American President Joe Bidenright, and the Republican presidential candidate, former US president Donald Trumpparticipate in the CNN Presidential Debate at CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Biden and Trump face off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump made a pitch to undecided voters Thursday evening during the first debate of the presidential campaign. They traded insults about their policy differences, immigration and who poses a threat to democracy.
During the debate from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, the two men sparred over who can do the best for Americans over the next four years on a wide range of issues ranging from the economy to climate change to foreign policy. Both repeatedly accused the other of lying.
Biden spoke softly at several points early in the debate, coughing and giving several somewhat confused answers. At one point, Biden seemed to lose his train of thought and ended an answer with the declaration that “we finally defeated Medicare.”
The two disagreed sharply over access to reproductive rights, including abortion, with Trump claiming Democrats’ position is “radical” and Biden saying it was “terrible” for women to leave decisions to the states.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, did not shake hands at the start, a break from previous debates. They went their separate ways after the 90-minute debate ended, minutes after attacking each other’s mental acuity, golf game and weight.
Near the end of the debate, Trump said political violence was “completely unacceptable,” though he downplayed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and defended the behavior of his band of supporters.
Trump initially did not directly answer a question about whether he would accept the election results if he lost. When moderator Dana Bash pressed him, Trump conditioned his answer.
Incentives about personal behavior
Even with rules intended to minimize crosstalk, the debate — moderated by Bash, host and chief political correspondent, and Jake Tapper, host and chief Washington correspondent — had many moments of acrimony.
While Trump issued harsh words about Biden’s border policies and Biden criticized his predecessor for appointing Supreme Court justices who nullified the constitutional right to abortion, they reserved their harshest criticism for each other’s personal behavior.
Referring to reports that Trump as president said veterans who died in France during World War II were “suckers and losers,” Biden invoked his son Beau, who was a National Guard veteran and later died of brain cancer.
“My son was not a loser and was not a loser,” Biden told his predecessor, frowning. “You’re the loser. You’re the loser.”
Trump denied ever making this comment. The comment was first reported in The Atlantic and confirmed in other reports.
Biden has attacked Trump’s credibility and truthfulness several times, saying after one response, “Everything he said is a lie.”
“I’ve never heard so much malarkey in my life,” he said in response to another Trump response.
Trump brought up the conviction this year of Biden’s son, Hunter, on federal weapons charges. And he said Joe Biden could be prosecuted for his border security performance.
Trump and his legal team argued before the Supreme Court in April that presidents are absolutely immune from criminal prosecution.
Trump’s conviction
Thursday’s event was the first presidential debate where one participant was a convicted felon.
A state jury in New York in May found Trump guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying company records to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels for an affair that she claimed Trump did not want to hurt his 2016 election prospects.
Trump has denied the affair and it has not affected his GOP base, but his July 11 conviction could affect his campaign strategy.
Trump renounced his criminal conviction during the debate and reiterated his position that he did not have a sexual relationship with an adult film star.
“I have not had sex with a porn star,” Trump said, marking the first time such words, or anything close to them, had been uttered during a presidential debate.
“I have done nothing wrong, we have a system that is rigged and disgusting,” Trump said. “I have done nothing wrong.”
Trump also responded to the question by referring to Hunter Biden.
“If he’s talking about a convicted criminal, his son is a convicted criminal,” Trump said.
January 6 disagreement
The US Supreme Court is expected to rule in another lawsuit against Trump within days. This time it is about whether presidents enjoy full immunity from criminal prosecution for their actions while in office.
The justices’ decision will determine whether a federal trial against Trump for election interference stemming from his actions on January 6, 2021 can proceed.
During the debate, Trump said that “we were respected around the world on January 6th,” but that changed after Biden took office.
Trump seemed to imply that the people who stormed the Capitol building were “innocent” and “patriotic,” saying that “you should be ashamed of yourself” for those people in jail.
Biden said Trump encouraged the “people” who attacked the Capitol and Capitol Police officers.
“If they are convicted, he says he wants to commute their sentences,” said Biden, criticizing Trump’s behavior that day. “These people should be in jail. They should be the ones held accountable.”
Biden rejected the idea that the people who attacked police and disrupted the election certification were patriots.
Division over abortion rights
Reproductive rights, including abortion, sharply divided Biden and Trump. They came into conflict over which political party had the best position.
Trump said he agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month to preserve access to mifepristone, one of two pharmaceutical drugs used in medical abortions, and said he would not restrict access if elected president in November.
“I agree with their decision to do that, and I will not block it,” Trump said, adding that the Supreme Court’s previous decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion was a good thing.
“We’ve brought it back to the states and the country is coming together at this point,” Trump said. “It’s been great.”
Trump said he supports exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the woman.
Biden rejected Trump’s characterization that Democrats are “radical” on abortion policy and said he supports restoring protections that existed under Roe v. Wade.
“It’s been terrible,” Biden said of leaving decisions about abortion access to state legislatures, likening it to leaving decisions about civil rights to the states.
Trump said during an interview with Time magazine released in April that his campaign was about to release a policy on mifepristone, one of two pharmaceutical drugs used in medication abortion. The campaign has not yet published that policy.
During a May interview with a Pittsburgh news station, Trump suggested he would be okay with states limiting or blocking access to contraception. But he quickly responded to those comments in a social media post.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has suggested that another Trump administration could block shipments of mifepristone by enforcing the Comstock Act.
The group included the proposal along with dozens of other proposals in Project 2025, a 920-page plan for a second Trump administration.
The 1873 anti-obscenity law has not been enforced for decades and has been called a “zombie law” by reproductive rights groups, but it is technically still a law.
A future Republican attorney general who wants to enforce the law to block shipments of mifepristone would likely see the law challenged in court, likely working its way up to the Supreme Court.
Mifepristone is one of two medications used in medication abortions that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the two-drug regimen accounts for about 63 percent of all abortions in the United States.
First of two debates
This year’s two presidential debates are a departure from previous years, as both candidates have abandoned the proposed schedule of the independent Commission on Presidential Debates.
Biden and Trump later agreed to two debates: one held on Thursday by CNN and the other on Sept. 10, hosted by ABC News.
CNN chose to hold the debate at its studios in Atlanta, Georgia, without an audience. Thursday night’s debate was also earlier than all other presidential debates, which traditionally start in September or October.
The television news network sparked frustration ahead of the debate with the White House Correspondents Association when it decided to keep the pool, the group of journalists who travel with the president everywhere, out of the chamber.
WHCA President Kelly O’Donnell released a statement Thursday afternoon saying the organization was “deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House pool tour in the studio.”
“The pool is for the ‘what if?’ in a world where the unexpected happens,” wrote O’Donnell, who is also a senior White House correspondent for NBC News. “A pool reporter is there to provide context and insight through direct observation, not through the lens of television production.”
Per CNN’s rules, Biden and Trump were not allowed to bring props or pre-written notes into the debate room.
They all stood behind ‘a uniform podium’ and were not allowed to communicate with campaign workers during the two commercial breaks.
Biden is expected to travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, immediately following the debate with first lady Jill Biden. They will participate in campaign events Friday morning before traveling to New York later in the day.
The Bidens are then expected to travel to Red Bank, New Jersey, on Saturday for more campaigning before returning to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
Trump will attend a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday afternoon. In a press release announcing the event, Trump criticized Biden on inflation, crime and drug addiction, and immigration.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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