DEBATE TRANSCRIPT:
Jake Tapper: Welcome to the CNN Presidential Debate. I’m Jake Tapper.
Dana Bash: And I’m Dana Bash. Let’s get started.
Tapper: We’ll begin with the economy. President Biden, since you took office, inflation has slowed but prices remain high. What do you say to voters who feel they are worse off under your presidency than they were under President Trump?
Biden: Look at what Mr. Trump left me when I became president. We had an economy in free fall. Everyone was unemployed. Thousands were dying of Covid, it was like a zombie apocalypse, and Trump was just drinking bleach. Then I came to office and put the pieces back together. We brought insulin shots down to 15 dollars. Senior citizens pay no more than 200 dollars a year for healthcare.
Tapper: Mr. Trump?
Trump: We had the greatest economy in the history of this world or any other world. There are some great fictional worlds out there, like the Emerald City, which by the way has a great economy, but not as good as ours. No economy had ever done as well as ours did when I was in office. Everybody was amazed by it. All the other countries said they wished I was their president. In Asia or Europe or Peru, go ask them and they’ll tell you how amazed they were by the job I did. Inflation is killing us.
Biden: A better economy than the Emerald City? I don’t know anyone who thinks that. My friend who I talked to the other day doesn’t think that. He said you were a worse president than Herbert Hoover, and that’s saying something because Herbert Hoover could give a rat’s ass who shows up at the local gooseberry growing contest. I don’t know what happened at last year’s contest but those are some good gooseberries. When Trump was president we were still killing people in Afghanistan. I’m the only president where no one has died anywhere in the world.
Tapper: Mr. Trump, you say you want to extend the tax cuts you put in place. With the U.S. facing trillion dollar deficits and record debt, why should top earners and corporations pay even less in taxes than they do now?
Trump: The tax cuts are why we had the greatest economy in human or animal history. I was just about to zero out the debt when Covid hit. So instead I made the vaccine, and it was a tremendous vaccine, and then he took over and did a very poor job. When I was president the whole world loved America and admired me. Now we’re a disgusting piss-covered Third World country.
Biden: I’m going to fix the tax system. We have a trillion thousandaires in this country—excuse me, a million trillionaires. Billionaires pay only $150 in taxes. I paid more than that when I worked at Padula’s ice cream stand when I was 15. I paid the taxes I owed. If billionaires paid their fair share we’d be able to wipe out the debt. We’d be able to pay for childcare, eldercare, healthcare. We’d be able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with, dealing with everything we have to do with everything that we have to be able to deal with.
Trump:
Tapper:
Bash:
Biden: The.
Trump:
Tapper:
Bash:
Biden: We finally beat Medicare.
Tapper: For fuck’s sake. Okay let’s talk about Roe v. Wade.
Trump: Everyone wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and I mean everyone. And I did that. These people are sick. They want to abort eight-month fetuses. Nine-month fetuses. Newborn babies. Older fatter babies. Boddlers. Toddlers. There’s no one these people won’t abort. President Biden tries to abort his political opponents. It’s a disaster.
Bash: President Biden?
Biden: It’s ridiculous to say everyone wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. I didn’t. My friend didn’t. The women didn’t, including that one who was murdered by an immigrant. He went to the funeral. But here’s the deal. There’s a lot of women raped by their in-laws, by their spouses, by their brothers and sisters, by their children and grandmothers, it’s ridiculous, I saw this one video where the pool boy came into the house looking all sweaty and asked for a glass of water, and you know how that goes, you’ve seen the videos, and then they can do nothing about it and they try to arrest them when they cross state lines.
Tapper: President Biden, on the issue of border security, a record number of migrants have illegally crossed the southern border on your watch. Why should voters trust you to solve this crisis?
Biden: I hired more border patrol. I hired more asylum officers. This is why there are no more illegal immigrants. He put babies in cages. I’m going to continue until we get the total initiative relative to what we’re going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers eating a salami on Wednesday.
Trump: I have no idea what the fuck he said at the end there and I don’t think he knows what he said either. Look, we had the safest border in the history of borders, and then he just opened them right up. He opened them to prisoners and lunatics and rapists and child molesters and terrorists and wildlings and white walkers. These are not good people. We had the safest border in history according to border patrol who, by the way, endorsed me for president, I won’t say that here but they endorsed me, I won’t talk about it but it was Brandon, Brandon from border patrol endorsed me, I won’t mention his name here but it was Brandon R. Knight who lives at 246 Longmeadow Drive in El Paso with his dogs, beautiful dogs by the way, it was the safest border and now we have the worst border in history. And these migrants are staying at the best hotels, great five-star hotels, while our veterans are on the street because he hates veterans.
Biden: Okay everything he just said is a lie. For example, I don’t hate veterans, I’d give my life for a veteran. I’d give a veteran a handjob in a Denny’s bathroom. We’ve done more for veterans than anyone in American history.
Bash: Let’s talk about Russia and Ukraine. Former President Trump, Vladimir Putin says he’ll only end the war if he gets to keep some of Ukraine and Ukraine stops trying to join NATO. Are Putin’s terms acceptable to you?
Trump: Our veterans can’t stand Biden. They think he’s the worst commander-in-chief that we’ve ever had. They wouldn’t take a handjob from him in a Denny’s bathroom even if they were desperate. If we had a real president, Putin never would have invaded Ukraine. And Hamas never would have attacked Israel. When I was president, Hamas liked Israel. You know those silly little caps Jews wear on their head? When I was president, Hamas wore those caps too. Out of respect for me. President Biden is like a Palestinian, and not one of the good ones either, he’s a bad one, he’s a weak Palestinian, he’s not even one of the scary Palestinians, he can’t even yell “Allahu Akbar” correctly and the other Palestinians can’t stand him, they can’t stand this guy.
Biden: I’ve never heard so much malarkey in my life. I’m a great Palestinian.
Bash: Former President Trump, would you support the creation of an independent Palestinian state to achieve peace in the region?
Trump: I make great deals. I made great deals as a kid. As a teenager. As an adult. As an old man. I made NATO put up biyyons and biyyons of dollars. I told them, if you don’t pay, I don’t play. And you know what happened? Biyyons and biyyons of dollars came flowing in the next day. But now we’re paying everyone’s bills again.
Tapper: Mr. Trump, I want to talk about January 6th. After you rallied your supporters that day, some of them stormed the Capitol. As president, you swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. What do you say to voters who believe you violated that oath on January 6th and worry that you’ll do it again?
Trump: Let me tell you about January 6th. On January 6th, we had a secure border. On January 6th, we were energy independent. On January 6th, somewhere out there, a little boy had his first hamburger because we had made America great.
Tapper: Please answer the question.
Trump: I had nothing to do with anything that happened on On January 6th. Even Nancy Pelosi said that. She said, “President Trump had nothing to do with January 6th, it was all my fault.”
Biden: He’s a convicted felon.
Trump: His son is a convicted felon.
Biden: He had sex with a porn star in the other room while his wife was giving birth. He has the morals of an alley cat.
Alley cats: wtf
Trump: I didn’t have sex with a porn star in the other room while my wife was giving birth, she had sex with me.
Biden: He said fine people on both sides.
Trump: No I didn’t.
Biden: Yes you did. He said Hitler has done good things.
Trump: Only some.
Bash: President Biden, black Americans are struggling. What do you say to black Americans who are disappointed you haven’t made more progress?
Biden: I’ve helped black Americans in all kinds of ways. It’s inflation that’s hurting them, not me.
Trump: You caused the inflation.
Biden: I know you did but what did I do?
Bash: President Trump, will you do anything to slow the climate crisis?
Trump: The blacks love me. They made me an honorary black.
Bash:
Trump: When I was president, I had stopped climate change. I had the best environmental numbers in history.
Biden: I passed the most extensive climate change legislation in history. Blacks love me. I built labs in historically black colleges so they could do science like white colleges.
Trump: Illegals are destroying our country.
Biden: And by the way.
Biden:
Tapper: Mr. Trump, the average cost of childcare in this country has risen past $11,000/year per child. In your second term, what would you do to make childcare more affordable?
Trump: He’s the worst president in this history of this country.
Biden: He’s the worst president in this history of this country.
Trump: He’s the worst president in this history of this country.
Biden: He’s the worst president in this history of this country.
Tapper: Mr. Trump, the question was about childcare.
Trump: He’s the worst president in this history of this country.
Biden: He’s the worst president in this history of this country.
Tapper: Mr. Trump, what will you do to address the opioid crisis?
Trump: China.
Tapper: Mr. Trump, what will you do to address the opioid crisis?
Trump: Illegals are killing this country.
Tapper: Mr. Trump, what will you do to address the opioid crisis?
Trump: Democrats pay too much for hostages. I pay almost nothing.
Bash: K. President Biden, frankly you’re old as cock. How do you address concerns about this?
Biden: I used to be young. America is a great country.
Bash: Former President Trump, you’re also appallingly old. How do you address the same concerns?
Trump: I just won two club championships. To do that you have to be smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way. He couldn’t hit a ball 50 yards. I have the body and mind of a 23-year-old.
Biden: I’m a six handicap.
Trump: My tits you are.
Biden: I’m an eight handicap.
Trump: I’ve seen your swing.
Bash: Mr. Trump, will you pledge to accept the results of this election and say political violence of any form is unacceptable?
Trump: Of course political violence is unacceptable. I hated when Nancy Pelosi ushered in all those people to the Capitol on January 6th. I’m running because he’s the worst president in the history of this country.
Bash: Mr. Trump, will you pledge to accept the results of this election?
Trump: Putin never would have attacked Ukraine if I had been president.
Bash: Mr. Trump, will you pledge to accept the results of this election?
Trump: If the election is fair and free and I win of course I’ll accept the results.
Biden: Whiner.
Trump: Complainer.
Tapper: It is blessedly now time for the candidates to deliver their closing statements. Time for the big, lofty, heartfelt speech.
Biden: I didn’t raise taxes on most people. He instituted a 10% tariff, which is the same as raising taxes. He wants to make it so we can’t negotiate with big pharma companies. We got it down to $35 for insulin, which is $20 more than I said earlier in the debate, and a $2,000 cap for senior healthcare spending, which is ten times the figure I said earlier tonight. That’s huge progress in just a couple hours.
Trump: This guy sucks. All he does is let people pour in over the border. We’re living in a hellish rat’s nest. No one likes you. No one respects you. God I’m good. No one’s ever seen anything like it before. We live in a shit country. Because of you, I need to make America great again again.
Bash: Thank you I guess.
_______
More places to go:
Presidential debate transcripts from 2020 and 2016
My book about how our politics got to this state
The American Presidents: Washington to Lincoln
_______
If you like Wait But Why, sign up for our email list and we’ll send you new posts when they come out.
To support Wait But Why, visit our Patreon page.
