President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 78, faced off against each other at the first 2024 presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday evening. The 90-minute debate was moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, and resulted in plenty of talk-worthy moments.
The candidates discussed topics such as immigration, abortion, inflation, Charlottesville, and climate while also engaging in personal attacks against each other. Trump’s recent conviction of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the landmark hush-money trial was also mentioned.
But what stood out to many pundits and viewers was Biden’s performance. The President frequently stumbled on his words and at times even rambled off into tangents that others struggled to understand. At one point, Trump said of Biden: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.” The reaction online has been strong. Some Biden supporters have said the debate “hurt.”
Elsewhere, famous author Stephen King expressed concern with the future of the country, given how the debate had been commercialized.
Towards the end of the debate, one moment drew an especially strong reaction online: an argument over golf. Co-moderator Bash asked both candidates what they would say to voters who question their capability to serve, given their ages.
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Trump responded by saying that he is in “very good health,” attempting to highlight this by saying he had just won two regular golf club championships. “To do that you have to be able to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way… He [Biden] can’t hit a ball 50 yards,” Trump said. “He challenged me to a golf match, he can’t hit a ball 50 yards.”
In exchange, Biden said he would be happy to play golf with Trump, if Trump could carry his own bag. Biden also said that when he was Vice President, he was able to bring his Golfing Handicap score, a numerical score used to ensure golfers can fairly play other golfers of equal ability, “down to a 6.”
The exchange left many viewers who don’t play golf confused, and others shocked that the topic of golf had found its way into the presidential debate. As a result, the exchange became the subject of several social media reactions.
