Trump and Biden to take center stage in first 2024 presidential debate: Live updates

Follow all the latest build-up as White House rivals prepare to face off on CNN

Donald Trump tells rally crowd Joe Biden will come to the debate ‘jacked up’ after getting ‘a shot in the a**’

Donald Trump and Joe Biden are due to face each on the debate stage in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday evening in their first head-to-head of the 2024 election cycle.

The encounter will take place at 9pm ET and be broadcast live from CNN’s studios, with the network’s anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash serving as moderators.

The debate promises to be every bit as bad-tempered as their two face-offs in the run-up to the Covid-blighted 2020 election and the Republican has wasted no time in getting his blows in early, sneering on Wednesday that the president should be thrilled there will be no fact-checkers present because he is a “lying machine”.

Trump and his conservative media allies have also alleged in advance that the debate will not be a fair fight, arguing without evidence that the moderators will be biased and that Biden will be using performance-enhancing medication.

Sources close to the billionaire businessman have further hinted he could finally name his running mate ahead of the showdown.

Independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, who did not meet the qualification criteria, will meanwhile be interviewed by television personality Dr Phil on his Merit Street Media platform.

Key Points

• Donald Trump and Joe Biden to square up in hotly-anticipated first debate of 2024 election
• Trump roasts Biden with spoof ad for ‘Bidenica’ sleep medication
• RFK Jr to appear on Dr Phil Primetime after missing out on debate
• Trump may announce running mate ahead of debate
• Conservative paranoia over Biden using performance-enhancing drugs continues

[27 June 2024 12:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

CNN explains precisely how debate stage will work

The network is doing all it can to make tonight’s main event as transparent and controversy-free as possible, no doubt in part anticipating criticism from the Trump camp in its aftermath.

[27 June 2024 12:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

‘Will you shut up, man’: The best jabs from Trump and Biden’s 2020 debates

Unusually, this evening’s showdown in Atlanta will not be the first time the American public has seen its two presidential candidates debate each other, as this year’s election is essentially a rematch of the Covid-blighted contest of 2020.

Biden and Trump debated four years ago at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29 and again at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, with another scheduled in between but cancelled after the Republican tested positive for the coronavirus and then refused to participate remotely.

Here are the, ahem, highlights from those face-offs.

[27 June 2024 12:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

CNN cuts interview with Trump spokeswoman after she claims debate will be a ‘hostile environment’

Also getting her excuses in early this week was the Republican’s press goon Karoline Leavitt, who was cut off by anchor Kasie Hunt on Monday after claiming that tonight’s debate would be a “hostile environment” for Trump, saying that moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash have been “biased” in their coverage of the former president.

Leavitt subsequently went on Steve Bannon’s show to discuss the incident, prompting the jail-bound former strategist to suggest Trump use it as reason to back out of tonight’s face-off.

It’s almost like they’re worried he’s going to blow it...

Gustaf Kilander has the full story.

[27 June 2024 11:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Joe and the juice: Conservative paranoia over Biden using performance-enhancing drugs continues

After insisting for months on end that the president is too old and senile for the White House at 81, Trump’s chorus of right-wing allies are warning that if Biden does well tonight, it’s because he’s “juiced up” with magical medicine – as he was at the State of the Union, they cry, without any evidence.

Sean Hannity and Ronny Jackson have both been making this spurious claim all week and now Kevin McCarthy and Andy Ogles are at it.

If you prefer your news in meme form, this about covers it.

Here’s Martha McHardy on Trump himself making the same allegation at his Philadelphia rally last Saturday.

[27 June 2024 11:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump may announce running mate ahead of debate

Although he previously said he would name his prospective vice president at the Republican National Convention in “horrible” Milwaukee next month, Trump sources have since hinted he could drop the name tonight as a headline-stealing gambit.

Possible VP picks North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, Ohio senator JD Vance and Florida senator Marco Rubio are all set to be in Atlanta to cheer him on.

Gustaf Kilander reports.

[27 June 2024 10:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

RFK Jr to appear on Dr Phil Primetime after missing out on debate

After failing to meet CNN’s qualification criteria for the debate, the independent candidate is following Trump’s example and appearing on Dr Phil McGraw’s Dr Phil Primetime show on his Merit Street Media platform this evening in the hope of offering some enticing counter-programming.

That’s airing at 7.30pm ET and will reportedly see Kennedy grilled on his election hopes and his controversial views on vaccines, although the host’s handling of Trump left a lot to be desired.

CNN’s rules for participation in Atlanta stipulated that the candidates must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach 270 Electoral College votes and have received at least 15 per cent in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that met the network’s standards.

By the time the June 20 qualification deadline dawned, Kennedy Jr was polling at 15 per cent in only three valid polls and had made the ballot in just six states, giving him a potential total of 89 Electoral College votes, well short of the requirement.

Fellow independents Jill Stein and Cornell West did not meet the bar either.

Robert F Kennedy Jr (Getty)

[27 June 2024 10:05 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump calls Biden ‘a walking lying machine’

In addition to being a practiced insult comic, the Republican felon is also a master of the art of projection, as this Truth Social attack on the president from yesterday amply demonstrated.

Remember that a Washington Post analysis found that, while in office, Trump lied 30,573 times in his public statements, making an average of 21 false claims a day.

Kelly Rissman has more.

[27 June 2024 09:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

Truth Social: Trump roasts Biden with spoof ad for ‘Bidenica’ sleep medication

Trump, something of an expert in WWE-style trash talking, has inevitably been busy cooking up jokey anti-Biden content overnight, including an ad for a new sedative called “Bidenica”.

He also posted this far darker and more cynical attack ad on the president’s “character”, blaming him for illegal immigration at the southern border and various “migrant crime” episodes.

Biden’s equivalent offering is, naturally, more gentle in tone.

[27 June 2024 09:25 · Joe Sommerlad]

Why Trump has an advantage over Biden in the first debate

The Republican may see a bump in the polls after tonight’s debate because of a long-running trend: incumbents tend to do worse in the first debate of every presidential election season.

Presidential debate historian Alan Schroeder told NBC News that a president’s life exists in a “protected bubble” and the first debate of the cycle serves to take them outside of that bubble and confront them with a pumped up opponent itching for a showdown.

Gustaf Kilander has more.

[27 June 2024 09:05 · Joe Sommerlad]

How Biden and Trump insiders say their candidates have been preparing

White House and Republican advisers have been telling Andrew Feinberg about Biden’s intense, “punchy” preparation process at Camp David in Maryland this week — and how Trump doesn’t need to prepare because he has “elite stamina”.