President Biden and former President Trump debated on Thursday in Atlanta, with each attacking the other’s four years in office as a disaster for the country.
The two candidates attacked each other in personal terms. Biden referenced Trump’s criminal conviction and other legal problems, while Trump invoked the prosecution of Biden’s son, Hunter, adding that the president could also be prosecuted.
“Joe could be a convicted felon,” Trump said. “All the deaths at the border. … This man is lucky. I did nothing wrong.”
Biden called the former president a “sucker” and a “loser,” while Trump attacked Biden’s record on inflation, immigration and foreign policy.
“The whole world is blowing up under him,” Trump said.
The debate was held without an audience, and with microphones that could be muted to keep the two men from talking over each other.
Nevertheless, it could be difficult to follow their arguments. Biden’s voice was hoarse and faint, he sometimes rambled, and at one point he trailed off while making a point.
“We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said early on.
“He’s right,” Trump shot back. “He beat it to death.”
Trump also rambled at times and made wild claims, as when he suggested that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the attack on the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Biden brought up Trump being found liable for sexual assault and being prosecuted over hush payments to a porn star.
“You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden said.
Biden also challenged Trump on the issue of abortion, saying that overturning Roe v. Wade has been a “terrible thing.”
Trump attacked Biden’s foreign policy as “weak,” calling the withdrawal from Afghanistan “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”
“Every single thing he said is a lie,” Biden said. “I’ve never heard so much malarkey in my whole life.”
The candidates’ responses often had relatively little to do with the questions from moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Bash repeatedly asked Trump if he would accept the outcome of the election, and renounce political violence.
“If it’s a fair, legal and good election, absolutely,” Trump said.
Both candidates warned that if the other wins, it could lead to World War III.
Toward the end, they debated their golf handicaps.
“Let’s not act like children,” Trump said.
“You are a child,” Biden said.
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