Joe Biden mumbles and drags Democrats into crisis

With the future of American democracy hanging in the balance, the first presidential debate of 2024 was an embarrassing trip to a nursing home. An old man had difficulty answering questions and finishing his sentences. The other defied logic and spewed relentless lies.

“We had great H2O,” former President Donald Trump inexplicably said.

“We finally beat Medicare,” President Joe Biden falsely boasted.

This series of gaffes threatens to overshadow the most frightening aspect of the evening: the fact that the only thing standing between Trump's increasingly brazen authoritarianism and the White House is a breathless octogenarian.

When asked if he would accept the outcome of the presidential election this time, Trump dodged the question, then remained defiant when pressed for an answer.

Angry Biden Lashes Out at Trump on Veterans: 'You're the Loser.' You're the Sucker

“I shouldn't have to say this, but of course I believe it. If “The elections are fair and free,” Trump began, qualifying his response several times.

“If “It was a fair, legal, good election, absolutely,” Trump later added, reiterating the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him when in reality he was the one who tried to falsify the results. “The fraud and everything else was ridiculous.”

“I doubt you'll accept it, because you're such a crybaby.” You can’t stand the loss,” Biden retorted.

But this cheap entertainment approach to American politics could refocus voters' attention on the verbal blunders of both candidates.

Biden got off to a rocky start. His voice was raspy and hard to hear. At one point, he seemed to lose his train of thought and left an awkward silence as he reached the end of his speaking time.

Biden was criticizing Trump for adding to the national debt more than any other president in a single term when the wheels began to fall off. The president said he wanted to make sure “every single person” was eligible for “what I was able to do with COVID — excuse me, with, handle everything we had to do, listen … we finally beat Medicare.”

“He’s right,” Trump said with a smile, “he beat Medicare. He beat it to death.”

” There is still a lot to do “

The first presidential debate of 2024 – and the first in American history between an incumbent president and a convicted felon – opened in Atlanta with Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, looking as old as they are.

CNN host Jake Tapper began by asking about relentless inflation and rising prices.

Biden cleared his throat and said, “There is still much to do.” Working class people are still struggling. With trembling lips, he promised to bring down real estate prices.

Trump maintained a sleepy frown as he waited to respond. When it was his turn, the business mogul praised the economic boom the country experienced under his administration before the COVID pandemic, but offered no new ideas.

“We gave them back a country where the stock market was higher than before COVID-19,” he said with a smirk.

When Tapper questioned Trump's plan to impose massive 10% tariffs on goods from unfriendly countries like China, Trump assured that the measure would not raise prices for ordinary Americans.

“It's just going to cost the countries that have been ripping us off for years. It's just going to force them to pay us a lot of money,” Trump said.

Neither Tapper nor Biden have pointed out how this notion would violate basic economic theories that imported goods will cost more domestically and that the costs will be borne by buyers, not producers.

As the debate progressed, Biden continued to clear his throat. And when Trump denounced the government's current policies as “absolutely criminal,” Biden appeared to have difficulty breathing as his shoulders rose and fell. Meanwhile, Trump's signature blonde hairstyle looked comically flat, an embarrassing hairstyle.

CNN’s strict rules for this one-of-a-kind debate — no audience, microphones muted if the candidate fails to answer a question — made things more civil than the last time the two men faced off head-to-head, four years ago. Each candidate took turns answering and kept to time limits. Most importantly, Trump didn’t yell at his opponent.

But Tapper and his co-host Dana Bash didn’t do what other moderators have done: counter politicians’ responses and provide on-the-spot fact-checks. When Trump repeated the false claim that abortion rights would allow women to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month,” none of the moderators took him to task. It was left to Biden to assert, “That’s not true.”

Biden camp claims president's hoarse debate voice was due to cold

Specifically, Biden made a costly blunder. In a rambling remark about health care, he said: “We would be able to help ensure that all the things that we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we are able to make every single person eligible for what I was able to do with COVID, excuse me, to handle all the things that we need to do. Listen, if we finally beat Medicare.”

Trump pounced. Unlike Biden, he seemed focused.

When moderators brought up the rise in illegal immigration and the waves of desperate migrants fleeing troubled nations toward the U.S. southern border, both candidates launched their sharpest attacks.

Biden defended his administration's handling of the crisis and highlighted one of the darkest chapters of the Trump years: “He was separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages. »

But Trump took advantage of Biden's inability to finish his response coherently, pointing out how Biden had mumbled something about a “total initiative” and “more border patrols.”

“I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows that either,” Trump retorted.

“Are these people patriots? Come on ! »

It took 40 minutes for moderators to allude to the elephant in the room: Trump's 2020 attempt to stay in power after losing the election and how he encouraged MAGA supporters on January 6, 2021 to attack the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to prevent the certification of the presidential election results.

When asked what he would say to voters who believe he violated his oath to defend the Constitution on January 6, Trump blamed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for refusing his offer to call in the National Guard . But he also doubled down on ideas that he would use unchecked presidential pardons to give many insurrectionists a chance to get out of prison.

“The idea that these people are patriots? Come on,” Biden said.

When Trump suggested that members of the Jan. 6 House committee should go to jail, Biden ultimately addressed Trump's recent vulnerability — his conviction on 34 criminal charges in his secret trial — by responding: “The The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I'm looking at right now.

Continuing on the subject of Trump's support for right-wing extremists, Biden criticized him for claiming that the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, organized by white supremacists armed with Tiki torches, in Virginia in 2017, was misreported or falsified. Trump called the rally “debunked,” despite the indisputable fact that it took place — and that he expressed moderate support for the racists who attended it.

Biden, however, failed to grasp one of Trump's biggest gaffes, when the former president talked about policies to slow man-made global warming and simply praised his own past administration for keeping water clean, saying, “We had H2O.”

The moderators saved the most obvious topic for the very end, when they asked both candidates about their old age.

“This guy is three years younger and a lot less competent,” Biden said.

“I passed two cognitive tests…I just won two club championships. To do that, you have to be very smart,” Trump said, pointing to his head as he began talking about his performances on the fairways and greens.

The exchanges then turned into a bragging session, with both men boasting about their golf handicaps. Biden challenged Trump to a game, on the condition that the obese business tycoon carry his own bag. Trump said he would accept the bet.

If only the future of the country was not at stake.

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