President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump pummeled one another Thursday night in a highly contentious opening to their first debate, with furious exchanges about immigration, foreign policy and abortion dominating the opening minutes of their confrontation.

The abundant disdain between the current president and his predecessor became evident from the opening moments, with Trump going on the offensive first and often putting Biden on his heals with fierce attacks on Biden’s leadership.

The nationally televised debate, the earliest between major party candidates for president, was broadcast by CNN, from its Atlanta studios, with anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating.

In a departure from the first debate four years ago, Trump adhered to the rules and, unlike the repeated interruptions of 2020, even asked for permission to respond to one of the first questions. Biden also stayed within the 2 minute limit for answers and 1 minute for rebuttals.

Tapper opened the night with a question about the toll from inflation, saying that groceries that had cost $100 four years ago now went for $120.

Biden blamed the condition of the economy on Trump.

“We had an economy that was in free fall,” the president said. And “a pandemic that was so badly handled. Many people were dying. All he said was, ‘Inject a little bleach in your arm, you’ll be all right.”

“So what we had to do is try to put things back together and that’s exactly what we began to do,” Biden added, before quickly attempting to whip through a series of statistics to prove the economy was on the right track. He gave stats on job creation and then segued into a discussion of drug prices, noting that his policies had cut the prices overall and reduced insulin to “$15 a shot.”

Trump scoffed at those assertions. He said that he had created “the greatest economy in the history of the world,” adding at another point that everything in America was “rocking good” when he was in the White House. He blamed Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic policies, in part, for triggering inflation.

The former president then launched into the first of a series of sharp attack on illegal immigrants.

“The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounce-back jobs that bounced back from the COVID,” Trump said. “He has not done a good job. He’s done a poor job and inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us.”

A sharp contrast in the two candidates emerged from the first moments. Biden, 81, appeared hesitant and stammered in some of his answers, his eyes cast downward as Trump castigated him. Trump, 78, looked straight ahead and spoke more forcefully, as he carried the fight to the man who took his job.

In a prelude to the no-holds-barred tone of the event, the Biden campaign announced just before the showdown that it had invited Mary Trump, the former president’s niece, to address the media in the debate “spin room.”

Mary Trump, who previously has made clear her disdain for her uncle, issued a statement before the debate.

“For my whole life I have witnessed my uncle’s narcissism and cruelty,” the statement said, in part. “His sense of inferiority has always driven his jealousy and his pathological need to dominate others and this is information that is crucially important for the American people to have in advance of the most important election of our lifetimes.”

Other intrigues burbled until moments before Trump and Biden took the stage at CNN’s Atlanta studios.

An organization representing the White House news corps lodged a formal complaint after CNN said it would not allow at least one reporter into the debate hall. Traditionally, a handful of “pool” reporters are allowed into exclusive events, to assure that there is always an independent account of the president’s movements and actions.

The White House Correspondents Association issued a statement requesting that the cable network continue this tradition during the debate. The organization said the presence of a pool reporter was especially important given the unique rules surrounding the debate: with no studio audience and the microphone of the non-speaker muted, to prevent interruptions.

“WHCA is deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio,” the group’s letter said. CNN responded that it would allow one print reporter into the hall during commercial breaks. But the media coalition called that “not sufficient.”

“The White House pool (reporter) has a duty to document, report and witness the president’s events and his movements on behalf of the American people,” the complaint continued. “The pool is there for the ‘what ifs?’ in a world where the unexpected does happen. A pool reporter is present to provide context and insight by direct observation and not through the lens of the television production.”

Pool reports from a designated organization are shared among all the media outlets credentialed to cover the White House.

With polls tightening but still showing Trump with a narrow lead nationally and in most battleground states, the noisy showdown between two bitter rivals was contrasted with the quiet setting — in a CNN studio in Atlanta, with no audience for the first time in recent debate history.

A majority of Americans have a negative view of both men, and a supermajority have told pollsters they wish they had other major-party candidates to choose between. But that does not reduce the stakes in the debate, set to begin at 6 p.m. PDT on CNN and other outlets.

Critics say that a principal challenge for the 81-year-old Biden was to show that he has the acuity and vigor to lead the world’s most powerful nation.

Those who don’t like what they’re hearing from the two top contenders have another option: tuning in to a video stream from the campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It will show the independent candidate — still trailing badly in most polls — answering the same questions as the leading contenders. CNN refused Kennedy’s bid to be on stage with Biden and Trump.

Commentators and good-government groups have been yearning for a debate featuring real substance. But most also fear a reprise of the first debate between then-President Trump and Biden in 2020, when Trump talked over Biden repeatedly and moderator Chris Wallace could not restore order.

An exasperated Biden finally retorted: “Will you shut up, man?”

A nonpartisan group released a study last week that showed an escalating war of incivility in presidential debates— with interruptions escalating markedly in the Trump era. The organization, Open to Debate, counted a total of 76 interruptions by the two candidates in the first 2020 debate, though the vitriol decreased markedly in the second debate, with just four interruptions.