The face-off between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in Atlanta on Thursday was full of attacks, stumbles and confusing moments as both candidates addressed each other and the American people. Here are five key moments from the CNN presidential debate.
1. We finally beat Medicare? ...
Biden’s meandering answer early in the debate sparked concern and critical reaction from both Democrats and Republicans. It’s not what he said, but how the sitting president said it. Throughout the debate, the 81-year-old candidate lost his train of thought under raspy, hard-to-comprehend responses to questions from the moderators, including this moment 11 minutes into the broadcast:
What Biden said: “We’d be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system. Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the – with the COVID, excuse me – dealing with everything we have to do with, look ... we finally beat Medicare.”
2. On abortion
Biden and Trump vehemently disagreed on where the nation stood on abortion. The former president took credit for the three U.S. Supreme Court justices he nominated who in 2022 voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that guaranteed a nationwide right to abortion. Trump touted the decision to allow states to set their own restrictions as a “great thing” that “everyone wanted.”
Referencing Georgia’s abortion laws, Biden rebutted: “We’re in a state where, in six weeks — you don’t even know whether you’re pregnant or not — but you cannot see a doctor, have you, and have him decide on what your circumstances are, whether you need help.”
3. The golf exchange
Not on our bingo card for the evening: Biden and Trump sparring over their golf game – swing, handicap and all. The both age-appropriate and immature back-and-forth devolved, finally ending in:
Trump, 78: “Let’s not act like children.”
Biden, 81: “You are a child.”
4. ‘I didn’t have sex with a porn star’
In one of the more contentious exchanges, Biden and Trump feuded over legal challenges and convictions against Trump and Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. When Trump called for Biden to go to jail for unfair treatment over the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot in 2021, Biden shot back: “The only person on this stage [who] is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now.” It lead to this sticky back-and-forth:
Biden said: “The crimes you are still charged with — and think of all the civil penalties you have. How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, having sex with a porn star ... while your wife was pregnant. What are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.”
To which Trump responded: “I didn’t have sex with a porn star, number one,” before saying the charges against him were politically motivated.
5. ‘If it’s a fair and legal and good election’
A question on the mind of many voters: Will Trump accept this year’s election results? His response: “If it’s a fair and legal and good election, absolutely. I would have much rather accepted these but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous.”
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