Joe Biden, seeking a second term in the White House, stumbled in his first televised presidential debate with his predecessor Donald Trump, setting off alarm bells among top Democrats about whether the incumbent president can stay atop in the gruelling months ahead of the elections.
During their roughly 90-minute debate defined by personal attacks on Thursday night, Trump, the presumptive Republican Party candidate in the November 5 presidential election, clashed right from the start with 81-year-old Biden, arguing pointedly about the American economy, foreign relations and migration.
"We're like a Third World nation and it's a shame," Trump, 78, said. "We're no longer respected," he said, blaming a halting and raspy-voiced Biden. "They think we're stupid." Trump, appearing very confident during the high-stakes debate at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, also repeated falsehoods - from abortion to taxes and the deficit - and at first avoided answering if he would accept the 2024 election result.
Trump also linked the country's problems to the influx of migrants crossing the porous southwestern US border with Mexico, saying they were hurting the American economy.
"We had the safest border in the world," Trump said about his 2017-2021 term in the White House. Now, he claimed, "It's the most dangerous place in the world." Responding to Trump's statement, Biden said, "He is exaggerating, he's lying," underlining that 40 per cent fewer migrants are now crossing the border since he recently imposed tighter entry restrictions.
The two leaders called each other a liar and the worst president in the history of the US.
Biden called Trump a sucker and loser. "I was recently in France for D-Day, and I spoke to all about those heroes that died. I went to the World War II cemetery the World War I cemetery he refused to go to, Biden, the presumptive candidate of the Democratic Party, said, referring to Trump, who declined to visit the cemetery in 2018.
"He was standing with his four-star general, and he told me, he said, I don't want to go in there, because they're a bunch of losers and suckers. My son was not a loser. He's not a sucker. You're the sucker. You're the loser," Biden said.
Trump said that the quotes were made up in a third-rate magazine and he later fired the general.
On the age factor, Biden reminded Trump that he was just three years younger than him. At 81, Biden is the oldest president in US history.
Trump called Biden a criminal after the latter called him a convicted felon, referring to his conviction in a New York hush-money case.
"Joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he's done, he's done horrible things. This man is a criminal. This man, you're lucky, you're lucky, I did nothing wrong. We have a system that was rigged and disgusting," Trump said.
"When he talks about a convicted felon, his son (Hunter Biden) is a convicted felon, at a very high level," he alleged.
As the two leaders sparred over various issues, Biden accused Trump that he does not know what he is talking about.
Biden alleged that Trump has the morals of an alley cat. "How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for, for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, for having sex with a porn star on the night while your wife was pregnant? What are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat," he said.
"Could you ever think you heard any president say that I'm going to seek retribution? This guy has no sense of American democracy," Biden said.
Trump slammed his successor Biden on his immigration policies, alleging that it made the country insecure.
"We're literally, an uncivilized country now. He doesn't want it to be. He just doesn't know. He opened the borders nobody's ever seen anything like, and we have to get a lot of these people out and we have to get them out fast because they're going to destroy our country," Trump said.
"They (illegal immigrants) are living in luxury hotels in New York City and other places. Our veterans are on the street. They're dying because he doesn't care about our veterans. He doesn't like the military at all, and he doesn't care about our veterans," he asserted.
Biden responded strongly against Trump. "Every single thing he said is a lie, every single one....One million of them now have insurance and their families have it," he said.
Trump also slammed Biden on his foreign policy that could not stop the war in Ukraine and the Middle East.
"This is a war (Ukraine) that never should have started. If we had a leader in this war -- he led everybody along. He's given $200 billion now or more to Ukraine. That's a lot of money. I don't think there's ever been anything like it. Every time that Zelenskyy comes to this country, he walks away with $60 billion," Trump said, referring to the Ukrainian president.
"He's the greatest salesman ever. And I'm not knocking him, I'm not knocking anything. I'm only saying, the money that we're spending on this war, and we shouldn't be spending. It should have never happened. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelenskyy as president-elect before I take office on January 20th," he said.
Biden in response called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
Responding to a question on the war in the Middle East, Biden said everyone from the UN Security Council, straight through to the G7, to the Israelis and Benjamin Netanyahu himself have endorsed his peace plan put forward by him.
"We saved Israel We continue to send our experts and our intelligence people as to how they can get Hamas like we did bin Laden," Biden said.
Trump said he would let Israel finish its job against Hamas militants.
"As far as Russia and Ukraine, if we had a real president, the president that knew that was respected by Putin, he would have never invaded Ukraine," he said.
"I will tell you what happened. He was so bad with Afghanistan. It was such a horrible embarrassment, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country that when Putin watched that and he saw the incompetence that he should have fired those generals like I fired," Trump said.
In the end, Trump was asked if he would accept the results of the 2024 election. The former president said he'll accept the election result if he thinks it's fair. However, Biden said, I doubt whether you'll accept it. Meanwhile, registered voters who watched the debate between Biden and Trump say, 67 per cent to 33 per cent, that the former president turned in a better performance, according to a CNN flash poll of debate watchers.
Thursday's presidential debate offered a key test for the president to exhibit vigour and energy and Democratic sources reacting to the debate described emotions ranging from concern to straight-up panic about Biden's biggest vulnerability CNN reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris conceded that Biden got off to a slow start. "What we saw tonight is the president making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish," Harris said in an interview with CNN.
When pressed further on Biden's performance, Harris said, People can debate on style points, but ultimately this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance. And the contrast is clear," she said.
"It was a slow start. That's obvious to everyone. I'm not going to debate that point," Harris, the Indian-origin running mate of Biden, said.
The debate took place before both Biden and Trump were formally nominated at their respective party conventions. The Democrats will hold their convention on August 19 in Chicago. The Republicans will elect their candidate during their convention from July 15 to 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
No serious Democratic challengers have stepped up to run against Biden, and at this point in the campaign, Biden would have to decide to step aside if Democrats were to pick another nominee. If Biden did withdraw, the Democratic nomination would be decided on the floor, CNN reported.
"It's hard to argue that Biden should be our nominee, it quoted an unnamed operative who's worked on campaigns at all levels for over a decade.
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