ATLANTA (AP) — The first general election debate of the 2024 season has come to a close, with U.S. President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, clashing on immigration and climate change and launching deeply personal attacks on each other Thursday evening in Atlanta.
Biden, the Democratic incumbent, had the opportunity to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the U.S. through a range of challenges. Meanwhile, the 78-year-old Trump could use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office. Thursday’s debate in Atlanta marks at least a couple of firsts — never before have two White House contenders faced off at such advanced ages, and never before has CNN hosted a general election presidential debate.
Currently:
— How the Biden-Trump debate could change the trajectory of the 2024 campaign
— Here’s what’s at stake for Biden and Trump in this week’s presidential debate
— A look at the false claims candidates may present mid-debate
Here’s the latest:
Fore more years? Biden, Trump take swings at each other’s golf skills
They debated the economy, immigration and foreign policy, but it was an argument over golf handicaps that brought out some of the feistiest comments in Thursday’s debate as Joe Biden and Donald Trump sparred over how far they can hit the ball and their stamina on the course, with Trump bragging about trophies he’s won and Biden noting that he’s a single-digit handicap.
Answering a question about his fitness, Trump, who would be 82 at the end of a second term, bragged that he was in “very good shape” and had recently won two championships at one of his golf courses. “To do that, you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way.”
Biden, he said, “can’t hit a ball 50 yards.”
Biden then touted his his own golf abilities. “I got my handicap, when I was vice president, down to six,” Biden said. He again challenged Trump to a golf match, but only if his foe carried his bag of clubs himself.
“Think you can do it?” asked Biden, whose handicap is listed on the United State Golf Association’s website as 6.7, with the last update in July 2018. Trump’s handicap last updated in June 2021 is listed as 2.5. Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term.
Trump called Biden’s handicap claim “the biggest lie of all,” adding: “I’ve seen your swing. I know your swing.”
Trump then sought to shut down the golf discussion.
“Let’s not act like children,” Trump said.
“You are a child,” Biden retorted.
In golf, a handicap is a measure of a player’s skill. The lower the handicap, better the player is.
Democrats weighing in
Georgia state Rep. Billy Mitchell, a leading Democrat in the suburban Atlanta Democratic heartland of DeKalb County, said he thought Joe Biden could overcome his debate performance.
“The bar was set so low by his opponent that he certainly exceeded that,” Mitchell said at the Biden campaign watch party in downtown Atlanta. “The reality is we love Joe Biden because of where his heart is, despite if he looked like he had a cold here and there.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said in a post on the social platform X that, “Biden had a very low bar going into the debate and failed to clear even that bar. He seemed unprepared, lost, and not strong enough to parry effectively with Trump, who lies constantly.”
Trump supporters react to his debate performance
As the debate came to a close, Donald Trump supporter retired police officer Nick Glaub, of Ross, Ohio, watched with his feet kicked up onto a nearby performance stage, a can of Corona beer sitting on the table.
Glaub was pleased with Trump’s debate performance and said he noticed the lack of attack lines from Trump.
“I just think he held his composure,” he said.
Chuck Thompson, a Trump supporter from Mason, Ohio, who came to the watch party decked in an American flag button-down shirt, was also pleased with Trump’s debate performance, noting the difference in tone from Trump’s last debate against President Biden in 2020.
“He didn’t lash out,” Thompson said. “He’s learned how to control his temper.
The candidates’ closing statements
President Joe Biden began his closing statement with a voice that was even scratchier than earlier and was at times hard to understand.
He said of his administration, “We’ve made significant progress from the debacle that was left by President Trump is in his last term” but also flubbed the price cuts on insulin he helped champion, saying $35 when he meant $15.
In his closing statement, former President Donald Trump tried again to lump Biden in with other career politicians, calling Biden “a complainer.”
He also said that the public and foreign leaders don’t respect Biden, saying, “The whole country is exploding because of you.”
Trump asked if he will accept the results of the 2024 election
Though asked three times, former President Donald Trump never directly affirmed that he would accept the election results, no matter who wins.
Several times Trump noted that he would accept the results “if it’s a fair and legal and good election” but wouldn’t give a yes or no answer to moderator Dana Bash’s inquiries.
The follow-ups came after Trump ultimately denounced political violence as “totally unacceptable.”
After the moderator asked Trump three times whether he would accept the results of the November election, Joe Biden responded that he doubted Trump would “because you’re such a whiner.”
Biden noted there was no evidence of any widespread fraud in the 2020 election and that multiple courts had dismissed challenges brought by Trump’s campaign.
Biden uses term ‘illegal aliens’ while discussing immigration
Joe Biden uses the term “illegal aliens” while responding to Donald Trump’s attacks on immigration.
He said that while Trump accuses migrants of taking away jobs, he said “there’s a reason why we have the fastest growing economy in the world.”
It’s not the first time Biden has used terms that are rejected by immigrant rights’ groups and are not favored by Democrats. In March, during his State of the Union speech, he referred to a suspect in the killing of a Georgia nursing student as an “illegal” and later said he regretted using that term.
“I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,” he said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart.
Moderators question both Biden and Trump on their ability to be president at their age
More than 80 minutes into the debate, President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 78, were asked about their age and ability to serve well into his 80s.
Biden, answering with the hoarse voice he’s had all night, launched on a litany of policy achievements and noted that Trump is only “three years younger.”
Biden also used the answer to slap at Trump for bad-mouthing the U.S. “The idea that we are some kind of failing country? I’ve never heard a president talk like that before,” Biden said.
In his retort, Trump bragged on his golf game and said he’s in as good a shape as he was 25 years ago and perhaps “even a little bit lighter.”
FACT CHECK: Biden cites wrong numbers on a survey of presidential historians
At two different moments in the debate, Joe Biden said either 159 or 158 presidential historians voted Donald Trump the worst president in U.S. history.
He admitted he didn’t have the exact number, and he was right, though he wasn’t far off.
The survey in question, a project from professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University, included 154 usable responses, from 525 respondents invited to participate.
Candidates discuss climate change
More than an hour into the debate, the candidates finally talked about climate change, which Joe Biden has called an existential crisis and a top priority of his presidency.
Trump, after initially declining to answer on climate, said he wants “absolutely immaculate, clean water and I want absolutely clean air.’’
He said that during his administration, “we were using all forms of energy, all forms, everything’’ and claimed he “had the best environmental numbers ever.’’
It was unclear what he was referring to.
Biden called climate change the greatest threat to humanity, adding that Trump “didn’t do a darn thing about it.’’
Biden cited the 2022 passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is authorizes billions for clean energy. Biden called it the most significant climate legislation ever passed.
Trump brags about ‘immaculate, clean water’ during his presidency
When former President Donald Trump was asked what he would do about climate change, he said that the U.S. had “absolutely immaculate, clean water” and air when he was president.
Joe Biden retorted: “He hasn’t done a damn thing” for the environment.
Climate change isn’t an area where Americans think Trump performed especially well as president. Nearly half of Americans said Trump hurt the country on climate change while he was president, while relatively few Americans — only about 1 in 10 — said Trump’s presidency helped the country. About 4 in 10 say he neither helped nor hurt.
They’re more likely to see a positive effect from Biden’s presidency, but it’s not an overwhelming endorsement. Nearly half say Biden neither helped nor hurt the country on climate change, while about 3 in 10 say he helped a lot or a little and roughly 2 in 10 say he hurt the country.
