Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump exchanged views attacks on his management of the economy in the opening minutes of Thursday night’s debate, offering voters a rare face-to-face meeting between the two senior candidates who have never run for US President.

Biden acknowledged that inflation caused prices to rise significantly since the start of his term, but said he deserved credit for “getting things back on track” after the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump said that before the pandemic he led “the best economy in the history of our country” and said he had taken steps to prevent the economic freefall from deepening further.

Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, have been forced to demonstrate their knowledge of the issues and avoid verbal stumbles as they seek a decisive moment in a race that polls show has been deadlocked for months.

Trump accuses Biden of opening the country to criminals

Trump accused Biden of opening the country to crime and forcing citizens to live in a “rat’s nest” of murders committed by immigrants.

“We are living in a rat’s nest right now. They are killing our people in New York, in California, in every state, because we have no borders anymore,” he told Biden.

According to Trump, it is these immigrants who “rape and kill women.”

In his speech, he mentioned the case of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was killed on June 17 in Houston, Texas, in which two Venezuelans who had recently entered the country were arrested and held on $10 million bail. every.

“It’s terrible,” he said, accusing his opponent of a complete lack of control.

Biden called the accusation absurd: “Many women have been raped by their partners or siblings. This is just ridiculous,” he said, highlighting how his administration has worked to significantly increase both the number of agents at the border and asylum capacity.

The 90-minute clash, televised by CNN, took place long before any other modern presidential debate, more than four months before Election Day on November 5.

Both candidates appeared without a live audience, and their microphones were automatically muted when it wasn’t their turn to speak. Both atypical rules were put in place to avoid the chaos that derailed their first debate in 2020, when Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden.

When the debate began, two men who they did not hide their mutual hostility“They didn’t shake hands or say hello.”

Trump took the stage as a man still facing three criminal charges, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The former president, who continues to falsely claim his defeat was the result of fraud, suggested he would punish his political enemies if he returned to power but would have to convince swing voters he does not pose a mortal threat to democracy, as Biden claims.

Biden’s challenge was to perform well after months of Republican claims that his abilities had dulled with age.

During my first answers His voice sounded hoarse and he cleared his throat several times. (Reuters)