The 10 key flashpoints from US presidential debate

Joe Biden and Donald Trump last night clashed during a chaotic first debate of the 2024 US election campaign.

President Biden repeatedly stumbled over his words and could clearly be seen losing his train of thought, with Trump declaring at one stage: ‘I don’t know what he just said.’

But former president Trump also failed to land major blows in a performance littered with false claims.

At times the debate descended into chaos as the pair traded blows about their golfing ability.

Here, MailOnline looks at the key moments from last night’s CNN event in Atlanta which has sent the Democrats into an ‘aggressive’ panic.

1. Stumbling over words 

Biden’s worst moment was a rambling answer about the national debt, where he repeatedly stumbled over his words before stopping altogether. 

He confused millions and billions twice, mixed up a 24 and 25 per cent  rate of tax before losing his train of thought and desperately staring down at his notes.

‘We beat Medicare,’ he eventually said before the CNN moderator stepped in to say: ‘Thank you President Biden.’

Trump took advantage of his fumbling opponent, telling voters: ‘He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.’

2. Trump: ‘I did not have sex with a pornstar.’

There was no surprise that Biden brought up Trump’s criminal conviction – but it was a shock how hard he went in on it.

‘The only person in this stage is a convicted felon as the man I’m looking at right now,’ Biden said.

Trump hit back by noting Biden’s son Hunter was convicted of three felonies related to a 2018 gun purchase.

‘We’re going to make this country successful again, because right now it’s a failing nation. My retribution is going to be success. But when he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon. At a very high level. His son is convicted,’ Trump said.

‘We’d have a system that was rigged and disgusting. I did nothing wrong,’ he said..

Biden then brought up his reported affair with the low blow that it allegedly happened when Melania Trump was pregnant with Barron.

‘The crimes you are still charged with and think of all the civil penalties you have – how many billions of dollars in civil penalties for molesting a woman of public, for doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star on the night while your wife is pregnant?,’ he said, adding: ‘You have the morals of an alley cat.’

‘I didn’t have sex with a porn star number one,’ Trump responded. ‘Number two, that was a case that was started and moved. They moved a high ranking official at DOJ into the Manhattan DA ‘s office to start that case. That case is going to be appealed and one we had a very terrible judge.

3. Biden: ‘You are a child’

During a 90-minute debate which covered all things from immigration to the economy, somehow the two candidates started bickering about their golfing ability.

Trump and Biden were both asked about concerns about their ages. Biden is 81 and Trump is 78, giving them a combined age of 159.

Trump bragged about winning two golf tournaments recently, ‘and not even senior, two regular club championships.’ He said the feat requires a golfer to be ‘quite smart’ and able to hit the ball a long way.

Biden said he’d happily take on Trump in a driving contest, bragging he got his handicap ‘down to a six’ when he was vice president.

‘I’m happy to play golf with you if you carry your own bag,’ Biden said to Trump. ‘Think you can do it?’

The Republican candidate said Biden ‘can’t hit a ball 50 yards’, but the Democrat hit back saying he had a handicap of six while he was vice president.

Trump said Biden’s handicap claim was the ‘biggest lie’, prompting the pair to start clashing with one another again.

 ‘Let’s not act like children,’ Trump said eventually. ‘You are a child,’ Mr Biden hit back.

Long after the debate was over, golf was still on Trump’s mind. He posted a video of himself hitting a long drive. 

4. Trump: ‘I really don’t know what he just said.’

On a night in which President Biden repeatedly stumbled over his words, Trump landed a bitter blow by calling his rival out on it.

Another serious fumble came when he talking about the number of billionaires in America and the situation on the border.

Trump repeatedly managed to hit back hard at the 81-year-old on the repeated fumbles.

‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,’ the former president said at one point.

5. Suckers and losers

The two political rivals clashed again when discussing the US military.

Biden furiously attacked Trump for allgedly referring to members of the military as ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’.

‘My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker you’re the loser,’ Biden said.

‘They made it up,’ Trump replied. ‘We had 19 people that said I didn’t say it.’

He then demanded an apology from Biden.

‘He made up the suckers and losers so he should apologise to be right now.’

But Biden hit back himself, declaring: ‘The idea I have to apologise to you for anything.’

‘We think the Democrats are the radicals, not the Republicans,’ Trump said.

6. No handshake

President Biden and Trump did not shake hands where they entered the debate stage for what was the first presidential debate in four years. Biden arrived first and then Trump. They simply stood at their podiums, starting straight ahead.

The men also failed to shake hands at the last debate four years ago – but that was due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sources suggested that Biden was battling with a cold in the days before last night’s debate – but had tested negative for Covid. 

The debate opened with Biden being asked:  ‘What do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under President Trump?’

With a hoarse voice, he answered by describing the American economy as ‘in freefall’ 

7. ‘Biden migrant crime’

Donald Trump said Biden had failed to secure the southern US border, leading to an influx of scores of criminals.

‘I call it Biden migrant crime,’ he said.

But Biden hit back, saying:  ‘Once again, he’s exaggerating, he’s lying.’

Trump, referring to Biden, said: ‘He’s the one that killed people with a bad border and flooding hundreds of thousands of people dying and also killing our citizens when they come in.’ 

A mass influx of migrants coming into the U.S. illegally across the southern border has led to a number of false and misleading claims by Trump. 

For example, he regularly claims other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions to send to the U.S. There is no evidence to support that.

Trump has also argued the influx of immigrants is causing a crime surge in the U.S., although statistics actually show violent crime is on the way down.

There have been recent high-profile and heinous crimes allegedly committed by people in the country illegally. 

But FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, nor is there any evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing the greatest influx of migrants, like New York.

8. Clashing over who’s extreme on abortion

Biden blamed Trump for eroding abortion rights after the Republican’s three nominees to the Supreme Court voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, which had recognised a nationwide constitutional right to abortion. 

The reversal has energised many voters who support abortion rights and it helped power Democratic victories in the 2022 midterms and special elections.

‘It’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done,’ Biden said, turning to his rival. He pledged to restore the law under Roe if given a second term but didn’t say how he’d accomplish that. 

He said the idea of turning abortion laws back to states ‘is like saying we’re going to turn civil rights back to the states.’

Trump said his presidency returned the issue of abortion to the people through state laws. 

He said he supports abortion ban exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, and he repeated his false claim that Biden supports abortion up to and after birth.

‘We think the Democrats are the radicals, not the Republicans,’ Trump said.

Trump said Democrats support abortion until birth and that ‘everybody’ wanted to overturn Roe v Wade. But less than one per cent of abortions in the US are performed at or past 21 weeks and Roe remained popularly throughout the half-century it was in effect.

9. Bickering over age 

More than 80 minutes into the debate, Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, were asked about their age and ability to serve well into their 80s.

Biden spotlighted a litany of policy achievements and said Trump is ‘three years younger and a lot less competent.’ Biden also used the answer to slap at Trump for bad-mouthing the United States.

‘The idea that we are some kind of failing country? I’ve never heard a president talk like that before,’ Biden said.

In his retort, Trump said he was in as good a shape as he was 25 years ago and perhaps ‘even a little bit lighter.’ He said he’s ‘aced’ cognitive tests and called on Biden to take one.

Though the men are not far apart in age, more voters worry that Biden is too old.

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they are ‘very concerned’ that Biden is too old to be president, according to Gallup data collected in June. Only 18% had the same level of concern about Trump.

10. January 6 riots 

Trump lied about his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, and tried to deflect by pivoting to other issues.

Pressed on his role, he said he encouraged people to act ‘peacefully and patriotically,’ then changed the subject to launch an attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

He said Biden ought to ‘be ashamed’ for the way the Jan. 6 defendants have been handled.

Trump, who has floated the idea of pardons for the rioters, suggested his supporters who stormed the Capitol were actually peaceful and are now being politically persecuted.

In fact, the rioters engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police and used makeshift weapons to attack officers. More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal offenses stemming from the riot, and more than 1,000 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.

‘The only person who’s on this stage that’s a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now,’ Biden said of his rival.