Dem voters react favorably to Biden’s economic record while Republicans, Independents trend opposite
Democrats wholeheartedly reacted favorably to President Biden’s remarks on how he wants to tackle the economy, according to a focus group that offered their approval in real time during Thursday’s presidential debate, according to a Fox News Digital focus group. The group of Republicans, Democrats and Independents used dials to react live to the beginning of the debate where Biden argued that his economic record was not worse than former President Trump’s. “Let’s look at what I was left with when I became president. What Mr. Trump left me,” Biden said. “We had an economy that was in freefall. The pandemic was so badly handled. Many people were dying.” BIDEN RIPPED FOR ‘OLD’ APPEARANCE, ‘WEAK’ VOICE DURING FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’ “The economy collapsed. There were no jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 15%” added Biden. “We’re in a situation where if you take a look at all that was done in his administration, he didn’t do much at all. By the time he left, things were in chaos.” Democrats in the focus group agreed with the president, as opposed to Republicans and Independents, who went in the completely opposite direction. The Republicans in the focus group nearly unanimously disagreed with Biden’s view on the Trump economy. During the debate, both men sparred over inflation, with Biden saying Trump’s economy was so bad, there was no room for price increases that many Americans have had to live with in the past few years. TRUMP VOWS HE ‘WILL NOT BLOCK’ ABORTION PILLS OR MEDICATION IF ELECTED, SAYS HE BELIEVES IN ‘EXCEPTIONS’ Democrats also agreed with Biden’s criticism of Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Approval by Republicans and Independents trended downward. Independents, however, seemed to agree somewhat when Biden said he wanted to cap “corporate greed” to lower prices of necessities like gas, groceries, prescription drugs and housing. “There’s more to be done,” he said. “Working-class people are still in trouble. The combination that I was left with and corporate is the reason why we’re in this problem right now.” “We’re working to bring down the price around the kitchen table and that’s what we’re going to get done,” he added.
WATCH: Fox News Digital voter group reacts to Trump answer criticizing Biden on inflation
A Fox News Digital focus group of Republicans, Democrats and Independents used dials to react live to former President Trump’s criticism of President Biden’s economic record, saying he inherited no inflation when he took office. During the CNN Presidential Debate, moderator Jake Tapper asked Trump to account for his proposal for a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. on how he would ensure that it wouldn’t worsen inflation. Trump said it wouldn’t drive prices higher, but force countries like China “who have been ripping us off for years” to pay the U.S. a lot of money. “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,” Trump said. These comments received the most positive response from Republicans and Independents as indicated by the dials, which shot upwards. Democrats’ reception was moderately negative, dipping slightly downwards. PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN BIDEN, TRUMP WAS FESTIVAL OF THE UNPRECEDENTED Trump conceded his opponent’s point that he inherited “the largest tax [and regulation] cut in history.” “That’s why we had all the jobs,” Trump said. “And the jobs went down and then they bounced back. That’s why he’s taking credit for bounce-back jobs. You can’t do that.” With these comments, Republicans and Independents were largely in agreement, showing positive reaction, while Democrats’ reactions remained neutral to negative. “He also said he inherited 9% inflation. He inherited almost no inflation. And it stayed that way for 14 months. And then it blew under his leadership because they spent money like a lot of people who didn’t know what they were doing,” Trump said. With these comments, Independents notably diverged from Republicans, showing a more negative reaction. Republicans’ and Democrats’ reactions mostly stayed the same. Elsewhere in the debate, Trump said “the only jobs [Biden] created are for illegal immigrants and bounce back jobs that bounced back from COVID.” A flash poll conducted by CNN after the presidential debate showed Trump soundly defeating President Biden.
Voters react after Biden falsely claimed that no troops had died under his watch
Republican voters flatlined after President Biden claimed that no troops have died under his watch – failing to acknowledge the service men and women who have died during his administration. During a Fox News Digital focus group, Republicans, Democrats and Independents used dials to react live to President Biden’s claim during the presidential debate that no troops died under his watch. “When he was president, they were still killing people in Afghanistan,” Biden said, referring to former President Donald Trump. “And he didn’t do anything about that.” “When he was president, we were finding ourselves in a position where you had a notion that we were this safe country,” Biden said. “The truth is, I’m the only president this century, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.” CNN FLASH POLL SHOWS TRUMP AS CLEAR WINNER OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘STUNNING NUMBER’ After his statement about the former president’s loss of military lives in Afghanistan, Democrats in the focus group reacted positively. Republicans and Independents reacted negatively, with the dial line plummeting. Biden’s statement failed to acknowledge the 13 fallen service members who were killed during his administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal in Aug. 2021. Thirteen U.S. service members, including 11 Marines, one Army special operations soldier, and one Navy corpsman, were killed in the bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. TRUMP RIPS BIDEN FOR NOT FIRING GENERALS AFTER BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: ‘INCOMPETENCE’ In Jan. 2024, U.S. Central Command confirmed that three U.S. service members were killed and at least 25 others were injured in a drone attack on an outpost in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. Two U.S. Navy SEALs, identified as Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers, 37, and Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram, 27, died while conducting a weapons transfer from Iran to Houthi rebels off the coast of Somalia. Other U.S. service members have also died abroad in training incidents. Five soldiers died in a helicopter crash in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in November 2023 during a routine refueling mission, and eight U.S. airmen died in a CV-22 Osprey crash in November 2023 in Yakushima Island, Japan.
Independent, GOP voters show spiking support as Trump slams Biden’s ‘fully debunked’ Charlottesville narrative
Republican and Independent voters reacted favorably when former President Donald Trump pushed back on President Biden’s narrative regarding the 2017 Charlottesville riots, according to a live second-by-second reaction among voters. “Both of you know that story has been totally wiped out, because when you see the sentence, it said 100 percent exoneration on there. So he just keeps it going,” Trump said Thursday evening during his first debate against Biden, as Republican voters reacted favorably toward the comments. “He’s without question, the worst president, the worst presidency in the history of our country. We shouldn’t be having a debate about it. There’s nothing to debate,” Trump said, as Independent and Republican voters notably showed support for the remark. The live reactions were based on an equal number of Independent, Republican and Democratic voters responding to the debate from a Fox studio. Trump’s comments came in response to Biden’s long-standing claim that Trump called neo-Nazis “very fine people” following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. A left-wing fact checking site recently debunked Biden’s claim. SNOPES’ DEBUNKING OF CHARLOTTESVILLE HOAX SHOWS BIDEN LIED, SAYS TRUMP CAMPAIGN “He made up the Charlottesville story, and you’ll see it’s debunked all over the place. Every anchor has – every reasonable anchor – has debunked it,” Trump continued. “And just the other day, it came out where it was fully debunked. It’s a nonsense story. He knows that,” Trump said as support spiked among Independent voters. “And he didn’t run because of Charlottesville. He used that as an excuse to run.” LEFT-WING FACT-CHECKER ADMITS TRUMP NEVER CALLED CHARLOTTESVILLE NEO-NAZIS ‘VERY FINE PEOPLE’ IN BLOW TO BIDEN Live reactions to the comment showed Independent voters reacting more favorably to Trump, saying the narrative was “fully debunked” than Republican voters. Democratic voters’ reaction to the statement remained steadily low. When Biden spoke, Democratic support spiked upwards. BIDEN ONCE RIPPED ‘ANTISEMITIC BILE’ BUT NOW FACES OWN ‘CHARLOTTESVILLE MOMENT’ “What got me involved to run in the first place, after my son had died, I decided – in Iraq – because of Iraq. I said I wasn’t going to run again, until I saw what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. People coming out of the woods carrying swastikas or torches and singing the same antisemitic bile they sang back in Germany,” Biden continued, as Democratic approval of the comments increased. The live reactions showed Republican and Independent voters received the comment poorly. “What American president would ever say, Nazis coming out of fields, carrying torches, singing the same antisemitic bile, carrying swastikas, were fine people,” Biden said. FETTERMAN ‘NOT WRONG’ TO COMPARE COLUMBIA PROTESTS TO CHARLOTTESVILLE, CNN HOST SAYS When Biden mentioned “swastika or torches,” Independents’ reaction notably plummeted. Left-leaning, fact-checking website Snopes published a piece Saturday debunking claims promoted by Biden and some members of the media that following the Unite the Right rally, Trump called neo-Nazis “very fine people.” Biden has repeatedly cited the false claim, even saying it was the impetus for his 2020 White House run against Trump. Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told Fox News Digital that the Snopes fact check shows Biden and other “corrupt Democrats” promoted a “lie” and “hoax.” KARINE JEAN-PIERRE DOUBLES DOWN ON ‘CHEAP FAKE’ BIDEN VIDEOS: ‘SO MUCH MISINFORMATION’ “The Charlottesville lie was another hoax perpetuated by the corrupt Democrats and their mouthpieces in the fake news media, just like the Hunter Biden laptop, the Russian collusion scandal and so many others, all in an attempt to smear President Trump. Joe Biden’s campaign must end any advertising that pushes this lie because President Trump has, once again, been proven right,” she said. Snopes detailed in its fact check that Trump was clear he was not calling neo-Nazis “fine people” when he made the comment at a press conference that year. “While Trump did say that there were ‘very fine people on both sides,’ he also specifically noted that he was not talking about neo-Nazis and White supremacists and said they should be ‘condemned totally.’ Therefore, we have rated this claim ‘False,’” Snopes wrote. TRUMP DECRIES COLUMBIA AGITATORS, CALLS CHARLOTTESVILLE ‘PEANUTS’ COMPARED TO CAMPUS ANTI-ISRAEL UNREST The protests in Charlottesville in 2017, which played out across two days in August 2017, included White nationalists descending on the city who were met by hundreds of counter-protesters. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump said in August that year. Trump added days later in a press conference that he condemned the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence” and came under fire from Democrats for his remarks that there was “blame on both sides” and “very fine people, on both sides.” Biden cast the events in Charlottesville, and his framing of Trump’s response, as the incentive to run for the White House in 2020. “With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it,” Biden said in 2019 when announcing his candidacy. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Biden has repeatedly pointed to Charlottesville as a moment of shame for the nation, including on the fourth anniversary, when the White House released a statement saying the rally was a “battle for the soul of America was laid bare for all to see.”
Biden’s hit on Trump over ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ report backfires with independents: focus group
President Biden’s attempts to attack former President Donald Trump over allegations he called military members “suckers and losers” appeared to backfire on the president, with independent voters part of a Fox News Digital focus group disapproving of what was said. Biden slammed Trump over an Atlantic report that Trump had called military members who had died in battle “suckers” and “losers.” Trump has repeatedly denied the report. In the debate, Biden responded to claims by Trump that veterans were being left on the street while migrants are being allowed to stay in luxury hotels. Biden hit back at Trump over his remarks. CNN FLASH POLL SHOWS TRUMP AS CLEAR WINNER OF FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘STUNNING NUMBER’ “Every single thing he said is a lie. Every single one. For example, veterans are a hell of a lot better off since I passed the PACT Act. One million of them now have insurance and their families have it. Because what happened, whether it was Agent Orange or burn pits, they’re all being covered now. And his group opposed that,” Biden said. “We’re also in a situation where we have great respect for veterans. My son spent a year in Iraq living next to one of those burn pits, came back with stage four glioblastoma. I was recently in France from D-Day, and I spoke about those heroes that died. I went to the World War Two cemetery, World War I cemetery he refused to go to. He was standing with his four-star general, and [Trump] said, I don’t want to go in there because they’re a bunch of losers and suckers.” “My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser,” he told Trump. BIDEN MAKES STUNNING OMISSION WHILE CLAIMING NO TROOPS DIED ‘ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD’ ON HIS WATCH But as Biden was speaking, the real-time approval from Fox News’ Digital’s focus group bottomed out from Republicans and independents, while remaining high for Democrats. Trump said the phrase was not accurate. “First of all, there was a made-up quote, suckers and losers. They made it up. It was in a third-rate magazine that’s failing, like many of these magazines. He made that up. He put it in commercials. We’ve notified him. We had 19 people that said I didn’t say it,” he said. As Trump spoke, approval from Republicans and Independents shot back up, while dropping for Democrats.
Talk of Biden replacement heats up following ‘weak’ debate performance: ‘He failed’
President Biden’s performance in Thursday night’s debate quickly garnered attention from Democrats and liberal media figures, many of whom expressed concern over the president’s “weak” performance and discussed talk of him dropping out of the race. Shortly after the conclusion of the debate in Atlanta, Ga., a firestorm erupted with talk of Democrats replacing Biden as their party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential election. One well-connected Democratic source told Fox News after the debate that the House and the Senate are Republican – for now, adding that “everyone is freaking out” and that Biden “needs to go.” But there is “no way they replace him unless he agrees,” the source said. A RASPY BIDEN GETS OFF TO A HALTING START AGAINST TRUMP IN THE FIRST 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DEBATE Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said during an appearance on MSNBC after the debate that Biden “failed” to show Americans he was “up to the job at his age.” “My job now is to be really honest. Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight, and he didn’t do it. He had one thing he had to accomplish and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight,” she said. “Now, does that mean my phone blowing up with senators and campaign operatives and donors, big donors from all over the country, does that mean Joe Biden is not gonna be the candidate? I don’t know that. I think we’ll know a lot more in a few weeks,” McCaskill said. McCaskill said her heart was “breaking” after Biden’s performance and that there were “a lot of people who watched [the debate] and felt terrible for Joe Biden.” The talk about Democrats weighing their options on who will serve as the party’s presidential nominee was also amplified by John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent, who said after the debate, “Right now, as we speak, there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.” “It started minutes into the debate, and it continues right now,” King added. “It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers. And they’re having conversations about the president’s performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people … and they’re having conversations about what they should do about it.” The conversations, King said, were about how to address the issue and whether there should be talk about asking Biden to step aside due to his “terrible” performance. King said the conversations included whether Democrats should go to the White House and “ask the president to step aside” or whether prominent Democrats should “go public” with a call for the president to drop out of the race because his performance “was so terrible.” MEDIA FIGURES SHOCKED AT BIDEN’S ‘BAD’ DEBATE PERFORMANCE: ‘TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISASTER’ In a social media post, Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times opinion columnist who attempted to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor of Oregon in 2022, suggested now is the time for Biden to withdraw from the race. Several other liberal media figures also weighed in on Biden’s performance, including MSNBC host Joy Reid, who said she heard from many Democrats who were “concerned” about Biden’s “weak” performance. Reid told viewers after the debate that her phone “never stopped buzzing throughout” as Democrats approached near “panic.” Describing those who she was texting with as “Obama-world people” and “Democrats,” Reid said, “The people who were texting with me were very concerned about President Biden seeming extremely feeble, seeming extremely weak.” Chuck Todd, NBC’s chief political analyst, said he had been “talking to a lot of leaders in the Democratic Party, [elected members], coalition leaders, there’s a lot of panic about this performance.” “Not like, ‘Oh this is recoverable,’ it’s more of a … ‘He’s gotta step aside’ – there’s a lot of that chatter,” Todd said. “This is about as bad of a performance that Biden could’ve delivered if his goal was to try to sort of calm the waters among Democrats…” Despite the reports of replacement chatter among Democrats, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many pundits have touted as a possible replacement for Biden should things go awry for Democrats ahead of the 2024 election, insisted the party’s “nominee is Joe Biden.” “I’m looking forward to voting for him in November,” Newsom told reporters. “He’s going to be our nominee.”
‘I would never turn my back on President Biden’: Newsom shows support at presidental debate
Following the conclusion of the CNN Presidential Debate, Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., fired back at reporters when asked if he would support the idea of replacing President Biden. “I would never turn my back on President Biden. Never turn my back on President Biden. I don’t know a Democrat in my party that would do so. And especially after tonight, we have his back,” Newsom said. “We run, not the 90-yard dash. We are all in. We’re going to double down in the next few months. We’re going to win this election,” he continued. When questioned about Biden’s performance, Newsom said he cared about “the substance.” ADAM CAROLLA SAYS HE’S LEAVING ‘HORRIBLE’ CALIFORNIA, PANS ‘SOCIOPATHIC’ NEWSOM: ‘SLIPPERY EEL OF NOTHINGNESS’ “How about the substance? I care about the substance. I care about the substance,” Newsom said without explaining what he meant. Newsom assured reporters that he was not going to turn his back on the president and was confident he was fit to be the country’s leader. “I spent a lot of time with him. I know Joe Biden, I know what he’s accomplished in the last three and a half years. I know what he’s capable of. And I have no trepidations,” Newsom said. ROGAN SAYS DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS ‘SETTING UP GAVIN NEWSOM’ FOR 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RUN AMID BIDEN SCANDALS Leading up to the debate, rumors continued to swirl that Newsom, a possible candidate for president in 2028, had been tapped as a Biden surrogate leading up to the November presidential election. Back in February, podcast host Joe Rogan speculated the Democratic Party was preparing to swap out Biden with Newsom on the 2024 presidential ticket. “Don’t you think that that’s a ruse, him running for president?” Rogan asked, later arguing, “I think they’re gonna get rid of him, I think they’re gonna move him out, they’re gonna force him to step down. That’s what I think.” GAVIN NEWSOM ‘WANTS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT’ IN 2024, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST SAYS Following the debate, Newsom brushed off concerns about Biden’s performance, saying “we’ve all had those nights” and that the president has repeatedly pushed through concerns about his age. “He never gives up. He’s never giving up, fighting for us, fighting for democracy, our future kids, our grandkids. So we’ve got to have this back in this respect. And yeah, I hope he does come back, and I hope he is back on the stage in another debate,” he told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner in a post-debate interview. When pressed if he was “ready to take on Donald Trump,” hinting that he could be a potential replacement for Biden, Newsom again denied the rumors and gave his full support to the president. “Absolutely not. I will never turn my back. That’s my personal point of view. I do not know one Democrat that would do that,” Newsom said. Fox News Digital’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
Republicans declare Biden ‘unfit for office’ following ‘disastrous’ debate performance
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. BIDEN RIPPED FOR ‘OLD’ APPEARANCE, ‘WEAK’ VOICE DURING FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’ 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.” TRUMP VOWS HE ‘WILL NOT BLOCK’ ABORTION PILLS OR MEDICATION IF ELECTED, SAYS HE BELIEVES IN ‘EXCEPTIONS’ 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.
Biden speaks at Georgia Waffle House following debate performance: ‘I think we did well’
President Biden spoke to reporters following Thursday night’s CNN debate and expressed the belief that he performed well against former President Trump. “I think we did well,” Biden told reporters at an Atlanta area Waffle House when asked how he performed. When asked if he had any concerns about his performance, the president said, “No it’s hard to debate a liar, New York Times pointed how he lied 26 times. Big lies.” Biden was then asked if he was suffering from a cold, which the campaign revealed following the debate performance where many expressed concerns about the sound of Biden’s voice. BIDEN MAKES STUNNING OMISSION WHILE CLAIMING NO TROOPS DIED ‘ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD’ ON HIS WATCH “I am sick,” Biden said. Biden’s comments come after it was revealed that a flash poll conducted by CNN following the debate showed viewers believe Trump soundly defeated Biden. BIDEN MAKES STUNNING OMISSION WHILE CLAIMING NO TROOPS DIED ‘ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD’ ON HIS WATCH The majority of users on social media seemingly agreed that Biden lost the debate including some liberal pundits. Biden’s camp has put out positive reviews of his performance. “Joe, you did such a good job!” First Lady Jill Biden said to the president on a stage after the debate. “You answered every question. You knew all the facts.” “It was a slow start but a strong finish,” VP Kamala Harris told Fox News Digital after the debate. The president heads to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he’ll hold a rally Friday in a state he lost to Trump by a razor-thin margin in 2020. Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report
Trump repeatedly hammers Biden on border crisis turning US into ‘rats nest’: ‘Killing our people’
Former President Donald Trump, during the CNN Presidential Debate Simulcast Thursday night, repeatedly hammered President Biden over the ongoing crisis at the southern border — saying Biden had wrecked a secure border and turned the U.S. into a “rats nest.” “He’s the one that killed people with the bad border including hundreds of thousands of people dying, and also killing our citizens when they come in. We are living right now in a rats’ nest,” Trump said. The U.S. has been facing a historic border crisis, with numbers of migrant encounters that have repeatedly smashed records. While numbers have dropped sharply in recent months from a record high in December, the crisis has overwhelmed communities across the U.S. there have been a number of high profile crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Republicans have blamed Biden-era policies, while the administration has said it needs more funding and reform from Congress to fix a “broken” system. TRUMP LEADING BIDEN AHEAD OF CNN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, SUPPORT FROM BLACK VOTERS WAY UP SINCE 2020: POLL Trump returned repeatedly to the crisis in the debate, noting crimes including a murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray allegedly by two Venezuelan illegal immigrants in Texas. “They’re killing our people in New York and California and every state in the union because we don’t have borders anymore. Every state is now a border,” Trump said. “And because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen.” “We call it migrant crime. I call it Biden migrant crime, they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen before,” he said. Trump repeatedly turned questions, not just about the border but about social security, climate change and other topics, into attacks on Biden’s handling of the border crisis. Polls have shown repeatedly that voters largely disapprove of Biden’s handling of border security and it has remained a top issue of concern for many voters. Biden defended his record on the border when asked about it by the debate moderators, and noted that he had helped to get a bipartisan Senate bill that would provide more funding and a mechanism to limit some entries into the U.S. But it has not yet received enough support to pass the chamber. “In addition to that, we found ourselves in a situation when [Trump] was president, he was separating babies from their mothers, put them in cages, making sure the families were separated. That’s not the right way to go. What I’ve done since I’ve changed the law.” He appeared to be referring to a recent executive order that limits some asylum claims when encounters exceed a certain level, which has been followed in the last month by a 40% decrease in encounters. “It’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’re going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers,” he said. BLUE STATE DEPLOYS OFFICIALS TO THE BORDER WITH SURPRISING WARNING FOR MIGRANTS Trump shot back: “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 All he had to do is 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 asylums, terrorists. We have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now. All terrorists all over the world, not just in South America, all over the world. They come from the Middle East. Everywhere, all over the world are pouring in. And this guy just left it open.” Biden accused Trump of “lying” and said there’s no data to support what he said. Trump would later go on to contrast the treatment of veterans to how migrants are being treated. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS “What they’re doing to the VA to our veterans is unbelievable and veterans are living in the street. And these people are living in luxury hotels,” he said. Trump would later turn a question about drug overdoses in the U.S., many of which come from fentanyl smuggled across the border, into a criticism of Biden on the border. “The numbers of the amount of drugs and human trafficking in women coming across our border, the worst thing I’ve ever seen — at numbers that nobody’s ever seen, under him, because the border is so bad,” he said. Biden went back to touting bipartisan efforts and funding fights he had taken on in relation to tackling fentanyl at the border, including money for more fentanyl detection machines. But he claimed Trump torpedoed the deal. “This bipartisan deal, more fentanyl machines to be able to detect drugs, more numbers of agents, more numbers of all the people at the border. And when we had that deal done, he went he called his Republican colleagues said, ‘Don’t do it. It’s going to hurt me politically.’ He never argued, it’s not a good bill. It’s a really good bill. We need those machines.”