Trump, Biden clash on abortion, Ukraine, and immigration

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Thursday night debated for 90 minutes about topics ranging from Supreme Court opinions to their golf games. CNN hosted the debate in a studio in Atlanta with no audience and strict time limits on candidates’ responses. Biden paused and verbally stumbled on several occasions and listed his policy accomplishments in a monotone rasp. Trump countered with a more energetic demeanor. Biden began demonstrating more energy as the debate progressed and as he clashed with Trump on these key issues:

Immigration: Trump claimed his administration had effective policies in place to prevent illegal immigration. Biden had since opened the border and allowed thousands of illegal immigrants to flood into the country, he said. Trump evaded answering a question from CNN host Jake Tapper about how he would remove illegal immigrants from the country if he became president. Biden said that the number of illegal immigrants coming across the border had decreased by 40 percent. He added that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had endorsed him. The agency’s union denied that claim in a tweet posted during the debate, stating that it never had endorsed Biden and it never would. Trump said the agency had endorsed him.

Economy: Biden argued that Trump had left him with an economy that was flat on its back and now was the most successful and fastest-growing in the world. He said the United States added hundreds of thousands of new jobs during his time in office. Even so, Biden didn’t deny that prices had risen under his administration or push back on Tapper’s claim that grocery prices had risen by 20 percent during his presidency. Trump said that his administration had overseen the greatest economy in the history of the United States. His administration helped the economy overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and come back stronger than it had before, he added.

Abortion: Trump claimed credit for the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which he said most Americans supported. Biden countered, citing constitutional scholars’ support for the decision while it was in place. Trump said that states now could decide what policies should be put in place to protect unborn babies. Biden said he supported Roe, but he did not want late-term abortions. Trump pointed out that many Democrats back policies that allow for late-term or even partial-birth abortions. Trump said that he supported the Supreme Court’s recent decision that allows continued use of the abortion drug mifepristone.

Ukraine: Trump said the war should not have begun and that it would not have happened if he was in office. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin witnessed the United States’ disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden and felt he could get away with invading Ukraine. Biden said Trump had encouraged Putin to wage war on Ukraine and had threatened to abandon NATO as Putin worked to reassemble the former Soviet Union. If reelected, Trump promised to end the war at some point between Election Day and his inauguration. Trump added that he would not accept Putin’s terms for ending the war in Ukraine.

Israel: Trump insisted that Hamas would not have attacked Israel if he was in office. “Iran was broke with me,” he said, indicating Iran would not have been able to fund Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Trump said he would have to see whether he supported an independent Palestinian state in the Middle East. Biden said that Israel and other countries in the region had agreed to his three-phase peace plan for Gaza, and Hamas was the only entity prolonging the war.

Age: Biden, now 81, said he’d spent much of his career as the youngest person in politics. He said that, even as an older man, he had made progress serving the United States and had succeeded in bringing benefits to Americans through negotiations with world leaders and business people. Trump, who is 78, claimed that he felt as good as he had a quarter of a century ago. He added that he had taken two cognitive tests and aced them, and touted his success as a golf player.