Biden struggles to fend off Trump in messy Atlanta showdown

The split-screen contrast also highlighted a factor voters have been grappling with throughout the campaign: Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, are the oldest candidates to ever participate in a presidential race.

At times during the debate, Biden struggled for words and offered rambling answers. Trump took advantage of a shaky response from Biden on border security, saying, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of the sentence. I really don’t think he knew what he said either.”

Trump, meanwhile, has targeted his opponent with lies, such as claiming that Democrats’ economic policies have only created jobs for people in the United States illegally or that Biden supports late-term abortions — claims the president has directly refuted.

“He’s ready to rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill it,” Trump said, provoking a scathing response from Biden: “That’s just not true…we’re not for it.” late-term abortion, period, period. »

Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Both campaigns accepted CNN’s offer to host the debate in Atlanta to sharpen their pitch in one of the most competitive states in the country, with matchups throughout the week featuring some of their key allies.

Despite its political resonance, the Georgian context hardly played a role in their exchanges. The state was the epicenter of Trump’s attempt to reverse his electoral defeat, and his 2020 defeat in the state was one of the most humiliating setbacks of his political career.

Their mutual animosity was palpable from the start of the audience-less confrontation in the CNN studio, when both refused to shake hands. Over the next 90 minutes, the two men seemed to alternately sigh and scoff at each other’s responses.

At one point, Biden called Trump’s agenda “insanity.” Trump mocked Biden’s statement and called his successor the “worst president” in the country’s history.

At the heart of the debate, Biden tried to capitalize on his opponent’s legal problems by bringing up Trump’s convictions in New York on charges related to a bribery scheme and criticizing him for defending the crowd of 6 January 2021 who invaded the US Capitol.

“The only person on stage who is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now,” Biden said, adding: “The idea that these people are patriots? Let’s go. »

Credits: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Credits: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Trump downplayed his role in the mob unrest and ignored the New York verdict that found him guilty of 34 counts in a scheme to hide cash payments to Stormy Daniels , the porn actress who said she had sex with Trump in 2006.

“I didn’t have sex with a porn star,” he said.

The confrontation came at a critical time in the race as Biden, trailing Trump in Georgia and other battleground states, hoped to reframe the race away from the referendum on his agenda and toward his argument that returning Trump’s move to the White House would bring a darker, more chaotic administration than his first term.

And Trump tried to build on years of denigrating Biden as a weak old man while boasting about his own athletic prowess and golf game, leading to a strange back-and-forth about their disabilities.

Biden’s faltering performance immediately sparked concern among Democrats — and joy among the Trump camp. As Biden took the stage at a nearby after-party, he tried to project confidence: “We’ve got to beat this guy. And I need you to beat him.”