Ice Cold: Donald Trump and President Joe Biden Skip Handshake Before Presidential Debate

Donald Trump and President Joe Biden took the stage at CNN headquarters in Atlanta on Thursday, June 27, for their first presidential debate of the 2024 election.

However, before the politicians took their spots behind their podiums, they failed to shake hands.

Viewers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their opinions on their choice to skip the traditional friendly gesture.

One user said it was "wise" they didn't bother with a "phony" handshake, while another quipped, "Can't start out with an orange palm I mean obviously!"

A third joked, "The Secret Service doesn't want Biden that close to a convicted felon."

Trump became the first former U.S. president to ever be criminally charged in March 2023 when a grand jury voted to indict him for falsifying business documents.

He went on to be indicted three additional times for allegedly mishandling classified documents, as well as twice for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

He was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business documents in May 2024.

Other social media users suggested that Biden and Trump failed to shake hands due to rumors surrounding the ex-prez's health at past debates. Back in 2020, an ex-aide claimed that Trump tested positive for COVID-19 days before taking the stage for the debate with the 81-year-old.

One critic said, "Would you? He tried to [give him] COVID him last time," and another suggested, "It would have been great if they had and then Joe used hand sanitizer."

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As OK! previously reported earlier this week, the 78-year-old predicted that he wouldn't "get a fair shake" at the highly-anticipated debate.

"Probably not. But it would be very good for CNN," he said at the time. "They’re having a lot of ratings problems. I think it would be very good for CNN, actually, in terms of its credibility. It’ll be interesting to see."

Trump even suggested that he would lose the debate purposely to keep Biden on the Democratic ticket.

"They’ve done polling, and I do better against almost everybody. And so they don’t want to take him off,” he alleged. “Maybe I’m better off losing the debate. I’ll make sure he stays. I’ll lose the debate on purpose. Maybe I’ll do something like that."