Starting Debate Without Salaman, Presidents Biden And Trump Attack Each Other On Immigration, Abortion And Economy

Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the 2024 US Presidential Election debate. ( CNN YouTube Channel screenshot)

JAKARTA - Two candidates for President of the United States, incumbent Joe Biden from the Democratic Party and Donald Trump from the Republican Party, attacked each other about immigration, abortion and the economy at the beginning which was held by CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday night local time.

The two candidates appeared without spectators in the studio and their microphone automatically turned off when it was their turn to talk yet to arrive.

This was put in place to avoid chaos thwarting their first debate in 2020, when Trump interrupted Biden repeatedly.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump did not shake hands when they entered the debate stage.

Citing CNN June 28, the two candidates last met in a debate in 2020, where they did not shake hands due to the Covid-19 protocol.

Prior to the debate, two of Biden's old aides said they expected Biden to "probably not" lend his hand, with one saying: "He doesn't need to do it in 2020, why change that now?"

Starting the debate without shaking hands, Biden (81) and Trump (78) are under pressure to show mastery of issues. Starting calmly, Biden attacked Trump with the sentence facing the former president regarding payment of silence to porn star Stormy Daniels.

In response, Trump brought up recent penalties against Biden's son, Hunter, for lying about drug use to buy weapons.

"My son is not a loser, not a coward. You are a loser, you are a loser," Biden said.

When asked about the attack on January 6, 2021 on the US Capitol Building by a gang of Trump supporters, the former president refused to accept any responsibility and claimed that many of those arrested were innocent.

"This person has no American sense of democracy," said President Biden.

President Biden also blamed Trump for allowing the abolition of national abortion rights by appointing conservatives to the US Supreme Court, an issue that has confused Republicans since 2022.

Trump replied Biden would not support the abortion restrictions and said returning the issue to the state was the right move.

Regarding the border, Trump said Biden had failed to secure the southern border of the United States, which caused many criminals to enter.

"I call it Biden's migrant crime," he said.

"Once again, he overestimated, he lied," Biden said.

Studies show immigrants have committed no crime at a higher rate than Native Americans.

Discussing the first question about the economy, Biden acknowledged that inflation had pushed prices much higher than at the beginning of his term of office. However, he said he deserved to be praised for having "reversed the situation" after the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, Trump stressed that he had overseen the "largest economy in the history of our country" before the pandemic hit and said he was taking action to prevent the economic collapse from deepening.