President Joe Biden repeatedly suffered from heated moments in the debate on Thursday night, struggling to find his words as he spoke on various policy issues and giving Donald Trump an opening to go straight on the attack.
He made his first mistake within 12 minutes of confronting Trump and it continued throughout the night as he continued to stumble over the number of billionaires in America and the situation at the border.
Trump did not wait long to target the 81-year-old Biden.
“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, who sounded hoarse and cleared his throat, struggled to find his words, stammering and apologizing as he struggled to make himself understood at several points. It is reported that he has a cold.
It was a terrible start for the president, who must overcome voters’ concerns that he is too old for a second term.
President Joe Biden was at a loss for words in the debate
Biden struggled to make up ground as the 90-minute debate dragged on, seeking to hit Trump over the report that the former president called dead American soldiers “suckers and losers” and his conviction for a felony in New York.
But Biden has been using these attack techniques for months and Trump seemed ready for them. Without blinking, he struck back. He attacked the conviction of Biden’s son Hunter and repeated his argument that he is a victim of political persecution.
Faults and errors
It has been Biden’s struggle to find answers that will leave a lasting impression on voters, who have repeatedly questioned the 81-year-old’s stamina and mental capacity.
Biden stumbled several times during the night over different answers on different topics.
“Childcare, eldercare, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system — being able to make every single person eligible for what I’ve been dealing with. The COVID — excuse me — dealing with everything that we’re dealing with what if we finally beat Medicare,” he said when asked about his economic record.
Moderator Jake Tapper intervened, told him “thank you” and turned to Donald Trump to let him speak.
Trump addressed Biden’s policy argument, but did not hammer him on the vocal fumbles as he has done in the past. The former president has repeatedly called Biden “Sleepy Joe” and derided him as weak and mentally confused.
“He’s defeated Medicaid — he’s killed it,” Trump said in response. “He’s destroying Medicare because all these people are coming in.”
Biden continued to falter in his next answers, when he spoke about abortion rights and women’s health.
“A young woman was murdered…he went to the funeral. The idea that she was murdered by an immigrant, that’s what they talk about. A lot of young women are raped by in-laws, husbands, brothers. It’s ridiculous and they don’t do anything about it.”
And he stumbled over his claims about the rich in America. “We have a thousand trillionaires in America,” and then switched to “billionaires.”
Biden touted his efforts to strike a bipartisan border deal, but that fell through in Congress when asked about his efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
‘We had a significant increase in the number of asylum officers. By the way, the border police supported me, endorsed my position. In addition, we are in a situation where, when he was president, he separated babies from their mothers and put them in cages,” Biden said.
Then Trump finally hit back at Biden’s blunder.
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said,” the former president noted.
‘Suckers and losers’
The two men got into a heated argument when it came to talking about the military.
Biden lashed out at Trump over reports that the former president called dead American soldiers “suckers” and “losers.”
“My son was not a loser, he was not a sucker. You are the sucker, you are the loser,” Biden said.
“They made it up,” Trump replied. “There were 19 people who said I didn’t say it.”
He then called on Biden to apologize to him.
“He made up the suckers and losers, so he should apologize now.”
Biden hit back hard.
“The idea that I have to apologize to you for anything,” he said.
Both men struggled with the debate rules they had agreed to, which resulted in their microphones being muted when it wasn’t their turn to speak. They both tried to talk at one point, but found they couldn’t be heard.
Donald Trump remarked, “I don’t know what he said,” referring to Biden’s fumbles
The economy
Biden attacked Trump from the start when asked to defend his economic performance. He attacked him for his suggestion that Americans should inject themselves with bleach during COVID.
He said Trump had left him an “economy in free fall: the pandemic was so poorly handled that many people died.”
“By the time he left, things that are in chaos are literally chaos. And so we put things back together,” he said.
Trump hit back, arguing that he had left a strong economy behind until Covid hit and then spent money to keep the country from falling into a depression.
“Everything was fine,” he said.
‘The only jobs he has created are for illegal immigrants and jobs that have bounced back from the corona crisis. He didn’t do his job properly. He has done a bad job: inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us,” he said.
The two men did not shake hands after they took the stage, Biden arriving first and Trump afterward. They simply stood at their podium and started straight ahead.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the first presidential debate
A presidential motorcade in Atlanta
The rules
It is the first of two debates that the two presidential candidates agreed to.
The two men stand on stage with only a notepad, a pencil and a bottle of water, without the aid of the teleprompter. They are not allowed to talk to their employees during the commercial breaks.
The microphones are automatically muted when it is not their turn to speak.
There is no audience in the room, only the two debate leaders.
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.
Each man entered the debate with different expectations.
For Biden, 81, it comes down to his health and fitness. He needs to be energetic and get to the point with his talk. Republicans have used his age to good effect to raise questions about his mental capacity. And Biden looks like he’s aged, with a stride and stiff movements.
The president, who enjoys briefing folders and practice sessions, spent the week at Camp David preparing for the debate with his closest aides. His appearance at the debate marks the first time he has been seen in public since June 20.
He will try to throw off Trump with lines of attack designed to sting the former president on a personal level. Biden will also focus on reminding voters of some of Trump’s more extreme policies.
Trump, meanwhile, eschewed formal practice sessions, trying out new lines of attack at various campaign rallies but otherwise keeping a low profile.
The question is which Trump will show up at the debate: the loud, talkative, disruptive Trump who can lapse into tirades, or the more subdued Trump who can concentrate on stage for 90 minutes.