On June 27, 2024, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump participated in the first presidential debate ahead of the November election, held at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia. The 90-minute debate was marked by personal attacks and frequent interruptions, overshadowing substantive policy discussions.

Key topics included abortion rights, tariffs, and immigration, with Trump often misrepresenting his record and Biden struggling to articulate his responses. Both candidates exchanged severe personal insults, each accusing the other of being the worst president in U.S. history and a potential catalyst for World War III.

Significantly, Biden warned that Trump would rollback efforts on climate change, while Trump claimed his administration had achieved the best environmental numbers, though he did not provide specifics. Biden pointed to his enactment of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, contrasting it with Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

The debate also touched on economic issues, with Biden boasting the creation of 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, a claim that warrants scrutiny as growth has mostly stalled since January 2023. Trump declared that the U.S. economy under his leadership was the best in history, a statement contradicted by historical GDP growth rates.

Biden’s shaky performance has raised concerns among Democrats about his candidacy. A debate watch party in Los Angeles reflected the national sentiment, with attendees unsettled by both candidates’ performances. The chaotic nature of the event left many viewers dissatisfied, as pointed out by Kristen Morris, a nursing student from Charlotte, N.C., who found both candidates’ hyperbolic rhetoric hard to stomach.

Overall, the debate did little to alleviate concerns about the viability of both candidates, with neither emerging unscathed from the intense and hostile exchange.