Biden and President Donald Trump face off in the first presidential debate since 2020 on Thursday night in Atlanta, aiming to square off on policy and current events.
But the CNN debate represents a unique moment in that both candidates have proven track records and solid bases of support, and the votes of a small number of voters are at stake.
Want a second look at where these two stand on key issues?
Here’s a look at what Biden and Trump are saying on key issues.
abortion
Biden has said he supports women’s reproductive freedom and has made the issue of abortion a focus of his campaign.
Biden has called for Congress to restore abortion protections guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal up until fetal viability (commonly understood to be 23-24 weeks of pregnancy). The Biden administration has taken steps to protect abortion access since Roe was decided.
Biden, a devout Catholic, has changed his views on the issue of abortion over the years. He has argued: During an interview with Washington Magazine In 1974, he thought the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision had “gone too far.”
“I don’t believe that women alone have the right to decide what should happen to their bodies,” he continued.
During his vice presidential debate with former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in 2012, Biden acknowledged his own faith and beliefs, but insisted that he could not impose those views on others.
“Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s decision. I accept that in my personal life,” Biden said. I said at the time.
“I don’t believe that a woman has the right to tell others that she has no control over her own body. In my view, that’s a decision between the woman and her doctor. And the Supreme Court, I’m not going to interfere with that,” he later added.
Trump has also shifted his stance on abortion over the years.
In a 1999 interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said: Explained myself As “very pro-abortion.”
The former president in recent years has praised the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion, because during his presidency he appointed three conservative justices who would go on to form majority opinions that overturned the Supreme Court decision.
President Trump has said abortion policy should be left to states and has indicated he will not sign a federal abortion ban, which is unlikely to reach his desk. His administration has supported a House bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
But Trump has suggested some states have gone too far with their abortion laws, calling Florida’s six-week ban “horrible” and suggesting Arizona’s near-total abortion ban goes too far. He has said he supports exceptions to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is at risk.
Foreign Policy
The Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war have highlighted the contrast between how Presidents Trump and Biden approach foreign policy and who they consider to be allies.
Biden has supported aid to Ukraine throughout Russia’s invasion of the former Soviet Union and has called on allies to do the same. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this month at the anniversary of the Normandy landings in Normandy, France, and on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Italy.
President Biden also signed a deal with Ukraine earlier this month, signaling the U.S. remains committed to supporting the country throughout the war.
Biden, meanwhile, is walking a tricky tightrope with Israel. The president supported Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, saying more than a week after the attack that “as long as America stands up, and we will forever stand up, we will never isolate Israel.”
He also opposes the idea that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but his administration’s approach has earned him a backlash among progressives and younger voters who are outraged by the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.
At the same time, Biden has been pushing for a ceasefire in the region, clashing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to respond to the war.
Trump’s approaches to both conflicts have differed, with the former president at one point praising Russian President Putin as “very astute” and “smart”, and suggesting that Russia could “do whatever it wants” if NATO member states failed to meet a minimum of 2% of GDP on defense spending.
Trump has claimed that if he were president he could end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but has not provided any specifics.
The former president has criticized Israel’s response to Gaza. Trump was a strong supporter of Israel during his first term, even moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He has called on Israel to “fix the problem” and warned that it is losing the support of the Israeli people.
economy
Biden has sought to position the economy as a strong player during his term in office, and his administration has rolled out billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief packages, putting cash into the pockets of Americans battling the pandemic.
But as the economy recovered from the coronavirus recession, inflation soared as supply chain problems, the war in Ukraine and a historically strong labor market pushed up prices. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to stabilize the economy amid an influx of cash, bringing inflation down from a 40-year high to near 2%.
Biden passed the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and signed into law the Beat Inflation Act of 2022, which aims to lower health care costs and encourage investment in clean energy.
Though prices are no longer rising sharply, Republicans have criticized “Bidenomics” for rising prices, arguing that Democratic policies are responsible for the cognitive dissonance Americans continue to feel between economic growth and painful gas prices.
While calling for higher taxes on billionaires and large corporations, Biden has vowed not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 a year.
Trump has said he would continue an initiative he began in his first term by raising tariffs on imports from other countries, a move economists have warned would amount to a tax on American consumers. During a campaign stop in Las Vegas, he also proposed eliminating taxes on tips received by service industry workers.
President Trump will also likely work to make permanent the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017. While the individual tax cuts expire in 2025, the corporate tax rate cuts have already been made permanent.
Immigration
Immigration has become a difficult issue for Biden.
The Biden administration sought to repeal Title 42 in 2022, but has used the policy to deport more people than the Trump administration did.
Title 42 began under the Trump administration, ostensibly as a COVID-19 pandemic measure that would allow U.S. authorities to quickly expel migrants at the border.
More recently, President Biden issued an executive order earlier this month that again allows for the immediate expulsion of immigrants who enter the country illegally seeking asylum. Biden’s action was triggered when the seven-day average of encounters at the border exceeded 2,500. That threshold had been exceeded every month since February 2021, with limited exceptions. The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that the seven-day average had fallen below 2,400 encounters.
Weeks after the asylum crackdown, the Biden administration expanded the parole program to include foreign nationals who have been in the U.S. for at least 10 years and are married to U.S. citizens.
Meanwhile, one of Trump’s best-known immigration policies has been “building a wall,” or building a barrier between Mexico and the U.S. Trump has used inflammatory language to sell his immigration policies, saying that illegal immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the nation.”
Trump’s campaign website pledges to “end capture and release, restore the right to remain in Mexico, and eradicate asylum fraud.” Trump has called for mass deportations of migrants who have entered the country illegally, and said he needs help from local law enforcement to do so.
crime
Biden’s American Rescue Plan includes millions of dollars in funding for local police departments, and in 2022 he signed an executive order addressing police use of force and strengthening police accountability.
The order also established a database available to federal law enforcement agencies that shows officers who have been fired for misconduct.
The Biden administration has also taken steps to address controversial policing practices, such as limiting no-knock warrants and eliminating the use of chokeholds by federal law enforcement.
Earlier this month, Biden spoke at a conference on gun safety, where the White House has sought to highlight efforts to curb mass shootings and other gun violence, including the Bipartisan Safe Communities Act of 2022, which would tighten gun laws such as strengthening background checks for gun buyers ages 18 to 21.
According to the FBI, violent crime has dropped significantly in early 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The figures are being seen as a victory for the Biden administration as Republicans focus on crime prevention ahead of the election.
Meanwhile, Trump’s past comments on crime include calling for the defunding of federal agencies like the Department of Justice and the FBI, and he has positioned himself as a strong supporter of law enforcement, including his support for police immunity.
President Trump signed the First Step Act, which aims to reduce recidivism by reducing mandatory minimum sentences and expanding credits for well-behaved inmates seeking shorter sentences, but he has barely mentioned the criminal justice reform bill during the campaign.
Sylvain Lane contributed
