ATLANTA — President Joe Biden took an apparent victory lap with supporters in Atlanta after exiting the stage from the first-ever debate for the 2024 presidential election campaign, a virtual rematch of the debates in 2020 featuring Biden and his Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump.
Biden swept through an official Biden-Harris watch party at the Hyatt Regency off Peachtree Street minutes after the debate wrapped up, telling his supporters, "We're gonna beat this guy."
"We need to beat this guy and I need you in order to beat him," he told the crowd.
Biden added, "You are the reason why America is as good as we are."
The President told the crowd that gathered, "We're the finest nation in the whole damn world," a direct contrast to Trump's statements on his take on the current state of the country.
The candidates faced off for 90 minutes inside an audience-free CNN studio in Midtown Atlanta. The event was moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who peppered the candidates on everything from Social Security, childcare costs, the border, the economy, abortion to the Israel-Hamas crisis.
During the debate, the candidates kept it mostly on-topic, though they veered into personal jabs about each other's mental and physical acuity, accusations of corruption and more. In one exchange, Trump and Biden debated about whose golf game was better.
Back at his watch party, Biden encouraged his supporters to "let's keep going" and posing for selfies.
President Trump quickly departed the state without stopping at any watch parties.
Trump and Biden will face off again for a second debate, hosted by ABC in September, before voters head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, in an election that has been described as one of the most consequential elections.
Each candidate has their own hurdles to overcome heading into the November election. For Trump: a guilty conviction in a criminal case in New York state on 34 counts that he falsified business records related to a hush money payment over an affair with an adult film star. The former president is also facing a slew of other criminal charges in three other cases related to the Jan. 6 riot and allegations he interfered with the election results right here in Georgia.
For Biden: the President is trying to alleviate fears that his age is a liability to another term in the White House. He's also faced sharp criticism from his own party about his handling of the unfolding hostage situation after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas in Israel and the subsequent violence inflicted by the Israeli military in Palestine that has killed thousands of women, children and civilians.
