Thread by @atrupar

I'm putting together a thread covering the first Biden-Trump debate of the 2024 cycle. Follow along for clips and commentary 👇

Let me note up top that if you appreciate me watching so many political events and bringing you clips and threads, please support what I do by signing up for my newsletter. I think you'll enjoy Public Notice and paid subscribers make my work possible. publicnotice.co/subscribe

Biden and Trump do not shake hands

"We gotta take a look at what I was left when I became president ... by the time he left, things were in chaos" -- Biden's response to a question about what he says to people who feel they are worse off with him as president

Trump begins with a big lie: "The thing we never got credit the credit for, and we should have, is getting us out of that covid mess." (Trump did not get us out of covid.)

Biden points out that Trump was the first president since Hoover who lost jobs in the country compared to when he took office

Trump is completely trying to rewrite the history of covid, which in reality was ravaging the country when he left office

this was a bad moment for Biden

Trump says what Biden has done is "absolutely criminal" and somehow nobody points out that Trump was just convicted of literal felonies

Trump on the SCOTUS justices he appointed: "They happened to vote in favor of killing Roe v Wade"

Trump pushes his grotesque, misogynist lie about moms murdering their babies in blue states

"These killers are coming into our country. And they are raping and killing women" -- Trump on migrants

Trump claims that the founders would've supported his position on abortion, which seems like quite a stretch

Trump accuses Biden of literally murdering babies

Biden seems shook. He's just not expressing himself clearly.

"He has killed so many people at our border" -- Trump keeps accusing Biden of murdering people

"My son was not a loser, he was not a sucker. You're the loser, you're the sucker" -- Biden to Trump on his reported "suckers and losers" comment

TRUMP: He made up the "suckers and losers." He should apologize to me

BIDEN: A 4 star general on your staff said you said it. Period.

Trump seems to let slip that in private conversation, Putin told him it was "his dream" to conquer Ukraine (or so he says)

Trump demeans Zelenskyy: "Every time Zelenskyy comes to this country he walks away with $60 billion. He's the greatest salesman ever."

Trump wonders why Biden hasn't shook down Ukraine's allies like he tried to shake down NATO. Biden's smirk speaks volumes.

"I've never heard so much foolishness. This is a guy who wants to get out of NATO" -- Biden on Trump's foreign policy

Trump deflects on January 6: "On January 6, we had a great border ... we had the lowest regulations ever."

Trump absurdly tries to blame the January 6 riot on Nancy Pelosi and Muriel Bowser

Biden: "And now he says that if he loses again, being the whiner that he is, there's gonna be a bloodbath?"

Trump responds by defending the January 6 insurrectionists.

After defending the January 6 insurrectionists, Trump claims Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney should be in jail

Biden responds by saying, "the only person who is a convicted felon is the man I'm looking at right now"

Asked what he means by going after his political opponents, Trump says of Biden, "he could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office." He then rehashes the debunked conspiracy theories that got him impeached in 2019.

"It's simply a lie," Biden says.

Trump nods along as Biden notes that Trump was found liable of sexual assault

"I didn't have sex with a porn star," Trump replies (note that he doesn't deny the assault)

TAPPER: Do you believe that Trump voters will be voting against American democracy?

BIDEN: The more they learn about what he's done, yes

"He made up the Charlottesville story" -- Trump on Biden (the "Charlottesville story" is comments Trump made on tape!)

Biden notes that there's a reason the majority of Trump's cabinet hasn't endorsed him

The Biden/Trump debate is on commercial break. If you appreciate me watching it closely and bringing you clips, please support what I do by signing up for my newsletter. You'll enjoy it and subscribers make my work possible. Thx. publicnotice.co/subscribe

BASH: What do you say to Black voters who are disappointed with the progress so far?

BIDEN: I don't blame them for being disappointed

Trump: "His big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he's allowed to come in through the border. They're taking Black jobs now."

Biden: "There was no inflation when I became president. You wanna know why? The economy was flat on its back ... there were no jobs."

BASH: Will you take any action to slow the climate crisis?

TRUMP: So I want absolutely immaculate clean water, and I want absolutely clean air

Biden: "The cleanest water? The cleanest water? He didn't do a damn thing for the environment."

Trump: "The migrants coming in ... they're taking over our schools, our hospitals."

"I've never seen anybody lie like this guy" -- Trump, somehow not talking about himself

Biden: "There's a reason why he have the fastest growing economy in the world ... by the way, worst president in history? 159 presidential scholars voted him the worst president in the history of the United States of America."

Trump in response to a question about child care: "If he wins this election ... we probably won't have a country left anymore."

Trump just refuses to answer the questions he's asked. Get a load of this. (This is an instance where it'd be really nice if moderators could fact-check.)

Trump: "We were doing very well on addiction until covid came along." (This is a lie.)

Trump claims that if he's elected he'll be able to quickly free the Wall Street Journal reporter who is imprisoned in Russia (if he's so tight with Putin why can't he facilitate this now?)

Biden on his age: "This guy is three years younger an a lot less competent. Look at the record."

Asked about concerns about his age, Trump brags about acing a dementia test as Biden smirks

Biden and Trump teasing each other about golf is the only thing approaching a moment of levity during this debate, which has been a brutal watch

Trump won't commit to accepting the results of the election regardless of who wins

Biden: "You want a World War 3, let him win and let Putin say, 'do what you want with NATO.'

Trump for a second time refuses to accept the results of the election and changes the topic to Putin, saying, "He's gonna take Ukraine ... Ukraine is not winning that war."

Asked a third time if he'll accept the election results, Trump again refuses to commit to it without conditions

The Biden/Trump debate is in its second commercial break. If you appreciate my thread covering it, please support what I do by signing up for my newsletter, Public Notice. I think you'll enjoy it and paid subscribers make my work possible. Thx. publicnotice.co/subscribe

Here's Biden's closing statement in its entirely

Here's Trump's entire closing statement, which he began by shamelessly accusing Biden of being a "complainer" (victimhood is Trump's entire brand) and ended by saying "we're in a failing nation"

the final moments of the debate were extremely awkward 😬

The Biden/Trump debate is over. If you appreciate me bringing you all these notable moments, please support what I do by signing up for my newsletter. It takes resources to document big political events with video & paid subscribers make my work possible. publicnotice.co/subscribe

Let me wrap with a plug for @SnapStream, the premier tool for social media video and what I use to put threads like this together. If your company or org wants to clip like me, click the link below for more info and to set up a demo. go.snapstream.com/moments/aaron?…