Joe Biden-Donald Trump presidential debate: 5 key points to remember

President Joe Biden delivered a shaky performance in Thursday's debate with former President Donald Trump, raising new questions about his future in an event widely seen as a test of both candidates' fitness for office.

The two men debated a range of policies on stage in Atlanta, but nothing new came up. The focus instead has been on how the 81-year-old president and his 78-year-old predecessor would handle four more years in the Oval Office, with Democrats raising concerns about Biden's performance.

Here are five takeaways from Thursday night's clash.

Biden gets off to a slow start

Biden took the stage with a raspy voice and repeatedly stumbled over some of his answers early on.

Asked about the national debt, he said there were “thousands of trillionaires” before correcting himself, for example.

President Joe Biden and former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stand during a presidential debate hosted by CNN, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta.

AP Photo/John Bazemore

But perhaps his biggest stumble came 12 minutes into the debate, when he stopped six seconds after discussing how the country could have spent money raised from taxes on wealthy Americans that would have been accumulated if there had been no tax cuts passed by Trump during his term.

“We would be able to help ensure all of these things that we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health system. Making sure that we're able to make every single person eligible for what I've been able to do with the – with COVID, excuse me – managing everything that we have to do with it, look…we We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, seeming to lose his train of thought as he finished his response.

The moment underscored a major theme of the debate — Biden's mental acuity and fitness for office — and had Republicans celebrating.

” Game over !!! ” Bryan Lanza, a former Trump campaign aide who remains in contact with the former president's current team, wrote to ABC News.

Democrats also expressed a negative opinion.

In a historic clash of personality and politics, Joe Biden and Donald Trump took the stage for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election.

“Some words the Biden team should be looking for: espresso; and honey and lemon for the throat,” said a top Democratic strategist.

Biden appeared to gain momentum as the debate dragged on, calling Trump a “convicted felon” and mixing things up with their backgrounds, but the president's performance was less forceful than his opponent's.

Team Biden turns its performance around

Biden's team quickly moved to misrepresent his performance, apparently acknowledging that he probably didn't perform as Democrats had hoped.

The campaign said the president had a cold but tested negative for COVID-19, though it was unclear why that news was not announced beforehand. The campaign told ABC News' Mary Bruce that she felt fine, but acknowledged the president had a slow start.

“Tonight, President Biden laid out a positive, winning vision for America's future – a vision in which every American has a fair chance at achieving the American dream, where every one of our rights is protected, and where our President is fighting to strengthen our democracy – not destroy it,” said Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.

Biden's allies echoed past support for the president, admitting that the evening likely did not go as planned but that the president would remain the nominee.

“I don't care, I'm going to stick with Joe Biden,” former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile said on ABC News Live.

Trump keeps his cool (mostly)

Agents were scrutinizing the version of Trump who would appear on stage Thursday: the brawler who repeatedly interrupted Biden during their first debate of 2020? Or would he be a calm presence that would be interpreted as more presidential?

Overall, the latter description proved to be a more apt description of Trump's performance.

To be sure, Trump has been more rhetorical, exaggerating the state of the economy under his watch and the number of border crossings and crimes committed under Biden; saying that Biden “could be a convicted felon”; and accusing the president of “picking on his political opponent because he can’t win fair and square.”

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off in Thursday's presidential debate, sparking concern among Democrats about Biden's chances in the 2024 election.

But he didn’t focus his arguments on baseless allegations of voter fraud or repeated attacks on Hunter Biden, the president’s only surviving son who was recently convicted of gun crimes. He often responded to topics that were favorable to him, such as inflation and immigration, including a question about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

“Let me tell you about January 6th. On January 6th, we had a big border. Nobody crossed. Very few on January 6th. On January 6th, we were energy independent, we had the lowest taxes ever. We had the lowest regulations ever,” he said.

Trump's campaign quickly declared victory.

“Tonight, President Trump delivered the greatest debate and greatest victory in history in front of the largest audience of voters in history, making clear how he will improve the lives of every American,” Chris said LaCivita and Susie Wiles, top Trump campaign officials, in a statement.

“Joe Biden, for his part, showed exactly why he deserves to be fired,” they said. “Despite a weeklong vacation at Camp David to prepare for the debate, Biden was unable to defend his disastrous record on the economy and the border.”

New rules require cleaner debate, but less reluctance

Thursday's debate featured new rules that largely succeeded in forcing a cleaner debate than in the past.

There was no audience in the studio to interrupt with applause or boos, and microphones were muted when candidates were not recognized as speaking.

The result was a debate with little cross-talk or disruption, a stark contrast to the primary debates earlier this year and the debates of 2020, when cross-talk made candidate comments essentially unreadable.

But while the more rigid format helped move the conversation along, there was little pushback from moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who sometimes chose to push ahead rather than correct falsehoods or demand a direct answer to their initial question if a candidate had doubts and had already used their time to answer.

And the conversation still sometimes veered into the ridiculous, with the two candidates clashing for a few minutes towards the end over their abilities to play golf.

“Let's not act like children,” Trump said.

Lots of political talk, but little new ground

The structure also helped moderators and candidates stick to policy, but little progress was made on candidates' positions on major issues.

Biden pledged to reinstate Roe v. Wade and protect abortion rights, raise taxes on wealthy Americans and support Ukraine.

Trump defended his tax cuts, said he would force European allies to step up their own efforts to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia and said Israel should be able to continue its military operations in Gaza.

However, voters will have little new information about the two candidates' views on key issues that they did not hear on the campaign trail.

Copyright 2024 ABC News Internet Ventures.

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