US President Joe Biden made several verbal missteps as his debate with Republican rival Donald Trump got under way and both sought to define their presidential rematch.
Biden had a raspy voice, struggling repeatedly to clear his throat, and had a halting delivery as he tried to defend his economic record and criticise Trump.
The president appeared to lose his train of thought while giving one answer, drifting from a response on tax policy to health policy, at one point using the word “COVID”, and then saying, “excuse me, with, dealing with,” and he trailed off again.
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“Look, we finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, as his time ran out on his answer.
Trump seized on it, saying: “That’s right, he did beat Medicaid, he beat it to death. And he’s destroying Medicare.”
Trump falsely suggested Biden was weakening the social service program because of migrants coming into the country.
Biden, the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent, entered the debate with the chance to reassure voters that he’s capable of guiding the US through a host of challenges as he moved to sharpen the choice voters will face in November.
Trump, 78, had the opening to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he is temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office.
The two candidates strode on stage and walked directly to their lecterns, avoiding a handshake.
The debate did not start with any of the fiery exchanges that defined their first meeting on the debate stage in 2020.
Instead, each man stayed relatively measured as he defended his record and blamed the other for steering the country off track.
Biden, pressed to defend rising inflation since he took office, pinned it on the situation he inherited from Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump assailed Biden’s withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, saying: “It was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”
Biden said that when Trump left office, “things were in chaos”.
Trump disagreed, declaring that during his term in the White House: “Everything was rocking good”.
The current president and his predecessor had not spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss that culminated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.
Biden blamed Trump for enabling the elimination of a nationwide right to abortion by appointing conservatives to the US Supreme Court, an issue that has bedevilled Republicans since 2022.
In response, Trump argued that Biden would not support any limits on abortions and said that returning the issue to the states was the right course of action.
Trump said Biden had failed to secure the southern US border, ushering in scores of criminals.
“I call it Biden migrant crime,” he said.
In response, Biden said: “Once again, he’s exaggerating, he’s lying.”
Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the US government if he returns to the White House, and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.
Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted and Trump agreed to hold the debate without an audience, and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak.
The debate’s two commercial breaks offered another departure from modern practice, while the candidates agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras were off.
‘Painful’ debate for Biden
Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita declared victory before the former president and Biden had given their closing arguments and argued Biden “showed exactly why he deserves to be fired”.
A former aide to Donald Trump, who warned against a second Trump presidency, said Biden’s debate performance did not give her confidence that he could take on her former boss.
“I think Joe Biden lost in the first three minutes,” she said on CNN after the debate.
“You cannot tell me democracy is on the line and then give that performance tonight.”
She reiterated she thinks Trump is a “threat to democracy,” adding: “I think he is a threat to the America as we know it.”
Meanwhile, CNN political commentator Van Jones, who was a special adviser to Barack Obama, said Biden’s debate performance was “painful”.
“I love Joe Biden. I worked for Joe Biden. He didn’t do well at all,” Jones said.
“He’s doing the best that he can.
“But he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base. And he failed to do that.”
Speaking at a Democratic watch party shortly after leaving the debate venue, Biden homed in on falsehoods he claims Trump parroted while the two faced off for more than 90 minutes.
“Looks folks, what’s gonna happen over the next couple of days, they’re gonna be out here fact-checking all of the things he said,” Biden said, his voice sounding more clear than it had on the debate stage in Atlanta.
“I can’t think of one thing he said that was true,” Biden added.
He told the crowd: “Look, we’re gonna beat this guy. We need to beat this guy.”
They responded with chants of: “We need you!”
Biden has been battling a cold in recent days, sources familiar with his debate preparations say. His voice sounded hoarse and raspy during the debate, even more so than usual.
– With Reuters and CNN