President Biden and former President Donald Trump clashed repeatedly Thursday night in their first debate of the 2024 presidential election.
The candidates sparred over numerous topics, including the economy, abortion, immigration and health care costs.
Hosted by CNN at the cable network’s studios in Atlanta, the debate featured a new set of rules: there was no studio audience, the candidates’ microphones were muted when their opponent spoke, no prewritten notes were allowed and neither candidate presented opening statements. Trump had the final word during closing statements, as determined by a coin flip.
Nevertheless, the rhetoric got heated at times. Biden at one point referred to Trump as a “felon,” a reference to his recent 34 guilty counts in a hush money trial. Trump called Biden “Brandon,” a derogatory nickname his followers have adopted for the president. The two called each other the worst president in the history of the country.
The debate was atypically early — more than four months before voters head to the polls on Nov. 5 — and marked the first major showdown between the two candidates. In a sign of how early in the election cycle Thursday’s debate occurred, both Trump and Biden have yet to officially receive their party’s nominations, which will come at the party conventions later this summer.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, have been running close in polls all year. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll earlier this month showed Biden leading Trump by a scant 46%-44% margin. Only the two frontrunners appeared on stage Thursday night, with independent and third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West failing to qualify.
Biden and Trump are currently scheduled to meet one more time on the debate stage before the election, on Sept. 10. That debate will be hosted by ABC News.
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