one, half mesothelial, will send you a free book to answer questions you may have called now and we'll come to you 808 to 14000 we're live from georgia, a key battleground state in the race for the white house just moments, the current us president will debate the former us president as their parties presumptive nominees up first in american history we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world to our studios in atlanta. >> this is the cnn presidential debate this debate is being produced by cnn and it's coming to you live on cnn. cnn international, cnn.com, cnn max, and cnn espanol. >> this is a pivotal moment between president joe biden and former president donald trump in their rematch for the nation's highest office this. will make his case to the american people with just over four months until election day. good evening. i'm dana bash, anchor of cnn's inside politics and culture hello, anchor of state of the union. >> i'm jake tapper, anchor of cnn's the lead and co-anchor of state of the union. dana and i will co-moderate this evening. our job is to facilitate a debate between the two candidates tonight. before we introduce them, we wanted to share the rules of the debate with the audience at home. former president trump will be on the left side of the screen. president biden will be appearing on the right according toss, determined their positions each candidate will have two minutes to answer a question and one minute ii sure responses and rebuttals an additional minute for follow-up clarification or response is at the moderator's discretion when it's time for our candidate today to speak his microphone will be turned on and his opponent's microphone will be turned off to the candidate. >> interrupt when his microphone is muted, he will can you difficult to understand for viewers at home? at the end of the debate, each candidate will get two minutes for closing statements. there is no studio audience tonight pre-written notes, props, or contact with campaign staff are not permitted during the debate. by accepting our invitation to debate both candidates and their campaigns agreed to accept these rules now please welcome the 46 president of the united states, joe biden please welcome the 45th president of the united states donald trump gentlemen thanks so much for being here. >> let's begin the debate and let's start with the issue that voters consistently say is their top concern. the economy president biden inflation has slowed, but prices remain high since you took office, the price of essentials has increased for example, a basket of groceries that cost $100. then, now costs more than $120. and typical home prices have jumped more than 30%. what do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under president trump? >> we're going to take a look at what i was left when i became president. what mr. trump left me we had an economy that was in freefall the pandemic was so badly handled many people were dying. all he said was it's not that serious, just inject a little bleach in your arm. it'd be all right. economy collapsed renewed jobs unemployment rate rose to 15%. it was terrible. and so what we had to do is try to put things back together again that's exactly what we began to do we created 15,000 new jobs. we brought out in a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. but there's more to be done there's more to be done working class people are still in trouble. i come from scranton, pennsylvania. i come of household where the kitchen table, if things weren't able to be met during the month, was a problem. price of eggs, the price of gas, the price of housing, the price of a whole range of things. that's why i'm working so hard to make sure i deal with those problems. and we're going to make sure that we have reduced the price of housing. we're going to make sure we build 2 million new units. we're going to make sure we cap rents. so corporate greed can't take over the combination. what i was left with and corporate greed are the reason why read this problem right now in addition to that, we're in a situation where if you had take a look at all that was done at his administration, he didn't do much at all by the time he left or things were in chaos, literally chaos and so we put things back together, we create and i said those jobs, we made sure we had a situation where we now we brought down the price of prescription drugs, which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for a insulin shot as opposed to $400. no senior has to be more than $200 for any drug. all the drugs they can include beginning next year in a situation is making and we're going to make that available to everybody to all americans were working to bring down the price of around the kitchen table. and that's what we're going to get down thank you, president trump. we're the greatest economy in the history of our country. >> and we have never done so well every everybody was amazed by it. other countries were copying us. we got hit with covid. and when we did, we spent the money necessary, so we wouldn't end up in a great depression. the likes of which we had in 1929 by the time we finished. so we did a great job. we got a lot of credit for the economy, a lot of credit for the military and no wars and so many other things. everything was rocking good but the thing we never got the credit for and we should have is getting us out of that covid mess. he created mandates that was a disaster for our country, but other than that, we had, we had given them back a a country where the stock market actually was higher than pre-covid. and nobody thought that was even possible. the only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounce-back jobs. a bounce-back from the covid he has not done a good job. he's done a poor job and inflation's killing our country. it is absolutely killing us thank you, president biden will look the greatest economy in the world. he's the only one to fix that. i think anybody else who thinks the gray hair the greatest economy in the world and the fact that the matter is that we pride ourselves in a situation where his economy, you rewarded the wealthy. he had the largest tax cut in american history $2 he raised the deficit larger than any president has in any one term, is the only president other than herbert hoover, who had lost more jobs than he had when he began, since herbert hoover, the idea that he did something that was significant and the military you know, when he was president, they were still killing people in afghanistan he didn't do anything about that. when he was president, we were still find ourselves in a position where, you had a notion that we were this safe country. truth is, i'm the only president this century that doesn't have any this, this decade that any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did president trump, i want to follow up if i can, you want to respond to him? >> well, i'm going to ask you a follow-up. you can do whatever you want with the minute that we gave you. i want to follow up. you want to impose a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the u.s. how will you ensure that that doesn't drive prices even higher? not going to drive them higher. it's just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like china and many others in all fairness to china. it's going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously, and give us a lot of power for other things. but he, he made a statement. the only thing he was right about is gave you the largest tax cut in history. i also gave you the largest regulation cut in history that's why we had all the jobs and the jobs went down and then they bounced back and he's taking credit for bounce-back jobs. you can't do that. he also said he inherited 9% inflation. now he inherited almost no inflation and it stayed that way for 14 months. and then it blew up under his leadership because they spent money like a bunch of people that didn't know what they were doing and they don't know what they were doing. it was the worst probably the worst administration in history. there's never been as far as afghanistan is concerned, i was getting out of afghanistan, but we were getting it out with dignity, with strength, with power. he got out. it was the most embarrassing de in the history of our country's life president trump, over the last eight years under both of your administrations, the national debt soared to record highs. >> and according to a new non-partisan analysis, president trump, your administration approved $8.4 trillion the new debt, while so far president biden, you've approved $4.3 trillion in new debt. so former president trump, many of the tax cuts that you signed into law are set to expire next year. you want to extend them and go even further. you say with the u.s. facing trillion-dollar deficits and record debt why should top earners and corporations pay even less in taxes than they do now, because the tax cuts spurred the greatest economy that we've ever seen just prior to covid, and even after covid, it was so strong that we're able to get through covid much better than just about any other country. but we spurred that tax, spurred now, when we cut the taxes as example people, the corporate tax was cut down to 21% from 39% plus beyond that, we took in more revenue with much less tax and companies were bringing back trillions of dollars back into our country the country was going like never before. and we were ready to start paying down debt. we're ready start using the liquid gold, right? there are feet, the oil and gas right under our feet. we were going to have something that nobody else has had. we got hit with covid. we did a lot to fix it. i gave him an unbelievable situation with all of the therapeutics and all of the things that we came up with we gave him something great. remember more people died under his administration, even though we had largely fixed it more people died under his administration than our administration. and we were right in the middle of it, something which a lot of people don't like to talk about. but he had far more people dying in his administration. he did the which is a disaster mandating it. the vaccine went out. he did a mandate on the vaccine, which is the thing that people most objected to about the vaccine and he did a very poor job, just a very poor job. and i will tell you, not only poor there, but throughout the entire world, we're no longer respected as a country they don't respect our leadership don't respect the united states anymore. we're like a third world de, between weaponization of his election, trying to go after his political opponent. all of the things he's done. we've become like a third world nation, and it's a shame the damage he's done to our country. and i'd love to ask him and will why he allowed millions of people to come in? here from prisons, jails, and mental institutions to come into our country and destroy our country president trump, we will get to immigration later in this block. >> president biden, i want to give you an opportunity to respond to this question about the national debt he had the largest national debt of any president for your period. number one number two he that 2 $2,000,000,000,000 tax cut benefited the very wealthy i went i'm going to do is fix the texas, for example. we have 1,000 trillionaires in america i mean, billionaires in america. and what's happening. they're in a situation where they in fact pay 8.2% in taxes. if they just paid 24%, 25%, either one of those numbers, they'd raised 500 million billion dollars, i should say, in a ten-year period we'd be able to right. wipe out his debt. we'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what i've been able to do. it the the covid excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with what if we finally beat medicare thank you, president biden, president trump was right. he did beat medicare, beat it to death, and he's destroying medicare because all of these people are coming in. they're putting them on medicare, they're putting them on social security, they're going to destroy social security. this man is going to single handedly destroy social security. these millions and millions of people coming in, they're trying to put them on social security. he will wipe out social security. he will wipe out medicare. so he was right in the way he finished that sentence. and it's a shame. what's happened to our country? in the last four years is not to be believed. foreign countries. i'm friends with a lot of people. they cannot believe what happened to the united states of america. we're no longer respected they don't like us. we give them everything they want and they think we're stupid. they think we're very stupid people. what we're doing for other countries, and they do nothing for us. what this man has done is absolutely criminal. >> thank you, president trump, dana. >> this is the first presidential election since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade this morning, the court ruled on yet another abortion case. temporarily allowing emergency abortions to continue in idaho. despite that state's restrictive ban, former president trump you take credit for the decision to overturn roe v. wade, which returned the issue of abortion to the states, correct. however, the federal government still plays a role in whether or not women have access to abortion pills. they're used in about two-thirds of all abortions as president, would you block abortion medication first of all, the supreme court just approved the abortion pill. >> and i agree with their decision to have done that. and i will not block it. and if you look at this whole question that you're asking, a complex but not really complex, 51 years ago you had roe v. wade and everybody wanted to get it back to the states. everybody without exception, democrats, republicans, liberals conservatives everybody wanted it back religious leaders and what i did is i put three great supreme court justices on the court. and they happened to vote in favor of killing roe v. wade. and moving it back to the states. this is something that everybody wanted. now, ten years ago or so, they started talking about how many weeks and how many this are getting into other things. but every legal scholar throughout the world, the most respected wanted it brought back to the states. i did that. now, the states are working it out. if you look at ohio, it was a decision that was it was an end result that was a little bit more liberal than you would have thought kansas, i would say the same thing. texas is different, florida is different, but they're all making their own decisions it's right now and right now, the states control it. that's the vote of the people like ronald reagan, i believe in the exceptions, i am a person that believes and frankly, i think it's important to believe in the exceptions. some people you have to follow your heart, some people don't believe in that but i believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. i think it's very important. some people don't follow your heart, but you have to get elected also. and because that has to do with other things you've got to get elected the problem they have is they're radical because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth, if you look at the former governor of virginia he was willing to do this. he said, we'll put the baby aside and we'll determine what we do with the baby, meaning we'll kill the baby what happened is we brought it back to the states and the country is now coming together on this issue. it's been a great thing. thank you, president biden, spin a terrible thing. what you've done, a fact is that the vast majority of constitutional scholars supported roe when it was decided supported roe i was this idea that they were all against it is just ridiculous and this is the guy who says the states should be able to have it were a state where in six weeks you don't even know whether you're pregnant or not, but you cannot see the doctor heavier and have him decide on what your circumstances are, whether you need help. the idea that states are able to do this as a little like saying, we're going to turn civil rights back to the states. each state have a different rule. look, there's so many young women who have been including a young woman who just was murdered and he, he went to the funeral idea that she was murdered by a by, by an immigrant coming into they talk about that but here's the deal. there's a lot of young women to be raped by their, by their in-laws, by their by their spouses the sisters, by just it's just ridiculous. and they can do nothing about it. and then tried to rest of either across state lines. thank you there have been many young women murdered by the same people. >> he allows to come across our border we have a border that's the most dangerous place anywhere in the world considered the most dangerous place anywhere in the world. and he opened it up. and these killers are coming into our country. and they are raping and killing women. and it's a terrible thing as far as the abortion is concerned, it is now back with the states. the states are voting and in many cases they, it's frankly a very liberal decision in many cases, it's the opposite. but they're voting and it's bringing it back to the vote of the people, which is what everybody wanted, including the founders, if they knew about this issue, which frankly they didn't but they would have everybody wanted brought back. ronald reagan wanted it brought back. he wasn't able to get it everybody wanted it brought back and many presidents had tried to get it back. i was the one to do it. and again, this gives it the vote of the people and that's where they wanted it. every legal scholar wanted it that way. staying on the topic of abortion, president biden, seven states. i'll let you do that. this is the same topic, seven states have no legal restrictions on how far into a pregnancy a woman can obtain an abortion do you support any legal limits on how late a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy. i supported roe v. >> wade, which had three trimesters. first time is between a woman and a doctor. second time is between the doctor and an extreme situation a third time is between the doctor. i mean, it'd be between the woman and the state. the idea that the politicians, that the founders wanted, the politicians to be the ones making decisions about women's health is ridiculous. that's the last no politician making that decision a doctor should be making those decisions. that's how it should be run. that's what you're going to do and if i'm elected, i'm going to restore roe v wade. so that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth, because some states democrat-run take it after birth. again, the governor, former governor of virginia put the baby down, then we decide what to do with it. so he's in he's willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the woman the ninth month and kill the baby nobody wants that to happen, democrat or republican, nobody wants it to happen that is simply not true. that roe v. wade does not provide for that. that's not the circumstance. only the woman's life is in danger if she's going to die. that's the only circumstance in which that can happen. but we are not for late term abortion period period, period 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. we don't think that's a 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