Joe Biden and Donald Trump have faced off in the first debate in the 2024 presidential election campaign.

The format, with each taking turns to speak with their opponent’s microphone muted, was designed to prevent a shouting match with both candidates talking over each other.

In truth, it served to highlight the differences in the performances of the two men.

Mr Trump appeared confident, on the front foot and in command, even if his claims sometimes stretched the truth to breaking point.

Mr Biden on the other hand was hesitant, sometimes stumbling over his words and at one point appearing to freeze, less than 10 minutes into the debate.

The only time the US president appeared to land any blows was when he lost his temper and attacked Mr Trump and his “alley cat morals”.

After the debate, political figures and commentators broached the idea of replacing Mr Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

It’s “time to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee,” one Democratic politician told Sky’s US partner network NBC News.

Another said: “This was like a champion boxer who gets in the ring past his prime and needs his corner to throw in the towel.” They added he meant Mr Biden should exit the race.

David Axelrod, a senior aide to former President Barack Obama, told CNN: “There is a sense of shock at how he came out at the beginning of this debate. How his voice sounded. He seemed a little disoriented.

“There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue. Only he can decide if he’s going to continue,” Mr Axelrod added.

Sky’s US correspondent Martha Kelner said some Democrats had described Biden’s debate performance as an “unmitigated disaster”, “a meltdown”, and “a slow-motion car crash”.

Read more:
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The presidential debate as it happened

Changing candidates at this stage of the campaign would be difficult and unprecedented. Unless Mr Biden chooses to step aside, delegates at the Democratic National Convention would have to revolt – despite being elected on their pledge to nominate the president.

The debate mediators divided the time in to subjects, beginning with the economy.

Mr Trump claimed under his presidency the US had the “greatest economy in the history of our country”, only stalling when COVID struck.

Mr Biden hit back saying he inherited “an economy that was in freefall”.

“The pandemic was so badly handled… the economy collapsed,” he said.

“What we had to do is try to put things back together again. That’s exactly what we began to do.”

Watch a special programme with reaction to the US presidential debate on The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News from 6pm

For much of the debate, Mr Trump was forthright while President Biden, his voice hoarse, came across as hesitant.

On the issue of abortion, Mr Biden appeared to have slightly more success, describing the decision to overturn Roe v Wade as horrendous.

“It’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done,” he told Trump.

For his part the former president said it was right for individual states to decide policy on abortion.

Next came immigration, previously something of a “trump” card for the former president.

Mr Biden was asked about his record.

“The Border Patrol endorsed me, endorsed my position,” he said, before turning on Mr Trump.

“He was separating babies from mothers, putting them in cages, making sure that the families are separated [when he was in office],” he said.

Mr Trump responded: “We have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now.”

“That’s simply not true,” Mr Biden said.

“There’s no data to support what he said, once again, he’s exaggerating. He’s lying.”

Asked what he will do to address the crisis, Mr Trump said “we have to get them out” but didn’t specify any particular policy.

On Ukraine, Mr Trump was the first to answer, taking aim at Mr Biden’s handling of it.

“As far as Russia and Ukraine, if we have a real president, a president that was respected by Putin, then he would have never invaded Ukraine.”

Asked what he thought of Mr Trump’s comments, Mr Biden replied: “I’ve never heard so much malarkey in my whole life.”

He warned that if Mr Putin wins the war there is a risk he will go after other countries like Poland and Belarus. However, the strength of his argument was undermined by appearing to confuse Mr Trump and President Putin at one point.

The Middle East was next, with Mr Biden saying the US had “saved Israel”, referencing the ongoing support from his government and the organised defence against a massive Iranian air attack.

Trump however slammed his opponent’s handling of the crisis in the Middle East.

“He’s become like a Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one,” he said.

Next came topics where Mr Biden genuinely had the chance to land some heavy blows: the Capitol riots and the litany of criminal cases facing Trump.

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The odd punch did hit home but – as throughout the debate – Mr Trump appeared in charge, confident in his own version of the truth. He repeatedly said he did nothing wrong, claiming any action he encouraged was to be carried out “peacefully and patriotically”.

Mr Biden retorted: “He encouraged his folks up on Capitol Hill.

“Now he says if he loses again, [he’s] such a whiner, it is basically [going to be] a bloodbath.”

The only time Mr Trump appeared even slightly uncomfortable was when Mr Biden pointed out his recent criminal charges and called him a convicted felon.

“The only person on this stage that is a convicted felon is this man I’m looking at right now,” he said of the former president.

In one of his most forceful moments of the debate, Mr Biden referred to Mr Trump’s alleged sexual relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels, telling him: “You have the morals of an alley cat.”

The debate continued, covering racial inequality, climate change and the US opioid crisis, but in truth the optics varied little.

Mr Trump – a chin-jutting picture of arrogance and self belief. Mr Biden – often seeming to feel his age, only coming into his own when he lost his temper over what he clearly regarded as his opponent’s lies.

The debate revealed little of substance with regard to policy, with podcaster and analyst Tim Miller tweeting that it was “the worst debate in history”.

The level of the debate was put into sharp relief with the two candidates defending their mental capabilities and squabbling about golf.

Taking a shot at Mr Biden, Mr Trump said the US president “can’t hit a ball 50 yards”.

Mr Biden replied, saying: “I’d be happy to have a driving contest with him.”

The hour and a half of to-and-fro is unlikely to have done Mr Trump any harm, but it may well have damaged President Biden.

As one observer pointed out, the problem for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party is “that Trump lies so well and Biden tells the truth so badly”.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump have held the first presidential debate, where the president struggled to speak and the Republican was dogged by his criminal trials.

Held in Atlanta, Georgia, the CNN-hosted debate marked a rematch four years in the making.

With one candidate’s microphone turned off while the other was speaking, Mr Trump and Mr Biden slugged at each other’s record in office for 90 minutes.

Read the Trump v Biden debate as it happened live here

The mediators divided the debate in to subjects, but both candidates evaded questions and stuck to their favoured topics.

Here’s the key topics Mr Biden and Mr Trump clashed on….

Economy

With a hoarse voice – which his aides later briefed was because of a cold – Mr Biden started the debate by blaming Mr Trump for the state he left the economy in when he left office.

Mr Trump, however, praised his own record, saying: “We have the greatest economy in the history of our country, and we have never done so well.”

He claimed he ran a higher deficit to stop another Great Depression during the COVID pandemic, before accusing Mr Biden of doing a “poor job,” saying inflation is “killing” the country, and adding: “It’s probably the worst administration in history.”

Moderators noted Mr Trump’s administration approved $8.4tn in new debt, while so far Mr Biden has approved $4.3 trillion in new debt.

When asked about tax cuts he passed that are set to expire in 2025, Mr Trump said they “spurred the greatest economy we’ve ever seen just prior to COVID,” and added: “The country was going like never before, and we were ready to start paying down debt”.

Read more: In command Trump and stumbling Biden face off in first presidential debate

Mr Biden then attacked Mr Trump over having the largest national debt of any president and insisted he would fix the tax system. But while saying his administration was “making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the COVID,” Mr Biden stumbled.

He continued to say “excuse me – with dealing with everything we have to do with – look – if we finally beat Medicare,” before pausing until the end of his allotted time.

Mr Trump picked right up on it and fired back: “That’s right, he did beat Medicaid, he beat it to death. And he’s destroying Medicare.”

Abortion & Roe v Wade

Mr Trump has taken credit for appointing Supreme Court judges who revoked the Roe v Wade ruling in 2022. It underpinned federal protections for the rights to abortions, and has been a fixture of Mr Biden’s re-election campaign.

When asked about a recent Supreme Court ruling decision to approve abortion medication despite state bans, Mr Trump supported it and insisted returning power on abortion to state governments was what “everyone wanted”.

After discussing how “the states are working it out”, Mr Trump added: “I believe in the exceptions. I am a person that believes, and frankly, I think it’s important to believe in the exceptions.”

Mr Biden then told Mr Trump “it’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done” in overturning Roe v Wade, and said he was making it harder for women in large swathes of the country to get access to basic health care.

The president also said he supported abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy and that “no politician should be making that decision” on when one should take place.

“A doctor should be making those decisions,” he added. “That’s how it should be run. That’s what you’re going to do. And if I’m elected, I’m going to restore Roe v Wade.”

Watch a special programme with reaction to the US presidential debate on The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News from 6pm

Immigration

While time was allotted for immigration as a topic on its own, Mr Trump hammered Mr Biden on the issue throughout the debate, including after the Democrat’s first answer on abortion.

Read more: Trump and Biden vow tough action in rival Texas visits

“There have been many young women murdered by the same people,” the former president said. “He allows to come across our border.”

Later on, Mr Biden was asked why he should be trusted on immigration after a record number of illegal migrants have crossed the border from Mexico under his current administration.

He pointed to how he brought in “significant increased number of asylum officers”, and attacked Mr Trump’s record in office

After another rambling answer, Mr Trump said: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

He then claimed that under his administration, the US “had the safest border in the history of our country.” In a terse moment, Mr Biden spoke about Mr Trump’s previous comments on veterans, where he was alleged to have called those who died in war “suckers and losers”.

The president got personal in evoking his son, Beau Biden, who served in Iraq before dying of brain cancer, and told Mr Trump: “My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser.”

Foreign policy

Another topic Mr Trump returned to often was the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

After 20 years in the Middle Eastern country, the Taliban seized control almost immediately after American troops withdrew.

Near the start of the debate, he said: “It was the most embarrassing day in the history of this country’s life.”

Later, Mr Trump attempted to link Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fall of Kabul, claiming that Vladimir Putin “watched” the US withdrawal.

In a sprawling answer, he claimed: “When Putin saw that, he said: ‘You know what? I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my’ – this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream.

“The difference is he never would have invaded Ukraine. Never. Just like Israel would have never been invaded in a million years by Hamas.”

Mr Biden said, “I never heard so much malarkey in my whole life” before defending his record on foreign policy, pointing to how “we got over 100,000 Americans and others out” of Afghanistan and to Mr Trump’s comments on NATO.

On Israel, both candidates vowed support. Mr Biden touted his May ceasefire offer, while Mr Trump said of the president: “He’s become like a Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian.”

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Democracy and January 6

When asked about what he would say to voters who were concerned about a possible second term for Mr Trump after the January 6th riots, the former president again touted his economic and immigration records.

When asked the question again by the moderators, Mr Trump then made false claims about former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and about an offer of sending the National Guard.

Mr Biden said Mr Trump “didn’t do a damn thing” to stop his supporters marching on Capitol Hill while the 2020 election results were being certified, saying the rioters “should be in jail… and he wants to let them all out”.

He then called Mr Trump a “convicted felon” over being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

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Mr Biden added: “Think of all the civil penalties you have. How many billions of dollars do you own civil penalties for? For molesting a woman in public?

“For doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star on the night and while your wife is pregnant? I mean, what are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.”

Mr Trump repeated false claims the 2020 election was “rigged and disgusting” and added: “I did not have sex with a porn star.”

Moderators directly asked the former president towards the end of the debate whether he would condemn any form of political violence and whether he would accept the result of the upcoming election.

“The answer is, if the election is fair, free… and I want that more than anybody,” he said, before changing the subject mid-sentence – stopping just short of saying outright that he would accept the result.

This was an extraordinary evening.

Joe Biden‘s debate performance was among the worst by any presidential candidate in history, if not the worst.

It was an “unmitigated disaster”, “a meltdown”, and “a slow-motion car crash”.

Read more: In command Trump and stumbling Biden face off in first presidential debate

Those are not descriptors from Republican voters, they are the words of Democrats. Even former aides of President Biden admit it was a really horrible night for him.

I was literally gripping the sides of my seat at times it was so excruciating.

Watch a special programme with reaction to the US presidential debate on The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News from 6pm

Team Biden hoped to see State of the Union Joe on the stage, when the president gave a slick, impassioned and well-delivered speech.

Right from the start it became apparent this would be an entirely different version of him. His voice was hoarse, he was stumbling and there were long pregnant pauses.

I was struck by how much older he looked than the last time he was in the same room as Donald Trump four years ago.

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“We finally beat Medicare,” he said with a misspeak that is sure to go viral, a sentence that does not make sense and was pounced upon by Donald Trump.

Biden was asked by the debate moderator about abortion, one of the strongest issues for the Democratic Party, a subject where he has the opportunity to really nail Donald Trump to the wall.

He somehow managed to ramble his way off-topic to talk about immigration, one of his biggest vulnerabilities. It was an open goal missed in spectacular style.

The debate descended near the end into a row between two senior citizens about who had a lower golf handicap and who could drive the ball further.

It summed up the quality, or lack thereof, of this debate. It might have been funny if it weren’t so depressing for American voters.

It is hard to believe that President Biden fought for this debate at this time, the earliest there has ever been.

His team calculated that, given he was trailing Trump in the polls and there were growing questions about his age and vitality, it was a risk worth taking.

But it was a huge gamble, given that this format is so exposing on the national stage. It could well be a gamble they come to regret.