WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden‘s re-election campaign wanted to use his debate performance to calm concerns about his age, a major issue for voters this November, but by the end, all he did was add fuel to a growing fire.
The 81-year-old president struggled in the first 21 minutes of the debate with Donald Trump, repeatedly tripped over his words, misspoke and lost his train of thought multiple times.
In a discussion about healthcare, Biden ended his statement with “We finally beat Medicare,” before moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash cut him off and went to Trump for his answer.
“Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare,” he said.
In a response to Biden about immigration and the border, Trump took the chance to pounce, saying he didn’t understand his opponent was saying.
“I don’t know if he knows what he said either,” Trump said.
A White House official told Fwrd Axis News the President was suffering from a cold as his reason for his raspy voice.
Biden’s age has been a key reason for his poll going down for months. The public concerns are made worse by deceptively edited videos, some of which have gone viral, making it appear as if Biden is wandering or confused.
As the debate went on, Biden seemed to hit his stride, calling out the former president for his convictions.
“Only one of us is a convicted felon, and I’m looking at him,” Biden said to Trump.
The debate led Democrats, including some at the senior level, to feel panicked and says there may be discussions about having Biden step aside from being the nominee.
“Look, it was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden,” Kate Bedingfield, Former Biden White House Communications Director, said. “I don’t think there’s any other way to slice it. His biggest issue that he had to prove to the American people was he had the energy of the stamina, and he didn’t do that.“
A Biden supporter said the President’s debate was “the worst performance in history” and said Biden was so “bad that no one will pay attention to Trump’s lies.”
“It’s time for Biden to step aside,” another key Democrat said.
Biden campaign official Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement that the President presented a “positive and winning vision,” while Trump “reminded the American people why they fired him four years ago.”
