A gloating Donald Trump took to his own TRUTH Social platform after last night’s presidential debate to share a video of Joe Biden stumbling and freezing while asking, “Is this guy going to last another four years?”
Trump, 78, was quick to capitalize on the agonizing performance in the first televised debate of the election campaign, recounting a series of Biden mistakes to his 7.08 million followers.
“When you think about the Joe Biden debate you watched, ask yourself a question: Do you think the guy who was beaten down stairs, knocked down by his bike, lost a fight with his jacket, and gets lost regularly will last four more years in the White House?” asked the narrator.
‘And you know who’s waiting behind him, right?’ The video continued, cutting to a clip of Vice President Harris. “Vote Joe Biden today, get Kamala Harris tomorrow.”
Allies have acknowledged the difficulty Biden, 81, appeared to have delivering his words at last night’s event in Atlanta, Georgia. Harris herself told CNN, “Yes, there was a slow start,” but she claimed “there was a strong finish” as calls grow to replace Biden and save the Democrats’ chances.
Joe Biden (right) appeared to stumble over his words in last night’s presidential debate.
Democrats have suggested it may be time to find a replacement candidate ahead of the election.
67 percent of voters said they thought Trump won the debate in Georgia last night.
Trump took to his TRUTH Social account to share a video of Biden’s recent gaffes
The reel showed Biden falling down the stairs and off his bike
The message approved by Trump asked if Biden would last another four years
After the debate, Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles proclaimed the 45th president’s victory, stating that Trump “delivered the greatest debate performance and victory in history before the largest audience of voters in the history”.
They added: ‘Despite taking a week’s vacation at Camp David to prepare for the debate, Biden was unable to defend his disastrous record on the economy and the border.
‘President Trump is absolutely right when he says that if Joe Biden is too incompetent to stand trial, then Biden is too incompetent to be president.’
The ‘Trump War Room’ account, which posts to 1.9 million followers on Twitter/X, shared a 1:35 cut of Biden mumbling and struggling to make comments about Medicare, taxes and his golf record during the debate , which circulated widely.
Biden’s Democratic allies also had a hard time defending Biden’s performance in Georgia. Maria Shriver, a former first lady of California, said that while she “loves” Joe Biden, she found the debate “heartbreaking” to watch.
“There is panic in the Democratic Party,” he said.
Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in the Democratic primary, said: “Democrats should nominate someone else, before it’s too late.”
Daniel Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said on CNN: “I think there was a sense of shock actually about how he came out at the beginning of the debate, how his voice sounded, he seemed a little disoriented.”
He added that there would be “discussions” within the party about whether Biden should continue his re-election bid in November.
Commentator and former Clinton administration official Jamie Metzl tweeted after the debate: “Joe Biden is my former boss. I love and respect him deeply. He has made an enormous contribution to our country. His greatest act of patriotism must now be passing the torch to a new generation.”
On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, who reluctantly Supported Biden in 2020, but has criticized his politics and raised concerns about his age since then, said: “Let me tell you, after watching the debate tonight, that both men should use performance-enhancing drugs…”
‘Performance-enhancing drugs that enhance their clarity, their problem-solving ability, and in the case of one of the candidates, their truthfulness, their morality, and their malignant narcissism. Any magic drug that can get their brains going, because this isn’t Olympic swimming.’
As the two squared off, Biden appeared to downplay wild speculation about drug use on Twitter/X: “I don’t know what it is about these performance enhancers, but I’m feeling pretty excited.” Try it for yourself, folks.
The post showed Biden holding a can of ‘Dark Brandon’s Secret Sauce,’ a branded can of water that was labeled ‘The key to performing well in a debate’ on the campaign store’s website. Stay hydrated. Get the same performance enhancers that Joe Biden took before taking the stage. 100% water, 0% nonsense.’
Users took aim at the president for the post, with one writing: “It’s a bit weird to draw attention to the fact that everyone thinks you’re doping to get through a 90-meter debate.”
The Biden camp previously dismissed Trump’s calls for him to submit to a drug test as “silly.” There is no evidence that Biden has ever used “performance-enhancing” substances during debates. Trump resorted to similar tactics against Hillary Clinton before their 2016 debates, and against Biden in 2020.
Biden followed the post with a series of tweets warning against voting for Trump to return to the White House.
“Donald Trump spent the night talking about himself, his lies, his legal problems, his affairs with a porn star and his golf championships at his own club. What a load of nonsense! Together we can keep him out of the White House,” she wrote with a link to her fundraising campaign.
He also promised to restore Roe v. Wade criticized Trump’s handling of the economy and described his opponent as “a convicted felon with the morals of a stray cat.”
Joe Biden hugs First Lady Jill Biden after the debate at CNN studios on June 27
Joe and Jill Biden speak at a presidential debate viewing party Thursday night
Biden greets supporters at a Waffle House after the event in Marietta, George
US President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris during the election campaign in May
Polls show waning support for Biden to press ahead with his re-election bid
Voters, however, were less convinced by Biden’s performance on stage.
A CNN poll conducted Thursday night found that 67 percent felt Trump did better than Biden.
That was up from 55 percent who expected Trump to do better before the event.
Before the event, 59 percent of American adults said they were “very concerned” that Biden was too old to be president, according to a Gallup poll.
31 percent of Democrats expressed the same level of concern.
Meanwhile, 18 percent of American respondents had the same concerns about Trump.
Biden’s campaign said the president had a cold and appeared noticeably discolored throughout the debate.
Anti-Trump Republicans also attacked Biden after the performance.
Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, acknowledged: “Biden lost the country tonight and he’s not getting it back.”
“If Trump is a threat and democracy is at stake, then Biden must step aside.”
Biden had a different take. After the debate, he went to a Waffle House with his wife and told reporters traveling with him: “I think it was fine.”
Asked about growing calls among Democrats for him to retire and whether he has any concerns about his performance, Biden said: “No. It’s hard to debate a liar. The New York Times noted that he (Trump) lied 26 times “.
He admitted to being sick and said, “My throat hurts.”
Asked by the BBC about the possibility of staying away, deputy campaign director Quentin Fulks said they were “not going to dignify that with a response”.
“President Biden will be the Democratic nominee and President Biden will win this election,” he said.
Twelve minutes into the debate, Biden froze and appeared to lose his train of thought, muttering: “Making sure we can make every single person… eligible for what I’ve been able to do with… the… Covid… excuse me… dealing with everything we had to do with… look… yeah… we finally beat Medicare.”
Trump responded: “You’re right: you beat Medicare: you beat it to death.”
And Trump dealt a blow when Biden botched an answer on the border, responding: “I really don’t know what he just said.”
Pressed on abortion, an issue Biden has been outspoken on, the sitting president made an odd transition into talking about the border.
‘Look, there are so many young women who have been, including a young woman who was just murdered, and he went to the funeral. And the idea that she was murdered by an immigrant who arrived, to talk about that.
“But the thing is this: there are many young women who are raped by their in-laws, by their husbands, by their brothers and sisters… It’s ridiculous.
“And they can’t do anything about it. They try to arrest them and they cross state lines.”
Still, Biden celebrated the result when his supporters in North Carolina greeted him on the tarmac singing “Four More Years.”
A campaign official said the fundraiser had his best fundraising moment to date after the debate.