WASHINGTON — Presidential debates are always about expectations, and Thursday's spat between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was no exception.
It was the biggest gamble for Biden, who at 81 was already battling the perception that he was too old to serve a second term, while Trump, 78, faced concerns from moderates and swing voters about his sometimes bombastic style.
The biggest moment of the night came early, when Biden froze for several seconds while answering a question about the economy.
This gaffe, and many others from that night, will be broadcast repeatedly on cable TV news shows for weeks to come and shared thousands of times on social media, but how will it affect the 2024 election?
Here's a breakdown of who came out on top and who was eliminated shortly after.
Prepare to vote: See who's running for president and compare their positions on key issues with our Voter Guide
Trump showed more energy than Biden.
Experts who spoke to USA Today said there was a big difference in the candidates' stamina on the podium Thursday night, and that Biden's lackluster demeanor could hurt him in the coming months.
In one of the debate's most defining moments, Biden took a long pause and froze while answering a question about the economy. Stuttering, the president continued speaking, but then began talking about COVID-19 and Medicare.
Even some of Biden's Democratic supporters felt he was stiff onstage and that his somewhat awkward performance gave Trump an advantage.
Trump sought to highlight Biden's slow response, at one point saying, “I have no idea what he said at the end, and I don't think he knows what he said.”
Thomas Whalen, a professor and presidential historian at Boston University, said Biden “looks good for his age” while Trump is “more calm and assertive.”
Aaron Cole, debate director at the University of Michigan Debate Program, suggested Biden's silence “could set off an endless news cycle about his age and his fitness to serve another term.”
New discussion format aims to reduce confusion
If seeing Trump and Biden on stage again wasn't enough of a sense of deja vu, their showdown also marks the first presidential debate held without an audience since 1960, when John F. Kennedy faced off against Richard Nixon.
The format was designed to eliminate immediate reactions to what the candidates said, and University of Michigan debate director Aaron Cole argued that it forced candidates to respond authentically, rather than scripted, statements.
Rather than relying on the energy of the audience, Trump and Biden “had to trust their gut and their instincts and their past debate experiences,” Kahl said.
The debate featured muted microphones, which largely eliminated the crosstalk between candidates that has been a problem in past debates, including in the recent Republican primaries.
Georgia voters are central focus
It wasn't just Trump and Biden who were in the spotlight Thursday night — so were the most important Georgia voters.
The fact that the debate took place in CNN's studios in Atlanta underscored Georgia's role as a key battleground state in the election and served as a reminder that the candidates' messages and arguments will resonate well beyond the stage.
Biden won Georgia by just under 12,000 votes in 2020, but the latest polls this year show Trump slightly ahead of his rival in the key battleground state.
And Thursday's showdown between the two candidates will likely sway undecided voters in the state, one of the few opportunities for people to hear both candidates and decide for themselves which is the better choice for the country.
Needless to say, the location provided an opportunity for both candidates to campaign in the Atlanta suburbs: Trump visited a local barbershop on Wednesday to speak to a group his campaign is running called the Black American Business Leaders Barbershop Roundtable, and the Biden campaign said the president will also attend viewing parties around the city after the debate to talk to voters.
More significantly, the debate took place just a few miles from the prison where Trump was incarcerated last year on charges related to allegations that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Big cash boost for Democrats and Republicans
Both major parties are expected to raise large sums of money in Thursday's election, with similarly high-profile campaign events benefiting both candidates.
The Biden campaign said it raised $10 million in the 24 hours after the State of the Union address, and after Trump was convicted of a felony in a hush-money trial in New York, the campaign said it raised $34.8 million in small donations.
And we are both big fundraisers.
Hours before the debate began, Biden's team sent a message to supporters saying they were “expecting” donations of at least $30.
“After Trump and I debated in 2020, tens of thousands of new supporters came out to vote, and tonight is no exception,” the message said.
The Georgia Democratic Party also hosted a viewing party, charging $24 per ticket in advance, and former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler similarly hosted an expensive event for Trump on the night of the debate.
The Biden campaign said the time leading up to the debate was its best grassroots fundraising period of the entire campaign.
False claims are rampant
Ashley Koning, director of Rutgers University's Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, argued that “facts and truth” were the night's biggest losers.
Both Trump and Biden made false comments during the debate, but the moderators did little to check them.
President Trump has repeatedly claimed that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. President Trump claimed he offered Pelosi “10,000 troops” to stop the attack, but Pelosi's office said she never received such officers and had no authority to refuse them anyway.
The former real estate mogul also claimed that the southern US border is the most dangerous place in the world, a claim with no evidence to back it up.
Biden also made false claims, at one point claiming that he was “the only president this century who has not had a soldier die anywhere in the world.”
During Biden's term in office in 2021, 13 U.S. troops were killed in suicide bombings in Afghanistan as thousands tried to flee the Taliban's occupation of the country.
RFK and third-party candidates are not in the conversation
Conspicuously absent from the CNN stage is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
According to CNN, Kennedy did not meet the qualifications for the debate, which require a candidate to “appear on the ballot in enough states to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency” and receive at least 15% support in four national polls.
In the three-way race between Biden and Trump, Kennedy has 10.7% of the vote, according to a Real Clear Politics average of polls.
Kennedy countered the live primetime debate between Biden and Trump on social media and on his website, answering some of the same questions, but on a night dominated by the two major party candidates, he remained largely invisible to most voters.
