First 2024 Trump-Biden presidential debate: Top clashes over issues from the border to Ukraine

Heated exchanges ensued between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden during the CNN Presidential Debate on Thursday night, as the two rivals went head-to-head during their second debate since 2020.

Illegal immigration, abortion, and inflation were among the top issues on the debate stage, as well as climate change and the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars.

The debate comes as Biden and Trump are the frontrunners for the Democratic and Republican parties respectively. This is the first televised debate between the candidates for this election cycle and a second hosted by ABC is scheduled to be held in September.

Trump did not participate in the Republican primary debates, while the Democratic National Convention (DNC) threw its full support behind Biden and did not hold any debates among his challengers.

BIDEN CAMP DODGES ANSWERING IF PRESIDENT PLANS TO USE PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS BEFORE DEBATE

Here are the top clashes from Thursday's debate:

1. "I really don't know what he said," Trump-Biden immigration clash

When CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked President Joe Biden to inform voters why he can curb the record-high numbers of illegal migrants crossing the border during Thursday night's debate, Biden and Trump sparred over their immigration policies, which ended in Biden calling Trump a "liar" and Trump appearing to not understand a portion of Biden's responses.

After touting Congress's bipartisan border package that lawmakers bucked earlier this year, Biden said "we find ourselves in a situation where when he was president, he was separating babies from their mothers put them in cages, making sure that the families were separated."

"That's not the right way to go. What I've done since I've changed the law,