Trump vs Biden: 10 key moments from the CNN Presidential Debate in Atlanta

10 key moments from the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had their first face-to-face encounter of 2024 during the presidential debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia. This 90-minute discussion covered a wide range of topics, from personal attacks to incoherent mumbling, and addressed important matters such as abortion rights, international relations, and the state of the economy. Here are the top 10 pivotal moments from the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.

1. Biden's raspy voice and mumbling debacle

In the opening minutes of the first presidential debate, Biden struggled with a raspy voice, trying to clear his throat repeatedly. The 81-year-old's first face-off with Trump was aimed at convincing the voters that he was healthy and capable of leading the country for one more term. However, he initially faced a halting delivery while criticizing his predecessor, and he might have lost his chain of thought while drifting from tax policy to health policy. Trailing off, Biden even mentioned Covid during a totally different discussion. Sources close to the president said that he was suffering from a "cold," which might have affected his performance.

2. Trump takes credit for overturning Roe v Wade

Facing Biden for the first time in the 2024 presidential race, Trump doubled down on the pride he held over his role in overturning Roe v Wade, which resulted in restrictions on abortion rights in the country. The former president took credit for appointing the conservative justices to the Supreme Court, which upended the ruling in 2022, leaving the right to form abortion laws to individual states. "We brought it back to the States, and the country is now coming together on this issue. It's been a great thing," Trump said when asked about the reversal of Roe v Wade. President Biden retorted immediately, stating, "It's been a terrible thing what you've done."

3. Biden and Trump argue over who is the worst president

The first presidential debate of the election year witnessed a bizarre moment when both major party candidates competed to prove who was the worst president. While responding to a question about turning child care more affordable, Trump said Biden was "the worst president in the history of our country."  Biden responded to the insult by referring to experts who found that his predecessor was the worst president in the history of the US. "They said he was the worst in all presidential history," the president said, citing the latest survey by political scientists.

4. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash called out for not fact-checking claims

CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash drew flak after the presidential debate for failing to fact-check the statements made by Trump and Biden. Both candidates made a number of false statements on subjects including crime, immigration, and the economy, but the moderators did not give real-time fact checks. Instead, they gave follow-up questions when neither of the participants used the entire allotted time or did not answer a question directly. Political commentator Keith Olbermann criticized Tapper and Bash, stating, "CNN's decision to abrogate its journalistic responsibilities by not fact-checking Trump's firehose of lies is unforgivable." New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof added, "I wish the CNN moderators did more fact-checking, letting the audience know when things are said that are flatly false. Not sure how it helps for a platform to transmit falsehoods disguised as facts."

5. Biden gets called a 'bad Palestinian' by Trump

Biden's handling of the ongoing Isarel-Hamas war also entered the debate stage clash. Criticizing his successor's handling of the Middle East conflict, Trump said Biden turned into a "Palestinian" because of his criticisms of the Jewish state. "He's become like a Palestinian, but hey, don't like him because he's a very bad Palestinian. He's a weak one," the former president said. The president discredited the MAGA spearhead's claim, calling it "foolishness."

6. Trump calls out Biden's bad golfing skills

During the much-anticipated debate, Trump took a swipe at Biden's health, claiming the president's golf skills were bad. Responding to a question about his fitness, the ex-president said he was in "very good shape," bragging he recently won two championships at one of his golf courses. Biden self-praised his own golf skills, stating, "I got my handicap, when I was vice president, down to six." The president challenged his opponents to a golf match, but Trump retorted that the Democrat's handicap claim was "the biggest lie of all." The real estate mogul added,  "I've seen your swing. I know your swing."

7. Trump tries to downplay Jan 6 riots questions

Trump attempted to downplay his involvement in allegedly instigating the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. When questions about Jan 6 were directed at him, the former president, who is facing an indictment in Washington DC, over his effort to overturn the 2020 election results, tried to minimize his role that unleashed violence in the Capitol. Tapper pressed the White House hopeful to answer to voters who were concerned whether he would commit a similar mistake once again. "On Jan. 6, we had a great border. Nobody coming through, very few. On Jan. 6, we were energy independent. On Jan. 6, we had the lowest taxes ever. We had the lowest regulations ever. On Jan. 6, we were respected all over the world; all over the world, we were respected. And then he comes in, and we're now laughed at. We're like a bunch of stupid people," Trump said, attempting to tout the day as a golden period in US history.

8. Biden says Trump has 'morals of an alley cat'

Often the debate turned into personal insults between Trump and Biden. The former president threatened his successor "could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he's done." Calling Biden a "criminal," Trump added that he himself had done nothing wrong but was a victim of a rigged system. Biden who found the accusations "outrageous" took a dig at his rival for his alleged sexual encounter with an adult film actress while his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant. "What are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat," the president said to which Trump responded, "I didn't have sex with a porn star."

9. Trump claims Ukraine would never be invaded under his watch

During the debate, Trump blamed Biden for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, claiming it would have never occurred if he had been the leader. "If we had a real president, a president that knew that was respected by Putin, he would have never he would have never invaded Ukraine," Trump said. The real estate mogul added that Biden's incompetence" in handling Afghanistan might have influenced Putin to invade Ukraine. Furthermore, Trump claimed neither the Ukraine invasion nor Hamas' October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel would not have happened "in a million years" if he had been in the White House. "You had no terror at all under my administration," Trump argued. "This place, the whole world, is blowing up under him."

10. Trump says he'll accept results of 'fair and legal' election

Trump, who continues to claim the 2020 election was rigged, admitted he would accept the 2024 election results if it was "fair and legal." The former president twice dodged the question on whether he would accept the election outcome in November. When pressed for a third time, he said, "If it's a fair and legal and good election, absolutely." He added, "I would have much rather accepted these, but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous — and if you want, we'll have a news conference on it in a week, or we'll have another one of these in a week."