Biden falters in high-stakes debate, Trump spews falsehoods
The contest was seen as a test of each man's fitness for office.
In a historic clash of personality and policy, Joe Biden and Donald Trump took the stage for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election.
The showdown provided a rare opportunity for both candidates to move the needle in what has been a stubbornly tight race for the White House, but at the end of the night, Biden's halting performance raised new concerns among Democrats and cause Republicans to celebrate.
The debate was a rematch for Biden and Trump, who faced each other twice in 2020, but a first-of-its-kind format and a vastly different political landscape presented new challenges for the two rivals.
Top headlines:
Trump says he will not block abortion pills
Trump, who had yet to clarify his stance on abortion medication, said he would not block access to the drug if elected.
Trump's not wrong about the inflation rate Biden inherited
Biden said he inherited 9% inflation. This is false. In January 2021, year-over-year inflation was about 1.4%. It peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. It's now down to 3.3%. During Trump's time in office, inflation rose by 7.76% from January 2017 to January 2021, and year-over-year inflation peaked at 2.9% in July 2018.
-538's Kaleigh Rogers
Biden opens debate with misleading 'bleach' talking point
Biden accused Trump of not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously, saying Trump told Americans, "It's not that serious. Just inject a little bleach in your arm." That's Mostly False.
Trump's 2020 comments about treatments were criticized, but he didn't tell people to inject bleach. At a 2020 White House press briefing, Trump asked William Bryan, an undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, to study whether ultraviolet light could be effective "inside the body" to treat COVID-19 or whether disinfectants could combat the virus "by injection inside."
After Bryan said his lab did not study disinfectant injection, Trump clarified that using disinfectants "would not be through injection." Trump later told reporters he was being "sarcastic" when referring to injections.
-Analysis by Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact
Trump asked about plan to impose 10% tariff on goods coming to US
Asked how he would ensure that his plan to impose a 10% tariff on all goods coming to the U.S. wouldn't drive prices higher Trump said it won't drive them higher but will force countries like China to "pay us a lot of money" and "give us a lot of power for other things," though didn't elaborate.
Debate impact wanes amid polarization, viral competition: Experts
As Biden and Trump prepare to square off in their first political debate in four years, historians and experts contend the matchup may have a small but crucial impact on the election.
Aaron Kall, director of debate for the University of Michigan's Debate Program, told ABC News the majority of those who tune in are likely already locked into a preferred candidate.
"Nothing that occurs during the 90-minute debate is going to change or influence who they're going to vote for," he said.
However, Kall and other experts ABC News spoke with said there is still a smaller group of undecided voters who do tune in and can be swayed by the performances.
With the last two presidential elections decided by just tens of thousands of votes in a few states -- many cast by independent voters -- candidates' debate strategies have become laser-focused on courting that group, according to Julien Labarre, administrator of the University of California Santa Barbara's Center of Information Technology & Society.
"What we see is people who were not thinking of going to vote being turned into voters," he told ABC News. "Spurring people into participation, we do see that kind of effect."
-ABC News' Ivan Pereira