First Presidential Debate 2024: Donald Trump Spread Misinformation Again While Joe Biden Fumbled

The first presidential debate for the 2024 general election has finally wrapped up and as expected, Donald Trump made false statements and was fact-checked while Joe Biden rambled and even froze at one point.

While Trump supporters and surrogates say he won the debate "hands down," their claims ran counter to the many falsehoods the former president and convicted felon made throughout the debate, from the border to January 6.

As USA Today noted, Trump showed more energy than Biden, with the president notably having a "prolonged pause and appeared to freeze while answering a question about the economy." Biden also stuttered, and the former president highlighted his opponent's slower responses by saying, "I really don't know what he said at the end of this, and I don't think he knows what he said, either."

Biden's performance ultimately hurt himself, but Trump's lack of facts and his focus on personal attacks against his opponent may have also hurt his own efforts as the media coverage repeatedly fact-checked whatever he said at the debate stage.

Ultimately, the loser of this debate was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. While Biden fumbled and Trump remained factually challenged, they at least made it to the debate stage while RFK stood alone in Los Angeles and complained about CNN not letting him be part of the debate, according to the Associated Press.

Immigration a Big Topic During 1st Joe Biden Vs. Donald Trump Presidential Debate

Immigration has been a big topic that has dogged Joe Biden for years as his rival constantly fear-mongered about an invasion at the US-Mexico border. During the debate, Biden touted his achievement of lowering arrests for illegal border crossings by 40%.

He also discussed Trump cozying up to dictators like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin while Trump falsely claimed without any evidence that Biden "wants our country to be destroyed or pick up those people as voters." He also echoed the Great Replacement conspiracy theory during the debate, once again fear-mongering that foreigners will replace Americans.

Donald Trump Lied a Lot and Did Not Present Any Evidence During His Claims at the Presidential Debate

Donald Trump's claims were heavily fact-checked, and news media found that, as many had expected, the former president lied a lot during the debate. One of these was his claim that "we had the greatest economy in the history of our country" under his presidency.

As CBS News fact-checked. Trump's claim is false as the GDP under his administration averaged 2.67%, according to figures from the World Bank. This was under Bill Clinton who had a 4% GDP growth. Those numbers for Trump excluded the pandemic and it is still lower than Biden who has an annual GDP growth averaging 3.4%.

Trump also claimed that he did not refer to US soldiers who were killed as "suckers and losers." This was false as he did refer to the American war dead at the Aisle-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as "losers" and "suckers," as a senior Trump Defense Department official and a former US Marine Corps officer have both admitted that the then-president did not want to visit the cemetery because it was "filled with losers."

Trump also claimed that Biden wants illegal immigrants to vote during the 2024 election. He was fact-checked again, and this was deemed false.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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