As the 2024 presidential election nears, former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden stood on their podiums to address questions that all United States voters are asking. From internal and external affairs, to speaking about the faults of their respective presidential terms, the debate was filled with exaggerated, partially true, bold and false claims.

Here are some internal affairs hot topics from the debate:

Abortion

In the overturning of the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v Wade, abortions have become a state decision, rather than being accessible to women across the country. However, the abortion pill was recently approved by the Supreme Court. Trump said he was not opposed to the pill, however, is still not in favor of Roe v Wade and “all legal scholars” agree with him.

“51 years ago, you had Roe v Wade, and everybody wanted to take it back to the states, everybody without exceptions, democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives,” Trump said. “Every legal scholar throughout the world wanted (Roe v Wade) brought back to the states and now the states are working it out.”

This claim is false.

While the overturning of Roe v Wade was in progress in 2022, many scholars wrote articles about their views that disprove Trump’s claims such as: Serena Mayeri of the University of Pennsylvania, Melissa Murray of New York University, Reva Siegel of Yale University, Khiara M. Bridges of the University of California, Berkeley and Dorothy E. Roberts of the University of Pennsylvania, and Northeastern University’s Martha F. Davis.

Immigration

As the debate progressed during the night, Trump argued that Biden was left with “the safest border in the country,” which he destroyed with his new immigration policies. In response, Biden claimed that his newest policy has left a significant dent in illegal border crossings.

“I’ve changed (the policies) in a way that now, you’re in a situation where there’s 40% fewer people crossing the border illegally, which is better when (Trump) left office.” Biden said.

This claim is mostly true.

In June 2024, Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas gave his remarks about Biden’s executive authority. Mayorkas claims that the policy quickly gave a “more than 45 percent drop in U.S. Border Patrol encounters.” Although, there can be many factors to why there was drop in people crossing illegally, such as the extreme summertime temperatures.

Here are some external affairs hot topics from the debate:

War between Russia and Ukraine

The war between Russia and Ukraine has been ongoing for over three years. When asked about the war, Trump claimed if elected he could stop the war before entering office. He also said that the amount of money being spent on the war is tremendous.

“If we had a real president, one that was respected by Putin he would have never invaded Ukraine,” Trump said. “This is a war that should’ve never started, if we had a leader in this war. He’s given $200 billion dollars or more to Ukraine. I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelenskyy as president elect before I take office on Jan. 20.”

With the tensions between the two opponents, voters across the country viewed how these two candidates would potentially lead the country. Voters remarked on Trump’s 34 guilty charges (which was ruled before the debate) and false claims as well as Biden’s loss for words at times during the debate.

Because voting season is almost here, voters will quickly have to decide on who will be best fit to run the country.

Sofia Sierra is the web and copy editor and may be reached at [email protected].