President Joe Biden began his final statement in a voice that was even harsher than before and at times difficult to understand.
He said of his administration, “We have made significant progress since the disaster left by President Trump in his last term,” but he also ignored the insulin price cuts he helped champion, saying $35 when he meant $15.
In his closing statement, former President Donald Trump again tried to group Biden with other career politicians, calling Biden “a complainer.”
He also said the public and foreign leaders do not respect Biden, saying, “The whole country is exploding because of you.”
Although questioned three times, former President Donald Trump never directly stated that he would accept the election results regardless of who won.
Trump repeatedly noted that he would accept the results “if it were a fair, legal and good election,” but would not give a yes or no answer to moderator Dana Bash’s questions.
The follow-ups came after Trump finally denounced political violence as “totally unacceptable.”
After the moderator asked Trump three times if he would accept the November election results, Joe Biden responded that he doubted Trump would do so “because you’re a crybaby.”
Biden noted that there was no evidence of any widespread fraud in the 2020 election and that several courts had rejected challenges brought by the Trump campaign.
Joe Biden uses the term “illegal aliens” when responding to Donald Trump’s attacks on immigration.
He said that although Trump accuses migrants of taking jobs, he said “there is a reason why we have the fastest-growing economy in the world.”
It’s not the first time Biden has used terms rejected by immigrant rights groups and not favored by Democrats. In March, during his State of the Union address, he referred to a suspect in the murder of a Georgia nursing student as “illegal” and later said he regretted using that term.
“I shouldn’t have used it illegally, it’s not documented,” he said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart.
After more than 80 minutes of debate, President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 78, were asked about their age and ability to serve until age 80.
Biden, responding in the raspy voice he used all night, launched into a litany of political achievements and noted that Trump is only “three years younger.”
Biden also used the response to slap Trump for badmouthing the US: “The idea that we are some kind of failed country? I’ve never heard a president talk like that before,” Biden said.
In his rebuttal, Trump boasted about his golf game and said he is in as good shape as he was 25 years ago and maybe “even a little lighter.”
At two different moments in the debate, Joe Biden said that 159 or 158 presidential historians voted for Donald Trump as the worst president in US history.
He admitted he didn’t have the exact number and he was right, although he wasn’t far off.
O survey in question, a project by professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University, included 154 usable responses from 525 respondents invited to participate.
After more than an hour of debate, the candidates finally spoke about climate change, which Joe Biden called an existential crisis and one of the top priorities of his presidency.
Trump, after initially refusing to answer on the climate, said he wants “absolutely pristine, clean water and I want absolutely clean air.”
He said that during his administration “we used all forms of energy, all forms, everything” and claimed that he “had the best environmental numbers ever.”
It was not clear what he was referring to.
Biden called climate change the biggest threat to humanity, adding that Trump “has done nothing about it.”
Biden cited passage of the Reducing Inflation Act in 2022, which authorizes billions for clean energy. Biden called it the most significant climate legislation ever passed.
When former President Donald Trump was asked what he would do about climate change, he said the US had “absolutely pristine, clean water” and air when he was president.
Joe Biden retorted: “He didn’t do anything” for the environment.
Climate change is not an area where Americans feel Trump has performed especially well as president. Nearly half of Americans said Trump hurt the country on climate change while he was president, while relatively few Americans — only about 1 in 10 — said Trump’s presidency helped the country. About 4 in 10 say it neither helped nor hurt.
They are more likely to see a positive effect from Biden’s presidency, but it is not an overwhelming endorsement. Nearly half say Biden has neither helped nor hurt the country on climate change, while about 3 in 10 say he has helped a lot or a little and about 2 in 10 say he has hurt the country.
Trump falsely claimed that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “refused” his offer to send “10,000 troops or the National Guard” to the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.
Pelosi does not run the National Guard. Additionally, when the Capitol was attacked, she and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell requested military assistance, including from the National Guard.
The Capitol Police Board decides whether to call National Guard troops to the Capitol. It is composed of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms, and the Architect of the Capitol. The council decided not to call the guard before the insurrection, but ended up requesting assistance after the riots had already begun and troops arrived several hours later.
There is no evidence that Pelosi or McConnell instructed security officers not to call the guard in advance.
Nearly 45 minutes into the debate, President Joe Biden finally made reference to former President Donald Trump’s recent felony conviction in New York.
During a discussion about the January 6, 2021, insurrection, Biden said, “The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now,” referring to Trump.
Trump then sought to sidestep his own legal problems by referring to Biden’s son, Hunter, as a “convicted criminal.”
He was referring to the younger Biden’s criminal conviction this month on three firearms charges. Trump also repeated long-standing allegations related to the Bidens and Ukraine, a frequent point of attack for Republicans.
The debate questions turn to January 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol during the certification of the Electoral College vote count.
Host Jake Tapper asked Trump if he violated his oath to protect and defend the Constitution.
Asked about the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump quickly turned to immigration and taxes. Pressed about his role, he said he encouraged people to act “peacefully and patriotically,” and then attacked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Protesters on January 6 engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police and used improvised weapons, including flag poles, a table leg, a hockey stick and a crutch, to attack officers. The police officers were bruised and bloodied as they were dragged into the crowd and beaten. An officer was crushed in a door frame and another suffered a heart attack after a rowdy pressed a stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him.
More than 1,400 people were charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot. Of these, more than 850 guilty people pleaded guilty to crimes including seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers. Around 200 other people were convicted at trial.
