President Biden faces off with former President Trump during CNN debate

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off during a Thursday night CNN debate stage without an audience, covering topics ranging from the economy to foreign policy and health care and immigration.

The key takeaways as reported by CNN half way through the debate, as of 10:15 p.m. are the following:

Abortion

Biden said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was a “terrible thing” and said Trump’s claims that Roe allowed doctors to kill babies “in the ninth month,” was “simply not true.”

Trump said he would not ban access to abortion pills if he returned to office, saying that abortion regulations should be decided by states. Biden fired back by saying that leaving abortion up to state decision making is like leaving civil rights to the states as well.

Job Growth and Inflation

President Trump said that job growth during Biden’s presidency are all based on  “bounceback” gains that took place after the pandemic.

Both candidates traded jabs over inflation. Biden said the economy created under Trump was the driving cause of inflation while Trump said the president came into office with “almost no inflation.”

Foreign Policy and Immigration

On Ukraine, Trump said he did not find Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s proposal to keep seized Ukrainian territory was unacceptable, but added that the war was killing many people, vowing to end it before he came to office during a transition. Trump also accused Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as being the driving force that signaled to Moscow they could invade without repercussions.

President Biden responded by saying that Trump did not support America’s European allies and wanted to withdraw from NATO. He asserted that Putin would never stop at Ukraine and wanted to reconstitute the Soviet Union and the way to make America strong was by preventing and deterring foreign aggression, not isolationism.

Trump said Biden’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”

On immigration, Biden said that a bipartisan border package he negotiated was killed in the Senate and accused Trump of separating parents and children at the border.

Trading jabs

Biden said Trump called veterans “suckers and losers” during his time as president, and Trump denied that saying he would never say such things. Trump said Biden was a “liar” and that he lied about many things including the content of what was on his son Hunter Biden’s laptop

When challenged about the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol, Trump said he never incited anything, but rather said people should march peacefully and patriotically.

Trump said if Biden gets reelected the U.S. would probably cease to exist and Biden said the United States was “the finest country in the world.”

Both candidates suggested the other was the worst president in American history.