ATLANTA (AP) — A raspy-voiced President Joe Biden repeatedly sought to take on Donald Trump in the first debate before the November election, but his Republican rival countered Biden’s criticisms with false claims about the economy, illegal immigration and Biden’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
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The debate came at a critical juncture in the president’s unpopular reelection bid and was a key moment to make his case before a national television audience. Biden’s shaky performance threatened to crystallize voters’ concerns that, at 81, he may be too old to serve as president, while Trump’s rhetoric was a perhaps unwelcome reminder of the bombast delivered daily during his tumultuous four years in office.
Biden was on the debate seeking to clarify the choice facing voters in November, while Trump, 78, was seizing the opportunity to convince an audience of tens of millions that he has overcome a felony conviction in New York state and is temperamentally fit to return to the Oval Office.
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Trump was asked about his actions when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“On January 6th, we were respected all over the world. We were respected all over the world. And then he came along and now we’re being laughed at,” Trump said.
After being prompted by the moderator to answer whether he violated his oath of office that day by not doing enough to stop his supporters as they stormed the Capitol, rallying them to try to halt the certification of Biden’s Electoral College win, Trump tried to blame then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Biden said Trump urged his supporters to go to the Capitol, then sat idly at the White House while they struggled with police.
“He’s done nothing and these people should be in jail,” Biden said. “They’re the ones who should be held accountable. And he wants to release them all. And now he’s whining about how he lost again and this could be a ‘bloody accident’?”
Trump later defended those convicted and jailed for their roles in the riot, telling Biden, “What they did to totally innocent people. You should be ashamed.”
Biden began his evening speech with a raspy voice and halting delivery as he sought to defend his economic record and criticize Trump. He appeared to lose his train of thought during one answer, veering from one about tax policy to one about health policy, at one point using the word “COVID” and saying, “Excuse me, deal with it,” before pausing again.
“Look, we finally got over Medicare,” Biden said as time ran out to respond.
Trump quickly picked up on that, saying, “That’s right. He’s defeated Medicaid. He’s defeated it big time. And he’s destroying Medicare.”
Trump falsely suggested Biden was weakening social welfare programs because of immigrants entering the country illegally.
Trump and Biden faced stiff headwinds from a public weary of the obscurity of partisan politics and widespread dissatisfaction with both men, according to polls. But the debate also highlighted how the men have vastly different views and deep hostility toward each other on nearly every core issue, from abortion to the economy to foreign policy.
Their personal animosity quickly surfaced. Biden made a personal point about his son Beau, who served in Iraq and died of brain cancer. The president criticized Trump for allegedly calling Americans who died in combat “stupid and loser.” Biden told Trump, “My son wasn’t a loser, he wasn’t stupid. You’re the stupid one. You’re the loser.”
Trump said he never said that and criticized Biden for the disorganized withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
“You’ve got the morals of a stray cat,” Biden said, directly addressing Trump’s conviction in the New York hush money trial, and also allegations that Trump had sex with a porn star.
“I don’t have sex with porn stars,” Trump responded, but did not testify at the trial.
Trump countered that Biden could face criminal prosecution “after he leaves office,” saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing but “Joe could be convicted based on what he has done,” adding of the president: “This man is a criminal.”
Biden argued that Trump was more focused on “revenge” against his political opponents than on leading the country.
Pressed to defend rising inflation since taking office, Biden blamed it on the conditions he inherited from Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden said “things were a mess” when Trump left office – a claim Trump disagreed, asserting “everything was fine” during his time in the White House.
By the time Trump left office, the US was still grappling with a pandemic that had pushed the death toll past 400,000 in his final hours in office, and more than a year later, the death toll had reached 1 million as the virus continued to rage across the country.
Trump repeatedly argued that the three conservative justices he appointed to the Supreme Court helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and leave the issue of abortion regulation up to the states, which is what “everyone wanted.” Biden countered that abortion access was settled 50 years ago and that Trump has made it harder for women in large swaths of the country to get basic health care.
At one point, Trump defended his own record on foreign policy, placing blame for the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza on Biden, suggesting they erupted because aggressors perceived Biden as weak, giving them free rein to attack.
“This place and the whole world is crumbling under him,” Trump said.
“I’ve never heard more drivel in my life,” Biden shot back.
The current president and his predecessor have not spoken since their last debate, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, when Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and failed effort to overturn his defeat, culminating in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by his supporters.
Trump has promised a sweeping plan to reform the U.S. government if he returns to the White House, while Biden argues his opponent poses an existential threat to American democracy.
To avoid a repeat of the chaotic showdown of 2020, Biden insisted, and Trump agreed, that the debate be held without an audience and that broadcasters be allowed to mute the candidates’ microphones when they were not speaking. The debate’s two commercial breaks marked a departure from modern practice, but the candidates agreed not to consult with staff or others while the cameras were off.
After the debate, both Biden and Trump are scheduled to visit states they believe will have an advantage this fall, including Trump’s trip to Virginia, once a battleground state that has gone Democratic in recent years.
Biden is due to fly to North Carolina, where he will hold the biggest rally of his campaign history in a state that Trump narrowly won in 2020.
Miller, Price and Weisert reported from Washington.
