President Joe Biden and his rival Donald Trump faced off in their first debate in Atlanta ahead of the upcoming Election on November 5th. During the event, moderated by CNN’s anchors Dana Bash and Jake Trapper, there was no studio audience and each candidate’s microphone was muted when it was the opponent’s turn to talk.
Both candidates spoke about several topics, from the national debt to inflation, from immigration to foreign policy, passing through climate change.
During the 90-minute-debate the two rivals started quite calm and respecting the time given to answer all the questions. However the honeymoon didn’t last too long. The debate became spicier with the candidates blaming each other, and Trump led in terms of speaking time. Trump closed with about 40 minutes and 12 seconds, while Biden with 35 minutes and 41 seconds.
“You are the sucker, you are the loser”, Biden told Trump who replied calling him a “criminal.”
“They (other countries) don’t respect us, we have become a third world nation,” Trump underlined. “They think we are very stupid people and what this man (Biden) has done is criminal and he is not equipped to be President.”
“If he wins the election we will not have a country anymore,” Trump said. “China is going to own us.”
The Republican candidate claimed that during the Biden presidency the job growth is all bounceback gains after the pandemic lockdowns that devastated the US economy that saw 22 million jobs lost from March to April of 2020.
CNN – Will Lanzoni
President Biden, who in several occasions struggled with his speech and looked spaced out, claimed instead that the economy situation he inherited after Trump’s presidency was the reason for the spike in inflation seen in the last fours years.
Biden inherited almost no inflation; underlined Trump. And that is a true fact. As data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows, when Biden won the White House, US inflation was at 1.4% only, and it surged to 9.1% on June 2022, which was the highest rate in about 40 years. As of today, inflation is at a 3.27%.
The War between Israel and Hamas was also the center of attention during the debate, with Trump pointing out that the October 7th attack would not have ever happened if he had been the President. He didn’t really answer the question whether or not he would support an independent Palestinian state. “Iran was broke with me,” Trump explained, “I wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. They ran out of money. They were broke. They had no money for Hamas, they had no money for anything. No money for terror.”
The former President and businessman attacked Biden on a crucial issue in the US: immigration policies and the spike in crime related to immigrants entering the country illegally. “The are killing our citizens at a level that we have never seen before,” he said speaking about the “Biden migrant crime.”
On the other hand, Biden said that “the only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is this man I am looking at right now.” Of course, Trump’s conviction of 34 felony counts was going to pop up during the debate. On May 30th, the former President was found guilty on all related counts to a hush-money payment to a porn star in 2016.
When both were asked about how they will handle the toughest job in the World given their age (Biden is 81 and Trump is 78) Trump stated “I think I am in a very good shape, as good as I was years ago.”
“First of all, I spent half of my career being criticized for being the youngest person in politics,” said Biden. “And now I am the oldest, and this guy (Trump) is three years younger and a lot less competent.”
“Name me a single president in the world that wouldn’t trade his place with mine”, Biden underline saying that the US is the strongest country in the world.
But Trump explained that “if Biden were a good President I wouldn’t be here,” adding that “he will drive us to WWIII.”
During the closing of the debate, Trump dodged the question about whether he will accept the result of this upcoming election. “If it is fair and legal, yes,” he said after being asked three times.
But Biden has his doubts. “You can’t stand the loss,” he stated calling the Republican candidate a “whiner.” The President also noted that there was no evidence of any fraud during the 2020 Election and that several courts dismissed all requests brought by Trump.
In his farewell remarks, President Biden explained that the government will keep fighting to bring down inflation and give people a break.
The next and second debate, which will air on ABC News, is scheduled to take place on September 10th and will be hosted by David Muir and Linsay Davis.