If you had an argument about golf handicaps on your bingo card for the first debate of the 2024 presidential election, congratulations.
That’s exactly what took place during the more than 90-minute face-off between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump at CNN’s presidential debate in Atlanta, the capital city of the all-important battleground state of Georgia.
The event itself was historic: It’s the first time in U.S. history that a current and former president met at a debate and it was the earliest face-off in U.S. history, taking place before Biden and Trump were even formally coronated as their parties’ respective nominees.
It was also replete with the candidates trading deeply personal insults at one another.
Trump baselessly blamed Biden for bringing the criminal cases against him (there is no evidence of Biden’s involvement in the four separate criminal proceedings against Trump) and invoked the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who was recently found guilty of federal firearms charges.
Biden, similarly, did not shy away from referencing Trump’s legal woes, calling him a “convicted felon,” referencing that he “had sex with a porn star” — a claim the Republican ex-president denies, but was central to his New York hush money conviction — was found civilly liable for “molesting a woman in public” and accusing him of having “the morals of an alley cat.”
And while both candidates sought to make their cases to the American people, it’s unclear if either was all that successful at winning over any voters from either side.
Biden’s quiet delivery and scratchy voice — a source familiar with Biden’s campaign confirmed to Spectrum News that the president is battling a summer cold — likely did not do much to allay concerns about his age, even among Democrats.
Meanwhile, Trump espoused numerous falsehoods throughout the debate that were not fact-checked in real time during the broadcast (in the network’s post-debate special, CNN anchor John King said that “Donald Trump broke the fact check machine.”), while, in some cases, failing to answer the questions posed to him by the moderators.
Regardless, both sides declared the debate a victory. Trump’s campaign called his performance Thursday “the greatest debate performance and victory in history to the largest voter audience in history,” while Biden’s campaign said the incumbent Democrat “presented a positive and winning vision for the future of America” while his rival “offered a dark and backwards window into what America will look like if he steps foot back in the White House.”
Here are some key takeaways from Thursday’s presidential debate.
A question about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has yielded the first mention by Biden about Trump’s criminal conviction in New York last month.
Biden also pressed Trump to denounce those who stormed the Capitol. Trump stayed silent.
Trump defended himself against accusations that he sparked the violent riot, saying he told his supporters to protest peacefully.
The former president then pushed a series of false claims:
- He repeated a long-debunked assertion that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down his offer for 10,000 National Guard troops on Jan. 6.
- He cited a newly released video that took a comment by Pelosi on Jan. 6 out of context.
- The former president also said the now-defunct House committee that investigated the insurrection deleted evidence. There is no proof to support his claim.
Biden was not deterred by Trump's falsehoods, replying: “The only person on this stage that is a convicted felon is the man I'm looking at right now, and the fact of the matter is he is what he's telling you is simply not true."
Trump was convicted last month of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to an adult film star in an effort to help his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump said Biden should be “ashamed” of himself for the prosecutions of “some people that are innocent.”
Biden said, “Every one of those who were convicted deserves to be convicted.”
“The idea that they didn't kill somebody, just went in and broke down doors, broke the windows, occupied offices, turned over desks, turned over statutes — the idea that those people are patriots, come on!” Biden said.
Trump tried to change the topic of Jan. 6 to the overall state of the nation on that day under his leadership and to the 2020 racial justice protests in cities such as Portland, Oregon.
As President Joe Biden attempted to make the case for his border policies addressing the spike in crossings at the U.S. southern border, former President Donald Trump cited high-profile incidents of violent crime allegedly done by immigrants and accused Biden of allowing Americans to be killed.
Biden pointed to his recently established policies at the southern border that have cut weekly crossings by more than 40% and cited a bipartisan immigration proposal that failed after Trump encouraged Republicans to oppose it.
“We worked very hard to get a bipartisan agreement that not only changed all that, but made sure that we are in a situation where you had no circumstance where they can come across the border,” Biden said. “When he was president, he was separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure that the families are separated.”
Biden also falsely claimed the Border Patrol union endorsed him. They have yet to endorse in the 2024 cycle, though they did endorse the bipartisan immigration deal that failed earlier this year.
Trump claimed during his first term the U.S. had “the safest border in the history of our country” and insisted that all Biden had to do was to keep his policies in place. He went onto claim that foreign countries are sending people from prisons and mental institutions, as well as terrorists, to cross into the U.S. across the southern border.
“They're killing our people in New York and California and every state in the union because we don’t have borders any more,” Trump said. “Because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level we’ve never seen. We call it migrant crime. I call it Biden migrant crime.”
“Immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than are U.S.-born individuals who are white,” a Stanford University report from last year found. The right-wing Cato Institute reported in 2020 that immigrants, regardless of their legal status, were less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.
As the debate neared its conclusion, CNN’s moderators asked Trump a question that’s lingered in many minds since the Nov. 2020 election — would he accept the results of the 2024 presidential election, regardless of who wins — and would he say that political violence is totally unacceptable in any form?
"Well, I shouldn’t have to say that. But of course I believe that ti’s totally unacceptable. If you would see my statements that I made on Twitter at the time, and also my statement that I made in the Rose Garden, you would say it’s one of the strongest statements you’ve ever seen, in addition to the speech I made in front of, I believe, the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to," Trump said, referring to both the crowd that he greeted on Jan. 6, 2021 — the same crowd that included many who would go on to storm the U.S. Capitol building to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes.
He moved toward answering the first question — if he would accept the results of the election — before veering off-track.
"The answer is, if the election is fair, free — and I want that more than anybody, and I’ll tell you something, i wish he was a great president, because I wouldn’t be here right now — I’d be at one of my many places enjoying myself," Trump said before repeatedly insulting Biden’s presidency, insisting that Biden would "drive us into World War III."
After Biden responded ("You want to have a war? Just let Putin go ahead and take Kyiv, make sure they move on, see what happens in Poland, Hungary and other places along that border. Then you have a war," he said) the moderators turned back to Trump, asking if he would accept the election results.
Trump weaved around the question, insisting that he has a better handle on Russia than his two predecessors, as well as Biden, then restated his claim that Russia "never would have attacked" Ukraine under his presidency.
"The question was, will you accept the results of the election, regardless of who wins? Yes or no, please," the moderator insisted.
Finally, Trump relented — with a hedge. "If it’s a fair and legal and good election? Absolutely…but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous," Trump said. "I would be very happy to be someplace else in a nice location someplace. And again, no indictments, no political opponents stuff, because it’s the only way he thinks he can win. But unfortunately, it’s driven up my numbers," he added.
"Let’s see what your numbers are once this election is over," Biden said.
"You were a whiner when you lost the first time. You appealed and appealed to courts all across the country. Not one single court in America said any of your claims had any merit — state or local, none," Biden said. "But you continue to promote this lie about somehow, ther’es all this misrepresentation, all this stealing. There’s no evidence of that at all."
"And I tell you what," Biden continued. "I doubt you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner. The idea if you lose again, you’ll accept it? You can’t stand the loss. Something snapped in you when you lost last time," Biden said.
Talking about one of the biggest topics on voters' minds in November's election, President Joe Biden pushed back on former President Donald Trump’s claim that "every legal scholar throughout the world" wanted the federal abortion protections established in Roe v. Wade to be left solely to the states.
"The fact is, the vast majority of constitutional scholars supported Roe when it was decided. And that — this idea that they’re all against it is just ridiculous," Biden said.
Trump gladly took credit for appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — who provided the majority to overturn Roe.
When asked by moderators, Trump noted that the Supreme Court ruled to preserve access to medication abortions, throwing out a challenge by a group of physicians opposed to the pill.
"And I will not block it," Trump said.
However, the high court made its decision on standing, not on the merits of the case, meaning that other challenges to the FDA’s approval of medication abortion may still be challenged.
Biden made sure to pin any potential abortion ban to Trump’s lapel soon after.
"That was a law for 51 years…and it was taken away because this guy put very conservative members on the Supreme Court," Biden said. "What’s he going to do, in fact, if the MAGA Republicans get elected and control the Congress, and they pass the universal ban on abortion, period, across the board…you’re gonna sign that bill. I’ll veto it."
Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam became a central character of this section — not by name, but by mischaracterized statements.
On two occasions, Trump supposedly quoted the "former Virginia governor" as a proponent of postpartum abortions, suggesting that Northam said it was acceptable practice for a baby to be aborted postpartum. “He said, we'll put the baby aside. And we'll determine what we do with the baby — meaning we'll kill the baby," Trump said.
“The problem they have is they’re radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month and even after birth,” Trump said.
While speaking to interviewers about a state measure that would loosen restrictions on late-term abortions, Northam — a pediatric neurosurgeon — was describing what would happen in the case of severe deformities to a nonviable fetus late in a pregnancy:
"So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen,” Northam said. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
But Biden’s attempt to pin conservative positions on abortion — those that ban abortion in all cases, without exceptions for rape or incest — left himself open to a jab from Trump.
Biden referencing a young woman killed by an immigrant, noting that conservatives will discuss that without discussing sexual assaults by family members, and laws that ban women from pursuing abortions across state lines.
Trump pounced on that, insisting that Biden allowed dangerous migrants to come across the border, hammering on a subject he’s made foundational to his campaign.
Former President Donald Trump declared he would settle the war between Russia and Ukraine before he even officially takes office if he is elected, arguing President Joe Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade.
“I will have that war settled between Putin and [Ukrainian President[ Zelensky as president elect before I take office on January 20,” Trump said. “I'll have that war settled.”
“Every time that Zelensky comes to this country, he walks away with $60 million, he's the greatest salesman ever,” Trump said before adding that we should not have to be spending so much money on the war because it never should have happened in the first place.
Trump said “no, they are not acceptable” when asked a second time if Putin’s terms for the end of the war, specifically his country keeping territory in Ukraine, was acceptable.
For his part, Biden criticized Trump for saying he would tell Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO member countries who do not meet the alliance’s defense spending targets.
Biden went on to note that Putin thought he would be able to take Kyiv in five days.
“And he, in fact, didn't do it at all,” Biden said of Putin, before mentioning all of the troops Russia has lost in the war.
Biden went on to argue that if Putin is successful in Ukraine he will “not stop there,” warning other countries in the region will be next. Biden also mentioned the aid other NATO countries have provided Ukraine as well, saying “that's why we're strong.”
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump got into a heated argument over veterans during a question that was ostensibly supposed to be about immigration.
Trump railed against Biden's border policies, claiming that migrants who illegally crossed the border are "living in luxury hotels" while "veterans are on the street."
"They're dying because he doesn't care about our veterans," Trump said of Biden. "He doesn't care, he doesn't like the military at all, and he doesn't care about our veterans."
Biden replied by saying that "every single thing [Trump] said is a lie, every single one."
The president discussed the PACT Act he signed into law in 2022, which expands benefits for veterans exposed to toxins, while also referencing Trump's alleged comments, as detailed by his former chief of staff John Kelly, that fallen World War I soldiers buried at a cemetery in France were "losers and suckers." He also talked about his son, Beau Biden, a member of the Delaware Army National Guard who served in Iraq and died of an aggressive brain cancer.
"My son was not a loser, was not a sucker," Biden said to Trump. "You're the sucker. You're the loser."
The spat continued into the next question about foreign policy and the war in Ukraine, with Trump claiming that "our veterans and soldiers can't stand this guy."
"They can't stand him," Trump angrily said of Biden. "They think he's the worst commander in chief, if that's what you call him, that we've ever had."
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump tried to convince voters that they each would be the best steward for the nation’s economy.
Biden boasted about turning around an economy he received from Trump that was in “free fall” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic was so badly handled,” Biden said, criticizing his predecessor. “Many people were dying based on all this is not that serious. 'Just inject a little bleach into your arm. You'll be all right.'"
The economy collapsed. And so what we had to do is try to put things back together again. That's exactly what we began to do,” the president continued.
In listing his accomplishments, however, Biden quickly made the first gaffe of the debate, saying his administration has created 15,000 jobs, when he meant to say 15 million.
Biden acknowledged there’s “more to be done” to lower prices, including on gas and housing. He blamed “corporate greed” for contributing to inflation.
Biden also said Trump’s economy — namely his 2017 tax cuts — rewarded the wealthy.
Trump claimed to have the “greatest economy in the history of our country” before COVID-19.
“Everything was rocking good, but the thing we never got the credit for, and we should have, is getting us out of that COVID mess,” Trump said.
Trump accused Biden of taking credit for “bounce-back” jobs as the nation began to return to normal during the pandemic.
Asked if he is concerned his plan to charge a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S. will worsen inflation, Trump said no.
“It's just going to cost countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China and many others,” he said. “... It's going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously and give us a lot of power for other things.”
Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed other countries, namely China, have paid the U.S. “billions and billions of dollars” in tariffs. Studies have shown that U.S. importers pay the tariffs and pass the cost to consumers.
According to the rules of Thursday's debate, each candidate is given two minutes for each answer and one minute for rebuttals.
When former President Donald Trump was asked if he would take any action as president to slow the climate crisis, he chose to spend one minute and 22 seconds of his time attacking President Joe Biden, seeking to paint him as a racist.
The moderators paused for a moment, then asked him again: "Thirty-eight second left, President Trump. Will you take any action as president to slow the climate crisis?"
"So I want absolutely immaculate, clean water. And I want absolutely clean air, and we had it — we had H20, we had the best numbers ever. And we did — we were using all forms of energy, all forms, everything. And yet, during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever. And my top environmental people gave me that statistic just before I walked on the stage," Trump said.
Given a minute to rebut, Biden paused for a beat.
"I don’t know where the hell he’s been," Biden said.
Trump, he noted, backed out of the Paris Climate Accords, an international agreement signed by nearly 200 party nations aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions and combatting climate change.
Trump attacked the accords, saying that he withdrew because it cost the country trillions of dollars and millions of jobs, saying that the money "was a waste" and that "they were treating us horribly." He then returned to an unrelated point of debate, before saying that the has "the biggest heart on the stage."
Biden, who rejoined the accords shortly after taking office, said that the U.S. has made "significant progress" — U.S. carbon emissions fell 2% in 2023 — and claimed that the U.S. will cut pollution in half by 2035 under his climate plan.
"But the idea that he claims that he has the biggest heart up here, and he’s really concerned about pollution and climate? I’m not seeing any indication of that."
Regardless of who wins the election, the next president would become the oldest ever to hold the office during his term.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, were both asked to address concerns that some voters have about their age.
Biden said of Trump, “This guy's three years younger and a lot less competent.”
The current president then again rattled off a list of his accomplishments as president.
Trump bragged about passing two cognitive tests — and again challenged Biden to take one — as well as winning two golf championships at his Mar-a-Lago Club. The Republican said he thinks he’s in “as good a shape as I was 25, 30 years ago.”
In 2020, Trump boasted in a Fox News interview about passing a cognitive test he took two years earlier. That test is designed to detect mild cognitive impairment, such as the onset of dementia.
The topic took an odd twist when the candidates talked about squaring off in a golf competition.
“He can't hit a ball 50 yards,” Trump said.
“I'd be happy to have a driving contest with him. I got my handicap down to 6,” Biden said.
“That's the biggest lie, that he's a 6 handicap,” Trump quipped.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, vaccine skeptic and scion of the powerful Kennedy family, held a separate event to counterprogram the Biden-Trump debate after failing to qualify for the CNN event.
Dubbed "The Real Debate," and moderated by veteran broadcast journalist John Stossel, Kennedy took the same questions posed to Biden and Trump at his event in West Hollywood, California, which was streamed online. At one point, more than two million people were watching Kennedy's stream.
On abortion, Kennedy said he has “spent more energy protecting medical freedom than any other leader in this country."
“I think abortion should be the choice of a woman," he added.
Calling his policy “more choice, fewer abortions,” he said 52% of abortions in this country are for economic economic considerations.
“Every abortion is a tragedy. Over half of women who have them don’t believe they can care for that child for financial reasons.”
Late-term abortions should be limited, he said. “If that baby is fully viable outside the womb, the state has an absolute interest in protecting it.”
"Real Debate" moderator John Stossel posed the same question to Kennedy about tax policy as the CNN moderators asked President Biden and former President Trump, summarizing their answers as “Trump says lower taxes, Biden says higher taxes.”
Kennedy said, “Anybody can have a strong economy because you’re forcing our children to pay for our present-day prosperity with this present debt which ultimately is paid for by the poor by people with fixed incomes.”
On international issues, he said Biden and Trump both equally culpable for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Kennedy said Trump and Biden were both involved in “provocations” that led Russia to invade Ukraine.
“I’m not excusing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. “He didn’t need to go into Ukraine, but we need to look at our responsibility, and it falls on the backs of both President Trump and President Biden.”
On the war between Israel and Hamas, RFK Jr. says he would have used more diplomacy to address conflict in Gaza
“I would have used more diplomacy from the beginning,” Kennedy said, adding that he thinks the United States is a nation of compassion.
Saying Hamas does not want a two-state solution, just a one-state solution with Israel gone, Kennedy said, “We have to let Israel disarm Hamas. They’re our oldest ally, the only democracy in the Middle East.”
“Hezbollah is the most proficient guerrilla army in the world and probably in history. Iran is now a super power in the Middle East and has the capacity to maintain a war, so we need to support Israel, but we need to use diplomacy and the people in the White House are not capable of that.”
He said an independent Palestinian state “has to be decided between Israel and Palestine.”
Kennedy said neither Trump nor Biden are “running on the things that are absolutely critical to Americans right now. The only argument they have is to be scared of that other guy.”
He said if Americans want to vote out of fear, they should vote for Biden or Trump. “If they want to vote out of hope, vote for me.”
He said the majority of Americans are earning less than necessary to support basic human needs while 1% of Americans now own more than the 60% who represent the middle class.
“Our country has utterly changed because of them,” he said. “These two are not telling the American people how they’re going to get our kids into homes, and that’s what I want to talk about.”