U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump clashed right from the start of their debate Thursday night, arguing pointedly about the U.S. economy, foreign affairs and migration across the Mexican border into the United States.
"We’re like a Third World nation and it’s a shame," Trump told a nationwide television audience from a debate stage at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
"We’re no longer respected," Trump said, blaming Biden. "They think we’re stupid."
Biden retorted at one point, looking at Trump. "This is the worst president in American history," citing a group of historians who earlier this year rated Trump last among the country’s 46 presidents. "This guy has no sense of American democracy."
Trump, often the aggressor in the debate against a halting and raspy-voiced Biden, returned the taunt, saying Biden was the worst. They frequently accused each other of lying. A snap post-debate CNN survey said Trump convincingly won the debate by a 67-33% margin and some Democrats expressed alarm at Biden’s performance.
Trump repeatedly linked the country’s problems to the influx of migrants crossing the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico, saying they were hurting the U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, and taking the jobs of Americans.
"We had the safest border in the world," Trump contended about his 2017-2021 term in office. Now, he said, "It’s the most dangerous place in the world."
"We are now living in a rat’s nest," Trump claimed. "They’re killing our citizens at a level we’ve never seen before." While there have been a handful of high-profile cases in which migrants have been accused of murder, there is no evidence that migrants are committing more crimes than native-born Americans.
Top takeaways from the Biden-Trump debate
Biden said, "He is exaggerating, he’s lying," noting that 40% fewer migrants are now crossing the border since he recently imposed tighter entry restrictions.
Trump claimed that if he wins the November 5 election, he would see that Russia’s war with Ukraine is ended before he takes office next January but gave no indication of how he would accomplish that. He said he would get Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich freed from a Russian prison in the same time frame.
Biden responded that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "a war criminal," and rhetorically asked Trump, "You think he’ll stop with Ukraine?" if Putin takes over Ukraine. He described Trump as "a guy who wants to get us out of NATO," adding, "He has no idea what he’s talking about."
Biden accused Trump of fomenting the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol as Trump supporters tried to block Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump. The former president blamed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not calling in enough security in advance to control the rioters.
Biden contended Trump had "the morals of an alley cat" as he assailed him for his conviction last month on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn star just ahead of his successful 2016 election to silence her claim -- denied by Trump -- that he had a one-night tryst with her in 2006.
"That case is going to be appealed and won," Trump responded. He is set to be sentenced July 11 and could be placed on probation or imprisoned for up to four years. The U.S. Constitution does not prohibit a convicted felon from serving as president.
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