President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are facing off in a high-stakes CNN debate in Atlanta, their first showdown of the 2024 election cycle.
The candidates kicked off the debate by slamming each other’s records on the economy, immigration and abortion rights.
US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are facing off for the first televised debate of the 2024 election – the pair did not shake hands as they walked out on stage
The stakes are high as both men come face to face for the first time in almost four years to try and convince voters they should back them on 5 November
Microphones will be muted when it is the other candidate’s turn to speak, in an effort to reduce interruptions
A coin flip decided Trump will have the last statement of the 90-minute debate, and Biden is standing on the right
This is the second time Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, will challenge each other for the White House after Trump lost in 2020
BBC reporters are at the debate in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s a key battleground state and one which Biden won by fewer than 13,000 votes in 2020
Trump says Biden’s jobs were all post-pandemic “bounceback” jobs. But that’s not the full story
From CNN’s Alicia Wallace
Former President Donald Trump claimed that the job growth during President Joe Biden’s presidency is all “bounceback” gains after the pandemic lockdowns that temporarily devastated the US economy.
Nearly 22 million jobs were lost under Trump in March and April 2020 when the global economy cratered on account of the pandemic. The US started regaining jobs immediately under Trump — following substantial relief and recovery measures — and added more than 12 million jobs from May 2020 through December 2020.
The recovery continued after Biden took office, with the US reaching and surpassing its pre-pandemic employment totals in June 2022.
The job gains didn’t stop there. Since then, the US has added nearly 6.2 million more jobs in what’s become the fifth-longest period of employment expansion on record.
But the jobs gained were not all “bounceback” positions — people did not all simply return to their former roles.
The pandemic drastically reshaped the employment landscape. For one, a significant portion of the labor force did not return due to early retirements, deaths, long Covid or caregiving responsibilities.
Additionally, because of shifts in consumer spending patterns as well as health-and-safety implications, public-facing industries could not fully reopen or restaff immediately. Some of those workers found jobs in other industries or used the opportunity to start their own business.
When the pandemic was more under control and in-person activities could fully resume, those industries faced worker shortages.
The pandemic recovery included what’s been called the Great Reshuffling, where people – for a variety of reasons – switched jobs or careers.
Trump voices anti-immigrant rhetoric on debate stage
Trump continued with his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the debate stage, raising fears that undocumented migrants and asylum seekers could commit violence once they enter the US.
Biden attempted to dismiss such claims, saying, “There’s a lot of young women who have been raped by their inlaws, by their spouses.”
But Trump doubled-down. “There have been many young women murdered by the people he allows to cross the border,” he said. “These killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women.”
Access to abortion pill: What’s the latest?
The US Supreme Court earlier this month rejected an effort to curb access to mifepristone, a drug used in more than half of all abortions in the country. Donald Trump said he agreed with that decision.
The top court ruled that the plaintiffs behind the lawsuit lacked the necessary legal standing to pursue the case.
The ruling delivered a victory to reproductive rights advocates. Biden himself welcomed the decision on mifepristone, arguing that “attacks on medication abortion are part of Republican elected officials’ extreme and dangerous agenda to ban abortion nationwide”.
Right-wing attacks on abortion ramped up after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion rights ruling, Roe v Wade, in 2022.
Trump says abortion debate has been ‘moved back to the states’
The former president has taken credit for overturning Roe v Wade, but has been evasive on what restrictions he would endorse. Responding to a question about his stance on abortion rights, Trump said he supports exceptions for things such as rape and incest.
Trump attacks Biden on Medicare and immigration
Biden tried to play up his record of bringing down prescription drug prices, saying: “We finally beat Medicare.”
But Trump immediately replied, “He’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.”
He then accused Biden of allowing undocumented immigration, thereby overwhelming social service programmes. “They’re going to destroy Social Security,” he said. “What this man has done is absolutely criminal.”
