With muted mics and no audience, CNN’s Thursday night presidential debate ran relatively smoothly, had its occasional personal fireworks and drew a stark policy line between the candidates that cut like a knife through the inevitable noise of insults and finger-pointing.
President Joe Biden and Donald Trump took the stage Thursday to begin their first debate of the 2024 election, with CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash opening the telecast with a rundown of the unique rules around the face-off – then getting right to it.
The first question went to Biden, about the economy, and inflation in particular, which Bash noted is the No. 1 topic for most voters.
“You gotta take a look at what was left when I became president, what Donald Trump left me,” Biden said, launching into a statistics-filled answer in a gravelly voice, clearing his throat as he spoke (it was later reported that Biden had been battling a cold). “The pandemic was handled terribly. The economy collapsed, there were no jobs. Unemployment raised to 15 percent.”
Trump saw the situation differently, of course.
“We had the greatest economy in the history of our country … and we got hit with COVID. … We did a great job, got a lot of credit … everything was rocking good.”
Early topics covered included the national debt, the COVID response, the Ukraine war and the first election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.
“The problem is, they’re radical. They’ll take the child in the eighth month, ninth month, or even after birth,” Trump growled, repeating a highly disputed conservative talking point. “We need to send this issue back to the states, it’s a great thing.”
“It’s a terrible thing,” Biden quickly interjected as his mic went live. “The idea states are able to do this, is like turning civil rights back to the states,” he said, before an odd segue into immigration policy by way of the story of a 12-year-old rape victim.
Once Tapper finally broached the immigration topic, Trump boasted that he had the “safest border in the history of our country,” while Biden grumbled that Republicans wouldn’t help out with a largely bipartisan border initiative and said the previous administration “made sure families were separated.”
When Trump offhandedly mentioned that veterans living in the streets are worse off than illegal immigrants, Biden’s eyes flashed. “Everything he just said was a lie,” he said, before running off on a segue about the work he’s done on military benefits. That led him to repeat the disputed claim that Trump once called dead soldiers “suckers and losers,” and tried to tie those alleged comments to his late son Beau.
“My son was not the sucker,” wearing one of the angriest faces he’s displayed as president. “You’re the sucker. You’re the loser.”
As he’s done many times, Trump denied he ever said any such thing. “He should apologize to me right now.”
“The idea, the idea, that I owe you an apology for anything … ,” Biden replied.
On the Ukraine war, Trump repeated his talking point that funding the conflict was unjustified and too expensive, suggesting he’d be able to somehow put an end to it if he’s elected – and before he’s sworn in.
“This is a war that never should have been started,” Trump said. “Zelensky, every time he walks into this country, he walks out with another $60 billion dollars. … I’ll have that war settled. I’ll get it settled, and I’ll get it settled fast – before I take office.”
Biden replied saying Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal, he’s killed thousands and thousands of people. He wants all of Ukraine. That’s what he wants. You think he’ll stop there? What happens to Poland?”
EARLIER THURSDAY:
Yes, it appears to be really happening: President Joe Biden touched down in Atlanta on Thursday for a presidential debate with Donald Trump that had political and media pundits tangling for weeks about who “won” the format negotiations. Biden arrived midday a bit ahead of schedule, while Trump landed later in the afternoon.
Both candidates have chosen to bypass the traditional Commission on Presidential Debates’ schedule, opting instead for ad hoc debates hosted by individual networks. Leading off: the historically left-leaning CNN, one of the conditions demanded by the Biden Administration for the candidates’ first onstage meeting since 2020.
The White House also insisted on muted microphones while the other candidate takes his allotted speaking time, and no live audience. Trump was quick to accept these conditions that would seem to heavily favor the incumbent, and the interpretation of that concession has varied wildly – across partisan lines, of course.
On Democrat-friendly networks like MSNBC and CNN, anchors and talking heads saw it as a clear Biden victory; “Morning Joe” this week openly celebrated that Biden had “outmaneuvered” Trump. On conservative media, however, it was repeatedly suggested that Biden proposed the heavily slanted format assuming Trump would reject it, avoiding a live debate in a way that would look like Trump was to blame.
But Trump accepted – almost immediately – and no matter the intentions on either side, the debate was set for a Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern start at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. By midday, only a tiny handful of pro-Trump protesters had assembled, and not comfortably; the network located its media row deep within its secure multiplex campus, leaving protesters only a small, highway-adjacent area to demonstrate.
The moderators chosen were CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash – harsh Trump critics, to put it mildly – with the whole thing airing on CNN, Fox News, ABC and NewsNation. A second debate, hosted by ABC News, is scheduled for September 10.
Left-leaning cable commentators suggested in the days running up to the debate that Trump would be a last-minute scratch, reading calls for drug tests and other conservative grievances as a sign that the former president wasn’t serious about accepting the date. On the conservative side, it was widely suggested that Biden was caught off-guard by Trump’s quick “yes,” and that his handlers were subsequently scrambling to prepare.
The secondary buzz around the debate was Trump’s vague suggestion that he would announce his VP candidate, but exactly when – or who that might be – were still up in the air as the debate approached.
