[Image of the Stars and Stripes, Credit to Pexels]

Former US president Donald Trump held the lead against president incumbent Joe Biden in the American presidential debate hosted by CNN on June 28th, 2024.

The debate was a starting pistol for the intense competition between the two strong candidates for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

The main focus of the 1 hour and 30 minute discussion was based on political, economic, and social issues of the United States, such as healthcare, economic situations, abortion, war, and much more.

Throughout the debate, both candidates heavily criticized each other for their past, and current achievements as the Head of State.

Joe Biden emphasized the COVID pandemic, insisting that it was ‘badly handled’ under the administration of Donald Trump.

He strongly criticized how the economy collapsed during the pandemic as the unemployment rate rose to 15%, and despite the death rate, the former president treated the virus as ‘not that serious’, and told citizens to simply inject bleach into their arm.

Furthermore, Biden stated that under his administration, the government had to clean up the mess by creating 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, but that there is more to be done.

As a response, Donald Trump instantly rebutted, stating that the United States had the best economy in history under his office right before the COVID pandemic hit, and that the country had the best reputation from the rest of the world.

The former president also provided sharp assertions, especially related to international topics such as war.

Donald Trump stated that the United States was powerful under him and not a single terror incident occurred during his regime.

He insisted that Russia would have never invaded Ukraine, as well as Hamas' invasion of Israel.

Another point was that under his strong regime, Iran was broke with no money for Hamas or any other terrorism, and that he wouldn’t have let anyone do business with them, whereas Biden handled the situation poorly as if he was a ‘Palestinian’ himself.

The former president also pointed out that he had the highest approval rating among war veterans, whereas Biden abandoned all those advantageous policies for them, just because they were approved by Trump himself.

Joe Biden responded that “every single thing he said is a lie”, and that the veterans are in fact in better circumstances under his administration, with insurance for 1 million of them and their families.

Apart from political debates, personal criticisms were also directed towards each other between the two representatives.

Joe Biden mentioned Trump’s criminal convictions and his relationship with a pornstar while his wife was pregnant.

Donald Trump denied such accusations, as well as invoking the current president's son, Hunter Biden for his convictions.