President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump met on June 27 night for their first of the two presidential debates on the 2024 election cycle. It was an incumbent President facing a former President for the first time in the history of the United States. But throughout the debate, Biden looked nervous and panicked, setting the alarm bells for the Democratic camp, with many calling for a change in the candidate of the party. Biden looked lost for words and ideas in his responses to questions and attacks from Trump and often gave the impression he did not know where he was and what he was doing. The President ambled onto the stage with his usual shuffle.
Biden looked grey, bewildered and confused. His responses to questions were stilted and seemed confused even if excused for his childhood stutter. As President Biden fumbled for answers, there were reports of panic among Democrats. And the last straw for many Democrats was that he did not mention the abortion issue in his closing remarks. The party base is agitated over the loss of abortion rights following the Supreme Court decision overturning decades-old constitutional protection. Biden’s abysmal performance in the debate was followed by fresh calls for him to step aside and make way for a more able and capable candidate to take on his rival.
The two men faced questions on issues ranging from domestic to foreign but the focus from a very early point in the debate was President Biden. He looked old and out of sync with the pressing issues. And as the debate progressed he seemed increasingly challenged to formulate his responses. He stuttered more than usual which showed he was either nervous or panicky. Biden’s abysmal performance at the debate is more likely to push voters away from the Democrats. Biden and Trump went into the debate with tied poll numbers, with the latter ahead by a very thin difference that is within the statistical margin of error.
The 81-year-old US President had just one point to prove in a debate that he was capable of running the country for another four years. Trump went into the debate as a felon convicted of 34 criminal charges, with at least three more cases inching towards trial. While Republican voters don’t view his conviction as a reason for not supporting him, it’s the independent voters who will determine the race that he will try to appeal to. But Trump is at 41 per cent and Biden at 40.9 per cent in the weighted average of national polls computed by FiveThirtyEight, a leading poll tracker. The two candidates are separated by 1.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, with Trump ahead 46.6 per cent to Biden’s 45.1 per cent.
