Joe Biden has been heard. Donald Trump has been listened to. The key to the first electoral debate held this morning on the CNN studio in Atlanta, United States, was how both candidates moved and spoke on stage: their performance was more important than their arguments. Trump, a television animal, has known how to take advantage of the fact and has shown himself to be a reasonable and firm candidate. With clear words and a constant tone (far from the intensity he displays at rallies), the former president has slipped in his incendiary speech, as well as false statements. On the other hand, the raspy voice, the cough and the constant stuttering have buried Biden under an aura of fragility that has made it very difficult to concentrate on the arguments he was making. In just the first few minutes of the debate, the president has already made a lapse.
At 81 years old, Biden had to once again demonstrate that he is capable of assuming a second term if he is re-elected. Although during the State of the Union speech he was able to come out on top, appearing energetic and much clearer, in the CNN debate he was unable to do so. The first topic, inflation, already predicted that the debate would be long for Biden. The president defended himself on the matter, but the hesitations, the constant closing of his eyes to concentrate on what he was saying and the final lapse have pigeonholed the Democrat into the image he wanted to avoid: that of a frail old man. Although in the second part of the debate Biden has regained a little more confidence, the sambenito was already hanging.
In the first minutes, Trump, who is 78 years old but is not so questioned due to his age, has set the pace of the debate not only with his performance, but also with the classic move of avoiding answering questions by talking about other topics. In this case, immigration has become the wild card par excellence, where Trump has most of the time rowed to avoid having to be accountable to the debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Another achievement of Trump has been to bring Biden’s age to the center of the debate and question his capabilities. Whether it was in a more “subtle” way, with sarcasm and gestures of disbelief at his rival’s hesitations, or by accusing Biden of not being able to beat him at golf or hitting the ball “beyond 50 yards.” . This statement occurred right in the second block of the debate, when both candidates were asked if they believe they are qualified to govern despite their age. While Biden has highlighted his management over the last four years and his career in Washington, Trump has assured that he has taken two cognitive tests and that he feels “very good, the same as he did 25 or 30 years ago.” ”. Faced with the phrase, Biden not only laughed at what seemed like a boast, but then he ended up entering Trump’s mud and messed with his weight and his age. “Let’s stop acting like children,” the tycoon said to settle the issue.
Before reaching this point, Trump had already knocked Biden out of the game. After he got caught up in an unintelligible babble about the border patrol, Trump responded, looking at the camera: “I don’t know what he said at the end of the sentence. I think he doesn’t know what he said either.” With this sentence he has already mortally wounded a Biden who has been left gawking at him, in addition to generating bait for social networks.
The fact that the age issue has taken centre stage has also benefited Trump, as the fact that he has been convicted in the Stormy Daniels case has been relegated to the background. Likewise, more important issues, such as when the moderator asked Trump if he would accept the result of the upcoming election (to which he replied that he would do so “if it is free, fair and a good election”) or the wars in Ukraine and Hamas and Israel, have been overshadowed by the duel of the physical and athletic attributes of both candidates.
One of the moments in which Biden ended up losing his temper was when Trump called the veterans “suckers, loosers.” This has shaken the president inside, since his son Beau, who died of brain cancer, served in the Army in Iraq. “My son was not an idiot or a loser. “You are an idiot, you are a loser,” the Democrat said, clearly insulting his rival.
There has also been no shortage of judicial reproaches. Trump has been the first to air Biden’s dirty laundry, citing the conviction of his son Hunter for the illegal purchase and possession of a gun. “You had sexual relations with a porn star when your wife was pregnant”, this has been the way in which Biden has brought the Stormy Daniels case to the table and for which Trump has been convicted of 34 serious crimes. Once again, Trump has denied that he had sex with Daniels.
Regarding the right to abortion, Trump has not only moderated his position again and has taken the opportunity to quote Ronald Reagan (something that his team recommended him to do): “Like Reagan, I believe in exceptions for rape, incest and endangerment.” mother’s life, but it has to be chosen [por los estados]”. These words have aroused anger in Biden, who has looked indignantly at his rival from the right side of the stage. When it came to countering him, Biden has ended up mixing the issue of abortion with immigration (an area where he has the odds against him) while Trump smiled sarcastically. To top off this section, Trump has spilled one of the many lies he has launched throughout the debate, assuring that the Biden administration would take “the life of a child at eight months old” [de embarazo], nine months and even after birth.” Completely false fact, since, to begin with, an abortion after birth is no longer an abortion, but would be infanticide.
Trump has been most comfortable in the immigration section, where he has even claimed that migrants “are killing people in every state, every state is a border.” This statement, in addition to being false, has also served the former president to avoid answering the question of how he intends to fulfill his campaign promise of carrying out mass deportations of migrants. Likewise, during other sections that had nothing to do with immigration, Trump has also taken the opportunity to say that immigrants are staying “in luxury hotels.” The Republican is aware that this is one of the key issues facing November 5 and has tried to get the most out of it.
Trump has accused Biden of giving too much money to Ukraine and that powers like North Korea and China do not take him seriously. “He [Putin] I would never have invaded Ukraine, just like Israel would not have been invaded by Hamas, because Iran was out of the game with me. Now the whole world is going against it. [Biden]“Trump has assured. To which the Democrat has counterattacked by ensuring that it was Trump who encouraged Russia to attack Ukraine.
At the end of the debate, Biden was also unable to contain his stuttering, having moments of hesitation while delivering his speech in what would be the golden minutes to address the audience. “We have made a lot of progress since the debacle that Trump left us,” he said. The way Trump has used his last minutes has been completely opposite, both in form and content. With a confident tone and looking at the camera, Trump has blamed Biden for the country’s ills, both at the level of domestic and foreign policies. “We are living in hell,” he said.
The debate lasted 90 minutes in total and covered 15 thematic sections, divided into two blocks. The first covered the economy (a crucial issue for the elections), abortion, immigration, foreign policy, democracy and Trump’s crimes, as well as those of Biden’s son. The second block covered the climate crisis, social security, pensions, child care, addictions, the age of both and police violence.
