Donald Trump needed to show sobriety and curb his instinct for chaos.

Joe Biden had to display vigor and reassure the country about the visible infirmities that accompany his age.

In the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle and the earliest in modern history, the former president largely accomplished his goal while the current occupant of the Oval Office often struggled to stitch together cohesive answers and took longer to accumulate the blows he needed to stem Trump’s march to a second, non-consecutive term.

Many Democrats saw it as missed opportunity for the incumbent, who is already an underdog against the first former president convicted of a felony.

Biden and Trump’s 90-minute debate in Atlanta was thoroughly substantive. They sparred over abortion law, the crisis at the southern border, a complicated and puzzling economy and how to make peace in a world with multiple hot wars.

In most instances, Trump curbed his worst impulses and avoided the type of over-the-top attacks that have defined his persona. In fact, it was Biden who arguably launched the most brutal barb of the night when he assailed Trump’s character with personal and visceral language.

“How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties, for molesting a woman in public, for having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant with your son?” Biden said of Trump’s legal travails, including being held liable for sexual assault and convicted of 34 felonies in for falsifying business records. “You have the morals of an alley cat.”

But while Trump continued to make a litany of false claims, he exhibited energy and spark that Biden lacked throughout.

Here are 4 takeaways from the first Biden-Trump debate:

—BIDEN STUMBLED OUT OF THE GATE

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