ATLANTA, Georgia — It was an unprecedented debate with a current U.S. President facing a former U.S. President in the earliest presidential debate ever. Typically, the first presidential debates take place in September.
A rematch of the 2020 presidential debate came with a lot of questions on how the candidates would approach it.
Karen Kedrowski, a political science professor at Iowa State University, told Local 5 prior to the debate the candidates don't have much room to make mistakes on the debate stage.
"So I think in terms of [Donald Trump], the mistake is going to be one of behavior," Kedrowski said. "For President Biden, it's not to make some sort of huge factual gaffe."
While voters didn't see as much interrupting as 2020, they still saw a fair share of attacks on one another, and Biden did find himself stuttering in some key moments.
However, a number of topics were able to be discussed and answered by both candidates.
Three main topics discussed right at the beginning was the economy, abortion and immigration.
Both candidates worked to defend their records, beginning with their handling of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The stock market was actually higher than pre-COVID, and nobody thought that was even possible," Trump said. "The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounce back jobs, the bounce back from COVID."
"What we had to do was try to put things back together again and that's exactly what we began to do," Biden responded. "We created 15,000 new jobs, we brought out a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, but there's more to be done."
Then candidates addressed the overturning of Roe v. Wade, something Kedrowski says is a key issue the Biden Administration needs to hone in on.
"We are not for late term abortion, period, period, period," Biden said.
"Under Roe V. Wade you have late term abortion, you can do whatever you want depending on the state you can do whatever you want," Trump responded. "We don't think that's a good thing, we think that's a radical thing."
Finally, both candidates addressed immigration and how they would approach the border crisis.
"We're literally an uncivilized country now. . .[Biden] opened the borders," Trump said.
Biden defended his record on immigration, saying, "I've changed it in a way that now you're in a situation where they're 40 percent fewer people coming across the border legally, it's better than when he left office."
Notably, while Biden used the word "legally", Local 5 found 40% fewer people were coming across the border illegally, according to Homeland Security.
Both candidates addressed concerns surrounding their ages, with Biden referencing his record as president and Trump mentioning two golf tournaments he won as well as cognitive tests he has taken.
Trump also said he would accept the 2024 election results, if it is done legally.
