Biden Stumbles at First Presidential Debate: Live Updates

And Trump is winning the optics battle.

It’s finally here! The mute button-enabled, weirdly early first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump began at 9 p.m — and with a massive viewing audience expected, the stakes for the two 2024 candidates and the country couldn’t be higher. Follow all the debate action here with our full Intelligencer team, providing live updates, commentary, and analysis on the debate as it happens.

This post has been updated throughout.