Donald Trump and Joe Biden are due to face each other on the debate stage in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday evening in their first head-to-head of the 2024 election cycle.
The encounter will take place at 9pm ET and be broadcast live from CNN’s studios, with the network’s anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash serving as moderators.
The debate promises to be every bit as bad-tempered as their two face-offs in the run-up to the Covid-blighted 2020 election and the Republican has wasted no time in getting his blows in early, sneering on Wednesday that the president should be thrilled there will be no fact-checkers present because he is a “lying machine”.
This comes as the Supreme Court issued four major rulings, but left the question of Trump’s immunity from prosecution in his federal election interference case for a future date.
Meanwhile, new polling shows Trump up by just five points in a head-to-head matchup with Biden among likely voters in Texas. Trump received 48 percent to Biden’s 43 percent in the poll conducted between 11 and 20 June by the University of Texas at Tyler.
Trump and right-wing media spread conspiracy theories before Biden debate
Other bogus claims have accused debate host network CNN of delaying the broadcast by up to two minutes.
Oliver O’Connell28 June 2024 00:40
Watch: Georgia governor says Trump would win state today
Ahead of tonight’s presidential debate, Governor Brian Kemp says if voting were held today, Donald Trump would win the battleground state of Georgia.
“If he stays focused tonight…I think he’ll win in November as well. But we cannot take that for granted,” the Republican told CBS News.
Oliver O’Connell28 June 2024 00:37
Mitch McConnell defies Trump by admitting Biden is a ‘good guy’
Outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s floundering relationship with former President Donald Trump isn’t about to recover any time soon.
While McConnell has endorsed Trump, he recently broke with the leader of his party, saying that President Joe Biden is a “good guy.”
“I know Joe Biden pretty well. He’s a good guy, I like him personally,” McConnell told and audience in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday, according to The Hill.
McConnell and Biden spent decades together in the Senate and Biden would often be dispatched by President Barack Obama to deal with congressional Republicans during his time as vice president.
But the Republican senate leader also said, “I never thought he was moderate in the Senate, but he ran as a moderate.”
He added: “But as soon as the president got elected, he pretty much signed up with the far left of the Democratic Party, which has created another set of a problem for all of you who are in business.”
“This has been a regulatory nightmare by this administration,” he claimed.
Oliver O’Connell28 June 2024 00:30
Warnock calls Trump appeal to Black voters on criminal record ‘insulting’, ‘cynical’ and ‘racialized’
Biden spin room representative Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia called Donald Trump’s appeal to Black voters based on his criminal record “insulting”.
He told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Donald Trump is literally running on his criminal record, as if that’s a reason for Black voters to vote for him. Nothing could be more insulting.”
“It was a cynical, racialized move,” he added.
The senator also made the point that if racism was really over like Tim Scott says it is, Trump wouldn’t have picked former football player Herschel Walker to be a Republican candidate for Senate “based on the color of his skin”.
Oliver O’Connell28 June 2024 00:20
Judge defends more hearings after being accused of slow-walking Trump classified docs case
Cannon is seeking more evidence about the language in the FBI search warrant that was used to seize classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, she wrote in a court filing on Thursday. Trump’s lawyers have argued the language was vague, and Cannon agreed there were “ambiguities” in her latest filing.
Oliver O’Connell28 June 2024 00:10
Biden campaign tries to use Trump’s second-term blueprint against him as debate looms
The Biden campaign is rolling out a seven-figure paid digital and print-media campaign, which includes homepage takeovers at Buzzfeed, USA Today, CNN, El Tiempo Latino, Telemundo, theGrio, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution to highlight what they describe as “the dangers of electing Trump to a second term.”
The president’s campaign is also launching a new website that takes aim at Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump term that has been put forth by the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank.
Oliver O’Connell28 June 2024 00:00
CNN shoots down bogus claim that network is delaying broadcast
Right-wing social media users are spreading unsubstantiated claims that CNN is delaying its broadcast for up to two minutes. It’s entirely false, but appears to be part of a time-tested strategy to spread bogus statements across social media in the hopes that legitimate outlets pick them up to debunk them, thereby legitimizing them.
CNN’s own communications team said the claims are false.
“Watch out — it’s wild out here today — lots of people are falling for misinfo about the prez debate production,” wrote ex-CNN host Brian Stelter.
“To address one of the B.S. claims, no, CNN is not putting the live feed on a 1/2 minute tape delay to somehow protect the elderly candidates.”
Alex Woodward27 June 2024 23:47
