The first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump ends in desperation among Democratic staff and voters: if the president in office had to reassure himself about his physical and mental health, the 90 minutes live on CNN (but in reality on unified networks) are were a disaster. Biden had a hoarse and trembling voice – according to him, he was recovering from a cold – he stammered, got lost in concepts and managed to land a few blows on his rival’s many weak points. Especially in the initial part, his 81 years were evident, so much so that even Vice President Kamala Harris had to admit that it was a “slow start”. At the end Biden brought home some points, but perhaps it was too late: the feeling of the spectators (big ratings are expected) was already univocal, and there are those among the donors and in his party, like Nadia Ahmad, member of the Democratic National Committee, asks that the president take a step back to let the party choose another candidate.
Trump, for his part, offered a familiar spectacle: a mix of bravado, a few lies (the moderators had decided that fact-checking was not their job), but also a few memorable quips, like when Biden fumbled on the topic of health care and ended a sentence by saying “We beat Medicare,” we defeated (or beat) federal health insurance, and Trump seized the opportunity to say “Yeah, you beat the shit out of it.”
CNN’s instant polls on the debate only confirm what we saw: the percentages are quite clear. According to 67%, Trump had a better performance, while before the debate 55% of the same sample of respondents had said they expected the former president to win the debate.
Also according to the poll, 57% said they had no real confidence in Biden’s ability to lead the country, and 44% said the same about Trump. Only 36% of those who watched the debate said they had a lot of confidence in the former president’s ability to lead the country, and 14% said the same about Biden.
