[ cheers and applause ] ♪ >> jiminy: what a wonderful night it has been! i want to thank -- melissa mccarthy, nick kroll, and the warning. "nightline" is next. thank you for watching. good night, america! ha ha ha! showdown in atlanta. the historic face off. >> the only person on this stage is a convicted felon. is now i'm looking at right now he's not

equipped to be president. >> president joe biden and former president donald trump going toe to toe. >> this man is just a complainer. you're such a whiner bashing. i've never seen anybody lie like this guy. clashing scholars voted for him and the worst president in the history of united states of america. >> each candidate defending his record on the economy, providing thousands of millions of jobs for individuals involved, communities, including minority communities. >> nobody's ever created an economy like us. >> and the new questions raised tonight about the performance of two of the oldest men to ever run for president. our powerhouse team breaks it all down. this special edition of nightline, the race for the white house. we'll be right back . >> to give your teeth a dentist clean feeling, start with a round brush head. add power and you've got oral-b round cleans better by surrounding each tooth to remove 100% more plaque for a superior clean oral-b brush like a pro can support your brain health. >> mary.

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you >> thanks for joining us. fireworks tonight as a sitting president and a former president faced off on a debate stage for the very first time, many expressing surprise at president biden's performance as team trump offers rave reviews about their candidate. abc's senior congressional correspondent rachel scott joins us from the debate site in atlanta. >> rachel juju, the stakes were high. the margins were close. and this is not the debate that many democrats wanted to see from the president tonight in fact, sources close to the trump campaign tell me they let out a huge exhale the moment that president biden took that very first question, because they could notice that there was something off with the president's voice. they also noticed that the president was

pausing. as for the biden campaign, they say that the president had a cold, but they do believe that he came out strong, delivering a strong contrast to former president donald trump. but for the former president, this is the type of debate that his advisers wanted to see. he was remarkably restrained. he was pivoting from those tough questions about january 6th, and also his legal troubles, to talking about the key issues they believe will define the election, immigration, the economy as well as crime. if perception was everything tonight on the biggest political stage of this campaign yet, the trump campaign believes their candidate came out on top. juju. >> rachel, thank you. it's hard to overstate the intensity of this race, each candidate insisting his plan is the only way to save the country. that intensity reflected on the stage tonight. it was a clash of two presidents, one current, one former now locked in a rematch for the white house, the two men not shaking hands as they walked onto the stage. from the start. the gloves were off. >> my son was not a loser. he

was not a sucker. you're the sucker. you're the loser. he's without question, the worst president, the worst presidency in the history of our country. we shouldn't be having a debate about it. >> the two men meeting in the first presidential debate of this election cycle, hosted by cnn. president biden, his voice raspy at times, struggling to make a point. his campaign confirming he has a cold. >> i've changed it in a way that now you're in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally. that's better than when he left office and i'm going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we can do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. >> former president trump calling president biden out after this answer. >> i really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don't think he knows what he said, either. >> biden questioning the former president's fitness to lead. >> look, there's a reason why 40 of his 44 top cabinet officers

refused to endorse him. this time, his vice president hasn't endorsed him this time. so why? why? they know him well, they serve with him. why are they not endorsing him? >> polling shows that 81% of voters think biden is too old to be president. he's 81, 55% of voters feel this way about trump, who is 78. both said tonight they are up for the job. >> this guy is three years younger and a lot less competent. i think that this look at the record, look at what i've done. i took two tests, cognitive tests. >> i aced them, both of them. as you know, we made it public. he took none. i'd like to see him take one. just one. a real easy one. like go through the first five questions. you couldn't do it at tonight's debate. >> there was no studio audience, and the microphones were shut down to limit interruptions. the latest polling average shows the candidates neck and neck putting even more weight on tonight. and the upcoming debates. president biden currently has a disapproval rating of more than 55. as far as the issues that matter most to voters, the

economy and inflation remain at the top, while crime protecting democracy, health care and the border falling shortly behind the debate, touching most of those topics. >> he's right. he did beat medicaid, beat it to death, and he's destroying medicare because all of these people are coming in. they're putting them on medicare. they're putting them on social security. they're going to destroy social security. this man is going to single handedly destroy social security. >> biden calling out trump for being the first president in history to be convicted of a felony. >> the only person on this stage is a convicted felon is the man i'm looking at right now. >> last month, a new york jury finding him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the stormy daniels hush money case, keeping the alleged affair from voters just days before the 2016 election, the republican candidate still facing dozens of felony counts in three other criminal cases. >> how many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for? for molesting a woman in public? for doing a whole range

of things, of having sex with a star on the night while your wife was pregnant? i mean, what what what are you talking about? you have the morals of an alley cat. >> give me a minute, sir. >> i didn't have sex with a star. >> trump later responding, we're going to make this country successful again because right now it's a failing nation. >> my retribution is going to be success. but when he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon at a very high level. >> since he was found guilty, trump raised tens of millions off his conviction. and it's had little impact on his standing in the polls. >> i don't think any campaign has ever taken hundreds of millions of dollars came pouring in because the public knows it's a scam, and it's a guy that's after his political opponent because he can't win fair and square. >> another issue on most americans minds the economy and the pain of stubbornly high inflation. >> would that take a look at what i was left when i became president and what mr. trump left me? we had an economy that was in freefall. the pandemic

was so badly handled, many people were dying. all he said was it's not that serious. >> he also said he inherited 9% inflation. now he inherited almost no inflation and it stayed that way for 14 months. and then it blew up under his leadership because they spent money like a bunch of people that didn't know what they were doing and they don't know what they were doing. it was the worst. probably the worst administration in history. >> biden, defending his administration and touting the country's low unemployment rate and economic recovery since the covid pandemic. tonight's debate coming just days after the two year anniversary of the reversal of roe v wade, the former president addressing mifepristone, which is used in medication abortions, the supreme court just approved the abortion pill, and i agree with their decision to have done that, and i will not block it. and defending his role in overturning roe v wade, what i did is i put three great supreme court justices on the court, and they happened to vote in favor of killing roe v wade and moving

it back to the states. >> this is something that everybody wanted. >> it's been a terrible thing. what you've done the fact is that the vast majority of constitutional scholars supported roe, when it was decided, supported roe. and that was that's this idea that they were all against. it is just ridiculous. >> according to a pew research center study, 70% of americans say they did not support the overturning of roe v wade. >> the idea that the politicians that the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making decisions about women's health is ridiculous. that's the last no politician should be making that decision. a doctor should be making those decisions. 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. >> so that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month. and even after birth, because some states democrat run take it after birth again. the governor, former governor of virginia put the baby down. then we decide what to do with it. so he's he's willing to, as we say,

rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby. nobody wants that to happen, democrat or republican. nobody wants it to happen. >> that is simply not true. the roe v wade does not provide for that. that's not the circumstance. only the woman's life is in danger. she's going to die. that's the only circumstance in which that can happen. but we are not for late term abortion, period. >> the former president also tried to change the narrative surrounding the january 6th insurrection. when asked about voters who are worried he might violate his constitutional oath again. >> well, i didn't say that to anybody, i said peacefully and patriotically, president biden hitting back at that answer. >> and the fact of the matter is, he is what he's telling you is simply not true. the fact is that there was no effort on his part to stop what was going on up on capitol hill. and all those people, every one of those were convicted, deserves to be convicted. >> trump wasted no time honing in on an area where he believes

he has the upper hand. the border. >> we have the safest border in the history of our country, the border. all he had to do was leave it. all he had to do is leave it. he decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylum, terrorists. we have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now. southern border crossings have increased dramatically under president biden, averaging 2 million each year. >> biden, in turn criticizing trump's child separation policy. >> we found ourselves in a situation where when he was president, he was taking separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure they were the families were separated. that's not the right way to go. >> tonight's debate, coming amidst a prolonged war between hamas and israel and ukraine and russia. trump claiming that neither would have happened if he had been in office and i will have that war settled between putin and zelensky as president elect before i take office on january 20th.

>> i'll have that war settled, people being killed. so needlessly, so stupidly, and i will get it settled and i'll get it settled fast before i take office. >> biden, forceful in his condemnation of president putin. >> the fact is that putin is a war criminal. he's killed thousands and thousands of people, and he has made one thing clear he wants to reestablish what was part of the soviet empire, not just a piece. he wants all of ukraine. that's what he wants. and then you think he'll stop there? >> after the debate, commentators and experts analyzing the candidates, with some saying democrats are expressing concern about president biden's performance. >> there is no question this is not the night that the biden campaign wanted or needed. they were going into this hoping that the president's performance would put to rest those remaining concerns about his age and his fitness for office. it is hard to see how what we just saw did that. >> and when we return our powerhouse team breaks down the big moments. this special

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>> and welcome back. we're being joined now by our abc powerhouse political analyst, former acting dnc chair donna brazile, and former trump chief of staff reince priebus. reince, let me start with you. you've been in these green rooms. you know what it feels like. how is team trump feeling tonight versus team biden? >> i think team trump's feeling great. i think he did what he needed to do. i think that he was civil. i think he was disciplined. i think he stuck to the issues on the economy, immigration, where we are in the

world. and he led and he let joe biden speak. i mean, and the reality is this was a total, unmitigated disaster and train wreck for joe biden. he looked frail. he looked feeble right off the right out of the gate. he deflated his democrat base by freezing up on questions about the economy. in fact, he he froze up for many seconds and then he suddenly just said that he beat medicare. and then on the question of abortion, which he's been practicing, and camp david for the past week, he didn't he didn't slam the door at all on that subject. and in fact, he trailed off and then started talking about immigration, look, the reality is it was actually a sad, embarrassing night for the president. his family should have sat him down weeks ago and told him, you know, dad, you know your spouse. look, it's time to step aside. and i think

now what you're going to see on the democrat side is, is a pure panic on their side as to what happened there tonight. to joe biden. >> donna, i want you to just step in and talk about this panic. you know, the biden camp said that he was suffering from a cold somewhat through the debate. and even john karl was saying that he was speaking to democrats who were expressing concerns about what they saw tonight, saying that, in fact, biden supporters said that he was shocked by the diminished state and that it was undeniable. donna, your thoughts i've heard from many of those democrats and as you all know, the bad weather is are always anxious or worried about something because it's not going the way they planned. >> look, joe biden didn't hit it out of the park, but he did not have to hit triples. he needed to just make sure that the american people understood what was at stake. he is standing before the american people with policies and things that he has, that has worked to improve our lives, to get inflation down to,

to ensure that our borders are secured. he is fighting to make the necessary changes that we need now, if we if we focus on the optics again, we are reminded that these are two old men. but here's what i think donald trump did wrong. he forgets that we watch what happened on january 6th. we know who was able to put out that ride, that insurrection. we will never forget the harm that it caused the men and women of the metropolitan police department, the capitol police, the lawmakers who were frightened, the vice president who was scared, and the speaker of the house who tried to help. she didn't have the power to call out the national guard. so did joe biden. hit it out of the park? ladies and gentlemen, no. but for those americans, the americans who are on the fence, who need to know who will bring about the change that will help their lives, i do believe that joe biden still have their attention. >> ryan, let's talk about those

americans sitting on the fence. you know that undecideds and independents are crucial. the latest polls are showing that it's neck and neck, whose performance moved the needle tonight? >> well, the biggest problem that that the american people have is joe biden's mental acuity. and there are not many people left on the fence. and those people that watched there tonight are afraid of this president. as to whether or not he can continue for four more years. there's not that many undecided people out there, but there are some. and those are the people that that both trump and biden needed to speak to tonight. and what they saw in joe biden was someone whose voice was shot, who was confused and who couldn't respond to even the, the, the blows that he was taking. and i don't think it's because he didn't respond, because he didn't want to, or that he didn't know how. i don't think he responded because joe biden couldn't respond. he's not physically and mentally capable

of responding to these sorts of situations, and that should give people a lot of pause as to whether or not he should be president for another four years. >> donna, let me bring you in. one thing that president biden did say was that he called president trump or former president trump a liar, saying that every single thing he has said is a lie. every single one. how difficult is it to fact check in real time during a debate? >> i mean, to the to the point the chairman was making. absolutely. look, if i had to stand on stage with a just a known serial liar, a convicted felon, i think i would lose my balance too. i wouldn't know how to respond to some of the stuff that he just says out of the blue. and we all know it's wrong. it's lies. but it works because he's in the theater. he's not into putting together the policies that will make enable america to thrive. the fact that he doesn't acknowledge the tax cuts, you know, really tore into our our budget, the deficit, the deficits. look, i

don't want to fact check donald trump, and i don't want to sit here and say that a man who's 81 years old can't handle the job. i just witnessed the men from d-day when they stood up, stood up because they still had the strength and the stamina. are we saying to them, just because you can't rise as quick as i can because i'm younger? maybe you can't talk as fast as i can because i'm younger doesn't mean that you still have. you don't have any value. you are a symbol of who we are. and joe biden is a symbol of a good public servant. that's why i think tonight democrats are going to talk. but you know what? they're going to stick with joe biden. >> donna, we're going to have to end it there. ryan. donna, thank you so much for your insights as always. and we'll be right back with a final thought. >> if you're 50 or over, you can be taking advantage of everything aarp has to offer right now. join aarp for $12 for one year and your second membership is free. get instant

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>> and that's it for nightline. we'll have much more coverage on the debate on gma tomorrow. good night america. >> impact. juicy juicy