President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, ended with no handshake.
It was the first of two debates ahead of the Nov. 2024 election.
On Trump’s history of challenging the outcome of the last election, Biden said: “You continue to promote this lie about somehow there’s all this misrepresentation, this stealing. There is no evidence of that at all…I doubt you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner,” Biden said near the end of the debate.
“Tonight, President Biden presented a positive and winning vision for the future of America – one in which every American has a fair shot at the American dream, where every one of our rights are protected, and where our president fights to strengthen our democracy – not to tear it down.
“On the other side of the stage was Donald Trump, who offered a dark and backwards window into what America will look like if he steps foot back in the White House: a country where women are forced to beg for the health care they need to stay alive. A country that puts the interests of billionaires over working people. And a former president who not once, not twice, but three times, failed to promise he would accept the results of a free and fair election this November.
“Trump’s performance tonight reminded the American people why they fired him four years ago, and reinforced just how high the stakes are this November for the future of our country.”
Democratic President Joe Biden delivered an uneven performance at Thursday’s debate, while his Republican rival Donald Trump rattled off a series of attacks that included numerous falsehoods, as the two oldest presidential candidates ever clashed on stage ahead of the Nov. 5 election ,
The two men traded attacks on abortion, immigration, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and their handling of the economy as they each sought to shake up what opinion polls show has been a virtually tied race for months.
A hoarse-sounding Biden stumbled over his words on several occasions during the debate’s first half-hour, but he found his footing at the halfway mark when he attacked Trump for his conviction for covering up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, calling him a “felon.”
In response, Trump brought up the recent conviction of Biden’s son, Hunter, for lying about his drug use to buy a gun.
Moments later, Biden noted that almost all of Trump’s former cabinet members, including former Vice President Mike Pence, have not endorsed his campaign.
“They know him well, they served with him,” he said. “Why are they not endorsing him?”
Two White House officials said Biden had a cold. But his up-and-down evening could deepen voter concerns that the 81-year-old is too old to serve another four-year term.
Trump, meanwhile, unleashed a barrage of criticisms, some of which were well-worn falsehoods he has repeated on the campaign trial, including claims that migrants have carried out a crime wave and that Democrats support infanticide.
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