Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Getty Images
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump went head-to-head in the first presidential debate on Thursday (June 27) night. It marked the first time that a sitting president and a former president debated each other and was the first debate not organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates since 1988.
The two candidates stood at identical podiums on a stage without a live audience. The two candidates did not shake hands as they took the stage.
The debate was moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who started off the debate by asking Biden about inflation since he took office.
"Since you took office, the price of essentials has increased. For example, a basket of groceries that cost $100 then now costs more than $120 and typical home prices have jumped more than 30%. What do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under President Trump?" Tapper asked.
Biden responded by blasting Trump and how he handled the COVID pandemic, noting that the economy was in a "free fall" when he took office. Biden then touted the number of jobs created during his first term.
"Take a look at what I was left when I became president and what Mr. Trump left me," Biden said. "We had an economy that was in freefall. Pandemic was so badly handled. Many people were dying."
"What we had to do is try to put things back together again. And that's exactly what we began to do," he added.
Trump responded by saying those gains were a "bounceback" after the lockdowns were lifted and people returned to work.
"The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounce-back jobs, the bounce back from COVID. He has not done a good job. He's done a poor job, inflation is killing our country," Trump responded.
The two also sparred over tax cuts enacted during Trump's first term, which Biden claimed only helped the wealthiest Americans. Trump claimed those tax cuts helped spur American investment.
After sparring over the economy, Dana Bash changed the topic and asked Trump about abortion.
"As President, would you want abortion medication?" she asked.
"First of all, the Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill, and I agree with their decision to have done that," Trump responded, noting that he supports maintaining access to abortion medication.
Trump said that the issue of abortion should be left up to the states.
“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,” he said. “Now the states are working it out.”
President Biden called overturning Roe v. Wade "a terrible thing."
“The vast majority of constitutional scholars supported Roe (v. Wade) when it was decided,” he said. “This idea that they were all against it is just ridiculous.”
Trump took a shot at Biden after the president trailed off during a response to a question on immigration.
"I really don't know what he said at the end of this. I don't think he knows what he said," Trump said.
Before trailing off, Biden attacked Trump's border policy.
“We find ourselves in a situation where when he was president, he was taking — separating — babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure they’re the families were separated. That’s not the right way to go,” Biden said.
Trump continued to attack Biden on the border crisis, blaming his policies for the surge of migrants trying to enter the country.
"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 are living right now in a rat's nest," Trump said.
Trump's felony conviction was brought up as both candidates sparred over the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Biden said that Trump had the "morals of an alleycat. Biden then referenced Trump's civil cases, in which he was found liable for business fraud and for sexually assaulting author E. Jean Carroll.
“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 – while your wife was pregnant?” Biden asked.
Trump responded by denying the allegations against him.
"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 said.
Throughout the debate, Trump continued to bring up the border, at times ignoring the questions being asked by Tapper and Bash.
Trump repeatedly dodged a question about whether he would accept the results of the election, no matter who wins. After Bash continued to press him, Trump said he would accept them if the elections were "fair" and "legal."
In a final pitch to voters, Biden spoke about creating a fair tax code and touted his efforts to bring down drug prices and lower inflation.
"We're going to continue to fight to bring down inflation and give people a break," Biden concluded.
Trump responded by attacking Biden and his record as president.
“The whole country is exploding because of you, because they don’t respect you, and they have to respect their president,” Trump said. “They don’t respect you throughout the world.”