The president of United States, Joe Biden and its predecessor, Donald Trump, They blamed each other for Public debt, inflation and the withdrawal from Afghanistan during the first presidential debate last night in the city of Atlanta.
“We inherited from Trump the collapsed economy and a poorly managed pandemic and 14% inflation. We created 50 thousand new jobs. There is still much to be done. Trump didn’t do much, he left us in chaos. We lowered the price of medicines and now we are going to help Americans put more food on the table,” Biden opened the game.
Economy
“We had the best economy in the history of the countryOther countries imitated us, the covid hit us. We spend what is necessary to avoid falling into depression. The only jobs Biden created were for illegal immigrants and those who regained their jobs after the covid pandemic. We did not enter into any war. And now inflation is killing us. We left an economy with zero inflation and stayed that way for 14 months until the economy imploded because of Biden’s mistakes,” Trump retorted.
Biden criticized Trump for appointing two Supreme Court justices who formed a majority to reverse the decriminalization of abortion. “What Trump did with the abortion issue was terrible. Most specialists support the Roe vs. Wade legislation (which decriminalizes abortion).
Abortion and border
Trump fired back by criticizing the Biden administration’s immigration policies. “We have the most dangerous border in the world. It allowed murderers and rapists to enter,” the former president fired.
“Trump exaggerates and lies,” Biden replied. “The ICE is supporting me, not him. Trump wants to separate families and put migrant children in cages.”
Trump questioned his opponent’s mental health.“I don’t understand what he just said. I don’t think he even knows what he said,” Trump said. Biden, speaking quickly and firing off facts, did not acknowledge the Republican candidate’s suggestion.
Tie in the polls
Biden and Trump came into the debate with a tie in national polls, but with the Republican ahead in most of the states that will be key in the November elections. According to surveys by the FiveThirtyEight portal, Trump has 41% voting intention, compared to 40.9% for the president, who regained ground in recent weeks through measures in favor of the Latino vote, such as the creation of a new plan to regularize more than half a million undocumented migrants.
The latest national survey, published on Wednesday by The New York Times, gives Trump a three-point lead over Biden with 40% of voting intentions among likely voters. The polls put both candidates within or very close to the margin of error.
Polls in decisive states, those that can lean towards one candidate or another, give Trump advantages in the majority. In Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania the margin is a technical tie, while the Republican has clear margins in Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona.
Strengths and weaknesses
Both candidates have strengths and weaknesses. Biden was a senator from 1973 to 2009, vice president under Barack Obama (2009-2017) and has been president since January 2021. Trump, on the other hand, entered the political arena after a long business career with occasional forays into the world of entertainment, but without prior experience in the corridors of power. The current president is an institutionalist, he explained to the EFE agency. Tom Hollihanprofessor of Communication at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. “Trump, on the other hand, is a very bombastic television personality, who commands attention and says deliberately provocative things.”he added.
Besides, Being in the White House puts all the resources of the authority at Biden’s disposal. His media presence is multiplied by the commitments of his position and his meetings with international leaders boost his presidential image. At the same time, the November 5 elections can be interpreted as a referendum on his work. Trump has the passage of time on his side and the oblivion in the collective memory of some of his most absurd proposals, such as treating the coronavirus with an injection of disinfectant.
Both candidates share the weight of age. Biden is 81 years old and his rival is 78. There are three years of difference, but only one of them is an octogenarian and sees the consequences of age questioned in the public arena. “Both had worrying moments about their abilities, but Trump was always a little erratic. When he is more erratic, the only impression he gives is that he is being himself, instead of showing signs of aging,” Tammy Vigil, told EFE. Professor of Communication at Boston University.
Trump can say one meaningless thing after another and his supporters don’t care, he points out Steven Feinprofessor of psychology at Williams College. “Biden is under more scrutiny from people on the left, so he has to be more concerned about not offending them and also about winning over those in the center.”he stressed. This makes the current president the one who has the most to gain or lose in this first face-to-face meeting. Not only are expectations of him higher, but he must not give reasons to those who will scrutinize possible mistakes attributable to his age.
Biden, on the other hand, tends to attract an electorate from urban areas, with greater education and middle incomes. Also African Americans and women. Trump usually has the extremes on his side: those from a low socioeconomic level, who adhere to his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”, popularized as MAGA, but also businessmen, both large and small businesses.
Legal status
Trump has four criminal cases against him and one conviction, the first against a former president of the country, for falsifying business records to buy the silence of a porn actress during the 2016 campaign. In Florida, he is accused of improper handling of classified documentsincluding nuclear secrets, moving them from the White House to his residence in Mar-a-Lago. In Washington and Georgia, he faces trials for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in which he lost against Biden and for having instigated the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Meanwhile, Biden arrives without a record but splashed by the condemns his son Hunter a few weeks ago. Although they are not comparable situations, both sides use them against their rival. In its verdict, the court of the city of Wilmington, belonging to the state of Delaware, convicted the president’s son of the three charges against him: two for lying in the documentation to acquire the weapon, a 38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver , and one more for illegal possession after purchase.
Two of the charges could carry a maximum of 10 years behind bars each and the third five years. In turn, he must pay a fine of up to $750,000 for each of them. However, as this is the first time he has been convicted and he has no prior record, Hunter Biden has not received any prison sentence so far.
