‘Will you shut up, man’: The best jabs from Biden-Trump debates in 2020

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are due to face each on the debate stage on Thursday evening in Atlanta, Georgia, in their first head-to-head of the 2024 election cycle, hosted by CNN.

The event has already been hit by controversy after the network cut an interview with Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Monday when she questioned the political allegiance of moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, subsequently demanding an apology from anchor Kasie Hunt.

Trump has also been busy amplifying baseless conservative speculation that the president will be using performance-enhancing medication during the debate to keep him sharp, an allegation his allies leveled during Biden’s State of the Union address in March as well.

Unusually, this is not the first time the American public has seen its two presidential candidates debate each other, as this year’s election is essentially a rematch of the Covid-blighted contest of 2020.

Biden and Trump debated four years ago at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29 and again at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, with another scheduled in between but cancelled after the Republican tested positive for the coronavirus and then refused to participate remotely.

Here are the highlights from those face-offs.

Biden lays into Trump as a ‘clown’ and ‘liar’

The first debate in Cleveland was rowdy and chaotic from the start, despite the best efforts of Fox News moderator Chris Wallace, with the former vice president to Barack Obama rebuking then-President Trump over his (mis)handling of the pandemic as things quickly got heated.

“Folks, do you have any idea what this clown is doing?” Biden said as they argued over healthcare.

The insults didn’t stop