US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump clashed on Thursday night in a debate that many TV channels described as historic. This is the first time in history that a sitting president has faced off against a former president in a debate. The meeting took place at CNN’s Atlanta studio and lasted about 90 minutes.
Without shaking hands, incumbent Democrat Biden and his Republican rival Trump engaged in a fierce exchange that featured frequent personal attacks. They discussed a range of topics including US economic policy, immigration and border issues, abortion rights, foreign policy, health care and climate change.
The candidates accused each other of being unfit to serve as US president. Biden called Trump a “loser”, emphasising that he had a criminal conviction that made him a “criminal.”
In response, Trump called Biden “the worst president in US history,” saying that the United States had become a “bankrupt country” under Biden’s administration. He also suggested that Biden could face criminal charges after leaving the presidency.
Biden’s shocking blunders
During the debate, Biden made several verbal lapses and his speech was slurred at times.
Biden made numerous unfortunate reservations. He stated the “thousands of trillionaires” in the US who pay 8.2 per cent in taxes. He then hesitated and corrected himself to “millionaires.”
However, this correction was followed by a new error. Biden pointed out that if these millionaires paid 24-25% taxes each, it would bring the US “$5 million over a certain period.” Then he corrected himself, indicating that it would still come out to “$5 billion over 10 years.”
Biden called himself the first President of the United States in the last century under which American soldiers are not dying outside the country. However, in doing so, he omitted the situation at least on the territory of Afghanistan. During the withdrawal of US Armed Forces troops from the country, many soldiers died. Similar facts have been fumigated in the attack on American military bases in the Middle East.
American journalists and media, even those who are close to the Democrats, extremely negatively assessed the result of the debate for Biden. Mainly because, in their opinion, Biden confirmed the theses of his opponents that he has little control over himself and is not ready to be president.
Biden is toast
POLITICO said Biden was “toast” and called his answers “incoherent.”
Some Democrats were openly saying that Biden should end his campaign. One major Democratic donor and Biden supporter said simply:
Biden needs to drop out. No question about it.
The Washington Post writes that “Biden looked tired. His voice was weak. He looked old.” In the debate, he “stumbled” or “couldn’t quite find the words he was looking for.” It also noted:
When he offered arguments, they were often confused or confusing. His team noted that he has a cold, which might be the worst-timed cold in American political history.
The Axios website also said Biden’s answers were “jerky and incoherent,” raising fears of a Democratic loss.
The Hill publication wrote that Democrats are “in full panic mode” after Biden’s poor performance.
CNN correspondent John King said:
This was a game-changing debate in the sense that right now as we speak, there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.
On X, meanwhile, the hashtag #swapJoeout (“change Joe”) has popped up. It was added by Democrat Andrew Yang, who was a 2020 presidential candidate. Yang wrote:
Guys, Democrats should nominate someone else – before it’s too late.
Trump won the debate – CNN
At the end of the debate, 67 per cent of the audience awarded the victory to Trump. This is reported by the TV channel CNN, which organised the event, citing the results of its poll.
The Democrat was supported by 33%. At the same time, the majority of viewers expected Trump’s success even before the start of the debate: 55% against 45%, follows from the survey.
In addition, 57% of respondents said they were not confident in Biden’s ability to lead the country, while 44% said the same about Trump. Meanwhile, 36 per cent are confident in Trump’s ability to lead the US, with only 14 per cent of respondents saying the same about Biden.
Trump’s staff also claimed victory for the former president at the debate. It added that Biden made it clear why he should be “fired.”
The second presidential debate for the 2024 US election, hosted by ABC, will take place on September 10.
