The 2024 United States presidential debates are a series of debates between major candidates of the
2024 United States presidential election. The first general election debate, sponsored by
CNN, was attended by presumptive nominees
Joe Biden and
Donald Trump, was held on June 27, 2024. The second debate, which will be sponsored by
ABC, is scheduled to be held on September 10, 2024.
Four general election debates sponsored by the
Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) were originally scheduled to be held between September 16 and October 9, 2024. Both Biden and Trump were against the CPD's debate format and schedule.[1][2] In May 2024, both campaigns agreed to bypass the CPD and hold the alternative debates, canceling the CPD debates.[3] Biden's performance during the first debate was very poorly received, with many commentators and Democrats calling for him to drop out of the race.
Background
Commission on Presidential Debates
In April 2022, the
Republican National Committee (RNC) voted unanimously to withdraw from the
Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD); committee chair
Ronna McDaniel called the organization "biased" and stated that they would find "newer, better debate platforms" for future Republican nominees.[4] This announcement came after years of tension between the organizations, including a threat made earlier in the year by the RNC to change its rules to prohibit nominees from participating in CPD debates. In response, the commission stated that "[its] plans for 2024 will be based on fairness, neutrality and a firm commitment to help the American public learn about the candidates and the issues".[5]
Former president
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the
Republican nomination, did not attend any
primary debates, deeming them unnecessary and detrimental to his campaign.[6] He has previously accused the CPD of unfair treatment in the
2016 and
2020 debates. Despite this, Trump told
Fox News host
Bret Baier in a June 2023 interview that he was interested in debating incumbent president
Joe Biden should he become the Democratic nominee. At that time, Biden had not committed to attending the debate either, as his campaign was also in conflict with the commission for failing to enforce its rules against Trump,[7] though in April 2024 he confirmed he planned to debate Trump.[8]
Biden and Trump became the presumptive nominees of their respective parties in March 2024,[9][10] setting up the first presidential rematch since
1956.[11] On April 14, 2024, a number of major news organizations signed an open letter to the nominees urging them to attend the debates, arguing for its "rich tradition in our American democracy" and that the "exceptionally high" stakes require debates to be held. Signatories include
ABC News,
CBS News,
CNN,
NBC News, and
Fox News, among others.[12]
If either major party nominee chooses not to attend a general election debate, it would be the first since
2020, when president Trump refused to attend the second debate with Biden because it would have been virtual rather than in person following
Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis.[13] It previously occurred in
1980, when president
Jimmy Carter refused to attend the first debate with
Ronald Reagan due to the presence of independent candidate
John B. Anderson.
Chris LaCivita and
Susie Wiles, campaign managers for Trump, had pushed for more debates to be held by the CPD, in addition to holding them earlier than the planned September date, though the commission refused to accede.[14] Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump confirmed his intention to cooperate with the CPD repeatedly and challenged Biden to debate "anywhere, anytime, anyplace".[15]
The CPD announced the schedule for its four debates on November 20, 2023. All debates would have started at 9 p.m. ET and would have run for 90 minutes uninterrupted.[16] In order to qualify for the CPD-sponsored debates, presidential candidates would have needed to meet the following criteria: (vice presidential candidates would have qualified by being the running mate of a qualifying presidential candidate)[16]
Appear on a sufficient number of ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the
Electoral College.
Have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by five national public opinion polling organizations selected by the commission, using the average of those organizations' most recently reported results at the time of determination.
On June 24, 2024, the CPD announced that it was releasing the sites it had selected for its 2024 debates from their contracts, adding that "CPD stands ready to sponsor 2024 debates should circumstances change."[17]
Biden–Trump alternative debates
On May 15, 2024, the Biden campaign announced that it would not participate in the CPD-hosted debates and instead invited Trump to participate in two alternative debates to take place in June and September, each hosted in a TV news studio without an audience.[18][19]Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign manager, laid out three reasons for sidelining the CPD, indicating that the debates were not completed until early voting started, that the debates had become "a spectacle" and that the CPD could not "enforce its own rules".[20]Frank Fahrenkopf, the head of the CPD, pushed back against the claims in an interview with Politico, indicating that the September 16 debate date was the best date, as the "key date" to secure ballot access for independents is September 6. Fahrenkopf also noted that the general election debates are "not like the primary debates" and that Trump himself had not followed the debate rules during the 2020 general election debate moderated by
Chris Wallace.[21] Biden and Trump accepted an offer from CNN to hold the first of these debates on June 27 and from ABC to hold the second on September 10.[3]
Trump indicated the same day that he had accepted a
Fox News debate to be hosted on October 2, 2024, though the Biden campaign dismissed the prospect of a third debate.[22]Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused the two candidates of "
colluding" to exclude him from televised debates "because they are afraid I would win"; both CNN and ABC had decided on eligibility criteria that were similar to those that had been used by the CPD, with Kennedy not appearing on a sufficient number of state ballots at that time.[23] The Biden campaign had unsuccessfully proposed that third party candidates be excluded from the debates.[3] A May poll taken by the
Harvard Center for American Political Studies/
Harris indicated that 71% of the people surveyed were in favor of allowing a third party candidate to debate.[24] Kennedy's campaign filed a complaint with the
Federal Election Commission, maintaining that neither Biden nor Trump meet the ballot access threshold as they have not been nominated by their parties.[25]
Trump announced on May 17 that he would be willing to hold another debate with Biden that would be hosted by
NBC News and
Telemundo.[26]
Proposed vice presidential debate
A vice presidential debate in July was initially proposed, which would take place after the
selection of a vice presidential candidate at the
2024 Republican National Convention.[27] The Biden campaign agreed to a vice presidential debate hosted by
CBS News to take place on either July 23 or August 13.[28] The Trump campaign confirmed with Politico that it is aware of the offer, but had not yet made a decision.[29] Trump stated on May 17 he agreed to a vice presidential debate on behalf of his future vice presidential pick.
Bret Baier of Fox News stated in an interview with
Martha MacCallum held on May 17 that Fox would be willing to host a vice presidential debate on July 23, August 13, or "following both party conventions".[26]
Other proposed debates
On May 7, 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued an open letter challenging former President Trump to debate him at the
Libertarian National Convention, where both were already scheduled to speak from May 24–25, citing Trump's frequent and vocal claims that he would be willing to debate anywhere and Kennedy's own competitive polling with both major candidates. Trump did not respond to this challenge.[30]
In the months prior to the debate, Trump said Biden is the "worst debater I have ever faced; he can't put two sentences together" and criticized his performance in the
latest State of the Union address. However, in the days before the debate, Trump starkly shifted his rhetoric regarding Biden's debating skills in an attempt to increase expectations for Biden, saying "I'm not underestimating him... I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater."[39]
Qualifications
Though Trump told
Scripps News he would have no objection to independent
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appearance in the debate, the Biden campaign wrote in a memo that Kennedy should be excluded.[40] As part of the requirements, the
Kennedy campaign needed to garner at least fifteen percent support in four approved polls by June 20 and appear on a sufficient number of ballots to be capable of winning the election; the Kennedy campaign's strategy of delaying appearances on ballots to prevent legal challenges from mounting conflicted with CNN's requirements.[41] On May 29, Kennedy filed a complaint with the
Federal Election Commission alleging that the Biden and Trump campaigns colluded to prevent him from appearing at the debate.[42]
In order to qualify for the June 27 CNN debate, presidential candidates had to meet the following criteria:[43]
Appear on a sufficient number of ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the
Electoral College
Agree to the rules of the debate
Have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by four national public opinion polling organizations selected by CNN, with such polls dating between March 13 and June 20, 2024.
The Biden campaign hired
Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff, to assist him in debating Trump; Klain helped Biden during the
2020 presidential debates.[74] White House deputy chief of staff
Bruce Reed collected material on policy contrasts with Trump.[75] Biden engaged in preparations at
Camp David, arriving there on the night of June 20 and remained there nearly until the debate.[76]
According to political advisor
Marc Lotter, Trump "views his rallies as debate prep" and engaged with limited debate preparation. The Trump campaign did not appoint a Biden stand-in for Trump to debate.[75] At a rally in
Racine, Wisconsin, Trump suggested Biden would be a formidable opponent, alleging Biden would be on cocaine and that the moderators would assist him.[77]
The debate ran for 90 minutes,[84] with no audience members present. Trump's and Biden's microphones were only turned on when it was their turn to speak. The new rule was in response to the events of the
September 29, 2020 presidential debate.[85] Debate rules written by CNN allocated two minutes for answering the question posed by the moderators,
Dana Bash and
Jake Tapper, and one minute for rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals.[75] The primary issues of the debate were immigration, the economy and inflation,
abortion, foreign policy and the wars in
Ukraine and
Gaza, legal issues of the participants,
Social Security,
the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the participants' ages.[86]
The moderators asked 20 questions, excluding the closing, during the debate. Four questions centered on the economy, four on democracy, three on foreign policy, two on immigration, two on abortion, and one each for climate change, age, opioids, race, and tax reform.[87] Moderator
Jake Tapper began the debate with inflation figures.[88] Biden responded quickly, attributing the economy to Trump's presidency.[89] Trump rebutted by claiming he built the "greatest economy in the history of our country" before the
COVID-19 pandemic.[90] Trump claimed that Biden supported the job growth of illegal immigrants,[91] defending his ten percent tariff,[92] and criticized the
2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.[93] He argued that Biden began his term with successes from the Trump presidency, but chose to implement negative reform.[94]
After a question regarding the national debt, Biden trailed off and appeared to lose his train of thought, saying: "...Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to deal with. The
covid. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with … what if we finally beat.
Medicare."[95][96]
At one point, Trump and Biden briefly had an argument over
golfing abilities during a question regarding their fitness as president due to age.[97]
Trump spoke more than Biden in the debate, with CNN reporting the former to have spoken 40 minutes and 12 seconds, and the latter 35 minutes and 41 seconds.[98] Trump went off topic about 50% of the time, while Biden went off topic about 30% of the time during the debate.[87] During the debate, Trump and Biden both used personal attacks against each other.[99] Trump described Biden as "a very bad Palestinian", using the word "Palestinian" in a derogatory way, which was described by Al Jazeera, The New Arab, and Mother Jones as a form of
anti-Palestinian racism.[100] NBC News found that Trump made 106 attacks during the debate, while Biden made 72.[87]
The moderators did not
fact check the candidates, and The New York Times reported that Trump made many "misleading attacks" and false statements. Biden, in turn, struggled to respond and appeared shaky, with The New York Times describing his performance as "meandering and mumbling."[101]
Viewership
CNN reported that 47.9 million people watched the first debate, down from 73 million viewers during the first 2020 presidential debate. Nielsen Media Research later reported the number of viewers at 51.3 million;[102] this does not include individuals who watched the debate through social media, streaming services, or listened through radio.[103]
According to a CNN flash poll afterwards, 67% of text message respondents believed Trump won the debate, while 33% felt Biden won.[115] A YouGov poll conducted the following morning had 43% of respondents listing Trump as the debate winner, compared to 22% for Biden, while 35% were unsure.[116] A poll from
Ipsos and FiveThirtyEight found that 60% believed Trump won, versus 21% that said Biden won. That poll found that, among the viewers, the debate did not significantly change support for either candidate, though Biden slightly lost support while Trump marginally gained support.[117] A poll by Morning Consult released on June 28 indicated that 60% of voters were in favor of replacing Biden.[118]Amy Walter, the editor of The Cook Political Report, said that while Biden's poor performance stunned "Democratic elite types", many voters had already "priced this in".[112] According to Crowdtangle, "most of the top 10 most-liked posts on Instagram about the debate were either pretty neutral or emphasized how bad it was for both campaigns. … And on
TikTok, there was also a universal vibe that both candidates, not just Biden, were less than ideal for the moment."[119]
Debate Winner
Outlet
Trump
Biden
Other
CNN
67%
33%
YouGov
43%
22%
35%
Ipsos/538
60%
21%
19%
Reporters in the
spin room after the debate ignored Trump representatives as they asked Biden's team to explain the president's performance. The Trump campaign received only a few media requests the next morning—compared to the typical about two dozen, and far more after previous debates—as reporters continued focusing on Biden.[120] Following the debate, CNN reported criticism of Biden's performance by some Democrats, with one Democratic
strategist dubbing it a "disaster" and another as "nothing good".[98][121] Media sources described Biden's voice as "
hoarse" and "raspy",[122][123] and described him as frequently losing his train of thought and having meandering answers, with many citing his "We finally beat
Medicare" response to a question on the national debt as emblematic of this.[124][125][126]Susan Glasser of
The New Yorker described it as the worst
televised presidential debate ever, edging out the first
2020 presidential debate between the two men, with Biden's weak performance overshadowing Trump's
falsehoods.[127]
American writer and political consultant
Tim Miller called Biden's performance the "worst performance in the history of televised presidential debates",[128] a sentiment also shared by
Jeff Greenfield of
Politico[106] and NewsNation chief political analyst
Chris Stirewalt.[129] Journalist
Jake Sherman reported that several congressional Democrats thought that Biden "didn't even clear the lowest bar", and that Biden was not even able to articulate what his policies are even if they agreed on them.[128] Some Democrats were unsure whether he should continue his campaign and be the Democratic nominee.[130][126] CNN's chief national correspondent
John King reported that there was "a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic" in the Democratic Party that started a few minutes into the debate. During the debate, unnamed elected officials, party strategists, and fundraisers were reported to have discussed replacing Biden as the party's candidate due to fears about him potentially hurting other Democrats' public perceptions, and deciding if prominent Democrats should make a public statement about asking Biden to step down.[131]
After being deemed ineligible, Kennedy
counterprogrammed the debate with a campaign event from Los Angeles dubbed "The Real Debate", moderated by
John Stossel, in which he provided his own responses to the questions that were posed to Biden and Trump during the actual debate. The event was live streamed on
Rumble and
X; on X, Kennedy's stream began with roughly 618,000 viewers, and peaked at over one million.[132][133]
The day after the debate, Biden admitted that his debate performance was weak,[134][135] and his performance led to an increase in questions as to whether or not he should remain as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate.[136][137] The editorial board of The New York Times called for Biden to exit the presidential race, stating there are other "Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency" and that "the burden rests on the Democratic Party to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of a single man".[138] In response to the debate, Time magazine published the cover for their forthcoming August 5 issue, featuring Biden walking off-cover, captioned simply with "Panic." The magazine wrote, "[it] is not a word too strong to describe sentiment that spreads throughout the Democratic Party from top to bottom during the debate."[139] The magazine also published an article written by
Caroline Randall Williams calling on Biden to do "the historic thing" and step down. Williams noted many of Biden's historic achievements, writing that it would be his greatest to allow another candidate to run.[140] The Democratic Party announced it brought in $14 million on June 27 and throughout the early morning of June 28, with the 11p.m. to 12a.m. hour after the debate accounting for the "single best hour of fundraising since the campaign's launch in April 2023." The Trump campaign announced receiving $8 million on debate day.[119] Biden spoke about his debate performance on July 2 and stated that his "foreign travel" beforehand caused it.[141]
International response
Chinese journalist and former Global Times editor
Hu Xijin said the debate was "very entertaining for many Chinese people".[142] The debate was a trending topic on microblogging website
Weibo, where users noted Biden's age. Trump's tie was compared to the
red scarves worn by young communist revolutionaries; Trump has been referred to as a "nation-builder" in China for ostensibly allowing China to ascend in global affairs.[143] Israeli newspaper Haaretz and British tabloid The Sun criticized Biden's performance, a statement made by German politician
Norbert Röttgen and former British ambassador to the United States
Kim Darroch.[142] Polish Foreign Minister
Radek Sikorski commented on
X that Biden should now manage a succession plan.[144] Many European allies were extremely concerned with the debate, while Russian state media mocked Biden's performance.[144]
Democratic Party response
"I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious. I don't walk as easily as I used to. I don't talk as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up."
—Joe Biden, responding to criticism of his debate performance during a speech in North Carolina the following day (June 28, 2024).[134][119]
Following Biden's performance in the debate, some Democrats began to suggest that he should drop out of the presidential race (video from
Voice of America).
About an hour into the debate, a Biden aide and others familiar with his situation claimed that Biden had a cold.[145] He had been administered a COVID-19 test during his stay at
Camp David, which was negative.[146] Biden attended a debate watch party shortly after the debate, where it was reported that he energetically thanked his supporters, calling them the reason why America is as good as it is. A CBS host stated that his demeanor made it appear like "his cold has been cured".[128]
President Biden stated to reporters at a
Waffle House after the debate: "I think we did well" and said he did not have any concerns about his performance or calls for him to drop out of the presidential race, stating that it was difficult to debate "a liar."[147] Biden was congratulated by his wife,
First LadyJill Biden, on his performance at a post-debate gathering. She told him on stage that he did "such a great job. You answered every question."[148] Biden's running mate, Vice President
Kamala Harris, claimed that while Biden "started off slow", he still managed to have a strong finish.[149] Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager
Jen O'Malley Dillon praised Biden's debate performance, saying that he presented a "positive and winning vision" for the future.[150]
California GovernorGavin Newsom stated that moments where Biden stumbled upon his words were "significantly insignificant" due to American voters not supporting Trump policies on issues such as abortion, saying Biden won the debate "on substance". He said that the American people need to have Biden's back instead of turning on him "at this critical time" because of one performance.[150] Pennsylvania Democratic Senator
John Fetterman, who had a similarly weak debate performance in his
2022 election, told fellow Democrats to "Chill the fuck out", stating that he refused to join the "Democratic vultures on Biden's shoulder".[151] Several other prominent Democrats, including former Presidents
Barack Obama and
Bill Clinton, rallied behind Biden, and resisted calls for him to step down due to one "bad debate."[152]
Other associates of Biden were more critical, with political advisor
Kate Bedingfield stating that there was no way to interpret his debate performance as good, and political consultant
David Axelrod saying that it seemed that Biden panicked early in the debate, which "confirmed people's fears".[153] Democratic strategist
Van Jones said that Biden had failed a test to restore the confidence of the country, and that the reaction for many supporters was "not just panic, it's pain".[154] Democratic strategist
James Carville stated shortly after the debate that he felt Biden should exit the race.[155] Former Democratic presidential candidate
Julian Castro called the results of the debate "completely predictable", and that Biden failed to clear a very low bar by seeming unprepared, lost, and not strong enough to resist Trump's attacks or lies.[154] Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate
Andrew Yang called for the party to swap Biden with another nominee.[156] On July 2, U.S. Congressman
Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in
Congress to publicly call for Biden to step aside as the party's nominee.[157]
Fact-checking
The debate moderators did not
fact-check the candidates.[158] Numerous sources also mentioned lies[j] and fact-checked the candidates.[159]
Glenn Kessler, fact-checker for The Washington Post, summarized "35 of the most noteworthy claims that initially caught our interest", claims which he analyzed in depth:
In the contentious first presidential debate between President Biden and former president Donald Trump, Trump confidently relied on false assertions that have been debunked repeatedly. Biden, in what was viewed as a faltering performance, stretched the truth on occasion.[159]
FactCheck.org summarized its coverage of the many false and inaccurate claims made by the candidates, which were also analyzed:
The much-anticipated first debate of 2024 between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump featured a relentless barrage of false and misleading statements from the two candidates on immigration, the economy, abortion, taxes and more.[160]
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump traded barbs and a variety of false and misleading information as they faced off in their first debate of the 2024 election.[161]
^Some news outlets included the following four states in Oliver's total which are not included here for the following reasons:
Two state party affiliates rejected Oliver as the party's nominee
^The Kennedy campaign also claimed they were certified for the ballot in two other states, but these claims were not verified by independent media outlets:[56]
^Lars Mapstead, who was seeking the Libertarian nomination at the time, and Jasmine Sherman, who was seeking the Green nomination at the time, also participated.