2024 Joe Biden–Donald Trump Presidential Debate

A debate between then-incumbent Democratic US President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump was held on June 27, 2024. Hosted by CNN, it was the first debate of that year's presidential election.

Biden's performance in the debate, which was widely considered to be the poorest of any major party nominee in American history, raised substantial concerns about whether he would be capable of serving a second term as president. During the days and weeks following the debate, Biden declined in the polls and faced pressure from within his own party to end his presidential campaign. On July 21, Biden formally withdrew from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to stand in his place as the party's presidential nominee. Harris went on to lose the general election to Trump.

Prelude

Agreement to debate

As the 2024 campaign developed, there was a serious possibility of no televised debates. Neither campaign favored use of the Commission on Presidential Debates that had brokered national debates since 1987. An agreement to debate was announced on May 15. Both campaigns agreed to two debates, with the first in June to be hosted by CNN. This 2024 debate was the first to be hosted by a television network for many decades. The notably early debate was agreed to by the network and both campaigns.

Qualifications

Although Trump claimed to have no objection to the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participating in the debate, the Biden campaign opposed Kennedy's inclusion. On May 29, Kennedy filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Biden and Trump campaigns colluded to prevent him from appearing at the debate.

The qualification criteria that were adopted for the June 27 CNN debate required participants to:
* Be constitutionally eligible to hold the presidency;
* File with the Federal Election Commission;
* Appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College;
* Agree to the rules of the debate; and
* Reach at least 15% support in four national public opinion polls selected by CNN between March 13 and June 20, 2024.

Seventeen polls met CNN's criteria, with Biden and Trump meeting the 15% threshold in every poll. Kennedy met the threshold in three, peaking at 16%. Both Justice For All Party candidate Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein peaked at 4% support, and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver peaked at 1% support. No other candidate was included in any qualifying polls. Kennedy also did not meet the ballot requirement, having been confirmed in only five states at the time of the debate.

Preparations

The Biden campaign hired Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff, to assist him in debating Trump; Klain helped Biden during the 2020 presidential debates. White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed collected material on policy contrasts with Trump. Biden engaged in preparations at Camp David, arriving on the night of June 20 and remaining there nearly until the debate. Biden was exhausted from traveling before the debate and needed to take naps during the debate preparations.

According to political advisor Marc Lotter, Trump "views his rallies as debate prep" and engaged with limited debate preparation. The Trump campaign did not appoint a Biden stand-in for Trump to debate. At a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, Trump suggested Biden would be a formidable opponent, alleging Biden would be on cocaine and that the moderators would assist him.

Format

The debate was streamed or broadcast by most major U.S. news organizations. The debate ran for 90 minutes, with no audience members present. Trump's and Biden's microphones were only turned on when it was their turn to speak (in response to the events of the September 29, 2020 presidential debate). Debate rules written by CNN allocated two minutes for answering the question posed by the moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, and one minute for rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals. The primary issues addressed in the debate were immigration, the economy and inflation, abortion, foreign policy and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, legal issues of the participants, Social Security, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the participants' ages.

According to moderator Jake Tapper, Biden was late to the debate. Trump arrived to the debate at 6 PM, and toured the debate stage starting at 7 PM. Biden arrived after 8 PM, and toured the debate stage from 8:32 to 8:50 PM. The debate began at 9 PM.

Debate

Excluding the closing, the debate moderators asked 20 questions. Four questions centered on the economy, four on democracy, three on foreign policy, two on immigration, two on abortion, and one each on climate change, age, opioids, race, and tax reform.

Moderator Jake Tapper began the debate with inflation figures. Biden attributed the state of the economy to Trump's presidency. Trump rebutted by claiming he built the "greatest economy in the history of our country" before the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump claimed that Biden supported the job growth of illegal immigrants, defending his ten percent tariff, and criticized the 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. He argued that Biden began his term with successes from the Trump presidency, but chose to implement negative reform.

After a question regarding the national debt, Biden trailed off and appeared to lose his train of thought, saying: "Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to deal with ... the COVID ... Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with ... look ... if... we finally beat Medicare."

The moderators had iPads to communicate with the control room. After Biden said "We finally beat Medicare", Tapper said that he wrote, "Holy smokes". Bash then wrote to Tapper, "He just lost the election".

On illegal border crossings, Biden said, "I'm going to continue to move until we get to total ban — on the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers." Trump responded, "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either." At one point, Trump and Biden briefly had an argument over golfing abilities during a question regarding their fitness as president due to age.

During the debate, Trump and Biden used personal attacks against each other. Trump used the word "Palestinian" as a slur to attack Biden, calling him a "very bad Palestinian." NBC News found that Trump made 106 attacks during the debate, while Biden made 72.

Trump spoke more than Biden in the debate, with CNN reporting the former to have spoken 40 minutes and 12 seconds, and the latter 35 minutes and 41 seconds. Trump went off topic about 50% of the time, while Biden went off topic about 30% of the time during the debate.

''Politico'' described Biden's performance as follows:

The alarm bells for Democrats started ringing the second Biden started speaking in a haltingly hoarse voice. Minutes into the debate, he struggled to mount an effective defense of the economy on his watch and flubbed the description of key health initiatives he’s made central to his reelection bid... He repeatedly mixed up “billion” and “million,” and found himself stuck for long stretches of the 90-minute debate playing defense.

And when he wasn’t speaking, he stood frozen behind his podium, mouth agape, his eyes wide and unblinking for long stretches of time.

According to Tapper, he and Bash felt that Biden didn't understand how bad his performance was after the debate ended.

Fact-checking

The moderators did not fact check the candidates. News organizations published articles after the debate documenting the truthfulness of the candidates' claims, finding that Trump made more exaggerated and false statements, while Biden had incorrectly cited information. ''The New York Times'' called Trump's statements "often fact-free and absurdly hyperbolic." However, some fact-checkers also noted that Trump's dishonesty was likely to be overshadowed by Biden's poor performance. Numerous news outlets also mentioned lies and falsehoods and fact-checked the candidates.

Glenn Kessler, fact-checker for ''The Washington Post'', summarized "35 of the most noteworthy claims that initially caught our interest", claims which he analyzed in depth. FactCheck.org summarized its coverage of the many false and inaccurate claims made by the candidates, which were also analyzed. The Associated Press also analyzed a number of false claims.

Viewership

Broadcast networks

Cable news networks

CNN reported that 47.9 million people watched the first debate, down from 73 million viewers during the first 2020 presidential debate. ''Nielsen Media Research'' later reported the number of viewers at 51.3 million; this does not include individuals who watched the debate through social media, streaming services, or listened through radio.

Reception and aftermath

Overview

In the aftermath of the debate, the Biden campaign was flooded with requests for comment. The Trump campaign received only a few media requests the next morning, as reporters continued focusing on Biden. "No one was more shocked at Biden's performance than Donald Trump", an advisor told the ''Washington Post''. Trump reportedly told aides that he could not even look at Biden. Several political analysts, including Susan Glasser, Tim Miller and Jeff Greenfield, described it as the worst televised presidential debate ever, with Biden's weak performance overshadowing Trump's falsehoods. Several congressional Democrats thought that Biden "didn't even clear the lowest bar".

Political observers were essentially unanimous in calling the debate a disaster for Biden and his campaign for re-election. Many columnists, including from '' The Hill'', CNN, ''Politico'', ''The New York Times'', ''USA Today'', ''Business Insider'', and '' Vox,'' considered Trump the winner of the debate, although most noted his performance appeared acceptable only when contrasted with Biden's. Columnists from MSNBC, ''The Cook Political Report'', ''The Guardian'', and the ''Los Angeles Times'' argued that while Trump did not "win" the debate, Biden "clearly lost".

Polls from CNN,''YouGov'' and Ipsos and ''FiveThirtyEight'' found that most viewers thought Trump had won the debate, although it did not significantly change support for either candidate, with Biden only losing a small amount of support. Amy Walter

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