First 2024 presidential debate as it happened

1 year ago

Russia’s war in Ukraine could expand to Northeast Asia, South Korean president says

From Joel Gehrke

Russia’s war in Ukraine has the “potential” to fuel violence “on the Korean Peninsula and in the northeast Asian region,” according to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

“At this moment, the security of both Europe and Asia is simultaneously under threat,” Yoon said Thursday in Washington, D.C. “The only way to block and thwart the attempts to change the status quo through coercion is for our allies and friends to stand together and united in overwhelming strength. It must be also made very clear that any reckless challenge will not only lead to failure but also result in greater suffering on their part.”

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1 year ago

Chip Roy says he’ll file resolution to execute 25th Amendment

From Cami Mondeaux

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said he plans to file a resolution calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to execute the 25th Amendment to succeed President Joe Biden, arguing his debate performance on Thursday is evidence Biden is “not capable” to finish his term.

“I don’t believe that the president that we saw last night is capable of exercising the duties as commander in chief,” Roy said. “I think most people, if they’re being honest, would agree.”

The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to declare the president unable to fulfill his duties, which would then permit them to assume the position of acting president. It’s not clear when Roy would call for a vote on his resolution, but the Texas Republican said he plans to speak with the House parliamentarian on best steps to expedite the process.

1 year ago

EDITORIAL: Debate disaster for Biden

From Washington Examiner

The first presidential debate lasted 90 minutes, but President Joe Biden had lost it within 10 minutes.

He stumbled immediately, lost his train of thought, and fell silent. It was painful to watch and obvious that no matter how much preparation he had done, he was utterly incapable of stringing sentences together and making a coherent argument.

It allowed former President Donald Trump to deliver a knockout punch within just 15 minutes of the debate beginning. After listening to Biden give a rambling answer on illegal immigration in which the president promised a “total ban” on something, Trump was given an opportunity to respond and simply said, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows either.”

Click here to read the full Editorial.

1 year ago

Biden exudes confidence following debate performance

From Naomi Lim

ATLANTA — Biden remained publicly confident in his debate performance, telling reporters during a post-debate stop he “did well.”

“No. It’s hard to debate a liar. The New York Times pointed out he lied 26 times,” Biden said at an Atlanta-area Waffle House, where he and first lady Jill Biden brought campaign aides dinner, when asked about calls for him to drop out of the race. “I have a sore throat”.

During an earlier post-debate appearance at a debate watch party, Biden repeated his criticism of Trump as a liar.

“They’re going to be out there fact-checking,” he said. “I can’t think of one thing that he said was true”

“Look, we’re going to beat this guy, and I need you in order to beat him,” he added. “You are the reason why America is as good as we are.”

Biden is en route back to the White House.

1 year ago

Biden’s failing grade overshadows Trump in first debate

From Haisten Willis

President Joe Biden managed to overshadow the bombastic personality of former President Donald Trump in the first 2024 debate, but not in the way he or his campaign wanted.

Biden stumbled right out of the gate with a hoarse voice and a series of halting answers, eventually ending one healthcare-related exchange by saying, “Look, if … we finally beat Medicare.”

While Biden recovered somewhat later in the debate, trying to ding Trump on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and his jobs record amid the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the talk when the debate ended was not about who won but whether Biden will even remain the Democratic candidate in November.

1 year ago

Hill Republicans take post-debate victory lap as Democrats ponder Biden’s future

From Ramsey Touchberry

Congressional Republicans quickly declared victory Thursday night over former President Donald Trump’s debate performance against President Joe Biden, who sounded alarm bells among Democrats for repeatedly stumbling through responses and failing to match the former president’s energy onstage.

“Only one of the men on the stage tonight is qualified and capable of being elected President in 2024,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a statement. “This is the biggest mismatch in the history of presidential debates.”

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a potential running mate for Trump, accused Biden of being “mentally and physically unfit to serve as president of the United States.”

Cami Mondeaux contributed to this report.

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1 year ago

Trump’s and Biden’s biggest zingers from heated presidential debate

From Brady Knox

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden faced off for the first time since 2020 on Thursday, delivering performances that will be remembered for years to come.

Biden targeted the former president after a stumbling start, while Trump was more restrained than in 2020, partially due to moderator restraints. The two both got in a number of memorable lines.

Here are the biggest zingers from the first 2024 presidential debate.

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1 year ago

Nikki Haley predicts Biden will step down

From Chris Irvine

Nikki Haley, who came second in the Republican primary contest, gave a prediction on the state of the race following President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance.

As well as predicting Biden would not be the nominee come November, she warned Republicans to tread carefully.

1 year ago

Democrats sound ‘alarm bells’ after Biden’s debate performance

From Naomi Lim

ATLANTA — “President Biden just looks and sounds old.”

That was the immediate reaction from Charlie Comfort, an Iowa Democrat, just 14 minutes into the first debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump of the 2024 general election.

“Can you hear my alarm bells?” Comfort wrote. “So far, he just doesn’t meet the bar.”

Unlike this year’s State of the Union, Biden’s debate performance may have exacerbated concerns about his age and mental acuity with his halting appearance on CNN in Atlanta on Thursday.

Click here to read the full story.

1 year ago

Harris dodges questions about Biden performance: ‘Slow start’

From Mabinty Quarshie

Vice President Kamala Harris dodged questioning about President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump Thursday evening, instead trying to pivot to contrasting the two candidate’s policy stances.

“First of all, what we saw tonight is the president making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all of the issues that matter to the American people,” Harris told CNN host Anderson Cooper. “Yes, there was a slow start but it was a strong finish.”

The CNN debate in Atlanta, Georgia saw Biden struggle to tamp down concerns about his mental acuity after he stumbled in his response to Trump, appeared confused at times, and spoke in a hoarse voice compared to Trump’s energetic responses.

Click here to read the full story.

1 year ago

Trump fends off ‘convicted felon’ label at first presidential debate

From Kaelan Deese

Former President Donald Trump attempted to blunt President Joe Biden invoking the former president’s conviction in New York as the two sparred in their Thursday presidential debate.

Trump, who last month became the first former president to be convicted of a felony in his hush money trial, was also the first candidate to reference the four legal cases against him as he fights to win a second term in the Oval Office. Despite the Biden campaign using that conviction to campaign against his opponent in recent weeks, Biden waited until around 45 minutes into the debate to call him a “convicted felon.”

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1 year ago

Liberal figures call on Biden to withdraw from presidential race after debate performance

From Brady Knox

Several liberal figures called on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race after his debate performance.

Biden faced former President Donald Trump for the first time since their 2020 presidential debate on Thursday. Many were disappointed in his performance, among them several significant Democratic figures.

“I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof said, suggesting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as possible replacements.

Click here to read the full story.

1 year ago

CNN’s John King: Biden’s debate performance sends Democrats into ‘aggressive panic’

From Jack Birle

CNN’s John King said in the first comments aired on the network after the debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump that there is a “deep, wide, and very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party” about Biden’s performance.

“It started minutes into the debate and it continues right now. It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers. And they‘re having conversations about the president‘s performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket, and they‘re having conversations about what they should do about it,” King said.

“Some of those conversations include ‘Should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside?’ Others are other the conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call but because they feel this debate was so terrible,” he added.

1 year ago

First presidential debate ends

From Jack Birle

The first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump has ended.

The debate on CNN was the earliest debate in modern history.

1 year ago

Trump: ‘We’re closer to WWIII than anybody can imagine’

From Mike Brest

President Donald Trump claimed President Joe Biden will drive the United States to World War III during Thursday night’s debate.

The former president argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine following the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan assuming that the U.S. would not come to Ukraine’s defense.

“We’re closer to World War III than anybody can imagine,” he said. “We are very, very close to World War III.”

Trump, who argued Ukraine would not win the war, also derided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the debate as the “greatest salesman” given the tens of billions of U.S. military support provided to Ukraine. Despite Trump’s criticisms of Biden, he did not specify how he would end the war in Russia or ensure Russian forces do not carry out an attack on a NATO country, which would invoke Article 5 of the alliance and could lead to a much wider conflict.