Highlights from the first Biden-Trump debate of 2024: attacks, stumbles and falsehoods
- US President Joe Biden delivered rambling answers and Donald Trump battered him with a series of often false attacks
Democratic US President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night for a debate that offered voters a rare side-by-side look at the two oldest candidates ever to seek the US presidency.
Here are some of the major takeaways:
Hoarse and buggy
The leading question going into the debate was how the two men, both of whom have faced questions about their fitness for the job, would handle themselves on stage.
The early going favoured Trump, 78, who appeared forceful and energetic when compared to the 81-year-old Biden, who spoke in a hoarse, halting voice and coughed regularly.
Trump jabbed Biden for being incoherent, saying at one point: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said”.
The White House said during the debate that the president was suffering from a cold, while a Democratic strategist who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign called it a “disaster”.
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