Debate in Atlanta: President Biden stops by watch party

ATLANTA — President Joe Biden took an apparent victory lap with supporters in Atlanta after walking off stage during the first-ever debate of the 2024 presidential election campaign, a virtual rematch of the 2020 debates featuring Biden and his Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump.

Biden stormed an official Biden-Harris viewing party at the Hyatt Regency near Peachtree Street minutes after the debate ended, telling supporters: “We’re going to beat this guy.”

“We have to beat this guy and I need you to beat him,” he told the crowd.

Biden added: “You are the reason America is as good as we are.”

The president told the assembled crowd, “We are the greatest nation in the world,” a direct contrast to Trump’s statements about his view of the current state of the country.

The candidates faced off for 90 minutes in an audience-less CNN studio in Midtown Atlanta. The event was hosted by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who bombarded the candidates with topics as diverse as Social Security, child care costs, the border, the economy, abortion and the crisis between Israel and Hamas.

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During the debate, the candidates stayed mostly on topic, although they turned to personal attacks on each other’s mental and physical acuity, accusations of corruption and much more. In one exchange, Trump and Biden debated which game of golf was better.

Back at his watch party, Biden encouraged his supporters to “keep going” and pose for selfies.

President Trump quickly left the state without stopping at any watch parties.

Trump and Biden will face off again in a second debate, hosted by ABC in September, before voters go to the polls on Tuesday, November 5, in an election that has been described as one of the most important.

Each candidate has their own obstacles to overcome before the November election. For Trump: a conviction in a New York state criminal case on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment for an affair with an adult film star. The former president also faces a series of other criminal charges in three other cases related to the Jan. 6 riots and allegations that he interfered with the election results right here in Georgia.

For Biden, the president is trying to allay fears that his age could be a handicap for another term in the White House. He has also faced heavy criticism from his own party over his handling of the hostage situation following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel and subsequent violence in Palestine, which thousands of deaths among women, children and civilians.