Biden appears to freeze, then attacks Trump for ‘affair’ — debate live

He cited the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the crisis at the border as sackable offences. “I’ve never seen him fire anybody. I did fire a lot,” Trump said. “I fired [the FBI director James] Comey because he was no good. I fired a lot of the top people at the FBI, drained the swamp. They were no good, not easy to fire people.”

Asked what he would do to tackle the climate crisis, Trump claimed that he had the “best” environment during his presidency. “I want absolutely immaculate, clean water, and I want absolutely clean air. And we had it,” he said.

Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement aimed at reducing emissions, and his administration rolled back several Obama-era rules aimed at reducing pollution.

Midway through the debate, Trump had tallied up significantly more talking time than Biden, according to CNN.

Both candidates have an equal chance to respond to questions, but can opt not to use the maximum allowable time.

In the first half of the debate, Trump claimed that Biden had “become like a Palestinian”, appearing to use the word as an insult. “They don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian,” he said. “A weak one.”

When Biden was asked what he would do to end the war between Israel and Hamas, Biden said that he would seek to trade hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a continued “ceasefire with additional conditions”.

In one of his most notable moments of the debate so far, Biden went after Trump for being found liable for sexual assault, owing billions in civil legal penalties and for his alleged affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels while married to Melania Trump.

“You assaulted women in public. You had sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant. You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden said. Trump replied: “I didn’t have sex with a porn star”.

Nearly 45 minutes in, Biden raised Trump’s 34 felony convictions for the first time.

Trump was asked whether he condemned the January 6 riots at the Capitol, and supported the convictions against those who assaulted police. He seemed to defend the people who were arrested and charged, saying “they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself”.

Biden replied: “The only person on the stage that is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now. The idea that those people are patriots? Come on.”

Asked about the war in Ukraine, Trump repeated his claim that the war would never have started had he won the 2020 election.

He links Russian militarism to the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it made the US look weak and vulnerable. “If we had a real president, a president that was respected, he would have never invaded,” he said.

Trump went on to say he discussed Putin’s plans about the invasion in Ukraine. When it was Biden’s turn to talk, he replied: “I’ve never heard so much malarkey in my whole life.”

As Biden talked about visiting a veterans’ cemetery in France for D-Day remembrances, he brought up a quote attributed to Trump during his presidency, when he is alleged to have described dead US soldiers as “suckers and losers”.

Biden mentions his son, Beau Biden, a veteran who died of brain cancer in 2015, telling Trump angrily: “My son was not a sucker or a loser. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser.”

Trump denies he made the remark, which was attributed to him by his former chief of staff John Kelly.

As Biden was attacking Trump for his tax cuts and arguing that taxing billionaires would eliminate the deficit, Biden stumbled again.

“Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the Covid … excuse me … with dealing with everything we have to do with … look … if we finally beat Medicare …”

When the question was passed over to Trump, the former president said: “He’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death, and he’s destroying Medicare.”

Biden then defended his record on immigration with a lengthy answer.

As Trump is asked to respond, he replied: “I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don’t think he knew what he said either.”

Biden’s voice sounds raspy, and he is speaking in long, rambling sentences and struggling to find words. Much of the pre-debate analysis had centred around what sort of Trump would turn up. So far it has been the calm, assured version of the former president.

Biden appeared to momentarily freeze on the debate stage. While defending his record on Covid, Biden lost his train of thought and then stopped talking altogether.

After an awkward delay of several seconds, the moderator Jake Tapper stepped in and asked Trump a question on a different topic.

Trump gave Biden a furtive sideways glance but moved on without referring to Biden’s misstep.

Trump said his policy of imposing a 10 per cent tariff on all imports would not be inflationary.

He goes on to falsely claim that Biden’s record job growth came from “illegal immigrants”. He then brought up the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan during the first year of Biden’s presidency, which he described as “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life”.

Jake Tapper’s first question is on the number one election issue: inflation.

Biden blames the economy left behind after Trump’s first administration, saying the economy was in freefall and there were “no jobs”. “By the time he left things were chaos, literally chaos, so we put things back together,” he said.

Trump then defends his record, saying he had created the strongest economy in the world. “Everything was rocking,” he said. “But the never thing we got the credit for was getting us out of that Covid mess. Inflation is killing our country.”

Biden has taken the stage, mumbled “good evening” as he took his position behind the dais. Trump did not look at Biden as he took his place on the stage.

CNN’s moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, earlier explained the debate rules, before introducing the two candidates. The microphones are muted for those not speaking, there is no studio audience and the candidates are not allowed to confer with their advisers.

Biden has mocked Trump’s claims that he will be “jacked up” on drugs by sharing a photo of a Biden-branded beverage minutes before he was due to take the debate stage. A slogan on the can of “zero malarkey” Biden water describes the unknown liquid as “Dark Brandon’s secret sauce”.

The Dark Brandon meme that emerged on social media to as an internet alter ego of Biden’s. “I don’t know what they’ve got in these performance enhancers, but I’m feeling pretty jacked up,” Biden wrote on X.

Several of Trump’s top possible vice-presidential picks are in attendance tonight.

Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, JD Vance, an Ohio senator, and Doug Burgum, the North Dakota governor, are expected to be representing Trump as surrogates in the spin room. Elise Stefanik, a New York congresswoman, posted a picture on X a few minutes ago showing a group of supporters including Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senators, on their way to the debate.

Trump has said he has already chosen his running-mate, but not yet told anyone.

• Gerard Baker: Trump’s running-mate could be 2028 favourite

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, has defended his friendly relationship with Trump when he was president.

Newsom, who is acting as a Biden campaign surrogate, told CNN that Trump had “delivered” for the state as it battled Covid, wildfires and floods, but had more recently taken to taunting him.

“He called me ‘Newscum’. But I’ll work with anyone who wants to advance the cause of my country, this state,” said Newsom, who is tipped to run for the presidency in 2028. “Open hand, not closed fist.”

Trump said before the debate that “everything we love and cherish” is on the line. In remarks shared with Judicial Watch, a conservative legal organisation, Trump said: “Now we’re engaged in the most important election in the history of our country.”

Trump thanked the organisation for having “boldly exposed” Biden’s persecution of “political opponents like me and Catholics and pro-life activists”. He added: “You stood strong against communists, Marxists and fascists every step of the way.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate, said he would be “honoured” to serve in the Trump administration in some capacity but has not yet been asked to.

Ramaswamy, who was mentioned as a possible Trump running-mate, told reporters in the spin room before the debate that he would be happy with the job of White House chief of staff. He said the former president’s backers would “walk on hot coals” to support him.

Donald Trump is “in the zone”, his son Eric told Fox News. “He’s totally in the mood … He came off that plane looking strong… he just had a certain glow when he came off that plane tonight.”

Arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson International about 90 minutes ago, Trump waved at a crowd of supporters who chanted his name on the tarmac. Eric added: “The entire country is rooting for him. The entire country understands the sham we have right now. This nation is behind him, this nation loves him.”

Elise Stefanik, a Trump campaign surrogate, said in a pre-debate interview on Fox News that Biden’s “weak, failed, feckless” leadership had created “catastrophic crises”.

The Republican congresswoman from New York, who is a contender to be Trump’s running-mate, cited the border, inflation and “chaos around the globe” as examples of an ineffectual Biden administration. “Compare that with the success of President Donald Trump’s presidency — record economic growth, you saw peace through strength and energy independence,” she said. “So there will be a stark contrast tonight.”

Barack Obama’s chief election strategist has warned Biden that his record alone will not win him re-election.

During an animated panel discussion on CNN, David Axelrod said: “I actually admire the president’s record, but if he spends the whole night extolling his own record and doesn’t take the case to Trump, he will lose this debate, and he might lose this election in November.”

Axelrod oversaw Obama’s winning campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and served as a senior White House adviser to the former president.

Gavin Newsom in the spin room before the debate

JOHN BAZEMORE/AP

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, said it was “disgraceful” for Trump’s campaign to suggest that Biden would be on drugs at the debate tonight.

Speaking to reporters in the media spin room before the debate, Newsom said the smear tactic was “typical of somebody who’s a bit unhinged”.

At a Saturday campaign rally in Philadelphia, Trump suggested Biden might get “a shot in the ass” before the debate and that he would come out on stage “all jacked up”.

His supporters demanded Biden submit to a drug test. “It’s embarrassing, the lack of character and conviction, lack of backbone,” Newsom said. “It’s a character trait that unfortunately has affected most of the party.”

Trump “jokes … about suspending the constitution”, Newsom added. “This is serious stuff … We’re talking about the future of the free world … Someone who’s going to wreck our democracy.

“We’re going to win this election. This guy is weak. He’s a loser. And the Maga movement’s been losing in 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024. We need to get back on offence. Because Joe Biden represents everybody, right across this country. You cannot say that about Donald Trump. He cares about one human being … himself.”

An author who wrote the definitive history of The Apprentice says that to win Biden must avoid turning the debate into a reality television show.

Setoodeh’s book draws from months of interviews with the former president

Ramin Setoodeh said that Trump looked at the world as if it were a show, and would try to stoke and embrace the drama on Thursday night. “The challenge for Biden is: ‘how does he stop Trump from bringing him into the boardroom and making him a contestant?’”

Setoodeh interviewed Trump several times while writing Apprentice In Wonderland, which is released in the UK on August 1.

Jaker Tapper with his wife, Jennifer, in 2018

PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES

Jake Tapper, the CNN presenter who is serving as co-moderator tonight, has faced claims of anti-Trump bias. Last year Tapper, who is Jewish, compared Trump to Adolf Hitler over his claim that illegal immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”.

Tapper said: “If you were to open up a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, you would find the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-Germans with Germans as poisoning. The Jew, Hitler wrote, ‘poisons the blood of others’ … Donald Trump’s language mirrors this directly.”

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign national press secretary, told CNN earlier this week the former president would be entering a “hostile environment on this very network”. CNN has pushed back on the claims, and insisted that Tapper and his fellow moderator Dana Bash would be fair.

Trump’s surrogates are already holding court in the spin room at the media centre (Hugh Tomlinson writes from Atlanta).

Byron Donalds, a Florida congressman and outside contender to be Trump’s running-mate, confirmed that the former president would hit Biden on inflation, immigration and crime, the core issues of his campaign. “He’ll be talking about the issues — prices at home, prices at the supermarket … fentanyl, girls being sold into sex slavery,” Donalds told reporters. “We have not seen leadership in the Oval Office under Joe Biden. We can barely find Joe Biden.”

Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump aide who flew into Atlanta with the former president, said Biden’s record on the economy and immigration had been “devastating” for America. “Tonight is an opportunity to remind the American people of how things were when he was president and to remind people of where the Biden administration has taken us in the last three years,” he said. “He wants to relay what his vision is for America.”

He said Trump was in “a great mood” on the plane and “very focused”, adding: “I’m confident [Trump] can stand for 90 minutes. I’m less confident that Biden can. I know he’s been practising that.”

ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES

“Welcome to the safest building in America,” a security guard said as he searched reporters’ bags at the entrance to the press arena (Hugh Tomlinson writes from Atlanta).

Before Biden and Trump’s arrival, the area around tonight’s venue was transformed into a militarised zone. Midtown Atlanta has been locked down for several blocks in every direction, patrolled by armed police.

The only access is through the campus of Georgia Tech university, where the student frat houses on the edge of the security cordon are making a night of it. One house carried a banner declaring: “Make America Drunk Again”, while students on the front porch poured drinks and blasted hip-hop.

Across the street, supporters of independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr danced on top of a bus in the steady rain, while a jaunty campaign song called for “No more CIA.”

Supporters of Kennedy drive outside the perimeter of the debate hall

MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA

The campaign of Robert F Kennedy, the independent candidate who failed to meet CNN’s threshold to appear in tonight’s debate, is organising a series of protests against the broadcaster.

Kennedy, 70, said earlier this week that thousands of people were attending nationwide demonstrations against the “undemocratic” decision to exclude him. In a fundraising email, Kennedy’s campaign claimed that Biden and Trump were worried his presence “would catapult Bobby into the national spotlight, with devastating consequences for the two-party candidates”.

BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES

In an attempt at counter-programming, he is holding a “real debate” on X/Twitter.

The Bidens and the Obamas in 2008

Michelle Obama has not been campaigning for President Biden’s re-election in part because of how he handled his son Hunter’s divorce from a close friend of hers, according to a report.

Jill Biden, the first lady, said her husband was “ready to go” for the debate during a speech to supporters in Atlanta.

“He’s prepared. He’s confident. You’ve all seen him debate. You know what a great debater he is. And good is on his side,” she said, adding there was a “clear choice” in the election to secure “our democracy and our freedoms”.

From left: Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Doug Burgum, JD Vance and Elise Stefanik

Having long sewn up the Republican presidential nomination, Trump has for months been teasing his vice-presidential candidate announcement in recent interviews and press statements.

On Sunday he said he had chosen his running-mate but not yet told anyone, and that he would announce the choice at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which begins on July 15.

His campaign has requested paperwork from at least eight potential candidates, with Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, JD Vance, a senator from Ohio, and Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida, emerging as the likely picks. Other contenders include Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina, Byron Donalds, a Florida congressman and Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York.

• Read more: Who will be Trump’s pick for VP? Meet the candidates

Ben Hoyle, foreign editor of The Sunday Times, speaks to Manveen Rana in a special episode of The Story podcast.

Mary Trump, the former president’s estranged niece, said the lack of a live audience and muted microphones would be an advantage for Biden.

Mary Trump is backing Biden over her uncle

CNN

“Donald will not be able to contain himself for that long,” she told CNN. She is in the debate media room at CNN’s Atlanta studios as a surrogate for the Biden campaign, and said she was prepared to do anything she could to help defeat her uncle in November’s elections.

One president denied the existence of the Iron Curtain. Another made his rival burst out laughing. Will we see such gaffes and zingers tonight?

Read more and watch clips of showdowns from Kennedy v Nixon to the first Biden-Trump clash.

Trump has arrived in Atlanta, disembarking from his private jet at Hartsfield-Jackson International a short time ago. He waved at a crowd of well-wishers on the tarmac before being driven off in a motorcade.

There has been some speculation about whether Melania Trump would attend tonight’s debate in Atlanta, and there was no sign of the former first lady.

A quarter of voters have an unfavourable view of both this year’s presidential candidates, the highest proportion in modern history. Will tonight’s debate change that?

Read more: Rise of the double hater throws election wide open

A slew of new polls show Trump with a lead over Biden in the race for the White House. A New York Times-Siena poll released on Thursday had Trump four points ahead, which Nate Silver, a polling expert, said gave Trump a 65.7 per cent chance of winning the electoral college, compared with Biden’s 33.7 per cent chance.

A separate Washington Post-George Mason University poll found that more voters trusted Trump to handle threats to democracy than Biden. Biden has made threats to democracy a central plank of his campaign.

In polling averages, Trump is leading Biden in the seven key states that will determine the outcome of the election. They are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina.

Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will co-moderate

Tonight’s proceedings are unusual in several ways. The candidates’ microphones will be muted when they are not speaking, and there will be no studio audience. The terms were agreed on by both campaigns, and are seen by some commentators as favourable to Biden as they deprive Trump of chances for his usual frequent interruptions and the energy of a live audience.

For the first time in three decades, the event will not be overseen by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. It is also the earliest in the election cycle a debate has been held. Dana Bash and Jake Tapper will moderate.

The president was greeted by Stacey Abrams, a former candidate for governor, at Dobbins Air Reserve Base

EVAN VUCCI/AP

Biden has spent much of the past week off the radar at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, preparing with mock debates. Trump’s preparation has been in sharp contrast as the former president has eschewed dress rehearsals and instead held rallies and informal policy round tables in battleground states.

• Read more: what the two candidates must do to win