President Joe Biden suffered repeated moments of one-upmanship in Thursday night’s debate, struggling to find his words as he spoke on various policy issues and giving Donald Trump the opportunity to go straight into attack.
His first gaffe came 12 minutes into his confrontation with Trump and then continued throughout the night as he faltered when discussing the number of billionaires in the United States and the situation at the border.
Trump didn’t wait long to criticize Biden, 81, for the turnovers.
‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,’ the former president noted.
Biden, sounding hoarse and clearing his throat, struggled to find his words, stuttering and making excuses as he struggled to make himself understood on multiple points. He is said to be suffering from a cold.
It was a terrible start for the president, who needs to overcome voters’ concerns that he is too old for a second term.
President Joe Biden did not find the right words in the debate
Biden struggled to regain ground as the 90-minute debate continued. He sought to criticize Trump for the report in which the former president called dead U.S. soldiers “suckers and losers” and for his felony conviction in New York.
But Biden has been using those attack lines for months and Trump seemed ready for them, barely blinking as he responded, attacking the felony conviction of Biden’s son, Hunter, and repeating his argument that he is the victim of political persecution.
Bugs and errors
Biden struggled to find answers that would leave a lasting impression on voters, who have repeatedly questioned the 81-year-old’s stamina and mental abilities.
Several times throughout the night, in several answers on different topics, Biden made mistakes.
‘Childcare, elderly care, making sure we continue to strengthen our healthcare, able to make every single person eligible for what I’ve been able to cope with. Covid – sorry – with dealing with everything we have to see and if we finally beat Medicare,’ he said when asked about his financial history.
Moderator Jake Tapper stepped in, said “thank you” and turned to Donald Trump to let him speak.
Trump addressed Biden’s political argument, but did not criticize him for his verbal errors as he has done in the past. The former president has repeatedly called Biden “Sleepy Joe” and mocked him as weak and mentally deranged.
“He beat Medicaid, he beat it to death,” Trump said in his response. “He’s destroying Medicare because all these people are coming in.”
Biden continued to hesitate in his next answers as he spoke about abortion rights and women’s health.
“They murdered a young woman… he went to the funeral. The idea that she was murdered by an immigrant is something they talk about. Many young women are raped by their in-laws, their husbands, their brothers. It’s ridiculous and they don’t do anything about”.
And clumsily in his statements about the rich in America. “We have a thousand billionaires in America” and then it changed to “billionaires.”
Biden touted his efforts to reach a bipartisan border deal that failed in Congress when asked about his attempts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’ve had a significant increase in the number of asylum officers. By the way, Border Patrol has stood by me, stood by my position. On top of that, we’re in a situation where when I was president I was separating babies from their mothers and putting them in cages,” Biden said.
That’s when Trump finally hit back at Biden’s mistakes.
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,” the former president said.
‘Fools and losers’
The two men began to argue heatedly when they talked about the army.
Biden sharply criticized Trump over reports that the former president called dead American soldiers “suckers” and “losers.”
“My son was not a loser, he was not a fool. You’re the fool, you’re the loser,” Biden said.
“They made it up,” Trump responded. “We had 19 people who said I didn’t say it.”
He then asked Biden to apologize to him.
‘He invented fools and losers, that’s why he should apologize right now.’
Biden hit back harshly.
‘The idea I have is to apologize for anything,’ he said.
Both men struggled with the debate rules they agreed upon that caused their microphones to be muted when it was not their turn to speak. Each of them, at times, attempted to speak only to discover that they could not be heard.
Donald Trump commented ‘I don’t know what he said’ in reference to Biden’s mistakes
The economy
Biden attacked Trump early on when asked to defend his economic record, criticizing him for his suggestion that Americans inject themselves with bleach during COVID.
He said Trump left him with an “economy that was in free fall: the pandemic was handled so badly that a lot of people were dying.”
“When he left, everything was in total chaos. So we rebuilt it,” he said.
Trump fought back, arguing that he left the economy strong until Covid hit and then spent funds to prevent the country from falling into a depression.
“Everything was going well,” he said.
‘The only jobs he’s created are for illegal immigrants and recovery jobs recovering from Covid. He hasn’t done a good job. He’s done a bad job: inflation is killing our country. It’s absolutely killing us,’ he said.
The two men did not shake hands after taking the stage; Biden arrived first, then Trump. They simply stood at their podiums and began facing each other.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the first presidential debate
A presidential motorcade in Atlanta
The rules
This is the first of two debates attended by the two presidential candidates.
The two men are on stage with only a notebook, a pencil and a bottle of water, without the aid of the teleprompter and will not be allowed to chat with their assistants during commercial breaks.
Microphones are automatically muted when it is not your turn to speak.
There is no audience in the room, only the two debate moderators.
First lady Jill Biden is the only member of the president’s family there. She is watching the debate from a waiting room and will stop by a debate viewing party with Biden after the event concludes.
Each man entered the debate with a different set of expectations.
For Biden, 81, it all comes down to his health and fitness. He needs to be energetic and precise in his conversation topics. Republicans have successfully used his age to raise questions about his mental abilities. And Biden looks aged, walks with a firm step and moves stiffly.
The president, who relishes briefings and practice sessions, spent the week holed up at Camp David preparing for the debate with his closest aides. His appearance at the debate is the first time he has been seen in public since June 20.
He will try to throw Trump off the scent with lines of attack designed to hurt the former president on a personal level. Biden will also focus on reminding voters of some of Trump’s more extreme policies.
Trump, meanwhile, avoided formal practice sessions. He tried out new lines of attack at several campaign rallies but otherwise kept a low profile.
The question remains which Trump will emerge in the debate: the loud, loquacious and disruptive Trump who can devolve into rants or a more measured Trump who will stay focused throughout the 90 minutes on stage.
