US President Joe Biden and his Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, clashed in their first debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle. With no live audience present, the two candidates did not greet each other with a customary handshake and stood just feet apart at their respective podiums, setting the stage for a night of pointed exchanges.
On Economy
President Biden wasted no time in criticising Trump’s economic legacy during the latter’s tenure in the Oval Office. “Donald Trump left me an economy that was in free fall,” Biden stated. He then slammed Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. “He said things were fine during the pandemic- just inject a little bleach in your arm. I turned our country around,” Biden claimed.
In another sharp rebuke, Biden highlighted job losses under Trump’s administration, stating, “Donald Trump is the only president besides Herbert Hoover who left office with fewer jobs than when he began. Donald Trump had the largest national debt of any US president over a four-year period.”
On Foreign Policy
The debate took a heated turn when the topic shifted to foreign policy, specifically the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Trump seized the opportunity to criticise Biden’s execution of the withdrawal, calling it “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”
“I was getting out of Afghanistan, but we were getting out with dignity, with strength, with power” he added.
Biden responded by saying, “When he was president they were still killing people in Afghanistan. He didn’t do anything about that.”
Referring to allegations that Trump had labeled these soldiers as “suckers,” Biden invoked the memory of his late son Beau, who served in Iraq and later succumbed to cancer.
“My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser,” Biden declared.
On Immigration
Immigration was another hot-button issue during the debate. Biden accused Trump of exaggerating and spreading falsehoods about the state of the country’s immigration crisis. “The idea that illegal immigrants are being welcomed in the United States is simply not true,” Biden said. “There’s no data to support what he said. Once again, he’s exaggerating. He’s lying.”
Trump countered by claiming that Biden had failed to secure the southern US border, which he claimed had allowed scores of criminals into the country. “I call it Biden migrant crime,” Trump declared.
On Abortion Rights
The debate took a heated turn when Biden attacked Trump for being an advocate for abortion ban. He called Trump’s actions “a terrible thing” after the Republican boasted of nominating Supreme Court justices that helped overturn Roe v. Wade. “It has been a terrible thing, what you have done,” Biden said, in one of his firmer critiques of his presidential predecessor.
Trump defended his position by arguing that returning the issue to the states was the right course of action and accused Biden of not supporting any limits on abortions.
Addressing the plight of women who have been raped and now face greater obstacles in accessing abortion services, Biden added, “It’s just ridiculous, and they can do nothing about it. You have the morals of an alley cat.”
