Snap Insight: Who won the Biden-Trump presidential debate?
After this debate, Democrats will be asking themselves if United States President Joe Biden is the best candidate going forward. He can still be re-elected, but it will be more difficult, says US politics expert Steven R Okun.
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
SINGAPORE: On occasion, presidential debates in the United States have been highly consequential in determining the outcome of the election. The race of 1960 between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon comes immediately to mind. Arguably, the 1976 contest between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter does as well.
The 2024 version could be even more consequential than either of those. There has never been a presidential debate with equally low expectations for how each candidate would perform going into it and in which one so underperformed the other.
Supporters from both sides went into this debate on Thursday night (Friday, Jun 28, Singapore time) with trepidation. It would not have taken much for either candidate to exceed their respective low bar for performance.
Donald Trump cleared it. Joe Biden did not.
The Biden campaign game plan heading into the debate was to turn this election into a referendum on former president Trump. That was not successful. Now, while still possible, it will be harder to do.
Instead, the focus is now on whether President Biden, at 81 years of age, has the physical and mental fitness to serve four more years. His voice hoarse during the debate, Mr Biden appeared at times to lose his train of thought during the 90-minute faceoff.
There’s a serious debate taking place now among the Democrats - should Mr Biden still be the nominee?
NO NEW TAKEAWAYS FROM THE BIDEN-TRUMP DEBATE
Expectations should not have been high heading into the debate that it would have a meaningful impact on the ultimate outcome of the November election.
What more is there to learn that we do not already know? The answer: Not much.
Everyone has a view on the current president and the former one. By now, most voters would have already made up their minds.
Mr Biden is his age. Donald Trump, the first president ever impeached twice, is now also the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
Headed into the debate, Mr Biden was already losing out to Mr Trump when it came to who voters think will better manage their top concerns: Inflation and the economy, immigration and controlling the border, and crime.
Despite Mr Trump carrying so much negative baggage with voters, he and his successor are tied in the polls today.
As he did not do in his State of the Union address, Mr Biden showed every one of his 81 years. His substantive moments were few and far between. Hard to imagine Mr Trump will continue his incredible claim that Mr Biden would be on performance-enhancing drugs during the debate.
Mr Trump, being a TV personality who understands what works and what doesn’t on camera, kept his rhetoric and behaviour under just enough control. Mr Biden made this easy for him.
