ATLANTA, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden and his Republican challenger Donald Trump launched into their first debate of the 2024 election cycle Thursday at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta.

The two rivals did not shake hands as they took their positions at podiums just feet apart in a studio with no live audience. They will seek to reshape the political narrative as they battle over economic issues, foreign policy and international crises, immigration, and the state of American democracy.

Biden, who took the opening question, quickly assailed his predecessor for presiding over “an economy that was in free fall” and a pandemic that “was so badly handled, many people were dying”.

Trump quickly shot back that under his 2017-2021 leadership, “we had the greatest economy in the history of our country,” and that inflation under Biden today is “killing” the United States.

The current and former presidents are squaring off at a pivotal moment, with many voters expressing apprehension over the choice between Biden, at 81 the oldest ever incumbent, and 71-year-old Trump, now a convicted felon.

Both candidates will seek to counter those dynamics as they try to win over undecided voters.

Millions of Americans are tuning in to a debate that fires the starting gun on what promises to be a bruising summer of campaigning, in a deeply polarised and tense United States still scarred by the chaos and violence that accompanied the 2020 election.