By: Jeremy Sun
On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump faced off in a debate ahead of the November US election. Before the event, many people had already worried if Mr. Biden’s age makes him unfit for the role of the country’s leader. Joe Biden, who is 81 years old, is currently the oldest president in US history.
Mr. Biden did not do well in the debate with Trump, as the CBBC article “US President Biden struggles during debate with Trump” states: “Mr Biden’s performance on the night has increased these worries, and it was very clear the president was struggling at points throughout the debate.”
According to BBC journalists, Donald Trump seemed confident during the debate, but they noted that he made claims on several issues that lacked factual support, and also made statements that were untrue.
There have been continuous questions about Joe Biden’s suitability for the presidential role leading up to the 2024 US election, and the 90-minute debate with Trump appeared to exacerbate these concerns.
During the live broadcast, Mr. Biden spoke disjointedly, with long pauses, and stumbled over words, struggling to respond quickly to his opponent’s criticisms.
Mr. Biden struggled to challenge Trump on his several unsupported claims. Additionally, the president’s raspy voice throughout the debate was attributed to him battling a cold.
According to the same article, some Democrats expressed concern over Biden’s initial responses in the debate, though Vice-President Kamala Harris defended him, telling CNN that it “started slowly but ended strongly”.
Several important topics were covered during the debate, including immigration and the US economy.
Former US President Trump criticized his opponent repeatedly during the debate, focusing on the economy and asserting that the US had its strongest economic performance under his administration.
Meanwhile, a major point raised by Mr. Biden was Trump’s criminal conviction. Earlier this year, Trump achieved the distinction of being the first former or sitting president in history to be convicted of a crime, where he had been found guilty of falsifying business records.
The presidential debate on Thursday marks the earliest debate in modern US history, which is something President Biden’s team desired for numerous reasons. One of them was because this was to shift the focus to Trump earlier in the campaign, aiming to remind American voters of the issues that emerged during and after his presidency. Yet, Thursday’s debate appeared to produce the opposite outcome, as many focused more on Mr. Biden’s performance rather than Mr. Trump’s.
According to CNN, immediately after the debate, Kate Bedingfield, Mr. Biden’s former communications’ director, told CNN, “There’s no two ways about it, that was not a good debate for Joe Biden.” She mentioned that his primary challenge was demonstrating his energy and stamina, which he failed to do.
Reported by the BBC’s North America editor Sarah Smith, “Joe Biden had one job – to persuade Americans he wasn’t too old. He failed that test.”