The first face-to-face meeting between the two candidates for the presidency of the United States, the incumbent president Joe Biden and the former president Donald Trump, took place during the night in the studios of the American TV channel CNN. American media and analysts are almost in agreement: in the first TV presidential duel, Joe Biden did badly. Weak and hoarse voice (due to a cold, he explained his campaign belatedly mid-debate), stuttering more frequently than usual, sentences confused or repeated mechanically, staring into space. So much so that among the Dems there is already “strong panic” over the performance which risks sinking him in the polls. Donald Trump, in comparison, seemed like a lion full of energy, capable of controlling his usual aggression, even if he dribbled many questions and repeated various lies. But what mattered most to him in the challenge between the two oldest candidates ever was the age test, that is, lucidity and physical appearance. In the CNN studio he was immediately frozen. The two did not shake hands and did not even look at each other during the two commercial breaks: a confirmation of the acrimonious sidereal distance that separates them and of the polarization of a country that no longer recognizes its adversary. If we also consider the low level of the discussion, the whole of America comes out badly (AMERICA 2024, BIDEN AND TRUMP ON THE STORMY DANIELS CASE: VIDEO).
Dems worried about Biden’s performance
In one of the funniest moments, the televised debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden turned into a golf competition. The two compared their athletic records. The tycoon mocked his rival by saying that Biden couldn’t hit a ball 50 yards. “I’ve got my handicap down… to six,” the president replied. “I told him I’d be happy to play golf if he carried his bag,” he added, after highlighting his rival’s weight, which borders on obesity. After the debate, Joe Biden and First Lady Jill went to a campaign event in Atlanta. “We have to beat him,” the president said of Donald Trump. “We’re going to beat him, and I need you to do it,” he added to cheers from his supporters. Democrats are worried about Biden’s performance: just minutes into the debate, Democrats began wringing their hands over Biden’s performance. CNN cites Dem sources according to which “we have a problem. The New York Times monitored social media and reactions: “on social media, in chat rooms and in 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. Concerns about Biden’s age, which had been simmering for months, exploded into public attention before the debate was over,” the US newspaper writes.
A tough fight
Biden got off to a bad start, only regaining some energy in the second half, when it was already too late. The two clashed harshly on everything, accusing each other of lying, from the economy to immigration, from climate to abortion, without the two anchors being able to press them when necessary, for a format of fixed times that showed all its limits. The tycoon hit on inflation “which is killing our country” and on the open doors on the border with Mexico where “criminals and terrorists” enter. Biden boasted of his successes after the “chaos” left by his predecessor, accusing him of having favored the rich with his tax cuts, increasing the deficit. They are also polar opposites in foreign policy. The tycoon repeated that the war in Ukraine would not have broken out if the US had had a real leader but did not illustrate his recipe for peace. And he dodged the question of whether he is for a Palestinian state, limiting himself to saying that Israel “must finish its work with Hamas” and that Biden “has become a Palestinian not even loved by the Palestinians because he is weak”. There was no shortage of personal insults. “You are a loser and an idiot”, attacked Biden, who then called his rival a “convicted criminal”, accusing him of having cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star and of having the womanizing morals of a stray cat. At which point the tycoon reminded him that his son Hunter is also a convicted felon and threatened that he too could be convicted as soon as he leaves office “for all the horrible things he has done”. The Donald boasted about his great shape and challenged his rival to take a cognitive test, saying he was sure he would not finish the first questions, while the president jokingly deflected the question about whether he would be 86 years old at the end of his second term. The two also compared their athletic records and challenged each other to golf, “as long as Trump carries his bag,” Biden pointed out to highlight his opponent’s obesity. In the end, the tycoon, accused by Biden of having incited the assault on the Capitol, defined “any form of violence in the next elections is totally unacceptable”. But he committed to recognizing the outcome only under conditions that are “free, fair and legal”.
