Former President Trump’s response to President Biden’s claims about immigration during Thursday night’s CNN presidential debate appeared to garner strong support from Republican and independent voters participating in a Fox News Digital focus group.
When CNN host Jake Tapper asked Biden to tell voters how he would curb the record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the border, the two presidential candidates sparred over immigration policy, culminating in Biden calling Trump a “liar” and Trump appearing not to understand some of Biden’s responses.
“We are [Trump] When he was president, he was taking babies away from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure families were separated.”
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Former President Trump appeared to garner significant support from Republican and independent voters in response to President Biden’s claims on immigration. (Fox News Digital)
“That’s not the right way to do it. What have they done since I changed the law? I changed the law and now we have 40% fewer people crossing the border illegally, which is better than when the president left office. I’m going to keep going until we have a total ban on full-scale efforts compared to what we can do with more Border Patrol and more asylum agents,” Biden said.
Biden’s approval rating was low among Republicans and independents who participated in a Fox News Digital focus group while he was speaking, but after Trump responded, approval ratings among those same voters soared, indicating support for the former president’s stance on the issue.
Republicans are colored red, independents yellow, and Democrats blue.
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Former President Trump spoke at a presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP)
Trump appeared not to understand what Biden was saying, responding, “I have no idea what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
“Look, we have the most secure border in the history of our country,” Trump added. “All the president had to do was leave the border. All the president had to do was leave the border. He decided to open up the border and the country, from prisons, from mental hospitals and psychiatric hospitals, from terrorists. We have the most terrorists coming into our country right now.”
President Biden took the stage at the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle in Atlanta on Thursday. (Kevin D. Lyles, The Washington Post)
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Biden’s comments on immigration received high marks from Democrats who participated in real-time reactions, and their approval ratings dropped significantly during Trump’s rebuttal.
Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
