US Presidential debate recap: President Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off
They’ve been exchanging jibes on the campaign trail for months but on Friday Joe Biden and Donald Trump faced off for their first presidential debate of the 2024 US election.
It was the first time they had confronted each other in person since 2020 - after Trump tried to overturn the election result and after the storming of the Capitol.
Trump was expected to try to put Biden on the ropes over immigration and the economy, while Biden attacked Trump over abortion and democracy.
There was no in-person audience for the 90-minute debate, hosted by CNN at its Atlanta studios, which came four months before voters are set to head to the polls on November 5.
It was the first of two debates the old foes have agreed to. The next will be in September.
The debate was moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash who are hosts of the network’s Sunday political talk show State of the Union.
Tapper is CNN’s chief Washington correspondent and Bash is the network’s chief political correspondent.
Past debates have always been later in the year, in September and October, but Biden pushed for an earlier start.
Biden and Trump had two debates in the run-up to the 2020 election. During the first, Trump was called out for his constant interjections, with moderator Fox News’ Chris Wallace saying he was “sad” the way it turned out.
“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” he said.
The debacle prompted the introduction of mute buttons for the candidate’s microphones which were in place for Friday’s debate.
What to look out for
The candidates are the same. The circumstances are very different. Here’s what to watch for in the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The animosity is expected to be palpable.
READ MORE: What to watch for at the first Trump-Biden debate
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Biden says Trump’s a liar
Biden disputes Trump’s allegation that he doesn’t care about veterans.
“Every single thing he said is a lie. Every single one. For example, veterans a hell of a lot better off since I passed the PACT Act.
“One million of them now have insurance, and their families have it, because what happened - whether it was agent orange or burn pits, they’re all being covered now.
“He opposed - his group opposed that.”
“We’re also in a situation where we have great respect for veterans. My son spent a year in Iraq, living next to one of those burn pits, came back with Stage 4 gleblastoma.
“I was recently in France for D-day.
“I spoke all about those heroes that died. I went to the World War I cemetery, he refused to go to. He was standing with his 4-star general.
“He told me he told me he didn’t want to go there because they’re a bunch of losers and suckers. My son was not a loser or a sucker. You’re the loser. You’re the sucker.”
Trump says immigrants ‘pouring in’
Trump says during his time they had the “safest border in the history of our country”.
“All he had to do was leave it. He decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from insane asylums, terrorists.
“We have people coming into our country from all over the world, not just South America - from the Middle East, everywhere. All over the world, they’re pouring in.”
Mr Trump said people were dying as they crossed the border and immigrants killing US citizens.
“They’re killing our people in New York, in California, in every state in the union, because we don’t have borders anymore.”
“Every state is now a border. Because of his ridiculous, insane, and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen.
“We call it migrant crime. I call it Biden migrant crime.”
Twitter/X responding as expected to the debate
Trump’s low blow
In a personal attack, Trump has made fun of Biden and tried to land a job about his mental competence, saying after Biden’s immigration response, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Immigration stoush
With a record number of migrants crossing the border, immigration and border security is a key pressure point in the election campaign.
Biden points out Trump separated babies from the mothers “putting them in cages, making sure families were separated”.
“That’s not the right way to go. What I’ve done since I’ve changed the law - what’s happened? I’ve changed it in a way that now, you’re in a situation where there are 40 per cent fewer people coming across the border illegally,” Biden said.
“That’s better than when he left office.”
Biden fires up over abortion
For the first time in the debate Joe Biden has got heated.
“The idea that the politicians - the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making decisions about women’s health is ridiculous.
“No politician should be making those decisions. A doctor should be making those decisions. That’s how it should be run. That’s what it’s going to do if I’m elected, I’m going to restore Roe v. Wade.”
Biden then slapped down Trump’s suggestion that the life of the baby can be taken in the ninth month and even after birth.
“You’re lying. That is simply not true. Roe v. Wade does not provide for that. That’s not the circumstance. Only if a woman’s life is in danger and she’s going to die - that’s the only circumstance where that can happen. But we are not for late-term abortion, period. Period, period.”
Roe v Wade
This is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade - something former president Trump takes credit for.
Trump points out the Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill and he agrees with the decision and will not block it.
However, he says he wanted states to decide on abortion controls.
“I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. I think it’s very important. Some people don’t.”
“The problem they have is they’re radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month and ninth month and even after birth.
“After birth, if you look at the former governor of Virginia. He was willing to do this. He said, ‘We’ll put the baby aside and determine what we do with the baby’ - meaning we’ll kill the baby.
“What happened is we brought it back to the States, and the country is now coming together on this issue. It’s been a great thing.”
Biden’s awkward pause
Joe Biden has had an early stumble, awkwardly pausing while responding to a question about national debt.
He was making the point that Trump’s presidency had the largest national debt of any president in a 4-year period and promising the Democrats would be able to wipe it out.
“We’d be able to wipe out his debt, help make sure that all those things we need to do - childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the COVID - excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with... Look, if - we finally beat Medicare.”
Trump attacks Biden’s record
Donald Trump has attacked Joe Biden’s record on dealing with the COVID pandemic and its impact on the economy.
“He created mandates that was a disaster for our country. Other than that, we had given them back a country where the stock market actually was higher than pre-COVID, and nobody thought that was even possible.
“The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounceback jobs - bounceback from the COVID. He has not done a good job. He’s done a poor job. Inflation’s killing our country.”
