Trump claims debate victory; says exposed Biden's 'very dangerous agenda'
Washington: US President Donald Trump has claimed victory over his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in their first presidential debate, saying he exposed "the very dangerous agenda" of the former vice president and held him accountable for the "47 years of his lies" in public life.
During the first of the three presidential debates in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday night which was marked by angry interruptions and bitter accusations, the two candidates fiercely clashed over a number of issues, including racism, economy, climate, health care and the coronavirus.
Both the camps have declared victory in the debate.
Last night I did what the corrupt media has refused to do, I held Joe Biden accountable for his 47 years of lies, 47 years of betrayal and 47 years of failure. I held Joe accountable for shipping your jobs and dreams abroad and for bowing to the violent mob at home, Trump told his supporters, addressing an election rally in Duluth, Minnesota.
Biden, 77, is "too weak" to lead this country, he said, claiming that his Democratic rival badly lost the debate.
You know Biden lost badly when his supporters are saying he should cancel the rest of the debates. Now I understand he's cancelling the debates. Let's see what happens. I think that's not gonna be a good move for him, Trump said.
After the chaotic first debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates said that it's adding new tools to maintain order to the upcoming debates.
Trump's frequent interruptions of the Democratic presidential nominee defined Tuesday night's debate, with Biden frequently unable to complete a sentence.
Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News pleaded with Trump several times to allow Biden to speak uninterrupted, to no avail.
Addressing his first election rally after the presidential debate with Biden, Trump told his cheering supporters that he is also running against the "corrupt far-left" media, socialists, and communist in the Democrat Party.
That's what has happened for too long. We have turned it around but don't forget when they turned it around I had to fight other things like a fake impeachment. I had to fight a lot of things that are not like that wasn't in the agenda. Never forget and we fought it very well, and frankly, we had great support from the Republican Party except for one person, but that's all right, he said.
Referring to the conversations that he had during the debate, Trump said, "Biden was saying he owns that socialism and extremism in his party. It's not his party. It's not Joe's party. You've got Crazy Bernie, you have AOC plus three, you've got all these crazy people. These maniacs. You have the green new deal. How about the green new deal? He disavowed it, he said.
Trump claimed that "Biden has pledged to terminate his travel ban on jihadist regions, opening the flood gates to radical Islamic terrorism."
Remember I used to talk about it all the time. I got it banned. Remember, they said you'd never be able to get them banned. Then I lost at the lower court. I lost at the Court of Appeals. And they said he lost, he lost. And huge stories. Then I won at the Supreme Court. They didn't even report it, he said.
My administration is keeping terrorists, extremists, and criminals out of our country and we're keeping them the hell out of Minnesota, he said.
Trump said that his performance in the last 437 months is better than that of Biden in his 47 years when he served as Senator from Delaware and Vice President of the country.
Now he's pushing the most far-left platform in history. The Biden plan would destroy social security and destroy protections for people with pre-existing conditions, give free federal health care to all illegal aliens bankrupting medicare, he said.
A vote for Republicans, Trump said, is a "vote for safe communities, great jobs, and a limitless future for all of Americans".
Over the next four years we will make a America into the manufacturing superpower of the world and we will end our reliance on China once and for all, said the president.
Earlier, interacting with reporters at the White House, Trump said he is looking forward to the other two debates in Florida and Tennessee. I don't mind debating him. I hear he wants to get out of the debates. I don't know. That's up to him, he said.
Claiming that he won the first debate, he said I think he (Biden) was very weak. He was whining. We won the debate by almost every poll that I saw. If you look at the various polls. And I looked at about six of them, and we won every one of them.
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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says
Washington (AP): The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, and his family raised concerns with law enforcement before the event, President Donald Trump said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel.
The accused gunman's family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington's glitziest annual events the night before.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department, whose acting leader, Todd Blanche, said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen's relatives, examined the gunman's electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
“He failed,” Blanche said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” “Law enforcement did their jobs.”
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Blanche said.
“He's going to be great, he's going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Blanche said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor's degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.
Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It's always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late Saturday.
