ATLANTA—President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump traded jabs about their presidential accomplishments and offered vastly different visions of the past and future in their first 2024 presidential debate.
The two candidates faced off for 90 minutes, punctuated by two brief commercial breaks, in a closed television studio in Atlanta on June 27.
![President Joe Biden (R) and Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios in Atlanta on June 27, 2024. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F06%2F28%2Fid5676825-Trump-Biden-GettyImages-2159611074-1200x800.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash conducted the debate under strict rules, which both campaigns agreed to. No live audience, teleprompters, notes, or staff members were permitted in the studio. The rules included strict time limits for each answer and rebuttal, which the candidates largely adhered to.
Biden entered the studio first, taking his place at a podium on the viewer’s right, followed by Trump, who stood at an identical podium eight feet away. The candidates exchanged glances but did not shake hands.
The setting, reminiscent of presidential debates of years past, yielded more restrained performance from both candidates. Despite some personal attacks and bickering, the debaters talked mostly about policy matters, each touting his own achievements while disparaging his opponent’s record.
Biden said that he inherited a country in chaos when the former president left office. Former Trump said the economy, the border, and world order were all intact under his watch but had disintegrated under Biden’s leadership.
The former president criticized his opponent hardest on the southern border, tying nearly every issue from crime to Social Security back to illegal immigration. Biden landed blows on the issues of foreign affairs and abortion while attempting to portray the former president’s positions as extreme and dangerous.
While both men made strong points about policy, Trump presented himself as the stronger candidate according to some analysts, while his opponent occasionally stumbled over words and, at one point, seemed to lose his train of thought.
“I think [undecided voters] probably walked away from this debate seeing one candidate that was a stronger leader than one who really was inarticulate,” Jimmy Lee of Susquehanna polling told The Epoch Times.
Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said that in his view the former president won the night not based on his own presentation but on the poor performance of his opponent.
“Trump was just Trump. He was neither better nor worse than he usually is,” Mr. Wilson told The Epoch Times. But because of Biden’s debate performance, “Trump essentially wins the debate by default,” he said.
Following the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that the president had gotten to a “slow start.”
“There was a slow start, but there was a strong finish,” she said in a CNN interview after the debate.
The Biden campaign stated that Biden has been suffering from a cold, which has caused him to sound raspy throughout the debate. The president himself told reporters after the debate that “I think we did well.”
When asked about the president’s performance, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) emphasized that the substance of Biden’s speech, rather than his style, was more important.
“Look, at the end of the day, he delivered the message tonight, and he was being honest,” Garcia told reporters.
“The president did what he needed to do tonight, which is being honest to the American people and to be forceful in defending his record,” he added.
—Lawrence Wilson, Emel Akan
BIG DECISIONS AT SCOTUS
A series of controversial decisions surrounding abortion, administrative law, and the opioid crisis were released by the Supreme Court yesterday as the 2023-2024 term neared its end.
Extending its term, which usually ends in June, the court added another day of potential opinion releases for July 1. That’s in addition to a previously scheduled day for releases on June 28.
Underscoring the high-stakes nature of this term, many major decisions (on bump stocks, gun rights, administrative law courts, etc..) have been released but perhaps the most controversial haven’t.
The justices have yet to release their decisions on former President Donald Trump’s immunity appeal, a challenge Jan. 6 defendants brought against the Justice Department, and a case that could upend the decades-old Chevron doctrine in administrative law.
On June 27, the court released four opinions, including one that halted Idaho’s pro-life law (Moyle v. United States) as it made its way through the court system. The unsigned decision described the case as “improvidently granted,” meaning the court shouldn’t have agreed to hear it.
The administrative state took multiple hits as the court released its decisions in SEC v. Jarkesy and Ohio v. EPA, the latter of which halted the environmental agency’s controversial smog rule. A 6-3 conservative majority held in the first case that the Securities and Exchange Commission had to pursue civil penalties in Article III court rather than in-house tribunals.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution required defendants receive jury trials when the SEC sought civil penalties. He and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who penned the dissent, disagreed over how this would help or harm the nation’s separation of powers.
Surprising fractures have emerged this term in what’s thought of as a 6-3 conservative court. For example, Justice Barrett joined the court’s liberals in opposing a stay on the EPA smog rule while Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Roberts, and Brett Kavanaugh broke with their ideologically similar colleagues in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma.
That case could have long-lasting impacts for victims of the opioid crisis and their families. The court decided on a 5-4 vote that an agreement with the Sackler family, who manufactured oxycontin, violated the bankruptcy code by seeking to release the Sacklers from civil liability.
Many of those affected by the crisis supported the agreement, fearing that civil suits would drain the Sackler’s funds and therefore reduce the amount of available relief. Justice Kavanaugh, who wrote the dissent, said: Today’s decision is wrong on the law and devastating for more than 100,000 opioid victims and their families.”
–Sam Dorman
BOOKMARKS
Protests in Kenya continue, despite its president’s decision to roll back a set of wildly unpopular tax hikes. Citizens are now calling for the president to resign.
China is considering a “quarantine,” or partial blockade, of Taiwan in its pressure campaign to gain more control over that nation. China considers Taiwan one of its territories, and the quarantine would put substantial financial strain on its economy.
Ukraine signed a 10-year security agreement with the European Union on June 27. The agreement stipulates that the EU will continue to supply Ukraine with military aids, including weapons.
Yemeni Houthi Rebels are thought to be responsible for an attack on a ship passing through the Red Sea on Thursday June 27. If the Houthi are found responsible, it will mark their second naval attack this week.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon will allow President Donald Trump’s lawyers a hearing to challenge some of the evidence in his classified documents case. Special Counsel Jack Smith had opposed such a hearing, as well as a hearing examining attorney-client privilege concerns.
—Stacy Robinson