AGI – The hours following the television debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump are dominated more by apprehension for the health of the president in office than by the discussion on the contents of a very heated but orderly confrontation, thanks to the strict rules imposed by CNN: no audience , no ‘hunchback’, the microphone turned off when the other speaks, to avoid a repeat of the 2020 TV duel, which degenerated into a verbal brawl with continuous mutual interruptions.
The eighty-one-year-old Biden responded more punctually to the questions of Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, demonstrating that he had done a fairly tidy preparation job, but he appeared tired and in a weak physical condition, with a cold that made his voice hoarse . Trump, who is only three years younger than him, has shown remarkable physical vigor for his age. However, the Republican candidate often circumvented the topics on which he was asked, continuing to answer the previous question or taking the discussion elsewhere. Inflation (which, according to Trump, is “killing” the USA), abortion, immigration and Ukraine among the main topics of an orderly but tense and very heavy-toned face-to-face, with both contenders accusing each other of being the worst president in the history of the United States
The two enter the studio without shaking hands. Biden claims to have lifted the nation from the “chaos” left by his predecessor, increasing jobs. Trump retorts that during his administration the economy was running well before Covid arrived, a problem that – he claims – he was never “credited with having solved”.
With Biden, however, the former president attacks, the USA would become a “third world country” devastated by illegal immigration, which brings in people arriving through the border with Mexico, defined as “the most dangerous on Earth”. “from prisons and asylums,” “rapes and kills,” and “sleeps in luxury hotels while our veterans sleep in the streets.” Biden implemented a late crackdown on immigration but the increase in the number of illegal entries in some phases of his mandate is one of his major weaknesses, which Trump continually insists on, even when they ask him otherwise. The Democratic opponent, in response, accuses him of “exaggerating” and “lying”.
On social security, economy, energy and environment, both claim to have done better than the other but we don’t delve into the data, time is tight. Then the abortion. Biden promises to restore Roe vs Wade, the entrepreneur states that there is more freedom if competence returns to individual states and assures that he will not intervene to block the abortion pill. On foreign policy, however, Trump did not explain how he intends to resolve the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, where Israel, he declared, “must finish the job”. He once again joked about Zelensky as an “excellent businessman who always manages to leave here with money” but defined the peace conditions set by Putin as “unacceptable”. For the tycoon, the war between Moscow and Kiev broke out because Biden, with the disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan, “the most embarrassing day in our history”, showed himself weak and pushed Putin to “think he can take the ‘Ukraine”. And even the October 7 attack, according to Trump, would never have happened if he had been in the White House.
After an hour has passed, Biden seems to be gaining comfort and his throat clears. And she lands a couple of low blows. She says Trump is “a convicted felon” who “had sex with a porn star when his wife was pregnant” and therefore “can’t come and lecture us.” Trump denies having had relations with Stormy Daniels, indeed, he would be entirely a fabrication by the Democrats.
On the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, committed by his agitated supporters who had taken to the extreme consequences the fight to overturn a vote that Trump continues to consider illegitimate, the real estate developer shifts the responsibility for the riots to Nancy Pelosi, then Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, who rejected his proposal to send ten thousand members of the National Guard. But will Trump accept the next verdict of the polls, whatever it is? “If the vote is legitimate and free, yes,” he assures. Biden reminds him that his attempts, including judicial ones, to carry out recounts in his favor have all failed.
And the debate is being hosted by Atlanta, Georgia, a state where Trump is said to have put direct pressure on the local administration for this purpose. As well as a state with a large black community. And the choices of African Americans will be decisive, because Trump enjoys unusual support among them for a Republican. In fact, he claims to have increased their jobs and adds that illegal immigration must be stopped so that they don’t lose them. It is not unlikely that the vice presidential candidate he revealed he “already has chosen” is black. The former president expressed public respect for the New Yorker Byron Donalds and during a rally he asked the public if they would like the deputy like him in his opinion. However, the ratings of Senator Tim Scott, a more dull but useful figure in capturing the evangelical vote, are growing.
In the Democratic camp, attention is focused on Biden’s worrying performance. Trump recalls having published the results of his medical tests, says he is ready to take a neurological test and asks his rival if he would do the same. The president in office says he is willing to take “one of those tests” but, while the contents of the answers can be discussed, the comparison on physical fitness was unequal. Trump was aggressive, controlled and less histrionic than usual, although he repeatedly rattled off slogans instead of getting into the merits of the issues.
CNN cites party insiders as saying “we have a problem.” The New York Times monitored social media and reactions: “On social media, in chat rooms and emails, the president’s supporters went wild over the president’s shaky voice, his rambling answers and his apparent confusion during some of his answers.” “Months of concern about Biden’s age exploded into the public eye before the debate was even over,” the paper wrote. “He started slow, that’s obvious to everyone, I don’t question that,” Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged, “but he finished strong.”
