US President Joe Biden made several verbal missteps as his debate with Republican rival Donald Trump got under way and both sought to define their presidential rematch.

Biden had a raspy voice, struggling repeatedly to clear his throat, and had a halting delivery as he tried to defend his economic record and criticise Trump. 

The president appeared to lose his train of thought while giving one answer, drifting from a response on tax policy to health policy, at one point using the word “COVID”, and then saying, “excuse me, with, dealing with,” and he trailed off again.

“Look, we finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, as his time ran out on his answer.

Trump seized on it, saying, “That’s right, he did beat Medicaid, he beat it to death. And he’s destroying Medicare.”

Trump suggested Biden was weakening the social service program because of migrants coming into the country.

Biden, the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent, entered the debate with the chance to reassure voters that he’s capable of guiding the US through a host of challenges as he moved to sharpen the choice voters will face in November. 

Trump, 78, had the opening to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he is temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office.

The two candidates strode on stage and walked directly to their lecterns, avoiding a handshake. 

The debate did not start with any of the fiery exchanges that defined their first meeting on the debate stage in 2020. 

Instead, each man stayed relatively measured as he defended his record and blamed the other for steering the country off track.

Biden, pressed to defend rising inflation since he took office, pinned it on the situation he inherited from Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Trump assailed Biden’s withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, saying, “It was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”

Biden said that when Trump left office, “things were in chaos”. Trump disagreed, declaring that during his term in the White House, “Everything was rocking good”.

The current president and his predecessor hadn’t spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. 

Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss that culminated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters. 

Biden blamed Trump for enabling the elimination of a nationwide right to abortion by appointing conservatives to the US Supreme Court, an issue that has bedevilled Republicans since 2022.

In response, Trump argued that Biden would not support any limits on abortions and said that returning the issue to the states was the right course of action.

Trump said Biden had failed to secure the southern US border, ushering in scores of criminals.

“I call it Biden migrant crime,” he said.

In response, Biden said, “Once again, he’s exaggerating, he’s lying.”

Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the US government if he returns to the White House and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.

Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted — and Trump agreed — to hold the debate without an audience and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak. 

The debate’s two commercial breaks offered another departure from modern practice, while the candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.

With Reuters