{"id":43072,"date":"2024-06-28T11:38:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T11:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=43072"},"modified":"2026-07-10T02:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:43:17","slug":"trump-ahead-of-biden-in-first-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/06\/28\/trump-ahead-of-biden-in-first-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump ahead of Biden in first debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 A raspy and sometimes halting President Joe Biden<\/strong> tried repeatedly to confront Donald Trump<\/strong> in their first debate ahead of the November election, as his Republican rival countered Biden\u2019s criticism by leaning into falsehoods about the economy, illegal immigration and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s uneven performance<\/strong>, particularly early in the debate, crystallized the concerns of many Americans that, at 81, he is too old to serve as president. It sparked a fresh round of calls for the Democrat to consider stepping aside as the party\u2019s nominee as members of his party fear a return of Trump to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden repeatedly tore into Trump in an apparent effort to provoke him, bringing up everything from the former president\u2019s recent felony conviction to his alleged insult of World War I veterans to his weight. The 78-year-old Trump declined to clearly state he would accept the results of the November election, four years after he promoted conspiracy theories about his loss that culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and repeatedly misstated the record from his time in office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hub peek embed (JoeBiden) \u2013 Compressed layout (automatic embed) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Biden\u2019s delivery from the beginning of the debate drew the most attention afterward. Trump\u2019s allies immediately declared victory while prominent Democrats publicly questioned whether Biden could move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the panic had set in,\u201d said David Axelrod, a longtime advisor to former President Barack Obama on CNN, immediately after the debate about Biden\u2019s performance. \u201cAnd I think you\u2019re going to hear discussions that, I don\u2019t know will lead to anything, but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Said Van Jones, another Democratic strategist, on CNN: \u201cHe did not do well at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosemarie DeAngelis, a Democrat who watched the debate at a party in South Portland, Maine, said she felt Biden gave the right answers to Trump but \u201cdidn\u2019t have the spark that we needed tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be the challenge going forward. This is only June, this is the first, but can he sustain?\u201d she said. \u201cThat is going to be the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking on CNN afterward, sought to defend<\/strong> the president\u2019s performance while acknowledging the criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a slow start, but there was a strong finish,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about his performance in the debate, Biden told reporters early Friday that \u201cI think we did well,\u201d but said he has a \u201csore throat.\u201d Pressed about Democratic concerns with his showing that he should consider stepping aside, Biden said, \u201cNo, it\u2019s hard to debate a liar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden began the night with a hoarse voice as he tried to defend his economic record and criticize Trump. A person familiar with the matter said Biden was suffering from a cold during the debate, adding that he tested negative for COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden appeared to lose his train of thought while giving one answer, drifting from an answer on tax policy to health policy, at one point using the word \u201cCOVID,\u201d and then saying, \u201cexcuse me, with, dealing with,\u201d and he trailed off again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, we finally beat Medicare,\u201d Biden said, as his time ran out on his answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also fumbled on abortion rights, one of the most important issues for Democrats in this year\u2019s election. He was unable to explain Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. A conservative Supreme Court with three justices nominated by Trump overturned Roe two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if he supports some restrictions on abortion, Biden said he \u201csupports Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters. The first time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. A third time is between the doctor, I mean, between the women and the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that he thought doctors, not politicians, should make decisions about \u201cwomen\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden began to give clearer answers as the debate progressed, still with a rasp, and attacked Trump\u2019s record on issues like fighting climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only existential threat to humanity is climate change, and he didn\u2019t do a damn thing about it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump sought to deflect blame for Jan. 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current president and his predecessor hadn\u2019t spoken since their last debate<\/strong> weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden\u2019s inauguration<\/strong> after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort<\/strong> to overturn his loss that culminated in the Capitol riot<\/strong> by his supporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump equivocated on whether he would accept the results of the November election, saying he would accept them if the vote was \u201cfair\u201d and \u201clegal,\u201d repeating his baseless claims of widespread fraud and misconduct in his 2020 loss to Biden that he still denies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressed on his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump was unapologetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Jan. 6, we were respected all over the world, all over the world we were respected. And then he comes in and we\u2019re now laughed at,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he was prompted by a moderator to answer whether he violated his oath of office that day by rallying his supporters seeking to block the certification of Biden\u2019s Electoral College victory and not acting for hours to call them off as they raided the Capitol, Trump sought to blame then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said Trump encouraged the supporters to go to the Capitol and sat in the White House without taking action as they fought with police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t do a damn thing and these people should be in jail,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThey should be the ones that are being held accountable. And he wants to let them all out. And now he says that if he loses again, such a whiner that he is, that this could be a \u2018bloodbath\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump then defended the people convicted and imprisoned for their role in the insurrection, saying to Biden, \u201cWhat they\u2019ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and Biden entered the night facing stiff headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics and broadly dissatisfied with both, according to polling. But the debate was highlighting how they have sharply different visions<\/strong> on virtually every core issue \u2014 abortion, the economy and foreign policy \u2014 and deep hostility toward each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their personal animus quickly came to the surface. Biden got personal in evoking his son, Beau, who served in Iraq before dying of brain cancer. The president criticized Trump for reportedly calling Americans killed in battle \u201csuckers and losers.\u201d Biden told Trump, \u201cMy son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You\u2019re the sucker. You\u2019re the loser.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said he never said that \u2014 a line attributed to Trump by his former chief of staff \u2014 and slammed Biden for the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, calling it \u201cthe most embarrassing day in the history of our country\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump himself agreed to the withdrawal with the Taliban<\/strong> a year before he left office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden directly mentioned Trump\u2019s conviction in the New York hush money trial, saying, \u201cYou have the morals of an alley cat,\u201d and referencing the allegations in the case that Trump had sex with a porn actress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did not have sex with a porn star,\u201d replied Trump, who chose not to testify at his trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressed to defend rising inflation since he took office, Biden pinned it on the situation he inherited from Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said that when Trump left office, \u201cthings were in chaos.\u201d Trump disagreed, declaring that during his term in the White House, \u201cEverything was rocking good.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Trump left office, America was still grappling with the pandemic and during his final hours in office, the death toll eclipsed 400,000. The virus continued to ravage the country and the death toll hit 1 million over a year later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was asked what he would do to make childcare more affordable. He used his answer to instead boast about how many people he fired during his term, including former FBI Director James Comey, and criticized Biden for not firing people from his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The age question roars back<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the debate, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults (59%) said they were \u201cvery concerned\u201d that Biden is too old to be president, according to Gallup data collected in June<\/strong>. Only 18% had the same level of concern about Trump. The poll found Biden\u2019s age was also causing alarm among some Democrats: 31% said they were very concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump allies entered the post-debate spin room triumphant. Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita called it \u201cthe most lopsided win in debate history\u201d and mocked the Biden campaign for saying the president had a cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a high-profile Democratic supporter of Biden, was pressed on whether he would consider stepping in for Biden. He dismissed the questions, saying, \u201cI will never turn my back on him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he knows Biden and what he\u2019s capable of and said, \u201cI have no trepidation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden spent nearly a week at the Camp David presidential retreat preparing for the debate. Shortly before the debate, Biden started selling cans of water labeled, \u201cDark Brandon\u2019s Secret Sauce,\u201d on his campaign website, mocking the suggestions from Trump and his advisors that he would use drugs to enhance his performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing supporters briefly at a watch party near the debate venue, Biden didn\u2019t address his performance directly, but said, \u201clet\u2019s keep going,\u201d and indicated he has no plans to leave the race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee you at the next one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 A raspy and sometimes halting President Joe Biden tried repeatedly to confront Donald Trump in their first debate ahead of the November election, as his Republican rival countered Biden\u2019s criticism by leaning into falsehoods about the economy, illegal immigration and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.  Biden\u2019s uneven performance, particularly early in the debate, crystallized the concerns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6493,10956,1448,4342,9951,11264,160,5178,2848,10387,1221,9649,7960,8203,6369,887,3862,7711,10000,8032,6578,11282,9560,10507,5222,5200,7396,10253,7234,10418,11399,10391,12635,5799,913,6576,10537,5257,6144,5196,911,8057,11283,6085,7782,11491,12634,10769,13036,9783,10321,5728,6094,6546,11166,11060,6581,7351,2471,5139,11398,3114,9515,3874,10634,10799,5612,2470,990,6025,5485,7811,421,11698,5424,13257,10945,11321,3805,11377,1776,6200,6944,13301,13235,7584,9277,8840,1825,5319,1502,9804,9616,11581,9262,184,2802,5704,10885,5251,10943,8869,6571,2982,5273,5320,36,594],"class_list":["post-43072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-abortion","tag-abortion-rights","tag-actress","tag-afghanistan","tag-age","tag-allegations","tag-barack-obama","tag-biden","tag-california","tag-campaign","tag-cancer","tag-capitol","tag-case","tag-cat","tag-chaos","tag-chief-of-staff","tag-climate-change","tag-cold","tag-conservative","tag-conspiracy","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-convicted","tag-conviction","tag-court","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-data","tag-david-axelrod","tag-death","tag-death-toll","tag-debate","tag-declined","tag-delivery","tag-democrat","tag-democratic","tag-democrats","tag-doctor","tag-doctors","tag-drugs","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-fear","tag-felony","tag-fraud","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-harris","tag-health","tag-house-speaker","tag-humanity","tag-hush-money","tag-illegal","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-immigration","tag-inflation","tag-innocent","tag-insult","tag-iraq","tag-jail","tag-joe-biden","tag-jones","tag-kamala","tag-kamala-harris","tag-killed","tag-lead","tag-lost","tag-maine","tag-money","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-new-york","tag-obama","tag-pandemic","tag-pelosi","tag-police","tag-politicians","tag-politics","tag-porn","tag-portland","tag-preident","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-presidential-election","tag-race","tag-republican","tag-results","tag-riot","tag-sex","tag-speaker","tag-strong","tag-supreme-court","tag-taliban","tag-tax","tag-testify","tag-train","tag-trial","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-president-donald-john-trump-jr","tag-vice-president","tag-vice-president-kamala-harris","tag-victory","tag-war","tag-watch","tag-water","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-woman","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43074,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43072\/revisions\/43074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}