President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump debated at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday night, the first showdown of the 2024 general election season for the presumptive presidential nominees.
The debate was heated, with candidates accusing one another of lying about their and their opponent’s positions on the debate stage. Both presidential hopefuls also said the other candidate was not fit for office.
In one exchange, Biden and Trump couldn’t even agree on their golf games. Trump claimed the president “can’t hit a ball 50 yards.”
“I told you before, I’m happy to play golf, if you carry your own bag,” Biden responded. “Do you think you could do it?”
Here are more memorable quotes from the 90-minute debate:
Abortion
When a moderator stated that Trump was responsible for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Trump said, “Correct.”
Trump said that he supports exceptions for abortion bans in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the pregnant patient. He said he understands some anti-abortion activists don’t believe in that, saying “follow your heart — but you have to get elected also.”
He claimed some Democrat-led states allowed for abortions up to nine months of gestation or “even after birth.” There are no states that allow for killing a child after birth.
According to 2020 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, about 1% of abortions occurred after 21 weeks of pregnancy, while 93% were performed in the first trimester — before 13 weeks of gestation, and 6% between 14 and 20 weeks.
Biden rebutted that this claim was false, and that there were no states that allow infanticide or non-medically necessary abortions during the third trimester.
“That is simply not true,” Biden said. “That — Roe v. Wade does not provide for that. That’s not the circumstance. Only if a woman’s life is in danger, she’s going to die, that’s the only circumstance where that can happen. But we are not for late-term abortion. Period, period, period.”
Jan. 6 insurrection
Trump told moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper that he offered National Guard soldiers to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help defend the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection but was turned down.
“I said, ‘They ought to have some National Guard or whatever,’” Trump said. “And I offered it to her, and she now admits that she turned it down.”
