Biden warns Trump would cut Social Security, Trump says Biden's 'destroying it'

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden sparred on Social Security during the presidential debate, with the incumbent commander-in-chief suggesting that Trump would cut the program.

"But the biggest thing I'll do if we defeat this man, because he wants to get rid of Social Security," Biden insisted. "He thinks there's plenty to cut in Social Security. He's wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare both times, and ... if you look at the program put forward by the House Republican Caucus that he supports is, in fact, want to cut it as well. The idea that we don't need to protect our seniors is ridiculous."

 "I would not raise the cost of Social Security for anybody under $400,000. After that, I began to make the wealthy, began to pay their fair share by increasing from 1% beyond to be able to guarantee the program for life," he said of his own position.

Trump, for his part, insisted that Biden's handling of the southern border crisis and the influx of illegal immigrants was putting more pressure on the system.

"Social security, he's destroying it, because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they're putting them onto Social Security," Trump said. "They're putting them onto Medicare, Medicaid. They're putting them in our hospitals. They're taking the place of our citizens there."

"What they're doing to the VA, to our veterans is unbelievable. Our veterans are living in the street, and these people are living in luxury hotels. He doesn't know what he's doing, and it's really coming back. I've never seen such anger in our country before," he insisted.

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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday defended himself against allegations he violated his oath of office in connection with the Jan. 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol, blaming former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for refusing his offer of a National Guard deployment.

"I said 'peacefully and patriotically,'" he said of his calls for protests. "And Nancy Pelosi, if you just watched the news from two days ago on tape to her door, make say, but she's saying, 'Oh no, it's my responsibility. I was responsible for this' because I offered her 10,000 soldiers or National Guard, and she turned them down."

"By the way, the mayor in writing turned it down. The mayor of of DC, they turned it down. I offered 10,000 because I could see... I could see what was happening. Everybody was saying they're going to be there, January 6," he went on. "I got to be there. And I said, 'You know what? There's a lot of people coming.' You could feel it. You could feel it too. And you could feel it, and I fail to have some National Guard, or whatever, and I offered it to her."

"She now admits that she turned it down. And it was the same day she was. I don't know. She can't be very happy with her daughter, because it made her into a liar. She said, I take full responsibility for January, 6," he went on.

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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday pressed President Joe Biden on abortion, insisting that Democrats supported abortion until after birth and highlighting prior comments from former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

"I am a person that believes, and frankly, I think it's important to believe in the exceptions. Some people, you have to follow your heart. Some people don't believe in that, but I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother," he added. "The problem they have is they're radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth. If you look at the former governor of Virginia, he was willing to do this. He said, we'll put the baby aside and we'll determine what we do with the baby, meaning we'll kill the baby. What happened is, we brought it back to the states, and the country is now coming together on this issue. It's been a great thing."

"Because some states, Democrat run, take it after birth again, the governor, former governor of Virginia, put the baby down that we decide what he's he's willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the next month and kill the baby," Trump insisted. "Nobody wants that to happen, Democrat or Republican, nobody wants it to happen."

"That is simply not true, that Roe v. Wade does not provide for that," Biden responded. "That's not the circumstance, only [when] woman's life is in danger. She's going to die. That's the only circumstance once that can happen. But we are not for late term, period. Period."

Trump further defended the overturn of Roe v. Wade, insisting that the court's recent decision had restored the voters' power to decide on the matter.

"Fifty-one years ago, you had Roe v Wade, and everybody wanted to get it back to the states. Everybody, without exception, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, everybody wanted it back. Religious leaders," he said. "And what I did is I put three great Supreme Court justices on the court, and they happened to vote favor of killing Roe v Wade and moving it back to states. This is something that everybody wanted now... Now the states are working it out."

"If you look at Ohio, it was a decision ... it was an end result that was a little bit more liberal than you would have thought. Kansas, I would say the same thing. Texas is different," he went on.  "Florida is different, but they're all making their own decisions right now, and right now, states control it."

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Former President Donald Trump excoriated President Joe Biden's economic record in the first presidential debate, pointing to rising costs of living and insisting that his opponent had not generated jobs for Americans.

"The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounce back jobs to bounce back from the COVID. He has not done a good job. He's done a poor job. And inflation is killing our country, it is absolutely killing us," he insisted.

"He also said he inherited 9% inflation. Now he inherited almost no inflation, and it stayed that way for 14 months, and then it blew up under his leadership, because they spent money like a bunch of people that didn't know what they were doing, and they don't know what they were doing," Trump went on. "It was the worst, probably the worst administration in history there's never been."

"He had the largest tax cut in American history, $2 trillion, he raised a deficit larger than any president has in any one term," Biden retorted. "He's the only president other than Herbert Hoover, who's that lost more jobs than he had when he began since Herbert Hoover."

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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have taken the stage at CNN's presidential debate in Atlanta, Ga.

The pair are facing off in the first debate of the 2024 election cycle and their first such contest since the 2020 debates. 

With the network's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating, the Trump campaign has voiced expectations of a lopsided affair, with Trump essentially facing off against both Biden and the moderators.

Biden and Trump both agreed to permit the moderators to mute their mics during the debate. Trump will have the last word due to a coin toss.

The former president currently leads the incumbent in most polls and Thursday evening's debate could serve as an opportunity for Trump to solidify his position. Biden, for his part, has long faced speculation of declining mental and physical fitness for office and the evening could prove a chance for him to put those concerns to rest.

Going into the debate, Trump led Biden by 1.5% in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.