Trump and Biden mix it up over policy and each other in a debate that turns deeply personal

PHOENIX (AP) — They passed on a handshake at the start, and from there President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump went right to mixing it up on policy — and each other — in their first 2024 presidential debate on Thursday night.

The latest on the Biden-Trump debate

• The debate was a critical moment in Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s presidential rematch to make their cases before a national television audience.
  
• Take a look at the facts around false and misleading claims frequently made by the two candidates.
  
• Both candidates wasted no time sparring over policy during their 90-minute faceoff. These are the takeaways.

Personal animosity between the two men was palpable as they argued, sometimes in deeply personal terms, over abortion, the economy, age, the criminal convictions of Trump and Biden’s son Hunter, and even their mettle on the golf course.

Biden arrived with a raspy voice and spoke softly, the result, his campaign said, of a cold. Biden sometimes mumbled, got tongue-tied or lost his train of thought, a performance unlikely to calm anxiety among Democrats and many Americans about the 81-year-old president.

The 78-year-old Trump, as he often does, spoke with force but with plenty of falsehoods.

Some key moments from their 90-minute debate.

Debate gets personal

Trump and Biden went after each other throughout the debate.

Trump twice cited Hunter Biden, who was convicted this month on three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 while he allegedly was addicted to drugs. Trump, who last month became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes, labeled the president’s son a “convicted felon.”

Biden referenced Trump’s own criminal convictions, saying he had had “sex with a porn