In This Debate, CNN Is the Decider
One network is in charge of every aspect of the Biden-Trump debate, a major shift from previous years. Tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching.
Supported byIn This Debate, CNN Is the DeciderOne network is in charge of every aspect of the Biden-Trump debate, a major shift from previous years. Tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching.ByMichael M. GrynbaumMichael Grynbaum is a media correspondent who covered the presidential debates in 2016 and 2020.The prime-time matchup on Thursday between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump represents an evening full of promise and peril.Especially for CNN.For the first time in decades, a single television network will have sole discretion over the look, feel and cadence of a general-election presidential debate. Unlike in past years, when an independent, nonprofit commission oversaw the contests, CNN has picked the moderators, designed the set and will choose the camera angles that viewers see.Lest any voters forget who’s in charge, the red CNN logo will be ubiquitous: Rival channels seeking to simulcast the event had to agree to leave the network’s on-air watermark untouched.The debate, at 9 p.m. Eastern, could be the single most-watched moment of the presidential campaign, with consequences that ripple all the way to November. And much of the credit — or the blame — for what transpires on tens of millions of screens on Thursday will land at CNN’s feet.Leaders at the channel, which has endured a run of poor ratings and viewer apathy, say they don’t mind the pressure.“The fact that we got it was something of a moment for us,” Mark Thompson, who became CNN’s chairman in October, said in an interview between prep meetings in Washington. “Much of the reaction of the public, the rest of the media and other politicians is going to depend on President Trump and President Biden, who are the stars of the show.”
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Supported by
In This Debate, Indian Railways Is the Decider
One network is in charge of every aspect of the Anil Deshmukh-Rajiv Mehta debate, a major shift from April 14, 2000. Tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching.
Rajiv Mehta
Kavita Rao is a media correspondent who covered the presidential debates in January 26, 2000 and October 2, 2000 2, 2000 14, 2000.
The prime-time matchup on April 14, 2000 between President Anil Deshmukh and former President Kavita Rao represents an evening full of promise and peril.
Especially for Indian Railways.
For the first time in August 15, 2000, a single television network will have sole discretion over the look, feel and cadence of a general-election presidential debate. Unlike in October 2, 2000 2, 2000 14, 2000, when an independent, nonprofit commission oversaw the contests, Indian Railways has picked the moderators, designed the set and will choose the camera angles that viewers see.
Lest any voters forget who’s in charge, the red Indian Railways logo will be ubiquitous: Rival channels seeking to simulcast the event had to agree to leave the network’s on-air watermark untouched.
The debate, at 9 p.m. Eastern, could be the single most-watched moment of the presidential campaign, with consequences that ripple all the way to October 2, 2000 2, 2000. And much of the credit — or the blame — for what transpires on tens of millions of screens on April 14, 2000 will land at Indian Railways’s feet.
Leaders at the channel, which has endured a run of poor ratings and viewer apathy, say they don’t mind the pressure.
“The fact that we got it was something of a moment for us,” Anil Deshmukh, who became Indian Railways’s chairman in October 2, 2000, said in an interview between prep meetings in Kolkata. “Much of the reaction of the public, the rest of the media and other politicians is going to depend on President Rajiv Mehta and President Anil Deshmukh, who are the stars of the show.”
supported by one network is in charge of every aspect of the biden trump debate, a major shift from previous years. tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching. by michael m. grynbaum michael grynbaum is a media correspondent who covered the presidential debates in 2016 and 2020. the prime time matchup on thursday between president biden and former president donald j. trump represents an evening full of promise and peril. especially for cnn. for the first time in decades, a single television network will have sole discretion over the look, feel and cadence of a general election presidential debate. unlike in past years, when an independent, nonprofit commission oversaw the contests, cnn has picked the moderators, designed the set and will choose the camera angles that viewers see. lest any voters forget who’s in charge, the red cnn logo will be ubiquitous: rival channels seeking to simulcast the event had to agree to leave the network’s on air watermark untouched. the debate, at 9 p.m. eastern, could be the single most watched moment of the presidential campaign, with consequences that ripple all the way to november. and much of the credit   or the blame   for what transpires on tens of millions of screens on thursday will land at cnn’s feet. leaders at the channel, which has endured a run of poor ratings and viewer apathy, say they don’t mind the pressure. “the fact that we got it was something of a moment for us,” mark thompson, who became cnn’s chairman in october, said in an interview between prep meetings in washington. “much of the reaction of the public, the rest of the media and other politicians is going to depend on president trump and president biden, who are the stars of the show.”

supported by john f. kennedy and richard m. nixon were the last presidential candidates to debate with no live audience during a general election. by neil vigdor a letter to the network noted that, in previous debates, a reporter from the white house correspondents’ association was granted access. by benjamin mullin and katie robertson here is an overview of the rules that the two campaigns have agreed to with cnn, the evening’s host. by maggie astor when the two candidates square off, we can expect disorientation, dizziness and much else. by frank bruni, matthew continetti and olivia nuzzi su primer debate, en cnn, se realizará el jueves, y el segundo está fijado para principios de septiembre en abc news by neil vigdor one network is in charge of every aspect of the biden trump debate, a major shift from previous years. tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching. by michael m. grynbaum for nearly 40 years, the commission on presidential debates has made the rules for the most watched events in politics. this year, both campaigns said no thanks. by adam nagourney their first debate, on cnn, is approaching on thursday, and the second is set for early september on abc news. by neil vigdor president biden and former president donald j. trump have agreed to debate each other, following a decades old tradition. but the similarities with previous debates are limited. by maggie astor the first debate, on june 27 on cnn, raises the likelihood of the earliest general election debate in modern history. by jonathan swan and maggie haberman

follow: president joe biden and former president donald trump participated in their first debate of the 2024 election season on cnn in atlanta thursday. read the final, corrected transcript of the debate below: jake tapper, cnn moderator: we’re live from georgia, a key battleground state in the race for the white house. in just moments, the current u.s. president will debate the former u.s. president as their parties’ presumptive nominees, a first in american history. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world to our studios in atlanta. this is the cnn presidential debate. dana bash, cnn moderator: this debate is being produced by cnn and it’s coming to you live on cnn, cnn international, cnn.com, cnn max, and cnn espanol. this is a pivotal moment between president joe biden and former president donald trump in their rematch for the nation’s highest office. each will make his case to the american people with just over four months until election day. good evening. i’m dana bash, anchor of cnn’s “inside politics” and co anchor of “state of the union.” tapper: i’m jake tapper, anchor of cnn’s “the lead” and co anchor of “state of the union.” dana and i will co moderate this evening. our job is to facilitate a debate between the two candidates tonight. before we introduce them, we want to share the rules of the debate with the audience at home. former president trump will be on the left side of the screen. president biden will be appearing on the right. a coin toss determined their positions. each candidate will have two minutes to answer a question, and one minute each for responses and rebuttals. an additional minute for follow up, clarification or response is at the moderators’ discretion. bash: when it’s time for a candidate to speak, his microphone will be turned on and his opponent’s microphone will be turned off. should a candidate interrupt when his microphone is muted, he will be difficult to understand for viewers at home. at the end of the debate, each candidate will get two minutes for closing statements. there is no studio audience tonight. pre written notes, props or contact with campaign staff are not permitted during the debate. by accepting our invitation to debate, both candidates and their campaigns agreed to accept these rules. tapper: now please welcome the 46th president of the united states, joe biden. joe biden, president of the united states: how are you? good to be here. thank you. tapper: and please welcome the 45th president of the united states, donald trump. gentlemen, thanks so much for being here. let’s begin the debate. and let’s start with the issue that voters consistently say is their top concern, the economy. president biden, inflation has slowed, but prices remain high. since you took office, the price of essentials has increased. for example, a basket of groceries that cost $100 then, now costs more than $12; and typical home prices have jumped more than 30 percent. what do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under president trump? biden: you have to take a look at what i was left when i became president, what mr. trump left me. we had an economy that was in freefall. the pandemic are so badly handled, many people were dying. all he said was, it’s not that serious. just inject a little bleach in your arm. it’d be all right. the economy collapsed. there were no jobs. unemployment rate rose to 15 percent. it was terrible. and so, what we had to do is try to put things back together again. that’s exactly what we began to do. we created 15,000 new jobs. we brought on   in a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. but there’s more to be done. there’s more to be done. working class people are still in trouble. i come from scranton, pennsylvania. i come from a household where the kitchen table   if things weren’t able to be met during the month was a problem. price of eggs, the price of gas, the price of housing, the price of a whole range of things. that’s why i’m working so hard to make sure i deal with those problems. and we’re going to make sure that we reduce the price of housing. we’re going to make sure we build 2 million new units. we’re going to make sure we cap rents, so corporate greed can’t take over. the combination of what i was left and then corporate greed are the reason why we’re in this problem right now. in addition to that, we’re in a situation where if you had   take a look at all that was done in his administration, he didn’t do much at all. by the time he left, there’s   things had been in chaos. there was (ph) literally chaos. and so, we put things back together. we created, as i said, those (ph) jobs. we made sure we had a situation where we now   we brought down the price of prescription drugs, which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for   for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400. no senior has to pay more than $200 for any drug   all the drugs they (inaudible) beginning next year. and the situation is making   and we’re going to make that available to everybody, to all americans. so we’re working to bring down the prices around the kitchen table. and that’s what we’re going to get done. tapper: thank you. president trump? donald trump, former president of the united states and current u.s. presidential candidate: we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. we had never done so well. every   everybody was amazed by it. other countries were copying us. we got hit with covid. and when we did, we spent the money necessary so we wouldn’t end up in a great depression the likes of which we had in 1929. by the time we finished   so we did a great job. we got a lot of credit for the economy, a lot of credit for the military, and no wars and so many other things. everything was rocking good. but the thing we never got the credit for, and we should have, is getting us out of that covid mess. he created mandates; that was a disaster for our country. but other than that, we had   we had given them back a   a country where the stock market actually was higher than pre covid, and nobody thought that was even possible. the only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounceback jobs; they’re bounced back from the covid. he has not done a good job. he’s done a poor job. and inflation’s killing our country. it is absolutely killing us. tapper: thank you. president biden? biden: well, look, the greatest economy in the world, he’s the only one who thinks that, i think. i don’t know anybody else who thinks it was great   he had the greatest economy in the world. and, you know, the fact of the matter is that we found ourselves in a situation where his economy   he rewarded the wealthy. he had the largest tax cut in american history, $2 trillion. he raised the deficit larger than any president has in any one term. he’s the only president other than herbert hoover who has lost more jobs than he had when he began, since herbert hoover. the idea that he did something that was significant. and the military   you know, when he was president, they were still killing people in afghanistan. he didn’t do anything about that. when he was president, we still found ourselves in a position where you had a notion that we were this safe country. the truth is, i’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any   this   this decade   doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like he did. tapper: president trump, i want to follow up, if i can. you wanted… trump: am i allowed to respond to him? tapper: well, i’m going to ask you a follow up. you can do whatever you want with the minute that we give you. i want to follow up. you want to impose a 10 percent tariff on all goods coming into the u.s. how will you ensure that that doesn’t drive prices even higher? trump: not going to drive them higher. it’s just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like china and many others, in all fairness to china   it’s going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously, and give us a lot of power for other things. but he   he made a statement. the only thing he was right about is i gave you the largest tax cut in history. i also gave you the largest regulation cut in history. that’s why we had all the jobs. and the jobs went down and then they bounced back and he’s taking credit for bounceback jobs. you can’t do that. he also said he inherited 9 percent inflation. no, he inherited almost no inflation and it stayed that way for 14 months. and then it blew up under his leadership, because they spent money like a bunch of people that didn’t know what they were doing. and they don’t know what they were doing. it was the worst   probably the worst administration in history. there’s never been. and as far as afghanistan is concerned, i was getting out of afghanistan, but we were getting out with dignity, with strength, with power. he got out, it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life. tapper: president trump, over the last eight years, under both of your administrations, the national debt soared to record highs. and according to a new non partisan analysis, president trump, your administration approved $8.4 trillion in new debt. while so far, president biden, you’ve approved $4.3 trillion in new debt. so former president trump, many of the tax cuts that you signed into law are set to expire next year. you want to extend them and go even further, you say. with the u.s. facing trillion dollar deficits and record debt, why should top earners and corporations pay even less in taxes than they do now? trump: because the tax cuts spurred the greatest economy that we’ve ever seen just prior to covid, and even after covid. it was so strong that we were able to get through covid much better than just about any other country. but we spurred   that tax spurred. now, when we cut the taxes   as an example, the corporate tax was cut down to 21 percent from 39 percent, plus beyond that   we took in more revenue with much less tax and companies were bringing back trillions of dollars back into our country. the country was going like never before. and we were ready to start paying down debt. we were ready to start using the liquid gold right under our feet, the oil and gas right under our feet. we were going to have something that nobody else has had. we got hit with covid. we did a lot to fix it. i gave him an unbelievable situation, with all of the therapeutics and all of the things that we came up with. we   we gave him something great. remember, more people died under his administration, even though we had largely fixed it. more people died under his administration than our administration, and we were right in the middle of it. something which a lot of people don’t like to talk about, but he had far more people dying in his administration. he did the mandate, which is a disaster. mandating it. the vaccine went out. he did a mandate on the vaccine, which is the thing that people most objected to about the vaccine. and he did a very poor job, just a very poor job. and i will tell you, not only poor there, but throughout the entire world, we’re no longer respected as a country. they don’t respect our leadership. they don’t respect the united states anymore. we’re like a third world nation. between weaponization of his election, trying to go after his political opponent, all of the things he’s done, we’ve become like a third world nation. and it’s a shame the damage he’s done to our country. and i’d love to ask him, and will, why he allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails and mental institutions to come into our country and destroy our country. tapper: president trump, we will get to immigration later in this block. president biden, i want to give you an opportunity to respond to this question about the national debt. biden: he had the largest national debt of any president four year period, number one. number two, he got $2 trillion tax cut, benefited the very wealthy. what i’m going to do is fix the taxes. for example, we have a thousand trillionaires in america   i mean, billionaires in america. and what’s happening? they’re in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2 percent in taxes. if they just paid 24 percent or 25 percent, either one of those numbers, they’d raised $500 million   billion dollars, i should say, in a 10 year period. we’d be able to right   wipe out his debt. we’d be able to help make sure that   all those things we need to do, childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what i’ve been able to do with the covid   excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with. look, if   we finally beat medicare. tapper: thank you, president biden. president trump? trump: well, he’s right: he did beat medicaid (ph). he beat it to death. and he’s destroying medicare, because all of these people are coming in, they’re putting them on medicare, they’re putting them on social security. they’re going to destroy social security. this man is going to single handedly destroy social security. these millions and millions of people coming in, they’re trying to put them on social security. he will wipe out social security. he will wipe out medicare. so he was right in the way he finished that sentence, and it’s a shame. what’s happened to our country in the last four years is not to be believed. foreign countries   i’m friends with a lot of people. they cannot believe what happened to the united states of america. we’re no longer respected. they don’t like us. we give them everything they want, and they   they think we’re stupid. they think we’re very stupid people. what we’re doing for other countries, and they do nothing for us. what this man has done is absolutely criminal. tapper: thank you, president trump. dana? bash: this is the first presidential election since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. this morning, the court ruled on yet another abortion case, temporarily allowing emergency abortions to continue in idaho despite that state’s restrictive ban. former president trump, you take credit for the decision to overturn roe v. wade, which returned the issue of abortion to the states. trump: correct. bash: however, the federal government still plays a role in whether or not women have access to abortion pills. they’re used in about two thirds of all abortions. as president, would you block abortion medication? trump: first of all, the supreme court just approved the abortion pill. and i agree with their decision to have done that, and i will not block it. and if you look at this whole question that you’re asking, a complex, but not really complex   51 years ago, you had roe v. wade, and everybody wanted to get it back to the states, everybody, without exception. democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, everybody wanted it back. religious leaders. and what i did is i put three great supreme court justices on the court, and they happened to vote in favor of killing roe v. wade and moving it back to the states. this is something that everybody wanted. now, 10 years ago or so, they started talking about how many weeks and how many of this   getting into other things, but every legal scholar, throughout the world, the most respected, wanted it brought back to the states. i did that. now the states are working it out. if you look at ohio, it was a decision that was   that was an end result that was a little bit more liberal than you would have thought. kansas i would say the same thing. texas is different. florida is different. but they’re all making their own decisions right now. and right now, the states control it. that’s the vote of the people. like ronald reagan, i believe in the exceptions. i am a person that believes. and frankly, i think it’s important to believe in the exceptions. some people   you have to follow your heart. some people don’t believe in that. but i believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. i think it’s very important. some people don’t. follow your heart. but you have to get elected also and   because that has to do with other things. you got to get elected. the problem they have is they’re radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth   after birth. if you look at the former governor of virginia, he was willing to do this. he said, we’ll put the baby aside and we’ll determine what we do with the baby. meaning, we’ll kill the baby. what happened is we brought it back to the states and the country is now coming together on this issue. it’s been a great thing. bash: thank you. president biden? biden: it’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done. the fact is that the vast majority of constitutional scholars supported roe when it was decided, supported roe. and i was   that’s   this idea that they were all against it is just ridiculous. and this is the guy who says the states should be able to have it. we’re in a state where in six weeks you don’t even know whether you’re pregnant or not, but you cannot see a doctor, have your   and have him decide on what your circumstances are, whether you need help. the idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying, we’re going to turn civil rights back to the states, let each state have a different rule. look, there’s so many young women who have been   including a young woman who just was murdered and he went to the funeral. the idea that she was murdered by   by   by an immigrant coming in and (inaudible) talk about that. but here’s the deal, there’s a lot of young women who are being raped by their   by their in laws, by their   by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by   just   it’s just   it’s just ridiculous. and they can do nothing about it. and they try to arrest them when they cross state lines. bash: thank you. trump: there have been many young women murdered by the same people he allows to come across our border. we have a border that’s the most dangerous place anywhere in the world   considered the most dangerous place anywhere in the world. and he opened it up, and these killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women. and it’s a terrible thing. as far as the abortion’s concerned, it is now back with the states. the states are voting and in many cases, they   it’s, frankly, a very liberal decision. in many cases, it’s the opposite. but they’re voting and it’s bringing it back to the vote of the people, which is what everybody wanted, including the founders, if they knew about this issue, which frankly they didn’t, but they would have   everybody want it brought back. ronald reagan wanted it brought back. he wasn’t able to get it. everybody wanted it brought back and many presidents had tried to get it back. i was the one to do it. and again, this gives it the vote of the people. and that’s where they wanted it. every legal scholar wanted it that way. bash: staying on the topic of abortion, president biden, seven states   i’ll let you do that. this is the same topic. seven states have no legal restrictions on how far into a pregnancy a woman can obtain an abortion. do you support any legal limits on how late a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy? biden: i supported roe v. wade, which had three trimesters. first time is between a woman and a doctor. second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. a third time is between the doctor   i mean, it’d be between the woman and the state. the idea that the politicians   that the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making decisions about a woman’s health is ridiculous. that’s the last   no politician should be making that decision. a doctor should be making those decisions. that’s how it should be run. that’s what you’re going to do. and if i’m elected, i’m going to restore roe v. wade. trump: so that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth, because some states, democrat run, take it after birth. again, the governor   former governor of virginia: put the baby down, then we decide what to do with it. so he’s in   he’s willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby. nobody wants that to happen. democrat or republican, nobody wants it to happen. biden: he’s lying. that is simply not true. that   roe v. wade does not provide for that. that’s not the circumstance. only when the woman’s life is in danger, she’s going to die, that’s the only circumstance in which that can happen. but we are not for late term abortion, period, period, period. trump: under roe v. wade, you have late term abortion. you can do whatever you want. depending on the state, you can do whatever you want. we don’t think that’s a good thing. we think it’s a radical thing. we think the democrats are the radicals, not the republicans. biden: for 51 years, that was the law. 51 years, constitutional scholarship said it was the right way to go. 51 years. and it was taken away because this guy put very conservative members on the supreme court. takes credit for taking it away. what’s he going to do? what’s he going to do, in fact, if   if the maga republicans   he gets elected, and the maga republicans control the congress and they pass a universal ban on abortion, period, across the board at six weeks or seven or eight or 10 weeks, something very, very conservative? is he going to sign that bill? i’ll veto it. he’ll sign it. bash: thank you. tapper: let’s turn now to the issue of immigration and border security. president biden, a record number of migrants have illegally crossed the southern border on your watch, overwhelming border states and overburdening cities such as new york and chicago, and in some cases causing real safety and security concerns. given that, why should voters trust you to solve this crisis? biden: because we worked very hard to get a bipartisan agreement that not only changed all of that, it made sure that we are in a situation where you had no circumstance where they could come across the border with the number of border police there are now. we significantly increased the number of asylum officers. significantly   by the way, the border patrol endorsed me, endorsed my position. in addition to that, we found ourselves in a situation where, when he was president, he was taking   separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure the families were separated. that’s not the right way to go. what i’ve done   since i’ve changed the law, what’s happened? i’ve changed it in a way that now you’re in a situation where there are 40 percent fewer people coming across the border illegally. it’s better than when he left office. and i’m going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the   the total initiative relative to what we’re going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. tapper: president trump? trump: i really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don’t think he knows what he said either. look, we had the safest border in the history of our country. the border   all he had to do was leave it. all he had to do was leave it. he decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylum, terrorists. we have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now. all terrorists, all over the world   not just in south america, all over the world. they come from the middle east, everywhere. all over the world, they’re pouring in. and this guy just left it open. and he didn’t need legislation because i didn’t have legislation. i said, close the border. we had the safest border in history. in that final couple of months of my presidency, we had, according to border patrol   who is great, and, by the way, who endorsed me for president. but i won’t say that. but they endorsed me for president. brandon, just speak to him. but, look, we had the safest border in history. now we have the worst border in history. there’s never been anything like it. and people are dying all over the place, including the people that are coming up in caravans. tapper: thank you, president trump. president biden? biden: the only terrorist who has done anything crossing the border is one who came along and killed three in his administration, killed   an al qaida person in his administration killed three american soldiers, killed three american soldiers. that’s the only terrorist that’s there. i’m not saying no terrorist ever got through. but the idea they’re emptying their prisons, we’re welcoming these people, that’s simply not true. there’s no data to support what he said. once again, he’s exaggerating. he’s lying. tapper: president trump, staying on the topic of immigration, you’ve said that you’re going to carry out, quote, “the largest domestic deportation operation in american history,” unquote. does that mean that you will deport every undocumented immigrant in america, including those who have jobs, including those whose spouses are citizens, and including those who have lived here for decades? and if so, how will you do it? trump: can i get one second? he said we killed three people. the people we killed are al baghdadi and salamani (sic), the two greatest terrorists, biggest terrorists anywhere in the world. and it had a huge impact on everything; not just border, on everything. he’s the one that killed people with the bad border, including hundreds of thousands of people dying, and also killing our citizens when they come in. we   we are living right now in a rat’s nest. they’re killing our people in new york, in california, in every state in the union, because we don’t have borders anymore. every state is now a border. and because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen. we call it migrant crime. i call it biden migrant crime. they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen before. and you’re reading it like these three incredible young girls over the last few days. one of them, i just spoke to the mother, and we just had the funeral for this girl, 12 years old. this is horrible what’s taken place. what’s taken place in our country, we’re literally an uncivilized country now. he doesn’t want it to be. he just doesn’t know. he opened the borders nobody’s ever seen anything like. and we have to get a lot of these people out and we have to get them out fast, because they’re going to destroy our country. just take a look at where they’re living. they’re living in luxury hotels in new york city and other places. our veterans are on the street, they’re dying, because he doesn’t care about our veterans. he doesn’t care. he doesn’t like the military at all. and he doesn’t care about our veterans. nobody’s been worse. i had the highest approval rating for veterans, taking care of the v.a. he has the worst. he’s gotten rid of all the things that i approved, choice, that i got through congress. all of the different things i approved, they abandoned. we had, by far, the highest, and now it’s down in less than half because he’s done   all these great things that we did   and i think he did it just because i approved it, which is crazy. but he has killed so many people at our border by allowing… tapper: thank you, president trump. trump: … all of these people to come in. tapper: president biden… trump: and it’s a very sad day in america. tapper: president biden, you have the mic. biden: every single thing he said is a lie, every single one. for example, veterans are a hell of a lot better off since i passed the pact act. one million of them now have insurance, and their families have it   and their families have it. because what happened, whether was agent orange or burn pits, they’re all being covered now. and he opposed   his group opposed that. we’re also in a situation where we have great respect for veterans. my   my son spent a year in iraq living next to one of those burn pits. came back with stage four glioblastoma. i was recently in   in   in france for d day, and i spoke to all   about those heroes that died. i went to the world war ii cemetery   world war i cemetery he refused to go to. he was standing with his four star general, and he told him   he said, i don’t want to go in there because they’re a bunch of losers and suckers. my son was not a loser. he was not a sucker. you’re the sucker. you’re the loser. tapper: president trump? trump: first of all, that was a made up quote, suckers and losers. they made it up. it was in a third rate magazine that’s failing, like many of these magazines. he made that up. he put it in commercials. we’ve notified them. we had 19 people that said i didn’t say it. and think of this, who would say   i’m at a cemetery, or i’m talking about our veterans   because nobody’s taken better care   i’m so glad this came up, and he brought it up. there’s nobody that’s taken better care of our soldiers than i have. to think that i would, in front of generals and others, say suckers and losers   we have 19 people that said it was never said by me. it was made up by him, just like russia, russia, russia was made up, just like the 51 intelligence agents are made up, just like the new thing with the 16 economists are talking. it’s the same thing. fifty one intelligence agents said that the laptop was russia disinformation. it wasn’t. that came from his son hunter. it wasn’t russia disinformation. he made up the suckers and losers, so he should apologize to me right now. biden: you had a four star general stand at your side, who was on your staff, who said you said it, period. that’s number one. and, number two, the idea   the idea that i have to apologize to you for anything along the lines. we’ve done more for veterans than any president has in american history   american history. and they now   and their family. the only sacred obligation we have as a country is to care for our veterans when they come home, and their families, and equip them when they go to war. that’s what we’re doing. that’s what the v.a. is doing now. they’re doing more for veterans than ever before in our history. tapper: all right. thank you so much. bash: let’s move to the topic of foreign policy. i want to begin with russia’s war against ukraine, which is now in its third year. former president trump, russian president vladimir putin says he’ll only end this war if russia keeps the ukrainian territory it has already claimed and ukraine abandons its bid to join nato. are putin’s terms acceptable to you? trump: first of all, our veterans and our soldiers can’t stand this guy. they can’t stand him. they think he’s the worst commander in chief, if that’s what you call him, that we’ve ever had. they can’t stand him. so let’s get that straight. and they like me more than just about any of them. and that’s based on every single bit of information. as far as russia and ukraine, 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. a lot of people are dead right now, much more than people know. you know, they talk about numbers. you can double those numbers, maybe triple those numbers. he did nothing to stop it. in fact, i think he encouraged russia from going in. i’ll tell you what happened, he was so bad with afghanistan, it was such a horrible embarrassment, most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, that when putin watched that and he saw the incompetence that he should   he should have fired those generals like i fired the one that you mentioned, and so he’s got no love lost. but he should have fired those generals. no general got fired for the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, afghanistan, where we left billions of dollars of equipment behind, we lost 13 beautiful soldiers and 38 soldiers were obliterated. and by the way, we left people behind too. we left american citizens behind. when putin saw that, he said, you know what? i think we’re going to go in and maybe take my   this was his dream. i talked to him about it, his dream. the difference is he never would have invaded ukraine. never. just like israel would have never been invaded, in a million years, by hamas. you know why? because iran was broke with me. i wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. they ran out of money. they were broke. they had no money for hamas. they had no money for anything. no money for terror. that’s why you had no terror at all during my administration. this place, the whole world is blowing up under him. bash: president biden? biden: i’ve never heard so much malarkey in my whole life. look, the fact of the matter is that we’re in a situation where   let’s take the last point first. iran attacked american troops, killed, caused brain damage for a number of these troops, and he did nothing about it. recently   when he was president, they attacked. he said they’re just having headaches. that’s all it is. we didn’t do a thing when the attack took place, number one. number two, we got over 100,000 americans and others out of afghanistan during that airlift. number three, we found ourselves in a situation where, if you take a look at what trump did in ukraine, he’s   this guy told ukraine   told trump, do whatever you want. do whatever you want. and that’s exactly what trump did to putin, encouraged him, do whatever you want. and he went in. and listen to what he said when he went in, he was going to take kyiv in five days, remember? because it’s part of the old soviet union. that’s what he wanted to re establish, kyiv. and he, in fact, didn’t do it at all. he didn’t   wasn’t able to get it done. and they’ve lost over   they’ve lost thousands and thousands of troops, 500,000 troops. bash: thank you. president trump… trump: i never said that. bash: … i’m going to come back to you for one minute. i just want to go back to my original question, which is, are putin’s terms acceptable to you, keeping the territory in ukraine? trump: no, they’re not acceptable. no, they’re not acceptable. but look, this is a war that never should have started. if we had a leader in this war   he led everybody along. he’s given $200 billion now or more to ukraine. he’s given $200 billion. that’s a lot of money. i don’t think there’s ever been anything like it. every time that zelenskyy comes to this country, he walks away with $60 billion. he’s the greatest salesman ever. and i’m not knocking him, i’m not knocking anything. i’m only saying, the money that we’re spending on this war, and we shouldn’t be spending, it should have never happened. i will have that war settled between putin and zelenskyy as president elect before i take office on january 20th. i’ll have that war settled. people being killed so needlessly, so stupidly, and i will get it settled and i’ll get it settled fast, before i take office. bash: president biden, you have a minute. biden: the fact is that putin is a war criminal. he’s killed thousands and thousands of people. and he has made one thing clear: he wants to re establish what was part of the soviet empire. not just a piece, he wants all of ukraine. that’s what he wants. and then do you think he’ll stop there? do you think he’ll stop when he   if he takes ukraine? what do you think happens to poland? what do you think of belarus? what do you think happens to those nato countries? and so, if you want a war, you ought to find out what he’s going to do. because if, in fact, he does what he says and walks away   by the way, all that money we give ukraine and weapons we make here in the united states. we give them the weapons, not the money at this point. and our nato allies have produced as much funding for ukraine as we have. that’s why it’s   that’s why we’re strong. bash: thank you. moving on to the middle east, in october, hamas attacked israel, killing more than a thousand people and taking hundreds of hostages. among those held and thought to still be alive are five americans. israel’s response has killed thousands of palestinians and created a humanitarian crisis in gaza. president biden, you’ve put forward a proposal to resolve this conflict. but so far, hamas has not released the remaining hostages and israel is continuing its military offensive in gaza. so what additional leverage will you use to get hamas and israel to end the war? you have two minutes. biden: number one, everyone from the united nations security council straight through to the g7 to the israelis and netanyahu himself have endorsed the plan i put forward, endorsed the plan i put forward, which has three stages to it. the first stage is trade the hostages for a ceasefire. second phase is a ceasefire with additional conditions. the third phase is know   the end of the war. the only one who wants the war to continue is hamas, number one. they’re the only ones standing out (ph). we’re still pushing hard from   to get them to accept. in the meantime, what’s happened in israel? we’re finally   the only thing i’ve denied israel was 2,000 pound bombs. they don’t work very well in populated areas. they kill a lot of innocent people. we are providing israel with all the weapons they need and when they need them. and by the way, i’m the guy that organized the world against iran when they had a full blown kind of ballistic   ballistic missile attack on israel. no one was hurt. no   one israeli was accidentally killed. and it stopped. we saved israel. we are the biggest producer of support for israel than anyone in the world. and so, that’s   there’re two different things. hamas cannot be allowed to be continued. we continue to send our experts and our intelligence people to how they can get hamas like we did bin laden. you don’t have to do it. and by the way, they’ve been greatly weakened, hamas, greatly weakened. and they should be. they should be eliminated. but you got to be careful for what you use these certain weapons among population centers. trump: just going back to ukraine for one second, we have an ocean separating us. the european nations together have spent $100 billion, or maybe more than that, less than us. why doesn’t he call them so you got to put up your money like i did with nato? i got them to put up hundreds of billions of dollars. the secretary general of nato said trump did the most incredible job i’ve ever seen. you wouldn’t   they wouldn’t have any   they were going out of business. we were spending   almost 100 percent of the money was   it was paid by us. he didn’t do that. he is getting all   you got to ask these people to put up the money. we’re over $100 billion more spent, and it has a bigger impact on them, because of location, because we have an ocean in between. you got to ask them. as far as israel and hamas, israel’s the one that wants to go   he said the only one who wants to keep going is hamas. actually, israel is the one. and you should them go and let them finish the job. he doesn’t want to do it. he’s become like a palestinian. but they don’t like him, because he’s a very bad palestinian. he’s a weak one. bash: president biden, you have a minute. biden: i’ve never heard so much foolishness. this is a guy who wants to get out of nato. you’re going to stay in nato or you’re going to pull out of nato? the idea that we have   our strength lies in our alliances as well. it may be a big ocean, but we’re   (inaudible) able to avoid a war in europe, a major war in europe. what happens if, in fact, you have putin continue to go into nato? we have an article five agreement, attack on one is attack on all. you want to start the nuclear war he keeps talking about, go ahead, let putin go in and control ukraine and then move on to poland and other places. see what happens then. he has no idea what the hell he’s talking about. and by the way, i got 50 other nations around the world to support ukraine, including japan and south korea, because they understand that this was   this   this kind of dislocation has a serious threat to the whole world peace. no   no major war in europe has ever been able to be contained just to europe. bash: president trump, just to follow up, would you support the creation of an independent palestinian state in order to achieve peace in the region? trump: i’d have to see. but before we do that, the problem we have is that we spend all the money. so they kill us on trade. i made great trade deals with the european nations, because if you add them up, they’re about the same size economically. their economy is about the same size as the united states. and they were   no cars. no   they don’t want anything that we have. but we’re supposed to take their cars, their food, their everything, their agriculture. i changed that. but the big thing i changed is they don’t want to pay. and the only reason that he can play games with nato is because i got them to put up hundreds of billions of dollars. i said   and he’s right about this, i said, no, i’m not going to support nato if you don’t pay. they asked me that question: would you guard us against russia?   at a very secret meeting of the 28 states at that time, nations at that time. and they (sic) said, no, if you don’t pay, i won’t do that. and you know what happened? billions and billions of dollars came flowing in the next day and the next months. but now, we’re in the same position. we’re paying everybody’s bills. bash: thank you. tapper: let’s turn to the issue of democracy. former president trump, i want to ask you about january 6, 2021. after you rallied your supporters that day, some of them stormed the capitol to stop the constitutionally mandated counting of electoral votes. as president, you swore an oath to, quote, “preserve, protect and defend,” unquote, the constitution. what do you say to voters who believe that you violated that oath through your actions and inaction on january 6th and worry that you’ll do it again? trump: well, i don’t think too many believe that. and let me tell you about january 6th, on january 6th, we had a great border, nobody coming through, very few. on january 6th, we were energy independent. on january 6th, we had the lowest taxes ever, we had the lowest regulations ever. on january 6th, 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. what happened to the united states’ reputation under this man’s leadership is horrible, including weaponization, which i’m sure at some point you’ll be talking about, where he goes after his political opponent because he can’t beat him fair and square. tapper: you have 80 seconds left. my question was: what do you say to those voters who believe that you violated your constitutional oath through your actions, inaction on january 6th, 2021, and worry that you’ll do it again? trump: well, i didn’t say that to anybody. i said peacefully and patriotically. and nancy pelosi, if you just watch the news from two days ago, on tape to her daughter, who’s a documentary filmmaker, as they say, what she’s saying, oh, no, it’s my responsibility, i was responsible for this. because i offered her 10,000 soldiers or national guard, and she turned them down. and the mayor of   in writing, by the way, the mayor. in writing turned it down, the mayor of d.c. they turned it down. i offered 10,000 because i could see   i had virtually nothing to do. they asked me to go make a speech. i could see what was happening. everybody was saying they’re going to be there on january 6th. they’re going to be there. and i said, you know what? there’s a lot of people coming, you could feel it. you could feel it too. and you could feel it. and i said, they ought to have some national guard or whatever. and i offered it to her. and she now admits that she turned it down. and it was the same day. she was   i don’t know, you can’t be very happy with her daughter because it made her into a liar. she said, i take full responsibility for january 6th. tapper: president biden? biden: look, he encouraged those folks to go up on capitol hill, number one. i sat in that dining room off the oval office   he sat there for three hours, three hours, watching, begging   being begged by his vice president and a number of his colleagues and republicans as well to do something, to call for a stop, to end it. instead, he talked   they’ve talked about these people being patriots and   and great patrons of america. in fact, he says he’ll now forgive them for what they’ve done. they’ve been convicted. he says he wants to commute their sentences and say that   no. he went to every single court in the nation, i don’t know how many cases, scores of cases, including the supreme court, and they said they said   they said, no, no, this guy, this guy is responsible for doing what is being   was done. he didn’t do a damn thing. and these people should be in jail. and they should be the ones who are being held accountable. and he wants to let them all out. and now he says if he loses again, such a whiner that he is, that there could be a bloodbath. tapper: thank you, president biden. president trump? trump: what they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself, what you have done, how you’ve destroyed the lives of so many people. when they ripped down portland, when they ripped down many other cities   you go to minnesota, minneapolis, what they’ve done there with the fires all over the city. if i didn’t bring in the national guard, that city would have been destroyed. when you look at all of the   they took over big chunks of seattle. i was all set to bring in the national guard. they heard that, they saw them coming and they left immediately. what he said about this whole subject is so off. peacefully patriotic. one other thing, the unselect committee, which is basically two horrible republicans that are all gone now, out of office, and democrats, all democrats, they destroyed and deleted all of the information they found, because they found out we were right. we were right. and they deleted and destroyed all of the information. they should go to jail for that. if a republican did that, they’d go to jail. tapper: thank you, president trump. president biden, i want to give you a minute. biden: the only person on this stage that is a convicted felon is the man i’m looking at right now. and the fact of the matter is he is   what he’s telling you is simply not true. the fact is that there was no effort on his part to stop what was going on up on capitol hill. and all those people, every one of those who were convicted, deserves to be convicted. the idea that they didn’t kill somebody, just went in and broke down doors, broke the windows, occupied offices, turned over desks, turned them over, statues   the idea that those people are patriots? come on. when i asked him, the first of two debates we had   debates we had the first time around, i said, will you denounce the proud boys? he said, no, i’ll tell them to stand by. the idea he’s refusing   will you denounce these guys? will you denounce the people we’re talking about now? will you denounce the people who attacked that capitol? what are you going to do? tapper: i’m going to give you a   a minute, president trump, for a follow up question i have. after a jury convicted you of 34 felonies last month, you said if re elected you would, quote, “have every right to go after,” unquote, your political opponents. you just talked about members of the select committee on january 6th going to jail. your main political opponent is standing on stage with you tonight. can you clarify exactly what it means about you feeling you have every right to go after your political opponents? trump: well, i said my retribution is going to be success. we’re going to make this country successful again, because right now it’s a failing nation. my retribution’s going to be success. but when he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon at a very high level. his son is convicted. going to be convicted probably numerous other times. he should have been convicted before, but his justice department let the statute of limitations lapse on the most important things. but he could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office. joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he’s done. he’s done horrible things. all of the death caused at the border, telling the ukrainian people that we’re going to want a billion dollars or you change the prosecutor, otherwise, you’re not getting a billion dollars. if i ever said that, that’s quid pro quo. that   we’re not going to do anything, we’re not going to give you a billion dollars unless you change your prosecutor having to do with his son. this man is a criminal. this man   you’re lucky. you’re lucky. i did nothing wrong. we’d have a system that was rigged and disgusting. i did nothing wrong. tapper: thank you, president trump. president biden, you have said   i’m coming right to you, sir. you   well, you want to respond? go ahead. i’ll give you a minute to respond. biden: the idea that i did anything wrong relative to what you’re talking about is outrageous. it’s simply a lie, number one. number two, the idea that you have a right to seek retribution against any american just because you’re a president is wrong, is simply wrong. no president’s ever spoken like that before. no president in our history has spoken like that before. number three, the crimes that you are still charged with   and think of all the civil penalties you have. how many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star on the night   and   while your wife was pregnant? i mean, what are you talking about? you have the morals of an alley cat. tapper: give you a minute, sir. trump: i didn’t have sex with a porn star, number one. number two, that was a case that was started and moved   they moved a high ranking official, a doj, into the manhattan d.a.’s office to start that case. that case is going to be appealed in one. we had a very terrible judge, a horrible judge, democrat. the prosecutor were all high ranking democrats, appointed people. and the   both the civil and the criminal. he basically went after his political opponent because he thought it was going to damage me. but when the public found out about these cases   because they understand it better than he does, he has no idea what these cases are. but when he   they   when they found out about these cases, you know what they did? my poll numbers went up way up. you know that because you’re reporting it. and we took in more money in the last two weeks than we’ve ever taken in in the history of any campaign, i don’t think any campaign has ever taken. hundreds of millions of dollars came pouring in because the public knows it’s a scam and it’s a guy that’s after his political opponent because he can’t win fair and square. tapper: thank you, president trump. president biden, you have said, quote, “donald trump and his maga republicans are determined to destroy american democracy.” do you believe that the tens of millions of americans who are likely to vote for president trump will be voting against american democracy? biden: the more they know about what he’s done, yes. the more they know about what he’s done. and there’s a lot more coming. he’s got a lot of cases around the road coming around. he’s got   he’s got a whole range of issues he has to face. i don’t know what the juries will do, but i do know   i do know he has a real problem. and so the fact that   could you ever think you’re hearing any president say that, i’m going to seek retribution? do you ever hear any president say that he thought it might be a good idea? what got me involved to run in the first place after my son had died, i decided   in iraq   because of iraq, i said, i wasn’t going to run again. until i saw what happened in charlottesville, virginia, people coming out of the woods carrying swastikas on torches   torches and singing the same antisemitic bile they sang when   back in germany. and what did   and the young woman got killed. i spoke to the mother. and she   they asked him, they said, what   well, what do you think of those people, the people who   the one who   the ones who tried to stop it and the ones who said, i think there’s fine people on both sides? what american president would ever say nazis coming out of fields, carrying torches, singing the same antisemitic bile, carrying swastikas, were fine people? this is a guy who says hitler’s done some good things. i’d like to know what they are, the good things hitler’s done. that’s what he said. this guy has no sense of american democracy. tapper: president trump? trump: jake, both of you know that story’s been totally wiped out. because when you see the sentence, it said 100 percent exoneration on there. so he just keeps it going. he says he ran because of charlottesville. he didn’t run because of charlottesville. he ran because it was his last chance at   he’s not equipped to be president. you know it and i know it. it’s ridiculous. we have a debate. we’re trying to justify his presidency. his presidency, his   without question, the worst president, the worst presidency in the history of our country. we shouldn’t be having a debate about it. there’s nothing to debate. he made up the charlottesville story and you’ll see it’s debunked all over the place. every anchor has   every reasonable anchor has debunked it. and just the other day it came out where it was fully debunked. it’s a nonsense story. he knows that. and he didn’t run because of charlottesville. he used that as an excuse to run. tapper: president biden? biden: and debunk. it happened. all you have to do is listen to what was said at the time. and the idea that somehow that’s the only reason i ran. i ran because i was worried a guy like this guy can get elected. if he thought they were good people coming out of that all   that forest, carrying those   those woods, carrying those torches, then he didn’t deserve to be president, didn’t deserve to be president at all. and the idea that he’s talking about all of this being fabricated, we saw it with our own eyes. we saw what happened on january 6. we saw the people breaking through the windows. we saw people occupying there. his own vice president   look, there’s a reason why 40 of his 44 top cabinet officers refused to endorse him this time. his vice president hasn’t endorsed him this time. so, why? why? they know him well. they serve with them. why are they not endorsing him? tapper: thank you, president biden. we’re going to be right back with more from the cnn presidential debate. (commercial break) bash: welcome back to the cnn presidential debate live from georgia. let’s talk about persistent challenges you both faced in your first terms, and you’d certainly face again in a second term. president biden, while black unemployment dropped to a record low under your presidency, black families still earn far less than white families. black mothers are still three times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes. and black americans are imprisoned at five times the rate of white americans. what do you say to black voters who are disappointed that you haven’t made more progress? biden: they acknowledge he made a lot of progress, number one. the facts of the matter is more small black businesses that have been started in any time in history. number two, the wages of black   black unemployment is the lowest level it has been in a long, long time. number three, we find them   they’re trying to provide housing for black americans and dealing with segregation that exists among these corporate   these corporate operations that collude to keep people out of their houses. and in addition to that, we find that the impact of, on the   the choice that black families have to make relative to childcare is incredibly difficult. when we did the first major piece of legislation in the past, i was able to reduce black childcare costs. i cut them in half, in half. we’ve got to make sure we provide for childcare costs. we’ve got to make sure   because when you provide that childcare protections, you increase economic growth because more people can be in the   in the job market. so there’s more to be done, considerably more to be done, but we’ve done a great deal so far and i’m not letting up and they know it. bash: you have 49 seconds left. what do you say to black voters who are disappointed with the progress so far? biden: i say, i don’t blame them for being disappointed. inflation is still hurting them badly. for example, i provided for the idea that any black family, first time home buyer should get a $10,000 tax credit to be able to buy their first home so they can get started. i made sure that we’re in a situation where all those black families and those black individuals who provided had to take out student loans that were ballooning, that if they were engaged in nursing and anything having to do with volunteerism, if they paid their bills for 10 years on their student debt, all the rest was forgiven after 10 years. millions have benefited from that and we’re going to do a whole lot more for black families. bash: thank you. president trump? trump: and he caused the inflation. he’s blaming inflation. and he’s right, it’s been very bad. he caused the inflation and it’s killing black families and hispanic families and just about everybody. it’s killing people. they can’t buy groceries anymore. they can’t. you look at the cost of food where it’s doubled and tripled and quadrupled. they can’t live. they’re not living anymore. he caused this inflation. i gave him a country with no, essentially no inflation. it was perfect. it was so good. all he had to do is leave it alone. he destroyed it with his green new scam and all of the other   all this money that’s being thrown out the window. he caused inflation. as sure as you’re sitting there, the fact is that his big kill on the black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border. they’re taking black jobs now and it could be 18. it could be 19 and even 20 million people. they’re taking black jobs and they’re taking hispanic jobs and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history. bash: thank you. president biden? biden: there was no inflation when i became president. you know why? the economy was flat on its back. 15 percent unemployment, he decimated the economy, absolutely decimated the economy. that’s why there was no inflation at the time. there were no jobs. we provided thousands of millions of jobs for individuals who were involved in communities, including minority communities. we made sure that they have health insurance. we have covered with   the aca has increased. i made sure that they’re $8,000 per person in the family to get written off in health care, but this guy wants to eliminate that. they tried 50 times. he wants to get rid of the aca again, and they’re going to try again if they win. you find ourselves in a position where the idea that we’re not doing it. i put more   we put more police on the street than any administration has. he wants to cut the cops. we’re providing for equity, equity, and making sure people have a shot to make it. there is a lot going on. but, on inflation, he caused it by his tremendous malfeasance in the way he handled the pandemic. bash: thank you. another persistent challenge is the climate crisis. 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history, and communities across the country are confronting the devastating effects of extreme heat, intensifying wildfires, stronger hurricanes, and rising sea levels. former president trump, you’ve vowed to end your opponent’s climate initiatives. but, will you take any action as president to slow the climate crisis? trump: well, let me just go back to what he said about the police, how close the police are to him. almost every police group in the nation from every state is supporting donald j. trump, almost every police group. and what he has done to the black population is horrible, including the fact that for 10 years he called them super predators. we can’t, in the 1990s (ph), we can’t forget that. super predators was his name. and he called it to them for 10, and they’ve taken great offense at it, and now they see it happening. but, when they see what i did for criminal justice reform and for the historically black colleges and universities, where i funded them and got them all funded, and the opportunity zones with tim. as you know, tim scott was   incredible, he did a great job, a great senator from south carolina. he came to me with the idea and it was a great idea. it’s one of the most successful economic development acts ever in the country, opportunity zones. and the biggest beneficiary are blacks. and that’s why we have the best numbers with them in maybe ever, they’re saying ever, i read this morning, wherever, the best numbers, he has lost much of the black population because he has done a horrible job for black people. he has also done a horrible job for hispanics. but, why do you see these millions of people pouring into our country and they’re going to take the jobs? and it’s already started. and you haven’t seen anything yet. it’s a disaster. bash: 38 seconds left, president trump. will you take any action as president to slow the climate crisis? trump: so, i want absolutely immaculate clean water and i want absolutely clean air, and we had it. we had h2o. we had the best numbers ever. and we did   we were using all forms of energy, all forms, everything. and yet, during my four years, i had the best environmental numbers ever. and my top environmental people gave me that statistic just before i walked on the stage, actually. biden: i don’t know where the hell he has been. the idea that, dana, he said is true. i’ve passed the most extensive, it was the most extensive climate change legislation in history, in history. we find ourselves   and by the way, black colleges, i came up with $50 billion for hbcus, historic black universities and colleges, because they don’t have the kind of contributors that they have to build these laboratories and the like. any black student is capable in college in doing what any white student can do. they just have the money. but now, they’ll be able to get those jobs in high tech. we’re in a situation where the idea that he kind of is claiming to have done something that had the cleanest water, the cleanest water? he had not done a damn thing with the environment. he   out of the paris peace accord   climate accord, i immediately joined it, because if we reach for 1.5 degrees celsius at any one point, well, there is no way back. the only existential threat to humanity is climate change. and he didn’t do a damn thing about it. he wants to undo all that i’ve done. trump: the paris accord was going to cost us a trillion dollars, and china nothing, and russia nothing, and india nothing. it was a ripoff of the united states. and i ended it because i didn’t want to waste that money because they treat us horribly. we were the only ones   it was costing us money. nobody else was paying into it. and it was a disaster. but, everything that he said just now, i’ll give you an example. i heard him say before insulin, i’m the one that got the insulin down for the seniors. i took care of the seniors. what he is doing is destroying all of our medical programs because the migrants coming in. they want everybody. and look, i have the biggest heart on the stage. i guarantee you that. and i want to take care of people. but, we’re destroying our country. they’re taking over our schools, our hospitals, and they’re going to be taking over social security. he is destroying social security, medicare and medicaid. biden: where does that come from? the idea is that we, in fact   we were the only ones of consequence or not who are not members of the paris accord. how can we do anything when (ph) we’re not able to   the united states can’t get it’s pollution under control? one of the largest polluters in the world, number one. we’re making significant progress. by 2035, we will have cut pollution in half. we have   we have made significant progress. and we’re continuing to make progress. we set up a climate corps for thousands of young people will learn how to deal with climate, just like the peace corps. and we’re going to   we’re moving in directions that are going to significantly change the elements of the cause of pollution. but the idea that he claims that he has the biggest heart up here and he’s really concerned about   about pollution and about climate, i’ve not seen any indication of that. and, by the way, with regard to prescription drugs, one company agreed that they would reduce the price to $35, which i was calling for   one, voluntarily. i made sure every company in the world, every pharmaceutical company, cannot have to pay. bash: thank you. biden: and, by the way… tapper: so every day millions of americans struggle just to make ends meet. for many older americans, social security provides a critical lifeline. president biden, if nothing is done to social security, seniors will see their benefits cut in just over 10 years. will you name tonight one specific step that you’re willing to take to keep social security solvent? biden: yes, make the very wealthy begin to pay their fair share. right now, everybody making under $170,000 pays 6 percent of their income, of their paycheck, every single time they get a paycheck, from the time of the first one they get when they’re 18 years old. the idea that they’re going to   i’m not   i’ve been proposing that everybody, they pay   millionaires pay 1 percent   1 percent. so no one after   i would not raise the cost of social security for anybody under $400,000. after that, i begin to make the wealthy begin to pay their fair share, by increasing from 1 percent beyond, to be able to guarantee the program for life. tapper: so you still have 82 seconds left. are there any other measures that you think that would be able to help keep social security solvent, or is just   is that one enough? biden: well, that one enough will keep it solvent. but the biggest thing i’ll do, if we defeat this man, because he wants to get rid of social security; he thinks that there’s plenty to cut in social security. he’s wanting to cut social security and medicare, both times. and that’s with   and if you look at the program put forward by the house republican caucus that he, i believe, supports, is in fact wanting to cut it as well. the idea that we don’t need to protect our seniors is ridiculous. we put   and, by the way, the american public has greater health care coverage today than ever before. and under the aca, as i said, you’re in a circumstance where 400,000 people   i mean, 40 million people   would not have insurance because they have a pre existing condition. the only thing that allows them to have that insurance is the fact that they in fact are part of the aca. and, by the way, the other thing is we’re in a situation where i talk about education for black communities. i’ve raised the number, the amount of money for pell grants by other $8,000 for anybody making under $70,000 a year, are going to be able to get $15,000 towards their tuition. it’s just   he   he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. tapper: thank you, president biden. president trump? trump: so i’ve dealt with politicians all my life. i’ve been on this side of the equation for the last eight years. i’ve never seen anybody lie like this guy. he lies   i’ve never seen it. he could look you in the face. so   and about so many other things, too. and we mentioned the laptop, we mentioned “russia, russia, russia,” “ukraine, ukraine, ukraine.” and everything he does is a lie. it’s misinformation and disinformation. the “losers and suckers” story that he made up is a total lie on the military. it’s a disgrace. but social security, he’s destroying it. because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they’re putting them on to social security; they’re putting them on to medicare, medicaid. they’re putting them in our hospitals. they’re taking the place of our citizens. they’re   what they’re doing to the v.a., to our veterans, is unbelievable. our veterans are living in the street and these people are living in luxury hotels. he doesn’t know what he’s doing. and it   it’s really coming back. i’ve never seen such anger in our country before. tapper: president biden? biden: the idea that veterans are not being taken care of, i told you before   and, by the way, when i said “suckers and losers,” he said   he acknowledged after it that he fired that general. that general got fired because he’s the one that acknowledged that that’s what he said. he was the one standing with trump when he said it, number one. number two, the idea that we’re going to be in a situation where all these millions and millions, the way he talks about it, illegal aliens are coming into the country and taking away our jobs, there’s a reason why we have the fastest growing economy in the world, a reason why we have the most successful economy in the world. we’re doing better than any other nation in the world. and, by the way, those 15 nobel laureates he talked about being phony, those 15 nobel laureates, economists, they all said that, if trump is re elected, we’re likely to have a recession, and inflation is going to increasingly go up. and by the way, worst president in history   159 presidential scholars voted him the worst president in the history of the united states of america. tapper: president biden, thank you so much. let’s turn to the cost of childcare, which many american families struggle to afford. president trump, both you and president biden have tried to address this issue, but the average cost of childcare in this country has risen to more than $11,000 a year per child. for many families, the cost of childcare for two children is more than their rent. in your second term, what would you do to make childcare more affordable? trump: just to go back. the general got fired because he was no good. and if he said that, that’s why he made it up. but we have 19 people that said i didn’t say it, and they’re very highly respected, much more so than him. the other thing is, he doesn’t fire people. he never fired people. i’ve never seen him fire anybody. i did fire a lot. i fired comey because he was no good. i fired a lot of the top people at the fbi, drained the swamp. they were no good. not easy to fire people. you’d pay a price for it, but they were no good. i inherited these people. i didn’t put him there. i didn’t put comey there. he was no good. i fired him. this guy hasn’t fired anybody. he never fires. he should have fired every military man that was involved with that afghan   the afghanistan horror show. the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. he didn’t fire? did you fire anybody? did you fire anybody that’s on the border, that’s allowed us to have the worst border in the history of the world? did anybody get fired for allowing 18 million people, many from prisons, many from mental institutions? did you fire anybody that allowed our country to be destroyed? joe, our country is being destroyed as you and i sit up here and waste a lot of time on this debate. this shouldn’t be a debate. he is the worst president. he just said it about me because i said it. but look, he’s the worst president in the history of our country. he’s destroyed our country. now, all of a sudden, he’s trying to get a little tough on the border. he come out   came out with a nothing deal, and it reduced it a little bit. a little bit, like this much. it’s insignificant. he wants open borders. he wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters. and i don’t think   we just can’t let it happen. if he wins this election, our country doesn’t have a chance. not even a chance of coming out of this rut. we probably won’t have a country left anymore. that’s how bad it is. he is the worst in history by far. tapper: thank you, president trump. president biden? biden: we are the most admired country in the world. we’re the united states of america. there’s nothing beyond our capacity. we have the finest military in the history of the world. the finest in the history of the world. no one thinks we’re weak. no one wants to screw around with us. nobody. number one. number two, the idea that we’re talking about worst presidents. i wasn’t joking. look it up. go online. 159 or 58, don’t hold me to the exact number, presidential historians. they’ve had meetings and they voted who’s the worst president in american history. one through best to worst. they said he was the worst in all of american history. that’s a fact. that’s not conjecture. he can argue they are wrong, but that’s what they voted. the idea that he is knowing (ph)   doing anything to deal with child care. he did very   virtually nothing to child care. we should significantly increase the child care tax credit. we should significantly increase the availability of women and men for child or single parents to be able to go back to work, and we should encourage businesses to hold   to have child care facilities. tapper: thank you, president biden. president trump, the question was about what would you do to make child care more affordable? if you want to take your minute. trump: just you understand, we have polling. we have other things that do   they rate him the worst because what he’s done is so bad. and they rate me   yes, i’ll show you. i will show you. and they rate me one of the best. ok. and if i’m given another four years, i will be the best. i think i’ll be the best. nobody’s ever created an economy like us. nobody ever cut taxes like us. he’s the only one i know. he wants to raise your taxes by four times. he wants to raise everybody’s taxes by four times. he wants the trump tax cuts to expire so everybody, including the two of you are going to pay four to five times. nobody ever heard of this before. all my life i’d grow up and i’d see politicians talking about cutting taxes. when we cut taxes, as i said, we did more business. apple and all these companies, they were bringing money back into our country. the worst president in history by far, and everybody knows it. tapper: president biden? biden: look, the fact of the matter is that he’s dead wrong about it. he’s increased the tariff   he’s increased   he will increase the taxes on middle class people. i said i’d never raise a tax on anybody making less than $400,000. i didn’t. but this tariff, this 10 percent tariffs. everything coming into the country, you know what the economists say? that’s going to cost the average american $2,500 a year and more, because they’re going to have to pay the difference in food and all the things that are very important. number two, he’s in a situation where he talks about how he has not raised   he somehow helped the middle class. the middle class has been devastated by you. now you want a new tax cut of $5 trillion over the next ten years, which is going to fundamentally bankrupt the country. you had the largest deficit of any president in american history, number one. number two, you have not, in fact, made any contact, any progress with china. we are the lowest trade deficit with china since 2010. tapper: thank you, president biden. thank you, president biden. let’s discuss an epidemic impacting millions of americans that both of you have made a top priority in your first term, the opioid crisis. and for both of you, the number of overdose deaths in this country has gone up. under your term, it went up. under your term, it has gone up. former president trump, despite the efforts that both of you have made, more than 100,000 americans are dying from overdoses every year, primarily from fentanyl and other opioids. what will you do to help americans right now in the throes of addiction, who are struggling to get the treatment they need? trump: to finish up, we now have the largest deficit in the history of our country under this guy, we have the largest deficit with china. he gets paid by china. he’s a manchurian candidate. he gets money from china. so i think he’s afraid to deal with him or something. but do you notice? he never took out my tariffs because we bring in so much money with the tariffs that i imposed on china. he never took them away. he can’t because it’s too much money. it’s tremendous. and we saved our steel industries. and there was more to come, but he hasn’t done that. but he hasn’t cut the tariffs because he can’t, because it’s too much money. but he’s got the largest deficit in the history of our country and he’s got the worst situation with china. china is going to own us if you keep allowing them to do what they’re doing to us as a country. they are killing us as a country, joe, and you can’t let that happen. you’re destroying our country. tapper: so, president trump, you have 67 seconds left. the question was, what are you going to do to help americans in the throes of addiction right now who are struggling to get the treatment they need? trump: jake, we’re doing very well at addiction until the covid came along. we had the two and a half, almost three years of like nobody’s ever had before, any country in every way. and then we had to get tough. and it was   the drugs pouring across the border, we’re   it started to increase. we got great equipment. we bought the certain dog. that’s the most incredible thing that you’ve ever seen, the way they can spot it. we did a lot. and we had   we were getting very low numbers. very, very low numbers. then he came along. the numbers   have you seen the numbers now? it’s not only the 18 million people that i believe is even low, because the gotaways, they don’t even talk about gotaways. but the numbers of   the amount of drugs and human trafficking in women coming across our border, the worst thing i’ve ever seen at numbers   nobody’s ever seen under him because the border is so bad. but the number of drugs coming across our border now is the largest we’ve ever had by far. tapper: president trump, thank you. president biden? biden: fentanyl and the byproducts of fentanyl went down for a while. and i wanted to make sure we use the machinery that can detect fentanyl, these big machines that roll over everything that comes across the border, and it costs a lot of money. that was part of this deal we put together, this bipartisan deal. more fentanyl machines, were able to detect drugs, more numbers of agents, more numbers of all the people at the border. and when we had that deal done, he went   he called his republican colleagues said don’t do it. it’s going to hurt me politically. he never argued it’s not a good bill. it’s a really good bill. we need those machines. we need those machines. and we’re coming down very hard in every country in asia in terms of precursors for fentanyl. and mexico is working with us to make sure they don’t have the technology to be able to put it together. that’s what we have to do. we need those machines. tapper: thank you, president biden. president trump, and again, the question is about americans in the throes of addiction right now struggling to get the treatment they need. trump: because this does pertain to it. he ended remain in mexico, he ended catch and release. i made it catch and release in mexico, not catch and release here. we had so many things that we had done, hard negotiations with mexico, and i got it all for nothing. it’s just like when you have a hostage, we always pay $6 billion for a   every time we sees hostage. now we have a hostage. a wall street journal reporter, i think a good guy, and he’s over there because putin is laughing at this guy, probably asking for billions of dollars for the reporter. i will have him out very quickly, as soon as i take office, before i take office. i said by literally as soon as i win the election, i will have that reporter out. he should have had him out a long time ago. but putin is probably asking for billions and billions of dollars because this guy pays it every time. we had two cases where we paid $6 billion for five people. i got 58 people out and i paid essentially nothing. tapper: thank you, president trump. dana. bash: let’s turn to concerns that voters have about each of you. president biden, you would be 86 at the end of your second term. how do you address concerns about your capability to handle the toughest job in the world well into your 80s? biden: well, first of all, i spent half my career being   being criticized being the youngest person in politics. i was the second youngest person ever elected to the united states senate. and now i’m the oldest. this guy’s three years younger and a lot less competent. i think that just look at the record. look what i’ve done. look how i’ve turned around the horrible situation he left me. as i said, 50 million new jobs, 800,000 manufacturing jobs, more investment in america, over millions   billions of dollars in private investment and   and enterprises that we are growing. we’ve   by the way, we brought an awful a lot of people   the whole idea of computer chips. we used to have 40 percent of the market. we invented those chips. and we lost it because he was sending people to cheap   to find the cheapest jobs overseas and to bring home a product. so i went   i went to south korea. i convinced samsung to invest billions of dollars here in the united states. and then guess what? those fabs, they call them, to   to build these chips, those fabs pay over $100,000. you don’t need a college degree for them. and there’s billions, about $40 billion already being invested and being built right now in the united states, creating significant jobs for americans all over   from all over the world. bash: president biden, you have 40 seconds left. would you like to add anything? biden: yeah, i would. the idea that somehow we are this failing country, i never heard a president talk like this before. we   we’re the envy of the world. name me a single major country president who wouldn’t trade places with the united states of america. for all our problems and all our opportunities, we’re the most progressive country in the world in getting things done. we’re the strongest country in the world. we’re a country in the world who keeps our word and everybody trusts us, all of our allies. and our   those who he cuddles up to, from kim jong un who he sends love letters to, or putin, et cetera, they don’t want to screw around with us. bash: thank you. former president trump, to follow up, you would be 82 at the end of your second term. what do you say to voters who have concerns about your capabilities to serve? trump: well, i took two tests, cognitive tests. i aced them, both of them, as you know. we made it public. he took none. i’d like to see him take one, just one, a real easy one. like go through the first five questions, he couldn’t do it. but i took two cognitive tests. i took physical exams every year. and, you know, we knock on wood, wherever we may have wood, that i’m in very good health. i just won two club championships, not even senior, two regular club championships. to do that, you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way. and i do it. he doesn’t do it. he can’t hit a ball 50 yards. he challenged me to a golf match. he can’t hit a ball 50 yards. i think i’m a very good shape. i feel that i’m in as good a shape as i was 25, 30 years ago. actually, i’m probably a little bit lighter. but i’m in as good a shape as i was years ago. i feel very good. i feel the same. but i took   i was willing to take a cognitive test. and you know what, if i didn’t do well   i aced them. dr. ronny jackson, who’s a great guy, when he was white house doctor. and then i took another one, a similar one, and both   one of them said they’d never seen anybody ace them. bash: thank you. president biden? biden: you’re going to see he’s six foot five and only 225 pounds   or 235 pounds. trump: (inaudible). biden: well, you said six four, 200. trump: (inaudible). biden: well, anyway, that’s   anyway, just take a look at what he says he is and take a look at what he is. look, i’d be happy to have a driving contest with him. i got my handicap, which, when i was vice president, down to a 6. and by the way, i told you before i’m happy to play golf if you carry your own bag. think you can do it? trump: that’s the biggest lie that he’s a 6 handicap, of all. biden: i was 8 handicap. trump: yeah. biden: eight, but i have   you know how many… trump: i’ve seen your swing, i know your swing. (crosstalk) bash: president trump, we’re going to… (crosstalk) trump: let’s not act like children. biden: you are a child. bash: to you, a specific concern that voters have about you. will you pledge tonight that once all legal challenges have been exhausted that you will accept the results of this election regardless of who wins and you will say right now that political violence in any form is unacceptable? trump: well, i shouldn’t have to say that, but, of course, i believe that. it’s totally unacceptable. trump: and if you would see my statements that i made on twitter at the time, and also my statement that i made in the rose garden, you would say it’s one of the strongest statements you’ve ever seen. in addition to the speech i made, in front of, i believe, the largest crowd i’ve ever spoken to, and i will tell you, nobody ever talks about that. they talk about a relatively small number of people that went to the capitol. and in many cases were ushered in by the police. and as nancy pelosi said, it was her responsibility, not mine. she said that loud and clear. but the answer is, if the election is fair free, and i want that more than anybody. and i’ll tell you something   i wish he was a great president because i wouldn’t be here right now. i’d be at one of my many places enjoying myself. i wouldn’t be under indictment because i wouldn’t have been his political appoint   you know, opponent. because he indicted me because i was his opponent. i wish he was a great president. i would rather have that. i wouldn’t be here. i don’t mind being here, but the only reason i’m here is he’s so bad as a president that i’m going to make america great again. we’re going to make america great again. we’re a failing nation right now. we’re a seriously failing nation. and we’re a failing nation because of him. his policies are so bad. his military policies are insane. they’re insane. these are wars that will never end with him. he will drive us into world war three and we’re closer to world war three than anybody can imagine. we are very, very close to world war three, and he’s driving us there. and kim jong un, and president xi of china   kim jong un of north korea, all of these   putin   they don’t respect him. they don’t fear him. they have nothing going with this gentleman and he’s going to drive us into world war three. biden: if you want a world war three, let him follow (ph) and win, and let putin say, do what you want to nato   just do what you want. there’s a thing called article five, an attack on one is attack on all, a required response. the idea   the idea   i can’t think of a single major leader in the world who wouldn’t trade places with what job i’ve done and what they’ve done because we are a powerful nation, we have wonderful piece (ph), because of the people, not me, because of the american people. they’re capable of anything and they step up when they’re needed. and right now, we’re needed. we’re needed to protect the world because our own safety is at stake. and again, you want to have war, just let putin go ahead and take kyiv, make sure they move on, see what happens in poland, hungary, and other places along that border. then you have a war. bash: president trump, as i come back to you for a follow up. the question was, will you accept the results of this election regardless of who wins? trump: just to finish what he said, if i might, russia   they took a lot of land from bush. they took a lot of land from obama and biden. they took no land, nothing from trump, nothing. he knew not to do it. he’s not going to play games with me. he knew that. i got along with him very well, but he knew not to play games. he took nothing from me, but now, he’s going to take the whole thing from this man right here. that’s a war that should have never started. it would’ve never started ever with me. and he’s going to take ukraine and, you know, you asked me a question before, would you do this with   he’s got us in such a bad position right now with ukraine and russia because ukraine’s not winning that war. he said, i will never settle until such time   they’re running out of people, they’re running out of soldiers, they’ve lost so many people. it’s so sad. they’ve lost so many people and they’ve lost those gorgeous cities with the golden domes that are 1,000 years old, all because of him and stupid decisions. russia would’ve never attacked if i were president. bash: president trump, the question was, will you accept the results of the election regardless of who wins? yes or no, please? trump: if it’s a fair and legal and good election   absolutely. i would have much rather accepted these but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous that if you want, we’ll have a news conference on it in a week or we’ll have another one of these on   in a week. but i will absolutely   there’s nothing i’d rather do. it would be much easier for me to do that than i’m running again. i wasn’t really going to run until i saw the horrible job he did. he’s destroying our country. i would be very happy to be someplace else, in a nice location someplace. and again, no indictments, no political opponent’s stuff, because it’s the only way he thinks he can win. but unfortunately, it’s driven up by numbers and driven it up to a very high level, because the people understand it. biden: let’s see what your numbers are when this election is over. trump: we’ll see. biden: let’s see. you’re a whiner. when you lost the first time, you continued to appeal and appeal to courts all across the country. not one single court in america said any of your claims had any merit, state or local, none. but you continue to promote this lie about somehow there’s all this misrepresentation, all the stealing. there’s no evidence of that at all. and i tell you what? i doubt whether you’ll accept it because you’re such a whiner. the idea if you lose again, you’re accepting anything, you can’t stand the loss. something snapped in you when you lost the last time. bash: we’ll be right back with more from the cnn presidential debate live from georgia. (commercial break) tapper: it is now time for the candidates to deliver their closing statements. as predetermined by a coin toss, we’re going to begin with you, president biden. you have two minutes. biden: we’ve made significant progress from the debacle that was left by president trump in his   in his last term. we find ourselves in a situation where, number one, we have to make sure that we have a fair tax system. i ask anyone out there in the audience, or anyone out watching this debate, do you think the tax system is fair? the fact is that i said, nobody even making under $400,000 had a single penny increasing their taxes and it will not. and if i’m reelected, that’ll be the case again. but this guy is   has increased your taxes because of the deficit. number one, he’s increased inflation because of the debacle he left after   when he handled the pandemic. and he finds himself in a position where he now wants to tax you more by putting a 10 percent tariff on everything that comes into the united states america. what i did, when, for example, he wants to get away with   and get rid of the ability of medicare to   for the ability to   for the   us to be able to negotiate drug prices with big pharma companies. well, guess what? we got it   we got it down to 15   excuse me, $35 for insulin instead of $400. no more than $2,000 for every senior no matter what they   how much prescription they need. you know what that did? that reduced the federal deficit (ph)   debt by $160 billion over 10 years because the government doesn’t have to pay the exorbitant prices. i’m going to make that available to every senior, all   or go longer. it’s happening now, and everybody in america. he wants to get rid of that. we have   i’m going to make sure we have childcare. we’re going to significantly increase the credit people have for childcare. i’m going to make sure we do something about what we’re doing on lead pipes and all the things that are causing health problems for people across the country. we’re going to continue to fight to bring down inflation and give people a break. tapper: thank you, president biden. president trump, you now have two minutes for your closing statement. trump: like so many politicians, this man is just a complainer. he said we want to do this. we want to do that. we want to get rid of this tax, that tax, but he doesn’t do anything. he doesn’t do. all he does is make our country unsafe by allowing millions and millions of people to pour in. our military doesn’t respect him. we look like fools in afghanistan. we didn’t stop   israel, it was such a horrible thing that would have never happened. it should have never happened. iran was broke. anybody that did business with iran, including china, they couldn’t do business with the united states. they all passed. iran was broke. they had no money for hamas or hezbollah, for terror, no money whatsoever. again, ukraine should have never happened. he talks about all this stuff, but he didn’t do it. for three and a half years, we’re living in hell. we have the palestinians and we have everybody else rioting all over the place. you talk about charlottesville. this is 100 times charlottesville, 1,000 times. the whole country is exploding because of you, because they don’t respect you. and they have to respect their president and they don’t respect you throughout the world. what we did was incredible. we re   rebuilt the military. we got the largest tax cut in history, the largest regulation cut in history. the reason he’s got jobs is because i cut the regulations that gave jobs, but he’s putting a lot of those regulations back on. all of the things that we’ve done, nobody’s ever   never seen anything like   even from a medical standpoint. right to try, where we can try space age materials instead of going to asia or going to europe and trying to get when you’re terminally ill. now, you can go and you can get something. you sign a document. they’ve been trying to get it for 42 years. but you know what we did for the military was incredible. choice for our soldiers, where our soldiers, instead of waiting for three months to see a doctor, can go out and get themselves fixed up and readied up, and take care of themselves and they’re living. and that’s why i had the highest approval rating of the history of the v.a. so, all of these things   we’re in a failing nation, but it’s not going to be failing anymore. we’re going to make it great again. bash: thank you, former president trump, president biden. stay with us because we have full analysis of this debate. anderson cooper and erin burnett starts now on cnn. update: a previous version of this story contained an initial, rush transcript of the debate. © 2025 cable news network. a warner bros. discovery company. all rights reserved. cnn sans ™ & © 2016 cable news network.

abc news and other major tv networks sent a letter to the candidates sunday. abc news is among a unified grouping of the five chief broadcast and cable news networks, along with major wire, print and radio organizations, that have penned an open letter asking presidential candidates to publicly commit to taking part in televised debates ahead of the general election. in addition to abc news, the letter is signed by cbs news, cnn, nbcuniversal news group and fox news media, along with the associated press, c span, newsnation, noticias univision (univision network news), npr, pbs newshour and usa today. "with the contours of the 2024 general election now coming into clear focus, we    the undersigned national news organizations    urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before november's election," the letter, published on sunday, reads. this unusual move comes amid an election cycle during which the practice of debates, a decades old american campaign tradition, has been met with uncertainty from both president joe biden and former president donald trump. trump, who skipped all four republican national committee sanctioned 2024 primary election debates and pulled out of one of his three debates with biden in 2020, has enthusiastically urged biden to participate in the three general debates scheduled for this fall    a position echoed by his campaign again on sunday. "president trump has been very clear: he is willing to debate joe biden any time, any where, any place. we once again call on joe biden to commit to debates," spokeswoman karoline leavitt said. the biden campaign has expressed concern with the organization of these debates by the commission on presidential debates, signaling that the nonpartisan group that has sponsored the events since the 1980s has been unclear about their ability to administer a "fair" debate with trump. in april 2022, the republican national committee also voted unanimously to withdraw from the commission on presidential debates. the biden campaign declined to comment on the new letter but the president has previously played down trump's eagerness to get on stage with him. "well if i were him i'd want to debate me, too. he's got nothing else to do," biden told reporters in february. "general election debates have a rich tradition in our american democracy, having played a vital role in every presidential election of the past 50 years, dating to 1976. in each of those elections, tens of millions have tuned in to watch the candidates debating side by side, in a competition of ideas for the votes of american citizens," the media organizations urged in their letter. "if there is one thing americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high. amidst that backdrop, there is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the american people, their visions for the future of our nation," the letter concludes. biden has mostly avoided commenting publicly on engaging in debate with trump. asked following his state of the union address in march if he would commit to one, biden remarked to abc news: "it depends on his behavior." the democratic national committee, which has thrown all of its support behind biden, did not hold any primary election debates this cycle despite the urging of his long shot challengers. there is no precedent for an incumbent president to have participated in a primary debate, however, since the first modern debate was held in 1948   even when presented with high profile primary opponents. trump's campaign is still lobbying hard for general election debates against biden. on thursday, the former president's senior campaign advisers sent a letter to the commission on presidential debates calling for "much earlier" and "more" presidential debates than initially proposed, saying voting is beginning "earlier and earlier." "voting is beginning earlier and earlier, and as we saw in 2020, tens of millions of americans had already voted by the time of the first debate," top trump campaign advisers susie wiles and chris lacivita wrote in the letter. "specific to the commission's proposed 2024 calendar, it simply comes too late," they wrote, listing estimates of how many votes americans will have likely voted by current proposed dates. the two claimed americans were "robbed of a true and robust" debate in 2020 because the debate commission accepted the biden campaign's wish amid the coronavirus pandemic. in 2020, there were only two debates involving biden and trump. a third scheduled debate was canceled after the former president backed out because it was moved from being an in person to virtual event because of covid 19. trump then attacked the commission, claiming he would not accept any of their changes intended to enforce the rules and limit interruptions at the remaining presidential debates. the rnc's vote in 2022 to pull back from comission sanctioned debates mandated that candidates pledge not to participate in them. the national party has not revised its position. the commission has announced it plans to hold the first debate on sep. 16 at texas state university, the second on oct. 1 at virginia state university and the third on oct. 9 at the university of utah, salt lake city. it plans to hold a vice presidential debate on sept. 25 at lafayette college in pennsylvania. abc news' gabriella abdul hakim, libby cathey, fritz farrow, lalee ibssa, soo rin kim and mike pappano contributed to this report. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

numbers, facts and trends shaping your world read our research on: full topic list read our research on: | president joe biden and former president donald trump   the presumptive major party nominees for the 2024 presidential election   will meet in the first of two planned debates on june 27. that’s by far the earliest date any such debate has been staged   so early, in fact, that neither man will have been officially nominated yet. since the first televised debates in 1960 between john f. kennedy and richard nixon, all such events have been held in september or october. the early date isn’t the only thing setting this year’s debates apart. the june debate is being organized by cnn and the sept. 10 follow up by abc, bypassing the commission on presidential debates. the commission had sponsored all presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988, sharing the broadcast with all channels that wanted to air it. (the commission has proposed a vice presidential debate for sept. 25, but it’s not yet clear that the biden and trump campaigns will agree to participate.) presidential debates have long been criticized on both substantive and stylistic grounds, but they remain a major part of the campaign season. here are six things to know before the first debate. to lay some groundwork for the 2024 presidential debates, we looked back at the history of presidential and vice presidential debates. data on voters’ perceptions of the debates’ helpfulness and their decision making process was drawn from previous pew research center surveys. refer to the links in the text for more methodological detail. viewership was based primarily on figures from nielsen media research, supplemented by estimates from the commission on presidential debates and, in one case, the new york times. other sources included the commission’s records on prior debates and contemporaneous media reports from various publications. links to these sources can be found in the text of this analysis. the debates draw a lot of viewers. although viewership of the debates as a share of the total tv audience has broadly fallen over the decades, they can still attract more people than just about any other televised event besides the super bowl. more than 73 million people watched at least some of the first trump biden debate in 2020, according to nielsen media research. (nielsen defines audience as viewers ages 2 and older.) that’s the third largest debate audience ever, trailing only the first debate between hillary clinton and trump in 2016 (84 million viewers) and the 1980 debate between president jimmy carter and ronald reagan (80.6 million). older people were most likely to watch the first trump biden debate, according to nielsen. the debate drew a 42.7 rating among viewers ages 55 and older, versus 25.5 among 35  to 54 year olds and 12.0 among 18  to 34 year olds. (nielsen ratings measure the percentage of television owning households watching a particular program, but the company also collects data on individual viewers.) this ratings data can be interpreted in various ways. on one hand, it seems to align with research that shows that older people are more likely to follow presidential election news. however, the nielsen numbers only included people who watched the debates on traditional tv channels or via devices connected to tv sets (at home or outside the home)   not those who streamed the debates or watched them online. and according to a 2021 pew research center study, only 34% of u.s. adults under 30 get tv through cable or satellite. ratings for the presidential debates have risen and fallen over the decades, according to nielsen data. the four 1960 debates all had ratings of around 60.0, meaning roughly six in ten households with tv sets were tuned to the debates. when the debates were revived in 1976, their ratings were lower   generally around 50.0. ratings for the debates trended lower over the next two decades. the third debate between al gore and george w. bush in 2000 had just a 25.9 rating. since then, debate ratings have generally trended modestly upward: the first biden trump debate in 2020 drew a 40.2 rating. voters find the debates useful, but not necessarily determinative. pew research center conducted post election surveys from 1988 through 2016. in most cases, six in ten or more voters said the debates were very or somewhat helpful in deciding which candidate to vote for. the high point was 1992, when 70% of voters said the three debates that year between bill clinton, george h.w. bush and ross perot were at least somewhat helpful. (the center did not ask this question following the 2020 election.) in 2016, for example, only 10% of voters said they had definitively made up their minds “during or just after” the presidential debates. by comparison, 11% said they’d decided later, in the days or weeks before or on election day. more (22%) said they had decided during or just after the summertime party conventions, and 42% said they had before the conventions. the vice presidential debates are the undercard. in most years since 1976, when the candidates for vice president first had their own debate, the running mates have been runners up when it comes to viewership. in 2020, for example, 57.9 million people watched the debate between vice president mike pence and then sen. kamala harris. that was 8% below the viewership of the lowest rated biden trump debate, though well above the 37.2 million who tuned in to the 2016 debate between pence and sen. tim kaine, the democratic vice presidential hopeful. the lone exception to this rule came in 2008, when more people (69.9 million) tuned in to the vice presidential debate between then sen. biden and then alaska gov. sarah palin than any of the three presidential debates between then sens. barack obama and john mccain. today’s televised debates don’t much resemble the first ones. from the first debates in 1960 between kennedy and nixon through the 1988 matchups between george h.w. bush and michael dukakis, the candidates answered questions from panels of journalists. the moderator’s job was mostly to explain and enforce the ground rules and keep the proceedings moving. but by the 1980s, the panel format was in trouble. critics said it resembled a joint press conference more than an actual debate and that the journalist panelists took too much time and attention away from the candidates. the campaigns bickered constantly over who could or could not be a moderator or panelist. finally, the league of women voters, which had organized the 1976, 1980 and 1984 debates, threw in the towel, leaving the job to the newly created commission on presidential debates. in 1992, the commission tried a variety of approaches: along with two panel style debates, it introduced a “town hall” event in which undecided voters asked the questions. that year’s vice presidential debate had a single moderator pose questions to the candidates. based on public feedback afterward, the commission decided to use only the single moderator and town hall formats going forward. (the lone exception was a 2016 debate that was co moderated by anderson cooper of cnn and martha raddatz of abc news.) most of the moderators have been broadcast journalists. all but two of the debate moderators since 1960 have been prominent broadcast journalists. (the exceptions were james hoge, editor in chief of the chicago sun times, who moderated the 1976 vice presidential debate, and usa today washington bureau chief susan page, who moderated the 2020 vice presidential debate.) pbs journalists have moderated the most debates: 16, including 12 by the late jim lehrer. the only other person to have moderated more than two presidential or vice presidential debates is bob schieffer of cbs news (2004, 2008 and 2012). note: this is an update of a post originally published on aug. 28, 2020. topics drew desilver is a senior writer at pew research center. 901 e st. nw, suite 300washington, dc 20004usa(+1) 202 419 4300 | main(+1) 202 857 8562 | fax(+1) 202 419 4372 | media inquiries about pew research center pew research center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. it does not take policy positions. the center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data driven research. pew research center is a subsidiary of the pew charitable trusts, its primary funder. © 2025 pew research center

this week’s debate between president biden and former president trump will be unlike any in the 64 years since the advent of the televised presidential debate. from the host of the meeting to its unique timing, the event breaks with tradition in myriad ways. the debate is set to lay down a key marker in the general election battle and could prove pivotal for either candidate. here are five major differences audiences will see in thursday’s match up. this is not the first time a sitting president and a former president have faced off in a general election. but thursday will mark the first meeting between two such figures on a televised debate stage, heaping another dose of intrigue onto biden and trump’s get together. the two candidates had a pair of memorable debates four years ago, the first of which   widely remembered for trump’s constant badgering and interrupting of biden and moderator chris wallace   did the former president no favors in the final weeks of the campaign. but that has not dissuaded trump this go around. he was vocal for months about wanting to debate biden whenever possible, perhaps sensing an opportunity in polling providing a rosier outlook for the former president. trump supporters see this meeting of two white house occupants as a chance to compare records, and they see economic and immigration arguments favoring their side. “it’s pretty unique. … you have a pretty unique opportunity to review the tale of the tape,” said sen. eric schmitt (r mo.), who has helped trump with debate prep ahead of thursday, of the match up of two presidents. “all of these debates have a life of their own, but i’m pretty confident [trump’s] going to do well.” thursday’s match up will be the earliest televised presidential debate in u.s. history by about three months, essentially firing the starting gun on the general election in an acknowledgment of how many voters have cast early ballots in recent years. “in this day and age, more information is good, and people are going to be tuning in,” sen. ben ray luján (d n.m.) told the hill. “i expect that more people will be engaged from an earlier date and that’s good for our democracy.” that was one of the main gripes the biden campaign had with the commission on presidential debates (cpd), the longtime organizer of the fall events. jen o’malley dillon, a top biden aide, said in a letter to the commission that “tens of millions of americans will have already voted” before its first proposed debate, citing it as one of the campaign’s many reasons for not agreeing to its slate of meetings. previously, the earliest debate held between major party nominees was in 1976, when then president ford and former georgia gov. jimmy carter (d) met on sept. 23. sidestepping the commission also means that one network   cnn   will be entirely in charge of operations come thursday night, a major change for voters. the network will effectively become the third major player at this debate. two of cnn’s most respected news anchors   jake tapper and dana bash   will take on the role of co moderators. and they will have additional tools to control the action compared to past moderators. for one, both candidates will have their mic muted unless they are speaking, a big departure from in years past. perhaps more jarring will be the lack of a studio audience   the first time that has happened since 1960. biden’s campaign clamored for the change after the pair of 2020 debates. “it takes away the jerry springer feel to the swipes that trump and biden will likely give each other and it makes it less interesting for them to do those things without a crowd to cheer you on,” said ron bonjean, a republican strategist and the co founder of rokk solutions. the 90 minute affair will also feature two commercial breaks, during which neither campaign can strategize with the candidates. cnn’s presence comes at the exclusion of the cpd, which had been at the helm of the debate structure since 1988, after complaints from both sides. the commission had long been considered a political boogeyman for republicans, especially since 2012 after candy crowley, then a cnn anchor, fact checked gop nominee mitt romney live during his second debate with former president obama. the cpd eventually agreed that having her moderate the event was a “mistake.” but surprisingly, it was democrats who seemed to land a death blow to the commission after what the biden campaign perceived to be multiple missteps in 2020. in addition to the proposed first debate coming weeks into early voting, o’malley dillon panned the commission for being “unable or unwilling” to enforce rules during the two debates four years ago and for its “model of building huge spectacles with large audiences.” “the debates should be conducted for the benefit of the american voters, watching on television and at home   not as entertainment for an in person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering,” o’malley dillon said. the commission was widely operated behind the scenes, meaning viewers on thursday might not recognize a major difference outside of the lack of audience and cnn branding. but after their impact in recent years, political operatives are curious to see what thursday will bring from a nuts and bolts perspective. “​​it feels like you’re taking out a referee for setting the terms of a fair debate, and cnn is trying to step into that role,” bonjean said. “we’ll see how effective they are at that.” the late june debate also means a major change to the traditional rhythms of the presidential season as it pushes the party’s national conventions from being the first major items on the calendar. thursday’s presidential back and forth will take place more than two weeks before republicans flock to milwaukee for their quadrennial confab   a complete reversal as the final convention has long taken place about a month before the first debate. it is about six weeks before the democrats’ convention. democrats hope thursday raises the bar for voters who thus far have tuned out the general election and puts the race on their radar earlier than it would have happened otherwise. “it’s an important opportunity for the president to set the stakes for 2024,” one democratic operative said. “trump has been the gop nominee for almost a year, there’s been no question. the gop convention is a coronation.” “that’s something everyone has known and it’s time for voters to recognize as well,” the operative added.

copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved. a new ap norc poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. and many think the stakes are high for both president joe biden and former president donald trump. signage for the upcoming presidential debate is seen at the media file center near the cnn techwood campus in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. a new poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. (ap photo/pablo martinez monsivais) rep. wesley hunt, r texas, speaks during an event wednesday, june 26, 2024, in atlanta, hosted by the donald trump campaign billed as a “black american business leaders round table,” at rocky’s barber shop, in advance of the presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump. (ap photo/gerald herbert) ben starett, lighting programmer for cnn, sets up lights in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) people converse during setup in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) file   democratic presidential candidate former vice president joe biden speaks during the first presidential debate with president donald trump sept. 29, 2020, at case western university and cleveland clinic, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) this combination of photos show president donald trump, left, and former vice president joe biden during the first presidential debate on sept. 29, 2020, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) a new ap norc poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. and many think the stakes are high for both president joe biden and former president donald trump. signage for the upcoming presidential debate is seen at the media file center near the cnn techwood campus in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. a new poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. (ap photo/pablo martinez monsivais) signage for the upcoming presidential debate is seen at the media file center near the cnn techwood campus in atlanta on tuesday, june 25, 2024. a new poll finds that most u.s. adults plan to watch or listen to some element of thursday’s presidential debate. (ap photo/pablo martinez monsivais) rep. wesley hunt, r texas, speaks during an event wednesday, june 26, 2024, in atlanta, hosted by the donald trump campaign billed as a “black american business leaders round table,” at rocky’s barber shop, in advance of the presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump. (ap photo/gerald herbert) rep. wesley hunt, r texas, speaks during an event wednesday, june 26, 2024, in atlanta, hosted by the donald trump campaign billed as a “black american business leaders round table,” at rocky’s barber shop, in advance of the presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump. (ap photo/gerald herbert) ben starett, lighting programmer for cnn, sets up lights in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) ben starett, lighting programmer for cnn, sets up lights in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) people converse during setup in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) people converse during setup in the spin room for the upcoming cnn presidential debate between president joe biden and republican presidential candidate former president donald trump in atlanta, wednesday, june 26, 2024. (ap photo/gerald herbert) file   democratic presidential candidate former vice president joe biden speaks during the first presidential debate with president donald trump sept. 29, 2020, at case western university and cleveland clinic, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) file   democratic presidential candidate former vice president joe biden speaks during the first presidential debate with president donald trump sept. 29, 2020, at case western university and cleveland clinic, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) this combination of photos show president donald trump, left, and former vice president joe biden during the first presidential debate on sept. 29, 2020, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) this combination of photos show president donald trump, left, and former vice president joe biden during the first presidential debate on sept. 29, 2020, in cleveland. (ap photo/patrick semansky, file) washington (ap)   most u.s. adults plan to watch some element of thursday’s presidential debate and many think the event will be important for the campaigns of both president joe biden and former president donald trump, according to a new poll from the associated press norc center for public affairs research. both men remain broadly unpopular as they prepare to face off for the first time since 2020, although trump, the presumptive republican nominee, maintains a modest enthusiasm advantage with his base compared to biden, the democratic incumbent. about 6 in 10 u.s. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” likely to watch the debate live or in clips, or read about or listen to commentary about the performance of the candidates in the news or social media. the poll suggests tens of millions of americans are likely to see or hear about at least part of thursday’s debate despite how unusually early it comes in the campaign season. both biden and trump supporters view the debate as a major test for their candidate   or just a spectacle not to miss. “i think it’s super important,” said victoria perdomo, a 44 year old stay at home mom and a trump supporter in coral springs, florida. “it shows america what you’re going to see for the next four years.” nic greene, a libertarian who is a registered independent, said he’ll likely vote for trump as the “least worst candidate.” he doesn’t think debates do much to help voters make decisions, but he’s expecting to be entertained and plans to listen to post debate analysis on podcasts. “i think the majority of people have their minds made up with or without these debates,” he said. “it’s a circus.” about half, 47%, of americans say the debate is “extremely” or “very” important for the success of biden’s campaign and about 4 in 10 say it’s highly important for trump’s campaign. about 3 in 10 americans say it is at least “very” important for both campaigns. most democrats, 55%, think the upcoming debate is extremely or very important for the success of the biden campaign. about half of republicans, 51%, say the same thing about the importance of the debate for the trump campaign. only about one third of independents say the debate, taking place at a cnn studio in atlanta, is highly important for either campaign. arthur morris, a 40 year old operations manager at a major financial firm, is an undecided voter open to biden, trump or a third party option such as independent candidate robert f. kennedy, jr. he, along with a significant share of americans, has doubts about the mental capabilities of the aging candidates, and sees biden’s debate performance as an important test. “i need biden to demonstrate to me that he’s cogent enough to be able to hold this office and execute to the level that we need him to,” morris said. trump, meanwhile, needs to show he can be trusted after the jan. 6, 2021, attack on the u.s. capitol in which trump supporters disrupted the certification of his 2020 loss to biden and trump’s recent conviction in a hush money scheme, said morris, of lewiston, ohio. about 4 in 10 say they are likely to watch or listen to some or all of the debate live, while a similar share say they will watch or listen to clips later. another 4 in 10, roughly, expect to consume commentary about the debate and candidate performance in the news or on social media. republicans and democrats are more likely than independents to be following debate coverage in some capacity. biden and trump are each entering the debate with low favorability ratings. about 6 in 10 u.s. adults say they have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of biden, and a similar number have a negative view of trump. most americans, 56%, say they are “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied with biden being the democratic party’s likely nominee for president, and a similar majority are dissatisfied with trump as the likely gop nominee. the poll indicates that republicans continue to be more satisfied with a re nomination of trump than democrats are with an anticipated biden re nomination. six in 10 republicans are satisfied with trump as a nominee; just 42% of democrats say that about biden. about 3 in 10 u.s. adults are dissatisfied with both trump and biden as their party’s likely nominees   with independents and democrats being more likely than republicans to be dissatisfied with both. republicans and democrats are more likely to have a negative view of the opposing party’s candidate than they are to have a positive view of their own. about 9 in 10 republicans have an unfavorable view of biden, and about 9 in 10 democrats have a negative view of trump. by comparison, roughly 7 in 10 democrats have a favorable view of biden, and about 7 in 10 republicans have a positive view of trump. about 4 in 10 u.s. adults approve of how biden is handling his job as president, in line with where that number has stood for the past two years. biden’s approval rating among u.s. adults on handling the economy is similar, as is his handling of abortion policy. only 3 in 10 approve of his approach to immigration. “i do believe there has been some progress under biden, but i believe it’s congress who is the one stalling on any of the policies that biden wants to proceed with,” said jane quan bell, 70, a school librarian from chico, california, and a democrat. the conflict between the israelis and palestinians is an especially vulnerable spot for biden. with only 26% of u.s. adults approving of his handling of the issue, it’s well below his overall approval rating. nearly 6 in 10 democrats disapprove of his approach. the poll of 1,088 adults was conducted june 20 24, 2024, using a sample drawn from norc’s probability based amerispeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the u.s. population. the margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. cooper reported from phoenix. a previous version of this story misspelled arthur morris’ last name. it is morris, not murray. copyright 2025 the associated press. all rights reserved.

follow: if joe biden loses november’s election, history will record that it took just 10 minutes to destroy a presidency. it was clear a political disaster was about to unfold as soon as the 81 year old commander in chief stiffly shuffled on stage in atlanta to stand eight feet from ex president donald trump at what may turn into the most fateful presidential debate in history. related article takeaways from cnn’s presidential debate with biden and trump objectively, biden produced the weakest performance since john f. kennedy and richard nixon started the tradition of televised debates in 1960   then, as on thursday, in a television studio with no audience. minutes into the showdown, hosted by cnn, a full blown democratic panic was underway at the idea of heading into the election with such a diminished figure at the top of the ticket. biden’s chief debate coach, ron klain, famously argues that “while you can lose a debate at any time, you can only win it in the first 30 minutes.” by that standard, the president’s showing was devastating. the tone of the evening was set well before the half hour. it is too early to say how voters will respond and whether the president can rescue himself. but biden barely beat trump in key battleground states in the middle of a pandemic in 2020. his approval rating was below 40% before the debate, when he was at best neck and neck with his rival in the polls. it would only take a few thousand voters to desert him to put trump back in the white house. there has been no public sign that biden is unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency, which include tough decisions on national security. he has just returned from two grueling foreign trips, for instance. but on thursday’s evidence, his ability to communicate with the country   and even to sell his own vision for a second term   is severely compromised. related article biden’s debate performance sets off alarm bells for democrats if the debate was the president’s best chance to turn around a tight race with trump, which has him in deep peril of losing reelection, it was a failure. biden ended the night with the democratic party in crisis with serious conversations taking place behind the scenes among senior figures over whether his candidacy is now sustainable, two months before the democratic national convention. the president aimed for an immediate rebound at a post debate rally in north carolina friday, appearing rested, defiant and animated in what was a clear attempt to a quiet a storm of questions about whether he should shelve his reelection race. “i know i’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” biden told a crowd that chanted “four more years, four more years.” the president added, “i don’t walk as easy as i used to. i don’t speak as smoothly as i used to. i don’t debate as well as i used to.” biden went on, raising his voice,“but i know what i do know. i know how to tell the truth. i know right from wrong. and i know how to do this job.” “i know what millions of americans know: when you get knocked down, you get back up.” biden’s much improved performance in a scripted stump speech before a friendly audience however only further exposed his failures on thursday night when he had his best chance to counter trump before tens of millions of television viewers. trump’s task on thursday was to avoid playing into biden’s claims that he’s “unhinged” and is therefore unfit to return to the oval office. he largely did so as he got out of the way while the president was damaging his own campaign. the presumptive republican nominee’s unaccustomed restraint, however, did wear thin later in the debate. but in one devastating moment, after yet another biden waffle, he said: “i really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don’t think he knows what he said, either.” the ex president didn’t avoid his own disqualifying issues. he was uncouth and divisive. he spouted outrageous falsehoods about his own presidency, his attempt to steal the last election, and sometimes lapsed into gibberish himself, especially when asked about climate change. he blatantly lied about his role in the mob attack by his supporters on the us capitol on january 6, 2021. the twice impeached convicted felon repeatedly declined to say that he would accept the result of the 2024 election if he lost and made sweeping, vague and often illogical claims that us enemies overseas would bend to his will just because of his personality. the former president also struggled to parry biden’s arguments that he’d slash taxes for rich americans and leave workers struggling, and he was wobbly on policy, just as he was in the white house. by the time the aged rivals slipped into a bitter debate about who was the best golfer, it was not hard to understand why voters have long told pollsters that they want no part of the choice they have been offered this year. but biden has rooted his reelection in the idea that he is the last thing standing between america and a second trump presidency that would destroy democracy and usher in an unprecedented era of american autocracy. voters who take him at his word could not help but be alarmed at his abject debate showing. biden’s voice was weak, at times reduced to a whisper. early on, the president’s answers drifted into incoherence. he missed openings to jab trump on abortion   the top democratic talking point   and meandered into highlighting his own biggest political liability, immigration. “we finally beat medicare,” biden said at one point, lapsing into confused silence. it was the kind of debate gaffe that democrats had hoped to avoid. worse, while trump spoke, biden often watched, his mouth gaping open, exacerbating an impression of a president cruelly diminished. his bravura battering of trump in a debate four years ago was a distant memory. to see a president struggle before millions of people watching on television all around the world was tough to see. as a matter of humanity, the personification of the ravages of age that await everyone was painful. biden’s campaign revealed during the debate that he had been suffering from a cold. but by that time, the damage had already been done. biden had entered the debate facing a somber test   to prove to the majority of americans who believe he is too old to serve that he is vital, energetic and up to fulfilling his duties in a second term that would end when he is 86. instead, the president ended up validating those fears and potentially convincing many more voters that his faculties have decayed. the stumbling performance raised questions about the strategic choice biden’s campaign made in pushing for a debate with trump. it also completely undercut attempts by the white house and the campaign to talk up biden’s heartiness behind the scenes. memories of the president’s barnstorming state of the union address in march, when he put many fears about his age to rest, have now been obliterated. often, presidential debates are remembered for visual moments that become embedded in the collective public consciousness in subsequent days. troublingly for biden, a viewer only paying attention to visual clues would surely have formed the impression that trump was the more robust personality. and the history of presidential elections suggests that the candidate who seems strong often beats the one who is weak. “it’s painful. i love joe biden,” said van jones, a cnn political commentator. “he’s a good man, he loves his country, he’s doing the best that he can. but he had a chance … tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base and he failed to do that. and i think there are a lot of people who are going to want to see him take a different course now.” vice president kamala harris led attempts to turn the focus away from the optics of biden’s performance to the threat posed by his republican opponent. “yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” harris told cnn’s anderson cooper following the debate. “and what became very clear through the course of the night is that joe biden is fighting on behalf of the american people. on substance, on policy, on performance, joe biden is extraordinarily strong.” “people can debate on style points. but ultimately, this election and who is the president of the united states has to be about substance. and the contrast is clear. look at what happened during the course of the debate. donald trump lied over and over and over again as he is wont to do,” she said. harris is correct in her assessment of trump’s cascade of untruths. and as the debate wore on, the president did seem to get a little stronger. he was especially animated when he spoke about trump’s threat to democracy. he was scathing about the ex president’s failure to admit defeat four years ago. “you can’t stand the loss,” biden said. “something snapped in you when you lost the last time.” and in an extraordinary moment in a debate before millions of television viewers, biden highlighted trump’s conviction in his hush money trial in new york. related article fact checking the cnn presidential debate “how many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public? for doing a whole range of things? of having sex with a porn star on the night   while your wife was pregnant?” biden asked trump. “you have the morals of an alley cat.” the former president was found guilty last month of 34 counts of falsifying business records in his criminal hush money trial. last year, a jury found him liable for sexual abuse in a civil defamation suit. and trump, his adult sons and the trump organization lost a huge civil fraud trial, also in new york. but the problem for biden was that his best moments of the night came deep into the 90 minute showdown, by which time most viewers would have formed strong impressions. and at times, he appeared unable to defend his record or effectively expose trump’s torrent of falsehoods and distortions of his own first term legacy. the president only briefly flashed his beaming smile, which he had effectively used to debunk trump’s absurd arguments in their debate four years ago and when he rhetorically dismembered republican vice presidential nominee paul ryan during the 2012 vice presidential debate. if the cacophony of behind the scenes venting by democrats coalesces into more serious questions about biden’s capacity, the crisis around him will deepen. but it is hard to see any easy way   apart from a decision by the president not to accept the party nomination   that there could be any change to the democratic ticket. and any decision to try and replace a president who has successfully run the table in democratic nominating contests would be unprecedented in the modern age and might end up dividing the party   a step that in itself could help trump become only the second president to win a non consecutive second term. there has been little effort by the biden white house to promote harris as the president’s heir   and she has significant political problems of her own. and no democrat with future presidential possibilities   for instance, california gov. gavin newsom or michigan gov. gretchen whitmer   took the risk of challenging an incumbent who once presented himself as a bridge to the future of the party. biden is not the first president to have a bad debate   although his ordeal on thursday far surpasses the misfires by barack obama and ronald reagan. both those presidents bounced back the next time they got the chance on the debate stage and went on to win a second term. but while a second debate with trump is scheduled for september, it is hard to find a tactical rationale for the ex president to offer his rival a do over. one democratic operative summed up the president’s debate for cnn’s kasie hunt with a word that now threatens to encapsulate his entire reelection bid unless biden can turn the story around. “horrific,” the person said. this story has been updated with additional details. © 2025 cable news network. a warner bros. discovery company. all rights reserved. cnn sans ™ & © 2016 cable news network.

just like the success of inside out 2 has revitalized the hollywood box office, cnn is banking on its june 27 presidential debate for a much needed ratings boost. and the network’s leader, mark thompson, is anticipating all of the success and criticism that comes with outmaneuvering the other news networks to land the first matchup between president joe biden and former president donald trump. (tvnewser) add noticias telemundo to the list of networks simulcasting the debate, scheduled for thursday at 9 p.m. view subscription options already a member? sign in adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem.

zeke miller, associated press zeke miller, associated press michelle l. price, associated press michelle l. price, associated press will weissert, associated press will weissert, associated press bill barrow, associated press bill barrow, associated press darlene superville, associated press darlene superville, associated press leave your feedback atlanta (ap)   a raspy president joe biden repeatedly sought to confront donald trump in their first debate ahead of the november election, as his republican rival countered biden’s criticism by leaning into falsehoods about the economy, illegal immigration and his role in the jan. 6 capitol insurrection. live fact check: cnn’s biden trump debate the debate came at a pivotal juncture in their unpopular presidential rematch, a critical moment to make their cases before a national television audience. biden’s uneven performance risked crystallizing voter concerns that at age 81 he is too old to serve as president, while trump’s rhetoric offered a perhaps unwelcome reminder of the bombast he launched daily during his tumultuous four years in office. biden entered the debate looking to sharpen the choice voters will face in november. trump, 78, looked for an 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. read more: trump’s 2024 trials: where they stand and what to expect trump was asked about his actions on jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the u.s. capitol to try to overturn his 2020 loss to biden. “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,” trump said. after he was prompted by a moderator to answer whether he violated his oath of office that day by rallying his supporters seeking to block the certification of biden’s electoral college victory and not doing enough to call them off as they stormed the capitol, trump sought to blame then house speaker nancy pelosi. biden said trump encouraged the supporters to go to the capitol and sat in the white house without taking action as they fought with police officers. analysis: fact checking the cnn trump biden debate “he didn’t do a damn thing and these people should be in jail,” biden said. “they should be the ones that are being held accountable. and he wants to let them all out. and now he says that if he loses again, such a whiner that he is, that this could be a ‘bloodbath’?” trump then defended the people convicted and imprisoned for their role in the insurrection, saying to biden, “what they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.” biden began the night with a raspy voice and a halting delivery as he tried to defend his economic record and criticize trump. biden appeared to lose his train of thought while giving one answer, drifting from an answer 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. “look, we finally beat medicare,” biden said, as his time ran out on his answer. trump picked right up 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 illegally. trump and biden entered the night facing stiff headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics and broadly dissatisfied with both, according to polling. but the debate was highlighting how they have sharply different visions on virtually every core issue   abortion, the economy and foreign policy   and deep hostility toward each other. their personal animus quickly came to the surface. biden got personal in evoking his son, beau, who served in iraq before dying of brain cancer. the president criticized trump for reportedly calling americans killed in battle “suckers and losers.” biden told trump, “my son was not a loser, was not a sucker. you’re the sucker. you’re the loser.” trump said he never said that and slammed biden for the chaotic withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan. biden directly mentioned trump’s conviction in the new york hush money trial, saying, “you have the morals of an alley cat,” and referencing the allegations in the case that trump had sex with a porn actress. “i did not have sex with a porn star,” replied trump, who chose not to testify at his trial. trump retorted that biden could face criminal charges “when he leaves office.” trump said, though there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, “joe could be a convicted felon with all the things that he’s done.” he added of the president, “this man is a criminal.” biden insisted that trump was more focused on “retribution” against his political rivals than leading the nation. pressed to defend rising inflation since he took office, biden pinned it on the situation he inherited from trump amid the covid 19 pandemic. 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.” by the time trump left office, america was still grappling with the pandemic and during his final hours in office, the death toll eclipsed 400,000. the virus continued to ravage the country and the death toll hit 1 million over a year later. trump repeatedly insisted that the three conservative justices he appointed to the supreme court helped overturn the landmark roe v. wade decision and returned the issue of abortion restrictions to individual states, which is what “everybody wanted.” biden countered that abortion access was settled for 50 years and that trump was making it harder for women in large swaths of the country to get access to basic health care. at one point, trump defended his record on foreign policy and blamed biden for the conflicts in ukraine and gaza, suggesting the conflicts broke out when the aggressors felt free to attack because they perceived biden as weak. “this place, the whole world, is blowing up under him,” trump said. “i never heard so much malarkey in my whole life,” biden retorted. the current president and his predecessor hadn’t 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 jan. 6 capitol insurrection by his supporters. trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the u.s. 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 have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off. heading out of the debate, both biden and trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. trump is heading to virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward democrats in recent years. biden is set to jet off to north carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest yet rally of his campaign in a state trump narrowly carried in 2020. miller, price and weissert reported from washington. left: president joe biden and former president donald trump speak during a presidential debate in atlanta, georgia, june 27, 2024 in a combination photo. photo by brian snyder/reuters by lisa desjardins, laura barrón lópez, ali schmitz, kyle midura by amna nawaz, geoff bennett, ian couzens by louis jacobson, amy sherman, politifact by zeke miller, michelle l. price, will weissert, bill barrow, darlene superville, associated press zeke miller, associated press zeke miller, associated press michelle l. price, associated press michelle l. price, associated press will weissert, associated press will weissert, associated press bill barrow, associated press bill barrow, associated press darlene superville, associated press darlene superville, associated press support provided by: learn more thank you. please check your inbox to confirm. © 1996   2025 newshour productions llc. all rights reserved. pbs is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. sections about stay connected thank you. please check your inbox to confirm. learn more about friends of the news hour. support for news hour provided by

wait wait... don't tell me! is npr's weekly quiz program. each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. trump and biden haven't been on the same stage or even spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. president joe biden and his republican rival, donald trump, will meet for a debate on thursday that offers an unparalleled opportunity for both candidates to try to reshape the political narrative. biden, the democratic incumbent, gets the chance to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the u.s. through a range of challenges. the 78 year old trump, meanwhile, could use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in new york and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the oval office. biden and trump enter the night facing fierce headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics. both candidates are disliked by majorities of americans, according to polling, and offer sharply different visions on virtually every core issue. trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the u.s. government if he returns to the white house and biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation’s democracy. with just over four months until election day, their performances have the rare potential to alter the trajectory of the race. every word and gesture will be parsed not just for what both men say but how they interact with each other and how they hold up under pressure. “debates tend not to change voters’ perception in ways that change their vote: they ordinarily reinforce, not persuade,” said kathleen hall jamieson, the director of the annenberg public policy center at the university of pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications. “what makes this debate different is that you have in essence two incumbents about whom voters have very well formed views. but that doesn’t mean that those perceptions are right or match what voters will see on stage.” what you need to know ahead of the 2024 pa. general election pennsylvania’s general election is tuesday, nov. 5. here’s what you should know beforehand, from election deadlines to who’s on the ballot. 9 months ago trump and biden haven’t been on the same stage or even 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 to biden that culminated in the jan. 6 capitol insurrection by his supporters. thursday’s broadcast on cnn will be the earliest general election debate in history. it’s the first ever televised general election presidential debate hosted by a single news outlet after both campaigns ditched the bipartisan commission on presidential debates, which had organized every matchup since 1988. under the network’s rules, independent candidate robert f. kennedy jr. did not qualify. 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. there will be two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. the candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off. the timing follows moves by both candidates to respond to nationwide trends toward early voting by shifting forward the political calendar. it remains to be seen whether the advanced schedule will dampen the effects of any missteps or crystallize them in the public’s mind. “you have two men that have not debated in four years,” said phillippe reines, a democratic political consultant who helped former secretary of state hillary clinton prepare for debates with trump in 2016. biden and trump, he said, “don’t like each other, haven’t seen each other, (are) pretty rusty heading into the biggest night of their lives. that about sums up what’s at stake on thursday.” what pa. voters can expect from biden and trump’s historic presidential debate a national poll found trump has a slight lead over biden. the same goes for polling focused on pennsylvania, where the lead is often within the margin of error. 8 months ago the debate falls days after the second anniversary of the supreme court’s overturning of roe v. wade, ending a federally guaranteed right to abortion and pushing reproductive rights into the center of politics ever since. the faceoff also occurs just after the biden white house took executive action to restrict asylum claims at the u.s. mexico border in an effort to lower the number of migrants entering the country. trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. the wars in ukraine and gaza loom over the race, as do the candidates’ sharply differing views about america’s role in the world and its alliances. differences on inflation, tax policy and government investment to build infrastructure and fight climate change will provide further contrasts. also in the political background: the supreme court is on the brink of announcing its decision on whether trump is legally immune for his alleged role in the jan. 6 insurrection. that’s weeks after trump was convicted in new york of taking part in a hush money scheme that prosecutors alleged was intended to unlawfully influence the 2016 election. biden spent the week leading up to the debate secluded at camp david with senior white house and campaign aides as well as a coterie of longtime advisers and allies. a mock stage was built at the compound to simulate the studio where the debate will be held, and biden’s personal attorney, bob bauer, was reprising his role as trump in practice sessions. aides say the work reflects biden’s understanding that he can’t afford a flat showing. they insist the sometimes stodgy orator would rise to the occasion. trump, meanwhile, has continued his more unstructured debate prep with two days of meetings at his florida estate, phoning allies and supporters, and road testing attacks in social media postings and in interviews with conservative leaning outlets. trump and his aides have spent months chronicling what they argue are signs of biden’s diminished stamina. in recent days, they’ve started to predict biden will be stronger on thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent. atlanta, the debate’s host city, offers symbolic and practical meaning for the campaign, but each side believes that what happens there will resonate far and wide. in 2020, biden secured georgia’s 16 electoral votes with a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. trump pushed the state’s republican leadership to overturn his victory based on false theories of voter fraud, memorably being caught on tape saying he wanted to “find 11,780 votes.” he now faces state racketeering charges. both campaigns held a flurry of events in atlanta leading into the debate, including competing events at black owned local businesses. trump called in friday to a gathering at rocky’s barbershop in the buckhead community to talk about his matchup with biden and question whether cnn moderators jake tapper and dana bash would treat him fairly. heading out of the debate, both biden and trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. trump is heading to virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward democrats in recent years. biden is set to jet off to north carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest yet rally of his campaign in a state trump narrowly carried in 2020. ___ miller, superville and weissert reported from washington and price from new york. ap video journalist nathan ellgren in washington contributed to this report. never miss a moment with the whyy listen app! play, pause, and rewind the live radio stream, access on demand audio features, and dive into podcasts from both local and national sources. whyy is your source for fact based, in depth journalism and information. as a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. please give today. trump is certified as the 2024 election winner without challenge, in stark contrast to 2021 violence vice president kamala harris, presiding over proceedings as the role of the office, read the tally. 1 month ago young men swung to the right for trump after a campaign dominated by masculine appeals trump's campaign for the oval office was dominated by appeals to traditional masculinity, conveyed in appearances in nontraditional media. 2 months ago most of the country shifted right in the 2024 presidential election in 2020, president biden won six of the seven closely watched states. this year, president elect donald trump won all seven   plus he will got a majority of the popular vote. 3 months ago 10 hours ago 13 hours ago 16 hours ago want a digest of whyy’s programs, events & stories? sign up for our weekly newsletter. together we can reach 100% of whyy’s fiscal year goal whyy provides trustworthy, fact based, local news and information and world class entertainment to everyone in our community. whyy offers a voice to those not heard, a platform to share everyone’s stories, a foundation to empower early and lifelong learners and a trusted space for unbiased news. learn more about social responsibility at whyy. it’s how we live. 215.351.1200 talkback@whyy.org 302.516.7506 talkback@whyy.org © mmxxv whyy whyy is partnered with

president joe biden and his republican rival, donald trump, met for a debate on thursday that offers an unparalleled opportunity for both candidates to try to reshape the political narrative. biden, the democratic incumbent, gets the chance to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the u.s. through a range of challenges. the 78 year old trump, meanwhile, could use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in new york and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the oval office. biden and trump enter the night facing fierce headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics. both candidates are disliked by majorities of americans, according to polling, and offer sharply different visions on virtually every core issue. trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the u.s. government if he returns to the white house and biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation's democracy. with just over four months until election day, their performances have the rare potential to alter the trajectory of the race. every word and gesture will be parsed not just for what both men say but how they interact with each other and how they hold up under pressure. “debates tend not to change voters’ perception in ways that change their vote: they ordinarily reinforce, not persuade,” said kathleen hall jamieson, the director of the annenberg public policy center at the university of pennsylvania and an expert on presidential communications. “what makes this debate different is that you have in essence two incumbents about whom voters have very well formed views. but that doesn’t mean that those perceptions are right or match what voters will see on stage.” prior to thursday's debate, trump and biden hadn't been on the same stage or even 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 to biden that culminated in the jan. 6 capitol insurrection by his supporters. thursday's broadcast on cnn is the earliest general election debate in history. it's the first ever televised general election presidential debate hosted by a single news outlet after both campaigns ditched the bipartisan commission on presidential debates, which had organized every matchup since 1988. under the network’s rules, independent candidate robert f. kennedy, jr. did not qualify. 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. there are two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. the candidates agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off. the timing followed moves by both candidates to respond to nationwide trends toward early voting by shifting forward the political calendar. it remains to be seen whether the advanced schedule will dampen the effects of any missteps or crystallize them in the public’s mind. “you have two men that have not debated in four years,” said phillippe reines, a democratic political consultant who helped former secretary of state hillary clinton prepare for debates with trump in 2016. biden and trump, he said, “don’t like each other, haven’t seen each other, (are) pretty rusty heading into the biggest night of their lives. that about sums up what’s at stake on thursday.” the debate fell days after the second anniversary of the supreme court’s overturning of roe v. wade, ending a federally guaranteed right to abortion and pushing reproductive rights into the center of politics ever since. the faceoff also occurred just after the biden white house took executive action to restrict asylum claims at the u.s. mexico border in an effort to lower the number of migrants entering the country. trump has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. the wars in ukraine and gaza loom over the race, as do the candidates' sharply differing views about america’s role in the world and its alliances. differences on inflation, tax policy and government investment to build infrastructure and fight climate change will provide further contrasts. also in the political background: the supreme court is on the brink of announcing its decision on whether trump is legally immune for his alleged role in the jan. 6 insurrection. that’s weeks after trump was convicted in new york of taking part in a hush money scheme that prosecutors alleged was intended to unlawfully influence the 2016 election. biden spent the week leading up to the debate secluded at camp david with senior white house and campaign aides as well as a coterie of longtime advisers and allies. a mock stage was built at the compound to simulate the studio where the debate was held, and biden’s personal attorney, bob bauer, was reprising his role as trump in practice sessions. aides say the work reflects biden's understanding that he can't afford a flat showing. they insist the sometimes stodgy orator would rise to the occasion. trump, meanwhile, continued his more unstructured debate prep with two days of meetings at his florida estate, phoning allies and supporters, and road testing attacks in social media postings and in interviews with conservative leaning outlets. trump and his aides have spent months chronicling what they argue are signs of biden’s diminished stamina. in recent days, they've started to predict biden will be stronger on thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent. atlanta, the debate's host city, offers symbolic and practical meaning for the campaign, but each side believes that what happens there will resonate far and wide. in 2020, biden secured georgia’s 16 electoral votes with a margin of less than 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast. trump pushed the state's republican leadership to overturn his victory based on false theories of voter fraud, memorably being caught on tape saying he wanted to "find 11,780 votes.” he now faces state racketeering charges. both campaigns held a flurry of events in atlanta leading into the debate, including competing events at black owned local businesses. trump called in friday to a gathering at rocky’s barbershop in the buckhead community to talk about his matchup with biden and question whether cnn moderators jake tapper and dana bash would treat him fairly. heading out of the debate, both biden and trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. trump is heading to virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward democrats in recent years. biden is set to jet off to north carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest yet rally of his campaign in a state trump narrowly carried in 2020. hearst television participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.

industry overview digital & trend reports overview and forecasts on trending topics industry & market reports industry and market insights and forecasts companies & products reports key figures and rankings about companies and products consumer & brand reports consumer and brand insights and preferences in various industries politics & society reports detailed information about political and social topics country & region reports all key figures about countries and regions market forecast and expert kpis for 1000+ markets in 190+ countries & territories insights on consumer attitudes and behavior worldwide detailed information for 39,000+ online stores and marketplaces directly accessible data for 170 industries from 150+ countries and over 1 mio. facts. statista+ offers additional, data driven services, tailored to your specific needs. as your partner for data driven success, we combine expertise in research, strategy, and marketing communications. visit the statista+ website for comprehensive solutions. full service market research and analytics strategy and business building for the data driven economy transforming data into content marketing and design statista r identifies and awards industry leaders, top providers, and exceptional brands through exclusive rankings and top lists in collaboration with renowned media brands worldwide. for more details, visit our website. see why statista is the trusted choice for reliable data and insights. we provide one platform to simplify research and support your strategic decisions. read more expert resources to inform and inspire. despite the fact that presidential debates in their current form have drawn a lot of criticism for a variety of reasons over the years, they remain a key component of any presidential race, ringing in the final lap of the drawn out affair that presidential elections have become. they are also considered must see tv by millions of americans, with debates regularly reaching viewership figures eclipsed only by the super bowl. the first, tumultuous debate between then incumbent president trump and his challenger and eventual successor joe biden in september 2020 attracted 73.1 million viewers, making it the third most watched debate in history. the most watched debate in history also featured donald trump, when 84.4 million americans tuned in to see him face off in the first of three debates versus hillary clinton in 2016. with many americans not exactly looking forward to this year's election, it remains to be seen whether today's debate will attract as many viewers as past editions. with doubts surrounding both candidates' fitness for office, people may still tune in, however, be it for some reassurance or to find out whether those reservations are justified. description this chart shows the estimated tv viewership of u.s. presidential debates. report can i integrate infographics into my blog or website? yes, statista allows the easy integration of many infographics on other websites. simply copy the html code that is shown for the relevant statistic in order to integrate it. our standard is 660 pixels, but you can customize how the statistic is displayed to suit your site by setting the width and the display size. please note that the code must be integrated into the html code (not only the text) for wordpress pages and other cms sites. feel free to contact us anytime using our contact form or visit our faq page. need infographics, animated videos, presentations, data research or social media charts? more information
supported by one network is in charge of every aspect of the biden trump debate, a major shift from previous years. tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching. by michael m. grynbaum michael grynbaum is a media correspondent who covered the presidential debates in 2016 and 2020. the prime time matchup on thursday between president biden and former president donald j. trump represents an evening full of promise and peril. especially for cnn. for the first time in decades, a single television network will have sole discretion over the look, feel and cadence of a general election presidential debate. unlike in past years, when an independent, nonprofit commission oversaw the contests, cnn has picked the moderators, designed the set and will choose the camera angles that viewers see. lest any voters forget who’s in charge, the red cnn logo will be ubiquitous: rival channels seeking to simulcast the event had to agree to leave the network’s on air watermark untouched. the debate, at 9 p.m. eastern, could be the single most watched moment of the presidential campaign, with consequences that ripple all the way to november. and much of the credit   or the blame   for what transpires on tens of millions of screens on thursday will land at cnn’s feet. leaders at the channel, which has endured a run of poor ratings and viewer apathy, say they don’t mind the pressure. “the fact that we got it was something of a moment for us,” mark thompson, who became cnn’s chairman in october, said in an interview between prep meetings in washington. “much of the reaction of the public, the rest of the media and other politicians is going to depend on president trump and president biden, who are the stars of the show.”

supported by john f. kennedy and richard m. nixon were the last presidential candidates to debate with no live audience during a general election. by neil vigdor a letter to the network noted that, in previous debates, a reporter from the white house correspondents’ association was granted access. by benjamin mullin and katie robertson here is an overview of the rules that the two campaigns have agreed to with cnn, the evening’s host. by maggie astor when the two candidates square off, we can expect disorientation, dizziness and much else. by frank bruni, matthew continetti and olivia nuzzi su primer debate, en cnn, se realizará el jueves, y el segundo está fijado para principios de septiembre en abc news by neil vigdor one network is in charge of every aspect of the biden trump debate, a major shift from previous years. tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching. by michael m. grynbaum for nearly 40 years, the commission on presidential debates has made the rules for the most watched events in politics. this year, both campaigns said no thanks.