Status: 28.06.2024 05:50 a.m.
“Liar,” “criminal,” or “worst president”: US President Biden and his challenger Trump made their opinions clear in the first TV debate. They discussed Ukraine, the storming of the Capitol – and Trump’s conviction.
In the first TV debate of the US election campaign, incumbent President Joe Biden and rival Donald Trump made serious accusations against each other. Biden repeatedly called his predecessor a liar during the debate on CNN. “He’s exaggerating, he’s lying,” said Biden, referring to Trump’s statements on the situation at the border.
Biden also addressed Trump’s conviction in a hush money trial. “The only person on this stage who is a convicted criminal is the man I’m looking at right now,” Biden said. Trump is also accused of many other crimes and must pay large civil penalties, Biden added.
Trump accuses Biden of “deaths at the border”
“Billions of dollars for harassing a woman in public and a whole host of other things; for having sex with a porn star the night your wife was pregnant,” Biden said, and was wrong about the details: Melania Trump had already given birth to son Barron four months earlier. “You have the morals of a street dog,” Biden said.
Trump said that Biden may soon be a convicted criminal “because he caused a lot of deaths at the border.” He was referring to Biden’s migration policies and repeated his unsubstantiated claim that immigrants had caused a crime wave under Biden. However, studies show that immigrants in the US do not commit crimes more often than native-born citizens.
Overall, Trump said Biden was unfit to govern. “He is, without question, the worst president – the worst presidency in the history of our country,” Trump said.
Biden: Trump encouraged people to storm Capitol
The storming of the Capitol after the last election was also discussed. Biden sharply criticized his predecessor: “He encouraged these people.” Trump sat in the White House for three hours and did not intervene while his supporters smashed windows, occupied the parliament building and raged brutally. Instead, Trump called these people “patriots” and wanted to exonerate them from their sentences.
Trump said he called on his supporters to act “peacefully and patriotically.” He then attacked the then Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. He falsely claimed that Pelosi had turned down his offer to send “10,000 troops or the National Guard” to the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Pelosi had no authority over the National Guard. When the Capitol was attacked, she and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer requested military assistance, including from the National Guard.
The former president did not give a clear answer to the question of whether Trump would accept the outcome of the upcoming election. The moderators repeatedly asked, but the Republican turned away and only answered the question on the third attempt – and even then only evasively: “If it is a fair, legal and good election, then definitely.”
Trump: There would have been no Russian invasion under me
Regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump claimed that it had not happened under his presidency. Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine when he saw how incompetent the US had been in its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump said. If he is elected, he will end the war in Ukraine before he is formally inaugurated. He left open how exactly he intends to do this.
The Republican also criticized Biden’s economic policy: “Inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us.” Biden has done a bad job. The Democrat explained that when he took office in January 2021, he took over an economy that was “in free fall.” In fact, the inflation rate has fallen significantly and the situation on the labor market is also good. However, many citizens are still frustrated because prices are still high in some cases.
Microphones muted, no audience
The TV debate followed strict rules. During the 90-minute exchange, the microphone of the presidential candidate who was not speaking was muted. The debate took place without a studio audience. Biden’s campaign team is said to have insisted on this.
It is unusual that the first televised debate took place in June. Biden and Trump are not expected to be chosen as their parties’ official candidates for the presidential election on November 5th at nominating conventions in July and August. However, they have already secured the necessary delegate votes in the primaries – which is why they are set as candidates.
It was the first direct meeting between the two opponents since October 2020. A second debate is planned for September. In polls, Biden and Trump were almost neck and neck before the debate.
