American president Joe Biden (right) and 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. (Justin Sullivan | Getty Images)
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump pitched to undecided voters Thursday night during the first debate of the presidential campaign, trading insults about their policy differences, immigration and who poses a threat to democracy.
During the debate from CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, the two men argued over who can do better for Americans over the next four years on a wide range of issues ranging from the economy to climate change to foreign policy. They repeatedly accused each other of lying.
Biden spoke softly at several points early in the debate, coughed, and gave several somewhat confused answers. At one point, Biden seemed to lose his train of thought, ending his answer with the declaration that “we finally defeated Medicare.”
The two fiercely disagreed over access to reproductive rights, including abortion. Trump argued that the Democrats’ position is “radical” and Biden said it is “terrible” for women to leave the decisions to the states.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, did not shake hands at the start, a departure from previous debates.
Near the end of the debate, Trump said political violence was “totally unacceptable,” though he went on to downplay the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and defended the behavior of his supporters.
Trump initially did not give a direct answer to a question about whether he would accept the election results if he lost. When pressed by moderator Dana Bash, Trump conditioned his answer.
Jabs about personal behavior
Even with rules designed to minimize crosstalk, the debate — moderated by Bash, host and chief political correspondent, and Jake Tapper, host and chief Washington correspondent — had its fair share of bitter moments.
While Trump issued harsh words about Biden’s border policies and Biden criticized his predecessor for appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion, each reserved their sharpest criticism for the other’s personal behavior.
Referring to reports that Trump, as president, had said that veterans who died in France during World War II were “suckers and losers,” Biden cited his son Beau, a National Guard veteran who later died of brain cancer.
“My son was not a loser and not a loser,” Biden told his predecessor, frowning. “You’re the loser. You are the loser.”
Trump denied ever making the remark. The comment was first reported in The Atlantic and has been 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 to feature a convicted felon.
A New York state jury found Trump guilty in May of 34 felonies, including falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels for an affair she testified Trump had intended to hurt his 2016 election chances.
Trump has denied the affair and it has not affected his GOP base, but his July 11 conviction could affect his campaign strategy.
Trump rejected his criminal conviction during the debate and reiterated his position that he did not have a sexual relationship with an adult film star.
“I did not have 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 did nothing wrong, we have a system that is rigged and disgusting,” Trump said. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Trump also responded to the question by referring to Hunter Biden.
“When he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon,” 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 lawsuit 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 appeared to imply that the people who stormed the Capitol were “innocent” and “patriotic,” saying “you should be ashamed” that those people were in jail.
Biden said Trump encouraged the “people” who attacked the US Capitol building and US police officers.
“If they’re convicted, he says he wants to commute their sentences,” Biden said, criticizing Trump’s behavior that day. “These people should be in prison. 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 access to abortion — sharply divided Biden and Trump, who sparred over which political party’s position is better.
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 abortion. And he said he would not restrict access if he were 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 woman’s life.
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 in April that his campaign was about to release a policy on mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion. The campaign has not yet released that policy.
Trump suggested he would be okay with states restricting or blocking access to contraception during a May interview with a Pittsburgh news station. But he quickly backtracked on those comments in a social media post.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has suggested that a new 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 obscenity law has been unenforced for decades and has been called a “zombie law” by reproductive rights groups, but it is still technically a law.
A future Republican attorney general who wants to enforce the law to block shipments of mifepristone will likely see the law challenged in court, likely leading to the Supreme Court.
Mifepristone is one of two pharmaceutical agents used in medication abortions, which are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. The two-drug regimen accounts for about 63 percent of all abortions in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
First of two debates
This year’s two presidential debates are a departure from previous years as both candidates abandoned the proposed schedule of the independent Commission on Presidential Debates.
Biden and Trump later agreed to two debates, the one hosted by CNN on Thursday and the other on September 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.
Kelly O’Donnell, president of the WHCA, released a statement Thursday afternoon saying the organization was “deeply concerned that CNN has denied our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool in the studio.”
“The pool is for the ‘what if?’ questions 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 and not through the lens of television production.”
CNN’s rules also said that neither Biden nor Trump could bring props or pre-written notes into the debate room.
Both stood behind “a uniform podium” and were not allowed to interact with campaign staff during the two commercial breaks.
Biden was scheduled to travel with first lady Jill Biden to Raleigh, North Carolina, immediately after the debate ended. They will participate in campaign events Friday morning before traveling to New York later in the day.
The Bidens are expected to travel to Red Bank, New Jersey, on Saturday to continue 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.
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