Trump-Biden debate recap, reactions and analysis: Live updates

Donald Trump’s advisers are reportedly planning to significantly cut the Republican National Party’s platform to make it entirely consistent and focused on the former president’s 2024 campaign and agenda, according to a memo seen by The New York Times.

The memo allegedly describes an effort to reduce the GOP’s platform to “ensure our policy commitments to the American people are clear, concise and easily digestible.”

It said that publishing unnecessary “verbose treatise” gives Democrats leverage to use in launching attacks against the party.

“It is with that recognition that we will present a streamlined platform in line with President Trump’s principled and popular vision for America’s future,” The Times reported on Saturday.

The memo was sent on Thursday – nearly a month before the Republican Party plans to host its annual convention.

Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court said that Monday will be the final day of the court’s term meaning the remaining decisions, including Donald Trump’s immunity appeal, will be released.

The court has been sitting on the decision in the consequential case for months. It was initially argued in April.

The Supreme Court’s decision to narrow how Jan. 6 defendants may be charged with “obstruction of an official proceeding” will likely only impact a small number of convicted rioters.

“The decision will not have tremendous significance in the January 6 cases, including that of former president Trump, because in almost all cases there are other charges that have a felony status alongside the obstruction charge,” said William Banks, a professor at Syracuse University College of Law.

Though no defendant was solely charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, there are 27 people who pleaded guilty only to the obstruction charge.

Donald Trump is taking advantage of the fallout from the first presidential debate and bragging about how well he performed in it.

On Truth Social, the former president claimed that political reporters “screamed” that he had “the greatest debate performance.”

“They all said, effectively, “Trump was fantastic!” This theme was universal, even at CNN & MSDNC, but by Friday evening it was all about the poor performance of Crooked Joe, and not so much about how well I did. Oh well, that’s the way it is but, importantly, the result is the same!!!” Trump wrote on Saturday.

The editorial comes after the president appeared frail during the Thursday evening debate. His voice was soft and raspy, which his campaign attributed to a cold. He also interrupted himself and gave rambling answers to multiple questions. Vice President Kamala Harris even admitted Biden struggled: “Yes, it was a slow start,” she said Thursday. “That’s obvious to everyone.”

“The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant,” the board wrote on Friday night. “He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term.

“He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations,” the board continued. “He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.”

While the editorial board said Biden would be their “unequivocal” pick over Trump, they called on the Democratic party to put forward a new candidate.

Joe Biden laid into Donald Trump over his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels at the first debate, slamming the former president for having the “morals of an alley cat”.

The debate in Atlanta was widely seen as a chaotic performance with the president stumbling over answers and rambling. Trump meanwhile spouted lies and falsehoods throughout, mostly failing to answer questions and had to be pressed three times on whether he would accept the 2024 election results.

Katie Hawkinson has the story.

Hours after the first presidential debate, where he struggled to keep up with Donald Trump’s avalanche of lies and couldn’t to string together coherent sentences,a visibly energized Joe Biden acknowledged the previous night’s failures in fired-up remarks to a raucous rally crowd in North Carolina.

But within minutes into their debate rematch ahead of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday, it appeared that the only thing standing in the way of that dark vision of America’s future was a frail 81-year-old man who couldn’t respond to a 90-minute stream of lies.