U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off in their first debate of the 2024 election Thursday night and every pundit across the nation has already weighed in with their perspective on what happened and who came out on top.
Here are five takeaways from the debate:
- It wasn’t so much that Trump won the debate, but rather that Biden lost it. Trump didn’t have incredibly strong points or arguments that knocked the debate out of the park, but he didn’t need to. Biden shuffled onto stage, and while he was able to answer most of the questions coherently, it was clear he is an old man who is becoming more cognitively impaired as time passes. The big question is whether Biden can last another four years and serve as president and commander-in-chief and leader of the free world.
Many experts on both the left and right now agree Biden is no longer fit for the job. His poor performance sparked a fresh round of calls for the Democrat to consider stepping aside as the party’s nominee as members of his party fear a return of Trump to the White House. Thursday’s debate made that clear for many. - In terms of the content of their arguments, Trump falsely represented the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as a relatively small number of people who were ushered in by police and misstated the strength of the economy during his administration.
Biden often exaggerates and embellishes rather than outright lies about issues, and he misrepresented the cost of insulin and overstated what Trump said about using disinfectant to address COVID. - The polls don’t lie. Debate watchers say, 67% to 33%, that Trump performed better during the debate. Prior to the debate, the same voters said, 55% to 45%, that they expected Trump to turn in a better performance than Biden. Overall, Trump’s support has risen by a huge percentage, while Biden’s has crashed. According to NYT/Siena polling, Trump stands at 48 while Biden is at 44. That’s a big difference.
- Many people, especially Democrats, are calling on Biden to bow out of the race. Unfortunately, there is little process for this, and a lot depends on the delegates. Even if Biden were to step down, the question remains who his replacement would be and the coming weeks will see a lot of conjecture over this topic. Will it be Vice President Kamala Harris? California Governor Gavin Newsom, or even someone like Michelle Obama?
- Trump is more likely to win back the White House than when he walked onto the stage Thursday night.
Most people viewed the debate as “near catastrophic” for Biden and in Europe, numerous media outlets expressed similar sentiments.
Swedish broadcaster SVT declared Biden’s showing “near-catastrophic,” while Finland’s Yle called his performance a “disaster.” Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra said Biden acted “confused” with a “hoarse voice,” and Poland’s Onet declared that Trump “put [Biden] on his back,” calling it “sad to watch.”
It will be interesting to see how the coming weeks will play out, leading up to the second debate between both presidential candidates.