A Trump on the attack takes advantage of President Biden’s lapses to dominate the first debate for the 2024 presidential elections

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, and former president Donald Trump faced each other in a tense face-to-face this Thursday in the first televised debate of the 2024 elections, in which the Republican took advantage of his rival’s lapses to dominate the exchanges .

The mutual animosity between the two politicians was clear at the start of the debate, when they did not shake hands as they walked out onto the stage of the CNN studio in Atlanta where the meeting was taking place.

This is the second time that Biden and Trump will compete for the White House after the Republican lost the 2020 election, although both have yet to be officially nominated by their respective parties.

Unlike previous debates, this debate was held without a live audience and also featured muted microphones for the candidates during their opponent’s allotted speaking time, avoiding the chaos that characterized the first Trump-Biden debate in 2020.

As highlighted by the BBC’s North American editor, Anthony Zurcher, in the first part of the debate, due to his lapses and indecisions, Biden was on the ropes in many of the exchanges, in which Topics such as the economy, immigration or the wars in Ukraine and Gaza were discussed.

According to Zurcher, some of Biden’s answers were confusing and unclear“which will no doubt increase concerns among many Americans that he may be too old to be president.”

His aphonia, which made it difficult to understand some of his answers and which those responsible for his campaign attributed to a cold,

“But like a boxer on the ropes, Biden began landing big punches against his opponent in an attempt to turn the tide of the debate,” Zurcher said.

Biden, after recalling Trump’s conviction on charges stemming from an alleged relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels, said the former president had “the morals of a stray cat.”

“I did not have sexual relations with a porn star,” Trump responded.

Trump also appeared defensive when discussing his response to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

But according to Zurcher, on the issue of the economy and immigration –the issues that American voters say in polls are most important to them– Trump appeared confident and clear in their attacks on Biden’s record, while the president’s rebuttals were less effective.

“I really don’t know what (Biden) said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did either,” Trump joked at one point.

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