Donald Trump has seemingly threatened sitting president Joe Biden with jail if he is elected in the upcoming US election in November.
“Joe could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office,” Trump said when asked by moderators if he would prosecute his political opponents if he wins office. “He’s done horrible things.”
Biden returned that “the only person on this stage [that] is a convicted felon, is the man I’m looking at right now”.
The president was underlining Trump’s legal battles, which most recently saw him convicted in New York earlier this month on 34 counts of falsifying documents, related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump was also eager to deflect questions about his role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol in Washington, where a mob stormed the building in an effort to prevent Biden from becoming president.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are the presumptive nominees for the Republican and Democratic parties respectively. Source: Getty
As the debate comes close to concluding, it has covered topics as diverse as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, unemployment, the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis, the economy, undocumented migration and abortion rights.
The 90-minute televised debate started airing on CNN at 9pm local time and is expected to draw millions of viewers. In Australia, viewers can .
The debate is happening far earlier than normal — more than four months before the 5 November election — and is also the first between a former and sitting president.
Biden and Trump are the de facto preferred candidates, but neither party has officially nominated them yet.
Broadcaster CNN implemented a number of measures to try and contain potential disruption.
Candidates’ microphones were muted while they were not speaking, to prevent Biden and Trump from interrupting one another.
The debate is also taking place without a live studio audience.
Amid deep polarisation, political anxiety and deadlocked opinion polls in the US, each candidate will try and convince voters they are the best bet for president.
Trump, 78, who still faces a trio of criminal cases — including his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
He is expected to focus on high inflation and record migration of people without documents during the Biden presidency. The president’s global leadership during the wars in Ukraine and Gaza will also likely be scrutinised.
After months of Republic assertions he is too old for the job, Biden, 81, will be under pressure to give a forceful performance with no verbal stumbles.
