Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of JD Vance, at the Republican National Convention said that neither JD Vance nor she expected to find themselves in this position on Thursday. “But it’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream,” she added, introducing her husband after Donald Trump named him his running mate for the US presidential polls.

Future Second Lady Usha Vance: “Neither J.D. nor I expected to find ourselves in this position — but it’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream.”

FULL REMARKS: pic.twitter.com/JJgdJbem0H

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 18, 2024

Usha, born to immigrant parents from Andhra Pradesh, shared their story from the stage of the RNC. Recounting their first meeting and the journey that led them to this moment, she said “There was only one thing to do, to explain, from the heart, why I love and admire JD, why I stand here beside him today, and why he will make a great Vice President of the United States.”

She shared how they met at the law school, where JD was a “working-class student” who had “overcome childhood traumas” and served in Iraq as a Marine. “A tough Marine who had served in Iraq but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies,” she said.

Usha shed light on the Ohio senator’s curious and enthusiastic approach to their differences when they first met, including his adaptation to her vegetarian diet and learning to cook Indian food from her mother. “Although he is a meat and potato kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learnt to cook Indian food from my mother,” she said.

JD and Usha Vance met at Yale Law School and married in 2014. The couple has three children together – Ewan, 6, Vivek, 4, and Mirabel, 2.

JD Vance also delivered a powerful speech at the RNC, talking about his roots in small-town Ohio and the economic challenges communities across the Rust Belt faced. He spoke about the struggles of small towns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states, where jobs have been sent overseas and children have been sent to war.

He vowed to be a champion for these forgotten communities, promising to never forget his humble beginnings. “I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” JD said.

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I will fight for you, I will stand with you, and I will never forget the struggles we face.”

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Former U.S. President Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13, 2024, that set off panic as a bloodied Trump was surrounded by Secret Service and hurried into his vehicle. A former fire chief attending the rally with family was killed, as was the gunman. Two other people were critically wounded.

Also Read : Trump rally shooting LIVE

This is a brief analysis of the scene of the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as satellite imagery of the site, which shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking.

Here’s what’s known so far about the timeline of the shooting:

Trump’s rally takes place at the Butler Farm Show Grounds, Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.

The ground on 625 Evans City Road is home to the Butler Farm Show, an annual agriculture fair.

6.02 p.m. EDT – Trump takes the stage to the strains of “God Bless the U.S.A.” He waves at the cheering crowd and begins his regular rally speech, with spectators both in front of him and behind him on risers.

Trump starts addressing his supporters and speaks for roughly six minutes before the scene erupts into chaos.

6.10 p.m. – After rally-goers notice a man climbing on the top of the roof of a nearby building, a local law enforcement officer climbs to the roof, according to two law enforcement officials.

A man identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks points his rifle at the officer, who retreats down the ladder, the officials said.

Gunman then quickly fires, according to the officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Trump was showing off border-crossing numbers when gunfire began.

As the first pop rings out, Trump says, “Oh,” and raises his hand to his right ear and looks at it, before quickly crouching to the ground behind his lectern. Video shows Trump getting to his feet and reaching with his right hand toward his face, which was smeared with blood.

Secret Service agents rush to the stage and pile atop the former president to shield him.

Secret Service counter snipers fire back and shoot Crooks.

While the gunman is positioned outside the rally venue, the distance between him and where Trump is speaking is only approximately 400 to 500 feet, according to law enforcement sources.

About 1 minute after the shots – As Trump stands up, he pumps to the crowd with his right fist. He appears to mouth the word “fight” twice to his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”

About 2 minutes after the shots – Trump turns back to the crowd and again raises a fist right before agents put him into a vehicle and he is taken to a local hospital.

Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief attending the rally, is shot and killed. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Sunday that Comperatore used his body as a shield to protect his wife and daughter.

6.50 p.m. – Secret Service says “the former President is safe.”

8:42 p.m. – Trump posts on his social media site that he was injured in the upper part of his right ear. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he said.

Trump’s private jet lands at Newark Liberty International Airport. Video posted by an aide showed the former president deplaning, flanked by U.S. Secret Service agents and heavily armed members of the agency’s counter assault team. It was an unusually visible show of force by his protective detail.

Trump travels to his private golf club in nearby Bedminster, New Jersey, to spend the night.

Source: AP, Reuters, CNN, and FBI

Washington:

US President Joe Biden returns to the campaign trail Friday, pushing ahead with his reelection bid after a mixed performance at a major news conference failed to silence calls for him to quit.

The 81-year-old will give a speech bashing rival Donald Trump in Detroit in the rust-belt state of Michigan, a crucial battleground state that the Democrat must win in November’s election.

A defiant Biden insisted in a pivotal appearance at a NATO summit on Thursday that he would run again, and win — despite concerns about his age and health following a disastrous debate performance two weeks ago.

But a series of gaffes, including referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” kept Biden’s fitness for a second term under the microscope.

The top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said he had met with Biden late Thursday, as the number of members calling on the president to step aside rose to 20.

Jeffries said he and Biden “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward” but did not give further details.

The president has faced a steady drumbeat of Democrats calling for him to abandon his 2024 candidacy since the June 27 debate, during which Biden often lost his train of thought and appeared tired.

But Biden has obstinately dug in and insists that he can convince voters to back him despite most polls showing him trailing the criminally convicted, twice-impeached Trump.

“Most Qualified”

The campaign event in Detroit is his fourth trip this year to the state, part of the industrial “blue wall” along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that were key to his 2020 win against his rival.

Biden’s speech is expected to focus on “Project 2025”, a blueprint by hardline conservatives for the first days of a Trump term that Democrats have pinned on the former president, despite the 78-year-old’s denials.

The press conference on Thursday appeared to buy Biden some time even if it was far from a knockout blow, with three more lawmakers urging him to quit just minutes after it finished.

Biden said he was the “most qualified person to run for president,” rejecting calls for him to step aside before the November 5 vote.

He acknowledged he had to “allay fears” in the Democratic party and should “pace myself a little more” after blaming jet lag and cold for his stumbling debate performance.

Biden also fielded a series of foreign and domestic policy questions with detailed if meandering answers and relatively few slip-ups, though he did mix up Europe and Asia.

But there were damaging moments on Thursday, with the Trump-Harris mixup and an earlier gaffe at the NATO summit in which he introduced Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

The concerns over Biden are also affecting Democratic donors, with Hollywood star and high-profile supporter George Clooney calling on Biden to step aside on Wednesday.

A number of other key donors have told the largest Biden campaign fund that around $90 million in pledged donations is on hold if he carries on running, the New York Times reported on Friday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

 US President Joe Biden has vowed he will be “running this race to end “of the November election, despite private calls from Democrats to drop out.

Biden stood firm and told congressional Democrats in a letter on Monday that he would continue his election bid despite mounting concerns about his mental fitness.

Biden said that he wouldn’t be running again, “if I did not absolutely believe that I could beat Donald Trump.”

“I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” he added.

Further, he also stated, “We have 42 days to the Democratic convention and 119 days to the general election,” Biden said in the letter distributed by his reelection campaign

In the letter, Biden calls for unity among his party, emphasising the need for a collective effort to defeat former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

“Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump,” said Biden.
The letter comes after a group call with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in which four congressmen were explicit in urging Biden to step aside some deep-pocketed donors have also reportedly expressed discomfort, with Hollywood’s Rob Reiner, who regularly donates to Democratic candidates, saying he thinks Biden should step aside “we lose our democracy if Trump wins.”

At the same time, some of the president’s biggest supporters are re-doubling the fight for Biden’s presidency, insisting there is no better way to beat Trump in what many see as among the most important elections of a lifetime.

On Sunday, a leadership call was organised by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, where several top House Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to step aside from the 2024 campaign, expressing deep concerns about his potential impact on the Democratic Party’s chances in the upcoming elections.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. President Joe Biden claps hands next to U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris while hosting a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Joe Biden is “absolutely not” pulling out of the U.S. presidential race, his spokeswoman said on July 3, as pressure mounted following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.

Panic has gripped his Democratic Party in the wake of last week’s TV debate, and internal rumblings about finding a replacement candidate before November’s election have been amplified by polls showing Mr. Trump extending his lead.

The New York Times and CNN reported that Mr. Biden, 81, had acknowledged to a key ally that his reelection bid was on the line if he failed to quickly reassure the public that he was still up to the job.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre rejected those reports outright, insisting Mr. Biden has no intention of withdrawing.

“The President is clear-eyed and he is staying in the race,” she told reporters.

Mr. Biden told a call with campaign and party staffers that he is going nowhere.

“I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win because when Democrats unite, we will always win. Just as we beat Donald Trump in 2020, we’re going to beat him again in 2024,” he said, according to a source close to the campaign.

He repeated that message in an emergency meeting with Democratic governors, who pledged their continued support, attendees said afterward.

“As the President continued to tell us, and show us, that he was all in… we said that we would stand with him,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore, seen as a rising star and potential future presidential candidate, told reporters alongside Minnesota’s Tim Walz and Kathy Hochul of New York.

Mr. Walz said Mr. Biden was “fit to serve.”

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who also attended the meeting at the White House and is seen as one of the top picks to replace Mr. Biden if he should drop out, said on social media platform X that “he is in it to win it and I support him.”

Mr. Biden has admitted he performed poorly in the debate, and was blunt in a radio interview recorded Wednesday with Wisconsin’s Civic Media.

“I screwed up. I made a mistake. That’s 90 minutes on stage. Look at what I’ve done in 3.5 years,” he said.

He echoed that sentiment in an interview with Pennsylvania’s WURD radio on Thursday, saying “I had a bad debate.”

Aftermath

The Biden campaign has been desperate to reassure Democratic donors and voters that the president’s performance against Trump was a one-off.

But party figures have voiced bafflement over what they see as deflection and excuses from the President and his aides.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, told the New York Times that Biden should withdraw.

“Mr. Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Mr. Trump and keep us safe and prosperous,” he said in an email to the paper.

The concern was compounded by a New York Times poll conducted after the debate that showed Trump with his biggest lead ever over Mr. Biden — 49% to 43% of likely voters.

It wasn’t until Wednesday — six days after the debate — that Mr. Biden completed a round of calls with Democratic congressional leaders, and staffers have also voiced consternation over the glacial pace of the outreach.

“We are getting to the point where it may not have been the debate that did him in, but the aftermath of how they’ve handled it,” a senior Democratic operative told Washington political outlet Axios.

Mr. Biden may be tested on his ability to think on his feet when he sits with ABC News on Friday for his first television interview since the debate, and he will also hit the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days.

‘More worrisome’

The President has cited fatigue as a new explanation for his poor debate showing, saying that he was unwise to travel “around the world a couple times” before the debate.

But he had been back in the United States for nearly two weeks and spent two days relaxing and six days preparing before the debate.

Democratic lawmakers have begun to go public with their doubts. Arizona congressman Raul Grijalva became the second sitting Democrat to call on Mr. Biden to drop out.

“If he’s the candidate, I’m going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere,” Grijalva said, according to the Times.

In the street where the president grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, there was sympathy for Mr. Biden — but no campaign signs for either candidate.

“I was embarrassed for him. I felt he didn’t feel well and he probably shouldn’t have gone on the stage,” said 73-year-old Jamie Hayes.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that Donald Trump enjoys some immunity from prosecution as a former President, a ruling that will likely delay his trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

The 6-3 decision split along ideological lines comes four months ahead of the election in which Mr. Trump is the Republican candidate to take on Democrat Joe Biden.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, in his majority opinion, said a President enjoys “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office.

“There is no immunity for unofficial acts,” Mr. Roberts said, sending the case back to a lower court to determine which of the charges facing the former president involves official or unofficial conduct.

The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying “never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law.”

“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” she said.

Mr. Trump’s original trial date in the election case had been for March 4, well before his November rematch with President Joe Biden.

But the Supreme Court — dominated by conservatives, including the three appointed by Mr. Trump during his term in office — agreed in February to hear his argument for presidential immunity, putting the case on hold while they considered the matter in April.

Facing four criminal cases, Mr. Trump has been doing everything in his power to delay the trials at least until after the election.

On May 30, a New York court convicted Mr. Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal in the final stages of the 2016 presidential campaign, making Mr. Trump the first former U.S. President ever convicted of a crime.

His sentencing will take place on July 11.

The New York hush money case was considered the weakest of the four cases by many legal experts, but likely the only one that will see trial before the vote.

By filing many pre-trial motions, Mr. Trump’s lawyers have managed to put on hold the three other trials, which deal with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and hoarding top-secret documents at his home in Florida.

If reelected, Mr. Trump could, once sworn in as President in January 2025, order the federal trials against him closed.

File picture of Dr. Sampat S. Shivangi
| Photo Credit: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Eminent Indian-American physician Dr. Sampat Shivangi has been elected as an official delegate to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this month that would formally nominate former U.S. president Donald Trump as the party’s presidential candidate.

Mr. Trump, 78, is the presumptive Republican Party candidate for the presidential election.

An influential Indian-American community leader, Dr. Shivangi, has been elected as a National Delegate at the convention for the sixth time.

“It is a great pleasure and honour to share the news that I have been nominated and elected as (an) official delegate at the upcoming Republican National Convention to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from July 13 to July 19, 2024,” Dr. Shivangi said.

The four-day Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would formally nominate Mr. Trump as the party’s candidate for the November 5 presidential election.

The nomination process would be completed by Republican delegates from across the country.

Dr. Shivangi, a lifelong member of the Republican Party and a founding member of the Republican Indian Council and the Republican Indian National Council, has been nominated as RNC delegate six consecutive times.

“This will be my sixth time serving as a National Delegate at the Republican National Convention to nominate the Republican Party nominee to contest the national presidential election,” he said.

“My nomination began as early as when President George W. Bush was nominated in New York, then-Senator George McCain, Governor Mitt Romney, (and) President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Now again to re-elect President Donald Trump in 2024 in Milwaukee,” he said.

He is the national president of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, one of the oldest Indian American Associations.

Over the past three decades, he has lobbied for several bills in the U.S. Congress on behalf of India through his enormous contacts with U.S. Senators and Congressmen.

“I feel this is a unique honour and an opportunity for an Indian American to represent the community at the national level,” he said.

Dr. Shivangi said he would be part of the luncheon hosted by Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi in honour of the delegates at Northern Lights in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, for the Mississippi delegates.

President Joe Biden, right, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, left, are seen on a television at Tillie’s Lounge during the presidential debate on Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Cincinnati. For many voters in the U.S., there’s despair in the air after the presidential debate this past week.
| Photo Credit: AP

Following a disastrous performance at the debate stage in Atlanta, there is a growing clamour within the ruling Democratic party and the mainstream American media for President Joe Biden to step down from the presidential race.

However, the 81-year-old President and his campaign have asserted that he is not giving up and is determined to successfully run for the November 5th presidential elections.

“Mr. Biden is the nominee (of the Democratic party. No switching of the nominee,” campaign leadership has asserted.

Mr. Biden, the 46th President of the United States, has won the Democratic presidential primary.

As of June 29, he had 3,894 delegates as against 1,975 delegates required to win the nomination of the party. These delegates would meet in Chicago from August 19 to 22 to formally nominate the winner of the primaries to run for the November 5 presidential elections.

Mr. Biden, seeking a second term in the White House, stumbled and fumbled during the televised presidential debate with his predecessor Donald Trump on Thursday night in Atlanta, setting off alarm bells among top Democrats about whether he can stay atop the gruelling months ahead of the elections on November 5.

The 78-year-old Mr. Trump, who is the presumptive Republican Party candidate for the presidential election, clashed right from the start with Biden and by the end of the 90 minutes debate, gave enough fodder for serious editorials and opinions as well as memes on social media.

Over the last 50 hours after the first presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday night, wherein his performance was seen far below par against his rival Mr. Trump, multiple media outlets, including The New York Times and his own party supporters and key decision makers, are calling him to step down from the race.

“Dropping out is Mr. Biden’s most patriotic option,” The Atlantic said Saturday.

“To serve his country, President Biden should leave the race,” The New York Times editorial board wrote Following the debate.

The New York Times wrote, “That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.” Similar messages are coming from inside the party as well.

However, his inner circle is standing by the side of Mr. Biden.

A post-debate poll says that 10% of the independent voters have moved towards Mr. Biden after the debate, a point that is being made by his team.

“It wasn’t my best debate ever as Barack (Obama) pointed out. I understand the concern after the debate,” Mr. Biden told his fundraisers in New Jersey. “I get it. I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder,” he said.

“Research during the debate shows us converting more undecided voters than Trump did, in large part because of his conduct on January 6,” Mr. Biden said. He argued Mr. Trump’s lies were the biggest takeaway: “People remember the bad things during his presidency.”

“I didn’t have a great night but neither did he,” he said again of Mr. Trump.

Several prominent columnists — Paul Krugman, Tom Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Jonathan Alter, and David Ignatius — argued that the chance of a diminished Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump is too high to risk.

Democrat presidential candidate U.S. President Joe Biden listens as Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during their debate in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on June 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former President Donald Trump gloated on Friday over President Joe Biden’s often halting performance at the first debate ahead of the November election, saying Democrats have no better choices while calling the Democratic incumbent “the most incompetent president” in U.S. history.

Trump spoke to thousands of supporters Friday at a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, a day after President Biden’s disappointing performance sparked concerns among his allies and other Democrats who were hoping for a more vigorous candidate to secure and improve his chances at reelection. President Biden repeatedly stumbled, paused and could not complete sentences, prompting some people to wonder whether they could replace him ahead of November.

“The question every voter should be asking themselves today is not whether Joe Biden can survive a 90-minute debate performance, but whether America can survive four more years of crooked Joe Biden in the White House,” Trump said.

Trump repeated several of the false claims he made on Thursday, including about abortions later in pregnancy, and again referred to rioters who have been charged with storming the Capitol to try to overturn his 2020 loss as “hostages.” He applauded a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that came out earlier on Friday, limiting a federal obstruction law that has been used to charge Trump and hundreds of Capitol riot defendants. And he called for their release.

“Free the J6 hostages now. They should free them now for what they’ve gone through,” he said, adding that the ruling “was a great thing for people that have been so horribly treated.”

Trump has long suggested the people charged in the riot have been unfairly prosecuted and continues to promote lies and unproven theories about voter fraud.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared alongside Trump on Friday, saying he was going to work to secure a Trump victory in a state Biden won in 2020. The Republican governor, who was once a favorite potential presidential candidate for anti-Trump Republicans, notably waited during this year’s primary and only endorsed Trump in March.

“This is about strength versus weakness,” Youngkin told Trump supporters. “We have seen the weak America that Joe Biden has created, and we all lived through the strong America that Donald Trump built.”

Trump said he did not think President Biden could drop out of the race, mentioning the demands from some Democrats and opinion writers calling for Biden to step aside. He then criticised other high-profile Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris and former first lady Michelle Obama.

Trump said he would be very happy going against Ms. Harris, who is Biden’s running mate.

Ms. Harris can’t just swap in for him at the top of the ticket by default should President Biden decide to step aside. Individual state delegations would need to be lobbied to replace Biden ahead of a virtual roll call where the party intends to nominate Biden. The exact date for the roll call has not yet been set.

There is no evidence President Biden is willing to end his campaign. And it would be nearly impossible for Democrats to replace him unless he chooses to step aside.

Christopher James Caton, 49, of Virginia Beach left his home at 4.30 a.m. to see Trump speak on Friday.

“Trump was unbelievable,” Caton, wearing a Second Amendment ball cap, said of Thursday night’s debate. “He was on fire. He was steady. He didn’t stutter.”

Even Democrats have to admit that President Biden performed poorly, Mr. Caton said.

Los Angeles, United States:

A bad tempered and unedifying US presidential debate between the two oldest candidates ever to run for office degenerated into a squabble over golfing prowess on Thursday.

The first head-to-head in an already painfully long campaign saw 81-year-old Joe Biden and his 78-year-old challenger Donald Trump trade insults and accusations for 90 minutes on prime time television.

There was name-calling: “You’re the worst!” “No, YOU’RE the worst!”

There were accusations: “You’re a whiner!”

And then they fought over their golf handicaps.

“He can’t hit a ball 50 yards,” said Trump, on one of the few occasions the two men directly addressed each other.

“He challenged me to a golf match. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards.”

Trump’s own vitality was never in question, he boasted, insisting “I’m in as good a shape as I was years ago.”

Not to be outdone over his putting prowess, Biden insisted he was game on the green.

“I’d be happy to have a driving contest,” he said. “I got my handicap when I was the vice president down to a six.”

Trump scoffed.

“A six handicap?” he snorted. “I’ve seen your swing. I know your swing.”

The exchange came towards the end of the CNN-hosted debate, which had started without the handshake that is customary on such occasions and gone downhill from there.

The animosity between the two men was palpable, with Biden taking an early swing at a man he said had “the morals of an alley cat.”

“How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public… for having sex with a porn star… while your wife was pregnant,” he said, in reference to Trump’s alleged dalliance with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

The Republican former president again denied adultery, but a New York jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to her.

Trump wasted few chances to hammer home his claim that Biden was “weak” and not “a leader.”

He also took aim at Biden’s perceived mental frailties, an issue that polls repeatedly show voters are concerned about.

“I took two tests, cognitive tests. I aced them, both of them, as you know, we made it public,” he said.

“He took none. I’d like to see him take one, just one, a real easy one, like go through the first five questions. He couldn’t do it.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)