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.

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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, what’s happened? I’ve changed it in a way that now you’re in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally, that’s better than when he left office. And I’m going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we can do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers,” Biden said.

But Trump, appearing to not understand Biden, responded: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

“Look, we had the safest border in the history of our country,” Trump continued. “All he had to do was leave it, all he had to do was to leave it. He decided to open up our border, open up our country, to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylum, terrorists – we have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now.”

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US President Joe Biden speaks as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. (Getty Images)

2. ‘Alley cat morals,’ Trump-Biden clash over Stormy Daniels allegations

Biden accused former President Trump of “having sex with a porn star” and said he has “the morals of an alley cat,” but the presumptive Republican nominee maintained that he did not, and accused Biden of being behind his legal cases because “he can’t win fair and square.” 

“How many billions of dollars do you owe civil penalties for molesting a woman in public? For doing a whole range of things—having sex with a porn star…while your wife was pregnant?” Biden said. “You have the morals of an alley cat during the night, sir.” 

Trump fired back denying the allegations.

“I didn’t have sex with a porn star, number one,” he said. “Number two, that was a case that was started, and they moved a high-ranking official—DOJ—into the Manhattan DA’s office to start the case.” 

Trump was referring to Matthew Colangelo, who served as a senior DOJ official in the Biden administration, and left to join Bragg’s prosecution team. 

3. ‘I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelinsky as President-Elect before I take office,’ Trump-Biden spar over Ukraine-Russia war

Trump threw several jabs at Biden for giving billions of dollars to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to continue its defense against the Russian invasion that began in February 2022 and said if elected, he’d have the war “settled” before taking office.

“He’s given $200 billion, that’s a lot of money,” Trump said. “I don’t think there’s ever been anything like it. Every time that Zelinsky comes to this country. He walks away with $60 billion. He’s the greatest salesman ever.”

“The money that we’re spending on this war, we shouldn’t be spending. It should have never happened. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelinsky as President-Elect before I take office on January 20. I’ll have that war settled. People being killed so needlessly, so stupidly and I will get it settled, and I’ll get it settle fast before I take office.”

In response, the current president said, “The fact is that Putin is a war criminal.”

“He’s killed 1000s and 1000s of people and he has made one thing clear, he wants to reestablish what was part of the Soviet empire, not just a piece, he wants all of Ukraine,” he said.

“By the way, all that money we give Ukraine from weapons we make here in the United States, give them the weapons, not the money at this point, and I made our NATO allies produce as much funding for Ukraine as we have – that’s why it’s that’s why we’re strong,” he said. 

A RASPY BIDEN GETS OFF TO A HALTING START AGAINST TRUMP IN THE FIRST 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DEBATE

This composite image shows President Biden, former President Trump and the southern border. ((AP Photo/Gerald Herbert and Fox News))

4. Trump-Biden spar over cognitive abilities, golf handicaps: ‘You are a child’

During the CNN Presidential Debate, CNN moderator Dana Bash presented the age Biden and Trump would be at the end of a potential second term.

Biden would be 86. Trump would be 82. 

Biden defended his age, saying he “spent half my career being criticized about being the youngest person in politics. I was the second-youngest person ever elected to the United States Senate, and now I’m the oldest. This guy is three years younger and a lot less competent.” 

But Trump reminded that he has taken two cognitive tests. 

“I aced both of them, as you know, we made it public. He took none. I’d like to see him take one. Just want a real easy one,” Trump said. 

Trump, an avid golfer, said Thursday night that he recently “won two club championships—not even senior—two regular club championships.” 

“To do that, you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way and I do it,” Trump said. “He doesn’t do it. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards. He challenged me to a golf match—he can’t hit a ball 50 yards.” 

“I’ve seen you swing. I know your swing,” Trump fiered back. “Let’s not act like children.” 

But Biden replied: “You are a child.” 

Debate dial shows Democratic voters react favorably towards Biden’s comments on the economy.   (Fox News Digital)

5. Biden-Trump exchange jabs over criminal records

While Biden reminded Trump that the “only person” that has a felony record on the debate stage is Trump, the former president said “when he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon.”

“At a very high level, his son is convicted,” Trump said, adding that he’d seek “retribution,” referring to a potential November election victory. 

“As soon as he gets out of office, Joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he’s done,” he continued. “He’s done horrible things, all of the death caused at the border, telling the Ukrainian people that we’re gonna want a billion dollars if you change the prosecutor, otherwise, you’re not getting a billion dollars. If i ever said that, that’s quid pro quo.”

“This man is a criminal. This man, you’re lucky, you’re lucky. I did nothing wrong. We have a system that was rigged and disgusting,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Biden pushed back at the idea that he has done any wrongdoing “is outrageous.”

“It’s simply a lie,” Biden responded. “Number two, the idea that you have a right to seek retribution against any American just because you’re president is wrong. No president has ever spoken like that before. No president in our history has spoken like that before.” 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Not a good night for Biden.

Not a proud night for Trump.

A sad night for the United States.

That’s my take after watching the presidential debate, but I didn’t watch alone. I enlisted three experts on aging to share their observations. I was focused on a single question while watching President Biden debate former President Trump. At their advanced ages — Biden at 81, Trump at 78 — is either up to the task of running the country?

This has been a hot topic for months, with many people convinced that Biden has lost his mental sharpness. (Not that Trump’s mental state hasn’t come into question.) I asked my three experts not to do a political analysis, or to make a medical diagnosis, because as I’ve written more than once, that’s a complicated process that can’t be performed from a distance.

What I wanted was their take on command, coherence, competence, composure, reason and skills of communication and articulation. Aging takes a toll, physical and mental, but you can be an old 60-year-old and a young 85-year-old because everyone ages differently.

Biden froze up early on. He failed to come up with a word he was fumbling for while speaking about the national debt, and he looked lost.

One of my experts, Dr. Zaldy Tan, director of the Memory and Aging Program at Cedars-Sinai, emailed to say a televised debate can be like a “cognitive stress test” and is “bound to bring about subtle, albeit normal, age-related changes in one’s mental agility.”

It seemed to me, however, that with a scratchy, weak voice and a sometimes-vacant look in his eyes, Biden might be in trouble.

He and Trump both seemed pretty agile though during one exchange in which they took off the gloves and went bare-knuckle.

“You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden said, staring down his foe while listing a few of Trump’s many transgressions.

“I didn’t have sex with a porn star,” Trump insisted, and if there’s a political campaign button with that claim on it, I’d like to buy a bushel of them.

The candidates took turns accusing each other of being criminals, which made me think back on another low point in American politics, when Richard Nixon insisted, as his presidency was in flames, “I am not a crook.”

Former President Trump and President Biden took turns accusing each other of being criminals during the debate.

(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

Another of my debate watchers was Dr. Myron Shapero, an urgent care physician in Beverly Hills. I wanted his perspective because he’s older than either Biden or Trump by a good stretch. Shapero is 90, and he thought Biden did not have a good night.

“I think it’s obvious that Biden is not Biden anymore,” said Shapero. “What Trump needed was someone sharp, sure, strong, who could counterpunch … and Joe always had that capacity.” On Thursday, “he didn’t have it.”

Shapero said the word that came to mind, as the night wore on and he studied Biden’s performance, was “flustered.”

“It’s the aging process, and everyone handles it differently,” said Shapero. “He was vacant. He was not fully present, and it was painful to see.”

Dr. Tan was more forgiving in his assessment.

“Besides the speech impediment,” he said, referencing a longtime Biden affliction, “it is possible that he experienced mind wandering, more commonly referred to as losing one’s train of thought. The tendency to mind wander increases with higher stress levels, sleep deprivation and taking certain medications.”

Caroline Cicero, an associate professor in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC, said she saw a sitting president who was not at his best.

“Viewers surely noticed that President Biden did not command confidence in his performance,” Cicero said. “His blank stares left me wondering if his strategy was not to react and to stay stone-faced, so that he didn’t appear to be a grumpy old man.”

Cicero said she wondered why Biden at times did not respond “more directly” to Trump attacks. “Reaction times do slow with age,” she said.

Tanzella Young, left, Crystal Blakley and Jason Sanford watch the presidential debate at the M Lounge in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago.

(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)

Early in the debate, when Biden trailed off, Trump said: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.”

Trump went in for the kill, as Dr. Shapero saw it.

“Smelling blood made him nastier and more pathological,” Shapero said. “I feel that substance-wise, [Trump] was filled with lies, but stylistically, I think he came off stronger because he was less maniacal” than he usually is.

One can ask whether Trump, a man aggressively removed from truth and civility, is fit for office. And Biden scored some points in exposing his opponent’s many barnacles, including the fact that he’s a convicted felon.

But what I saw in Biden was a decent man and career public servant who is past his prime.

What I saw in Trump was the usual boast and bluster, with no apparent ability or desire to control his own worst instincts.

They ended the debate arguing about who had the better golf handicap.

Lord help us.

Steve.lopez@latimes.com

Republicans were in full celebratory mode following Thursday’s debate between former President Trump and President Biden.

Multiple elected officials took to social media following the debate to celebrate what they described as a “resounding victory” for Trump, and a “disastrous” performance by Biden.

“Three things are clear: America was and is better under a Trump Administration, Biden is unfit to be in office and the people in his orbit should be ashamed of propping him up, Trump dominated. There can’t possibly be a second debate,” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is widely believed to be a frontrunner on Trump’s VP shortlist, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 

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Alabama Sen. Katie Britt wrote, “Congratulations to President Trump on his resounding victory in tonight’s Presidential Debate. The Biden-Harris experiment has failed. It’s time to return strength to the White House,” while North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, another possible VP pick, wrote Biden “offered no answers” on the major problems facing Americans.

“President Trump was clear, and he’s got the record to back it up! This debate was a knockout for Donald Trump,” he added.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley called Trump’s debate performance “dominant,” and said Biden “couldn’t even understand the questions.”

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Another account linked to the RNC poked fun at Biden’s closing statement, writing, “Biden ends his disastrous and humiliating debate performance just as he began — rambling incoherently. He’s not only not playing with a full deck — he can’t even find the deck. SAD!” 

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., claimed Trump “proved” he is the only candidate who can save the U.S., while Republican conservative firebrand and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake said “[Biden] is clearly unfit for this job. I think it’s time we bring back the President that coined the phrase, YOU’RE FIRED!”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.