(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump squared off in the first of two presidential debates as they head toward a rematch of the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after not making it to the CNN debate stage, responded to the questions on X. His livestream garnered 5.8 million viewers at one point and his forum had a live studio audience, unlike the Biden-Trump showdown.
During the CNN Presidential Debate, Biden and Trump traded barbs over the other’s policies, repeatedly calling the other “liar.”
Trump avoided questions about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and accepting the outcome of the 2024 election should he lose, while Biden, hoarse with a cold, struggled to successfully take on Trump on questions about abortion and national debt.
Biden struggles with questions on national debt, abortion
Biden stumbled repeatedly throughout the debate, tripping over his words and sounding hoarse, reportedly from a cold.
Early in the debate, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought while answering a question about the national debt. The president concluded a comment with, “We finally beat Medicare.”
Trump responded: “He’s right. He did beat Medicare, he beat it to death.”
Later in the debate, Trump mocked Biden for his rambling answers: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either,” Trump said.
On the issue of reproductive rights, Biden and Trump took starkly different positions.
Biden vowed to restore Roe v. Wade and laid into Trump for appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn it. Trump claimed Biden and Democrats want to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.”
Biden fired Back: “That’s simply not true, We are not for late-term abortion. Period, period, period.”
Trump’s convictions called into question
Biden swiped at Trump as the only person on stage who had been convicted of a felony and forced the former president to deny allegations from his hush money case.
“The crimes you are still charged with and think of all the civil penalties you have,” Biden said. “How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties or for molesting a woman in public? For doing a whole range of things.”
Biden said Trump has the “morals of an alley cat” for allegedly having sex with adult film star Stormy Daniels while his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant.
Trump pushed back, saying, “I didn’t have sex with a porn star, number one. Number two, that was a case that was started and they moved a high-ranking official at DOJ into the Manhattan DA’s office to start that case. That case is going to be appealed and won.”
Trump dodges Jan. 6 question; unclear if he’ll accept election results
Trump was confronted about the results of the 2020 election leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and whether his comments seeking to undermine the results violated his oath of office.
“On Jan. 6, we had a great border, nobody coming through. On Jan. 6, we were energy independent,” Trump said. “And then he (Biden) comes in, and we’re laughed at, we’re a bunch of stupid people.”
Trump said he will accept the results of the 2024 election “if the election is fair.”
“I wish he (Biden) was a great president, I wouldn’t be here,” Trump said. “I don’t mind being here, but the only reason I’m here is he’s so bad as a president that I’m gonna make America great again.”
Trump went on to criticize Biden’s military policies and said “We’re closer to World War Three than anybody can imagine.” Biden responded that Trump is a “whiner” and that he “continues to provoke a lie” regarding previous claims of election fraud.
What happened during RFK Jr.’s debate livestream?
In a livestream broadcast simultaneously with the Biden Trump debate, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also made his case to voters from a different location.
Kennedy answered the same questions given to both the president and former president, responding as if he was at the debate.
In his signature raspy low voice and wearing a black suit and tie, Kennedy largely stuck to the positions that he’s already made on several issues including on abortion rights, the economy and the border crisis.
The environmental lawyer blasted both President Biden and former President Trump, on many occasions telling voters, “if you want more of the same for the next four years, vote for one of them.”
Kennedy said both Biden and Trump fumbled the management of COVID, accusing them of violating the constitutional rights of Americans.
“These presidents shut down every business with no due process, no just compensation, no public hearing,” he said, calling it the “worst financial mistake in American history.”
He also criticized the Biden administration’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war, saying the U.S should withdraw support and “accept that Russia will never allow NATO in Ukraine.
He warned that further participation in the Ukraine conflict would inch the U.S closer to “another world war.”
On several occasions, Kennedy promised to cut military spending in half and instead put that money into government subsidized child care and to fund Social Security.
While he said that “every abortion is a tragedy,” he said he believed the right to end a pregnancy should be made by women. However, he qualified the stance by claiming that most women who end pregnancies do so for financial reasons and his policies would empower women not to choose abortions.
“My policy is more choices, fewer abortions,” he said.
Kennedy also solidified his unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
“Israel is in an existential battle,” he said, adding that the existence of a Palestinian state depends on Israel and Palestine, not the U.S.
Kennedy also got an opportunity to discuss climate change, saying that no politician has shown a “larger commitment to the environment” than him.
He believes “climate change is existential” but says he doesn’t “insist” that other people believe that.
“We should be focusing on restoring our soils to regenerative agriculture, protecting our air or water wildlife, and stopping the carbon discharge from coal burning power plants.”
Kennedy did not qualify for the debate against Trump and Biden because he wasn’t on the ballot in enough states. To qualify for the debate, a candidate must appear on the ballot in enough states to reach the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the presidential election. Kennedy is currently on the ballot in six states. Participants must also receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters, according to CNN.
Kennedy accused CNN of colluding with Biden and Trump in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission. He also took several jabs at CNN during his livestream for disqualifying him.
“Presidents Biden and Trump do not want me on the debate stage and CNN illegally agreed to their demand,” Kennedy said on X. “My exclusion by Presidents Biden and Trump is undemocratic, un-American, and cowardly. Americans want an independent leader who will break apart the two-party duopoly.”
The Hill/Decision Desk HQ shows him polling at a little more than 7%, well behind the major party presumptive nominees.
Some members of Kennedy’s family have criticized his views and have publicly thrown their support behind President Biden.
In his closing argument, Kennedy told voters that “an entire generation has lost pride in their country” and that the election is a “moral battle for the soul of our country.”
“I’m going to change everything,” he said, which evoked applause from audience members.
“If you want you to vote out of hope and inspiration and pride in your country, out of restoring the moral backbone of our people and our nation you should vote for me.”
