President Joe Biden squared off with his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, on the economy, border security, foreign policy, abortion, and national security in the first presidential debate. Thursday's debate was a 90-minute, argument-heavy and personal-attack-laden affair, with Biden calling Trump a "sucker and loser." Biden said that Trump had not visited the cemetery of a World War I era because Trump called fallen soldiers "losers." Trump had denied the allegations, saying that the viewpoint was factually incorrect in the case of the cemetery and that the quotes were fabricated from a "third-rate magazine."
"I was recently in France for D-Day, and I spoke to all about those heroes that died. I went to the World War II cemetery — the World War I cemetery he refused to go to,” Biden, the presumptive candidate of the Democratic Party, said, referring to Trump, who declined to visit the commentary in 2018.
"He was standing with his four-star general, and he told me, he said, ‘I don’t want to go in there, because they're a bunch of losers and suckers. My son was not a loser. He’s not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser,” Biden said.
The matter of their ages cropped up during the debate as well, with Biden responding to Trump's claim about his mental acuity by mentioning how Trump was only three years younger than him.
The debate heated up as the two presidential candidates launched into mutual accusations. Trump mouthed "criminal" in response to "convicted felon" after Biden made that comment, insinuating Trump's legal cases. Biden shot back at him, labeling him a reportedly very uninformed and indecent person and lambasted policy concerning NATO and immigration.
Trump faulted Biden on immigration policy and said his policies opened the borders to people that make the country unsafe, while Biden touts his record as vice-president, boasting of accomplishments that include improvement in veterans' benefits and lambasting Trump as a poor international leader.
The debate further took up foreign policy matters, like the conflict in Ukraine, where Trump laid the responsibility on Biden, with the latter calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal." Both candidates had different takes on how international conflicts could be solved: Trump was for a hard line, and Biden underscored the role of diplomacy and alliances.
The conversation concluded with a question about accepting results from the 2024 election, where Trump indicated he would accept the result if it was fair, while Biden expressed doubt that Trump would be willing to accept defeat.
