Eight weeks before the United States votes, Republic presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democrat opponent Kamala Harris are now facing off in the presidential debate. At the start of the debate, Harris and Trump shook hands after they were introduced on stage. This ends an eight-year streak of no handshakes on the presidential debate stage.

Asked to respond to a question on economy and the cost of living, an issue high on voters’ minds, Ms Harris spoke of her middle-class background and her plans to support families and small businesses if elected to the top post. Targeting Trump, she said he would provide tax cuts to “billionaires and big corporations” and also reminded the viewers of the condition he left the economy in when Joe Biden took over. At one point, Ms Harris said, “Donald Trump has no plan for you.”

Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump are veering sharply in how they gear up for Tuesday’s (September 10, 2024) presidential debate, setting up a showdown that reflects not just two separate visions for the country but two politicians who approach big moments very differently.

The Vice President is cloistered in a historic hotel in downtown Pittsburgh where she can focus on honing crisp two-minute answers, per the debate’s rules. She’s been working with aides since Thursday and chose a venue that allows the Democratic nominee the option of mingling with swing-state voters.

Mr. Trump publicly dismisses the value of studying for the debate. The former President is choosing instead to fill his days with campaign-related events on the premise that he’ll know what he needs to do once he steps on the debate stage at the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia.

“You can go in with all the strategy you want but you have to sort of feel it out as the debate’s taking place,” he said during a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Mr. Trump then quoted former boxing great Mike Tyson, who said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Ms. Harris has said she is prepared for Mr. Trump to rattle off insults and misrepresent facts, even as her campaign has seen value in focusing on the middle class and the prospects of a better future for the country.

“We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth,” Harris said in a radio interview for the Rickey Smiley Morning Show. “He tends to fight for himself, not for the American people, and I think that’s going to come out during the course of the debate.” In her own preparation, Ms.Harris has the Democratic consultant Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, portraying Trump. She likes to describe Trump as having a “playbook” of falsehoods to go after Democrats such as Clinton and former President Barack Obama.

Ms. Harris has said she understands Trump on a deeper psychological level. She has tried in speeches like her remarks at the Democratic National Convention to show that she would be a stronger leader than him — an argument that gets at Trump’s own desire to project and show strength.

Mr. Trump’s June 27 debate against President Joe Biden shook up the election, with Mr. Biden’s disastrous performance ultimately leading to him stepping aside as the Democratic nominee and endorsing Harris. Both campaigns know the first in-person meeting between Harris and Trump could be a decisive event in a tight race.

Mr. Trump is preemptively criticising the ABC News debate moderators, claiming he will not be treated fairly. But he said he plans to let Ms.Harris speak, just as he did during his debate with Mr. Biden.

“I let him talk. I’m gonna let her talk,” he said during the Hannity town hall.

Mr. Trump aides said that this time would be no different than the previous debate and that the former president would not be doing any more traditional prep. There are no stand-ins, no sets, no play-acting.

Instead, they point to Trump’s frequent interviews, including taking questions at lengthy press conferences, sitting for hourlong podcasts, and participating in town halls with friendly hosts like Hannity.

Mr. Trump also meets regularly with policy advisers who are experts on issues that may come up during the debate. During these informal sessions, they talk about the issues, Mr. Trump’s policies while he was in office, and the plans he’s put forth for a second term.

“I have meetings on it. We talk about it. But there’s not a lot you can do. You either know your subject or not. You either have good policy or not,” he said in a New Hampshire radio interview.

Before the last debate Mr. Trump held sessions with notable Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who at the time was under consideration to be Mr. Trump’s vice presidential pick. This time he has held sessions with Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate who is now backing Trump.

Gabbard, who is also now a member of Mr. Trump’s transition team, was brought in specifically to help Trump this time around because she knows Harris, having debated her when the two were running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. She also hosted a recent town hall with Trump in Wisconsin.

Mr. Trump, aides insist, intends to put Harris on the defensive. He wants to portray her as too liberal as he tries to tie her to Biden’s economic record and points out her reversals on issues such as a fracking ban that she no longer supports.

“We look forward for the opportunity for Americans to see her on stage, incapable of defending her policies and flip-flops,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “The President’s proven he has a command of the issues, she does not.” Ms. Harris’ team is banking that Trump will come off as extreme and that they can use the debate as a springboard to further build on the momentum that her short campaign has generated. The campaign plans to use the pre-debate weekend to hold 2,000 events with volunteers and reach more than one million voters.

“With hundreds of offices and thousands of staff across the battlegrounds, we are able to harness all the buzz around the debate and break through to hard-to-reach voters,” said Dan Kanninen, the campaign’s battleground states director, in a statement.

Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are all set to participate in the highly-anticipated first Presidential debate next week. Ahead of the September 10 face-off, Ms Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, spoke about their debates as a married couple in a new interview with ‘Pod Save America’. The US Vice President and her husband were both accomplished lawyers before entering politics, Mr Emhoff shared in the interview. So, when ‘Pod Save America’ cohost Tommy Vietor asked the second gentleman about the upcoming presidential debate between Ms Harris and former US President Donald Trump, Mr Emhoff revealed that he has never won a debate against his wife. 

“I assume no one has debated with her more often than you have,” Mr Vietor said. “What should we expect? What should we look for?” he asked, as per Business Insider.

“I haven’t won one,” Mr Emhoff said of debating Ms Harris. He then went on to call Ms Harris a “great debater” and “first-class trial lawyer”. 

“It’s not like we’re in a debate, but I realize if we’re talking about something, any really good lawyer will lay little traps for you along the way, and as I’m going through this discussion about some husband-wife thing, I say ‘Oh, that’s what you’re doing!'” he said, adding, “I was a pretty good trial lawyer too.”

Notably, before entering politics, Ms Harris served as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California. Mr Emhoff, on the other hand, was a partner at DLA Piper in Los Angeles specialising in intellectual property and entertainment and media law. The couple celebrated their 10-year anniversary in August. 

“Kamala Harris was exactly the right person for me at an important time in my life. At this moment in this nation’s history she is exactly the right president,” the 59-year-old said last month at the Democratic National Convention. 

Also Read | Harris Or Trump? ‘Nostradamus’ Of US Presidential Elections Makes Final Prediction For 2024

Kamala Harris will face-off Donald Trump on September 10, Tuesday in a debate hosted by ABC News. The campaigns have traded barbs while negotiating the host network and rules of the debate, such as whether their microphones will stay unmuted. 

Regarding this, Mr Emhoff said, “It’s Donald Trump, so who the hell knows what you’re going to get, but I know from her she’s going to be talking about us, she’s going to be talking about the American people.” 

ABC News is hosting the second presidential debate on Tuesday, September 10, at 9 pm ET. It will be the first time Ms Harris and Mr Trump debate each other. The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

This combination of file pictures created on August 3, 2024 shows US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaking on March 26, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina; and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking in the first presidential debate with US President Joe Biden in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. ABC will host a presidential debate between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris on September 10, the US television network confirmed on August 8.
“Vice President Harris and former President Trump have both confirmed they will attend,” the network said on X.
| Photo Credit: AFP

ABC says both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have agreed to a September 10 presidential debate, setting up a face-off between the Republican and Democratic nominees.

The announcement on Thursday (August 8, 2024) came shortly after Trump told a news conference that he had proposed three presidential debates with three television networks, saying he agreed on certain dates in September.

Trump is rejoining the ABC debate days after posting on his social media network that he would not appear on the network, citing a lawsuit he has filed. His decision sets up a highly anticipated moment in an election where the first debate led to a massive change in the race — with Democratic President Joe Biden ending his reelection bid and endorsing Harris.

“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said Thursday. “I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.”

The Harris campaign had no immediate comment.

Trump had teased an announcement about the presidential debate earlier this week after pulling out of an ABC News debate scheduled for September 10 after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign. Trump had said he would prefer that Fox News sponsor the debate, but on Wednesday was showing willingness to reconsider ABC.

Trump also echoed criticism from his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, that Harris has not held a news conference or sat down for interviews since Mr. Biden’s withdrawal last month and she entered the race.

Ms. Harris has a travelling press pool with her on Air Force Two for all trips. Trump does not have a set travelling press pool that regularly accompanies him on his plane when he goes out to campaign.

Mr. Vance has journalists flying with him, and he campaigned this week in states where Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz had their own events scheduled. That included on Wednesday, when Mr. Vance’s plane and Air Force Two ended up on the same tarmac in Wisconsin. Mr. Vance started walking toward the Democrats’ plane but did not reach it before a motorcade carrying Ms. Harris, Mr. Walz and the travelling press pulled away.

U.S. President Joe Biden has dismissed concerns about his health and doubts about his re-election bid in November, brushing off a poor performance in the presidential debate as a “bad episode” and insisting that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the race.

Mr. Biden, 81, said this on July 5 in a television interview, a week after his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta against his Republican rival Donald Trump, following which some of his own Democratic Party leaders started urging him to step down and his approval rating plummeted.

In the 22-minute high-stakes interview on ABC News aimed at quelling a burgeoning rebellion in the Democratic party, Mr. Biden, who is seeking a second term, said he had “a bad night” and he was “exhausted” and “sick” during his first presidential debate with Mr. Trump.

He asserted that only the “Lord Almighty” could make him drop out of the race to win the November 5 election.

He claimed that he is “running the world” and no one is “more qualified” to be President.

Asked whether he would be willing to have an independent cognitive evaluation and release the results to the American people, Mr. Biden said: “Look, I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I’ve had tests. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world.”

The President said in the interview that he was “sick” before the debate. Asked whether it was a bad episode or a sign of a more serious condition, Mr. Biden dismissed those concerns.

“It was a bad episode. No indication of any serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and — and a bad night,” Mr. Biden said during his first interview after the debate, adding that his top party leadership are asking him to stay in the race.

“Because I was sick. I was feeling terrible. Matter of fact the docs (doctors are) with me. I asked if they did a COVID test because they were trying to figure out what was wrong. They did a test to see whether or not I had some infection, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold,” he said and reiterated multiple times that he was running for the presidency.

Blaming himself for the bad debate night in Atlanta, Mr. Biden said, “Yeah, look. The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault but mine. I prepared what I usually would do sitting down as I did come back with foreign leaders or the National Security Council for explicit detail,” adding that Mr. Trump “lied 28 times” during the debate.

Mr. Biden said none of the major Democratic party leaders have asked him to drop out and asserted that he would withdraw only if the “Lord Almighty” asked him to.

“If the Lord Almighty came down and said ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not coming down,” he added.

The President tried to avoid questions on both his mental fitness and cognitive tests.

“Do you dispute that there have been more lapses, especially in the last seven months?” Mr. Biden was asked.

“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No. But I’m still in good shape,” he responded.

“Are you more frail?” he was asked. “No. Come keep my schedule,” he said.

Mr. Biden alleged that Mr. Trump is a pathological liar.

Asked by the interviewer whether he was being honest with himself about his ability to beat Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden said, “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” He pointed to previous polls that showed he couldn’t win in 2020 as proof and subsequent down-ballot elections, denying extensive polling that reflects a race where he is trailing.

In a reaction to Biden’s interview, Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna, according to The New York Times, said he expected “complete transparency” from the White House and a willingness to answer “many legitimate questions” from the news media and voters about the president’s abilities.

“He has to earn that trust, and that requires more than one interview,” Khanna was quoted as saying by the daily.

ABC News said it offered a similar one-on-one interview to Trump, 78, but the former president declined.

Earlier during a rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin, Biden asserted that he is in the race and will win the election again.

“We had a little debate last week. Can’t say it was my best performance. But ever since then, there’s been a lot of speculation. What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out? What’s he going to do? Well, here’s my answer. I am running and going to win again,” Mr. Biden told his cheering supporters.

“…Some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for, well, guess what? They’re trying to push me out of the race. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can. I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump. I beat him in 2020. And by the way, we’re going to do it again in 2024.” Biden also took this opportunity to address the issue of his advancing age.

“You probably also noticed a lot of discussion about my age. I keep seeing all those stories about I’m being too old. Let me say something. I wasn’t too old to create over 15 million new jobs to make sure 21 million Americans are insured under the Affordable Care Act; to beat Big Pharma, the first firm to ever do that, and lower the cost of it to $35 a season,” he said.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to the press with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Maryland Governor Wes Moore after attending a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and other Democratic governors at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 3, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Democratic governors of New York, Minnesota and Maryland on Wednesday said they would support U.S. President Joe Biden’s reelection bid after a candid discussion with him about his weak performance in last week’s debate.

“The president has always had our backs. We’re going to have his back as well,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore told reporters after a meeting with Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House that included 24 Democratic governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., some joining online.

Mr. Moore said the governors were frank in relaying negative feedback from constituents about Mr. Biden’s poor performance during the debate with Republican rival Donald Trump. He said there was clearly work to do before the Nov. 5 election, but Biden had made it clear he would stay in the race.

“The president… he’s our nominee. The president is our party leader,” Mr. Moore said. There has been growing talk among Democrats in recent days that 81-year-old Biden should drop out of the race.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she felt confident after the meeting and all the governors pledged their support to Mr. Biden. The president is “in it to win it,” she said.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said Mr. Biden’s debate performance on Thursday was bad but he felt Mr. Biden was fit for office.

“Obviously we, like many Americans, are a little worried. We’re worried because the threat of a Trump presidency is not theoretical,” Mr. Walz said, adding that the previous Trump presidency was marked by “chaos, destruction.”

Nearly a dozen of the State leaders attended the meeting in person, but only three spoke with reporters afterwards.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who participated in person, posted his reaction on social platform X: “I heard three words from the President tonight — he’s all in. And so am I.”

Mr. Biden’s campaign said the president reiterated his determination “to defeat the existential threat of Donald Trump at the ballot box in November” and discussed the importance of electing Democrats up and down the ballot.

“All participants reiterated their shared commitment to do everything possible to make sure President Biden and Vice President Harris beat Donald Trump in November,” it said.

File picture of U.S. President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday acknowledged his performance during the June 27 presidential debate wasn’t his best, but blamed it on jet lag after two overseas trips earlier in June.

Mr. Biden has faced mounting questions about his 2024 reelection bid after last week’s shaky debate performance, with one House of Representatives fellow Democrat on Tuesday publicly calling on him to withdraw from the race.

Speaking at a campaign event in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday evening, Mr. Biden admitted the debate against former President Donald Trump, his Republican rival, did not go well.

“I didn’t have my best night, but the fact is that you know, I wasn’t very smart,” Mr. Biden said, speaking at the campaign fundraiser without the aid of a teleprompter. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through around 100 time zones… before… the debate.

“Didn’t listen to my staff and came back and nearly fell asleep on stage,” he said. “That’s no excuse but it is an explanation.”

Mr. Biden traveled to France and Italy during two separate trips in the space of two weeks last month, flying overnight from the Group of Seven summit in Bari, Italy, to appear at a fundraiser with former President Barack Obama in Los Angeles on June 15 before returning to Washington the following day.

He then spent six days at Camp David preparing for the June 27 debate.

White House officials have blamed Mr. Biden’s halting performance during the debate on a cold. Mr. Biden did not mention being sick during Tuesday’s fundraiser.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Tuesday showed that one in three Democrats think Mr. Biden should end his reelection bid following the debate, but no prominent elected Democrat does any better than Mr. Biden in a hypothetical matchup against Mr. Trump.

The two-day poll found that both Mr. Trump, 78, and Mr. Biden, 81, maintain the support of 40% of registered voters, suggesting that Mr. Biden has not lost ground since the debate. Election Day is November 5.

India vs South Africa 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final will be held at the Kensington Oval on June 29, 2024

NTA announces new dates for UGC-NET, CSIR UGC-NET, NCET exams

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday night announced the new dates of cancelled and postponed examinations, including the UGC-NET, amid a raging row over alleged irregularities in their conduct. The UGC-NET, which was cancelled a day after being conducted on June 18, will now be held from August 21 to September 4.

Opposition forces disruptions in both Houses of Parliament over alleged NEET irregularities 

The row over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the NEET examination for medical college admissions rocked both Houses of Parliament on Friday, with the Lok Sabha getting adjourned for the day after Speaker Om Birla disallowed adjournment motions on the issue. 

Former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren gets bail in alleged money laundering case, walks out of jail

Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in alleged land scam case. Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay ’s court granted him regular bail.

Monsoon arrives in Delhi bringing heavy rainfall leaving four death

Four people died and several were injured as the south-west monsoon arrived in the national capital bringing with it 228 mm of rainfall in a span of 24 hours, mostly concentrated between 3 a.m. and 8.30 a.m., on Friday. This is the highest rainfall in a 24-hour period in Delhi in June after 1936, while the average rainfall for June in the last 30 years is 75.2 mm.

India slams ‘deeply biased’ U.S. report on religious freedom

India on Friday slammed the U.S. State Department’s report on International Religious Freedom for 2023 as “deeply biased” and said it reflected “one-sided projection of issues”. During the weekly press briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the report questioned the “integrity” of certain legal judgments of the Indian courts and highlighted the United States’s own record in handling domestic hate crimes.

German Chancellor to visit India in October, ease of doing business and migration top on agenda: envoy

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to visit India in the second half of October for inter-governmental consultations during which ease of doing business, migration, geopolitics and climate change will be high on the agenda, German Ambassador to India Philipp Ackermann said on Friday.

India achieves an ‘outstanding outcome’ in FATF mutual evaluation 2023-24

India has achieved an outstanding outcome in the Mutual Evaluation conducted during 2023-24 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said the government on June 28. The Mutual Evaluation Report of India, which was adopted in the FATF plenary held in Singapore from June 26 and June 28, places India in the “regular follow-up” category, a distinction shared by only four other G-20 countries.

‘Global south’ should reform world governance to make it more effective, balanced: Xi Jinping

Underlining the importance of the “Global South”, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said that the Global South should actively participate in reforming and developing the global governance system and make the global governance architecture more balanced and effective. 

Joe Biden concedes debate fumbles but declares he will defend democracy

President Joe Biden forcefully tried on Friday to quell Democratic anxieties over his unsteady showing in his debate with former President Donald Trump, as elected members of his party closed ranks around him in an effort to shut down talk of replacing him atop the ticket.

Supreme Court makes it harder to charge Capitol riot defendants with obstruction, charge Trump faces

The Supreme Court on Friday limited a federal obstruction law that has been used to charge hundreds of Capitol riot defendants as well as former President Donald Trump. The justices ruled 6-3 that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp., must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fall into that category.

Coal, electricity buoy core output in May

Output growth in India’s eight core infrastructure sectors eased to 6.3% in May, from April’s 6.7% pace, with a double-digit rise in coal and electricity production offsetting contractions in three sectors, including cement and fertilisers.

RBI raises WMA limits of States/UTs by 28% to ₹60,118 crore

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday increased the Ways and Means Advances (WMA) limits of State governments and Union territories to ₹60,118 crore from ₹47,010 crore. “Based on the recommendations made by the Group constituted by the Reserve Bank and consisting of select state Finance Secretaries and taking into account the expenditure data of the states for the recent years, it has been decided to revise the WMA limits of the State Governments/ UTs, effective from July 1, 2024,” the RBI said in a circular. 

2024 T20 World Cup Final | History and heartbreak beckon as the T20 extravaganza reaches much-awaited climax

India has not won an ICC title since 2013. South Africa has reached the final of a men’s World Cup for the first time, after seven semifinal defeats. Come Saturday, at the grand finale of the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the Kensington Oval, a jinx will be broken. This is a battle between the two unbeaten teams in the tournament.

T20 World Cup: Rohit, Dravid back Kohli, say ‘there’s a big one coming up’

India head coach Rahul Dravid and skipper Rohit Sharma have thrown their weight behind the struggling Virat Kohli, saying the stylish batter has shown the intent and is due for a “big one” in the T20 World Cup finals against South Africa.

Los Angeles, United States:

A bad tempered and unedifying US presidential debate between the two oldest candidates ever to run for office degenerated into a squabble over golfing prowess on Thursday.

The first head-to-head in an already painfully long campaign saw 81-year-old Joe Biden and his 78-year-old challenger Donald Trump trade insults and accusations for 90 minutes on prime time television.

There was name-calling: “You’re the worst!” “No, YOU’RE the worst!”

There were accusations: “You’re a whiner!”

And then they fought over their golf handicaps.

“He can’t hit a ball 50 yards,” said Trump, on one of the few occasions the two men directly addressed each other.

“He challenged me to a golf match. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards.”

Trump’s own vitality was never in question, he boasted, insisting “I’m in as good a shape as I was years ago.”

Not to be outdone over his putting prowess, Biden insisted he was game on the green.

“I’d be happy to have a driving contest,” he said. “I got my handicap when I was the vice president down to a six.”

Trump scoffed.

“A six handicap?” he snorted. “I’ve seen your swing. I know your swing.”

The exchange came towards the end of the CNN-hosted debate, which had started without the handshake that is customary on such occasions and gone downhill from there.

The animosity between the two men was palpable, with Biden taking an early swing at a man he said had “the morals of an alley cat.”

“How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public… for having sex with a porn star… while your wife was pregnant,” he said, in reference to Trump’s alleged dalliance with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

The Republican former president again denied adultery, but a New York jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to her.

Trump wasted few chances to hammer home his claim that Biden was “weak” and not “a leader.”

He also took aim at Biden’s perceived mental frailties, an issue that polls repeatedly show voters are concerned about.

“I took two tests, cognitive tests. I aced them, both of them, as you know, we made it public,” he said.

“He took none. I’d like to see him take one, just one, a real easy one, like go through the first five questions. He couldn’t do it.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, left, during a presidential debate hosted by CNN, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump opened their first 2024 Presidential debate without shaking hands and went right to mixing it up on policy Thursday night. Some key moments from their 90-minute faceoff.

Economic fireworks

Their first exchange delved into the economy. Mr. Biden spoke softly, in a hoarse voice, as he talked up the economic gains on his watch, saying he rescued it from “free fall” and “chaos” when he took over the presidency from Mr. Trump in 2021. He cleared his throat several times.

Mr. Trump listened with a bemused expression but did not try to interrupt, though his microphone was muted while Biden spoke.

When it was his turn to speak, Mr. Trump bragged about the state of the economy during his term, saying “everything was rocking good.” He blamed Biden for rising prices that have frustrated Americans.

“Inflation is killing our country,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s absolutely killing us.”

Candidates tangle over who’s extreme on abortion

Mr. Biden blamed Mr. Trump for eroding abortion rights after the Republican’s three appointees to the U.S. 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.

Also read | The Hindu editorial on the 2024 U.S. Presidential election as a Biden-Trump rematch

“It’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done,” Mr. 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.”

Mr. 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 claim that Mr. Biden supports abortion up to and after birth.

“We think the Democrats are the radicals, not the Republicans,” Mr. Trump said.

Trump pushes January 6 falsehoods

Mr. Trump lied about his role in the January 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 Mr. Biden ought to “be ashamed” for the way the January 6 defendants have been handled.

Mr. Trump, who has floated the idea of pardons for the 6 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” Mr. Biden said of his rival.