The candidates' age becomes an even greater focus after the first televised debate of the 2024 presidential election campaign. President Biden – sounding hoarse and at times muddling his words – gave a stumbling performance in a 90-minute showdown with Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Trump repeated falsehoods – from abortion to taxes and the deficit – and at first avoided answering if he would accept the 2024 election result.

Caitríona Perry is at the CNN Presidential Debate venue in Atlanta with Courtney Subramanian, from the BBC Digital team. They speak to former BBC US correspondent and author Nick Bryant.

TGS is part of the BBC News Podcasts family. The team that makes The Global Story also makes several other podcasts, such as Americast and Ukrainecast, which cover US news and the war in Ukraine. If you enjoy The Global Story, you may well like some of our other pods, too. To find them, simply search on your favourite podcast app.

This episode was made by Peter Goffin and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Ricardo McCarthy. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Sam Bonham.