American voters watched as the two leading candidates for the Nov. 5 presidential election squared off on Thursday night in the first public debate before the election.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump (78) hurled hyperbolic language at President Joe Biden (81), who appeared to lose his train of thought during a debate held at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
The two oldest presidential candidates in U.S. history clashed over immigration, abortion and even golf.
Here are six key takeaways from the first US presidential debate:
Biden gave a subdued performance.
Biden, already facing criticism over his age, was unable to match the energy of Trump, who is just three years his junior.
The sitting president spoke raspy, rambling and seemed to struggle to articulate his words, at one point referring to a “billionaire” as a “trillionaire” before quickly correcting himself.
Biden delivered sharp criticism of Trump's leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy, mocking some of Trump's response to the virus at the time: “Just inject a little bit of bleach in your arm and you'll be fine,” he said.
But after Biden's tone was flat early in the debate, especially against his more bombastic opponents, he picked up a bit of the pace as he pushed back against a litany of Trump's unfounded claims on immigration and abortion.
But Democrats have sounded the alarm over Biden's performance, and some have begun considering replacing him as the presidential nominee.
“He is [Biden] “It should continue,” David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, told CNN.
Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, endorsed Biden after the debate, saying substance matters more than style in this election, but even she acknowledged it was a “slow start.”
Presidential candidates clash over golf
Biden and Trump have argued over who is physically and cognitively stronger.
Trump boasted about his strength, insisting to hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, “I'm in as good shape as I was 25, 30 years ago.”
Biden responded by chuckling and suggesting his opponent lied about both his height and weight.
Trump has won twice on his golf course, but Biden said he “can't hit the ball 50 yards.”
Biden responded by challenging Trump to a golfing challenge, on the condition that Trump carry his bag.
“Let's stop acting like children,” Trump said.
“You're a child,” Biden responded.
Trump calls Biden a 'bad Palestinian'
“We are Israel's greatest supporter in the world,” Biden said, reiterating U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza, which has killed more than 37,718 Palestinians since October last year.
Biden added that his administration continues to send experts and intelligence officers to stop the Palestinian group Hamas in its war efforts.
Trump hit back, saying it was Israel that wanted to continue the war, and “let them go and finish the job.” [Biden] “He doesn't want to do that. He has become like the Palestinians, and they hate him because he is a very bad Palestinian, a weak Palestinian.”
Nearly nine months into the war that has brought power outages and food shortages to the Gaza Strip, the United States has provided military and diplomatic support to Israel and repeatedly blocked a ceasefire resolution. A U.S.-initiated resolution endorsing a ceasefire proposal was finally passed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) some eight months into the war.
Biden accuses Trump of lying about abortion
Trump has accused Biden and his party of allowing abortions late into pregnancy, evoking anti-abortion sentiment.
During the debate, Trump claimed Biden and the Democrats were “willing to rip a baby out of the womb in what's called the ninth month of pregnancy.”
“You're lying. That's simply not true,” Biden said in rebuttal to Trump's claim. “We're not in favor of late-term abortion. Period.”
Trump also said Democrats “will take a child's life… even after birth” despite the crime of infanticide being illegal in every state in the US.
In the United States, late-term abortions are rare and typically a last resort when a woman has serious complications with a wanted pregnancy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 1% of abortions were performed after 21 weeks of pregnancy in 2020.
The immigration issue plagued the debate.
During the debate, Trump shifted the topic to immigration, accusing Biden of “opening up the most secure border in the world to terrorists and prisoners.”
He accused Biden of “killing people with mismanaged border control, killing hundreds of thousands of people with floods, and killing our own citizens as they crossed the border.”
Biden, meanwhile, detailed efforts his administration has made to manage the influx of illegal immigrants, including strengthening border security and working on a bipartisan national security agreement.
“By the way, the Border Patrol supported me and supported my position,” said a rolling-eyed Biden. “He [Trump] “When he was president, he was taking babies away from their mothers, putting them in cages, isolating families. That's not the way to do things.”
Trump retorted, “The Border Patrol, I wouldn't say that, but they supported me for president.”
Trump has not said whether he will respect the election results.
Trump did not directly answer whether he would respect the election results.
He said he would accept the outcome if the election was “free and fair,” and repeated his false claims that the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden, was rigged against him.
“The fraud and everything else is just ridiculous,” he said.
Following the results of the 2020 election, President Trump incited his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in the infamous Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
During the debate, Trump downplayed the riot, which he called the worst attack on American power in more than 200 years. “They're talking about a relatively small number of people who gathered at the Capitol, many of whom were ushered away by police,” he said.
The next presidential debate is scheduled for September 10 and will be hosted by ABC News.
