Last week, American voters watched the two main presidential candidates for the November 5 election brawl it out on Thursday night in the first official public debate before the contest. Former US President Donald Trump, who is currently 78 years old, hurled hyperbole at President Joe Biden, 81, who seemed to completely lose his train of thought during the debate at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
The two oldest presidential hopefuls in the entire American history clashed over important themes like immigration, abortion, and even golf. If you’re curious to know what happened in that debate, here are the main takeaways from the first US presidential debate:
Biden put on a muted performance
Biden already faced criticism over his age ever since he announced that he wanted to candidate again. And you can tell it’s true, since over the last debate, he was simply incapable of matching Trump’s energy, who is only three years his junior.
The incumbent president also resorted to raspy rambling and seemed to struggle with articulating full sentences. In fact, at one point, he even referred to “billionaires” as “trillionaires” before going back to correct himself. Biden also made a series of robust criticism of Trump’s leadership skills and decisions, especially during COVID-19, and the overall impact it had on the economy.
He went on mocking some of Trump’s responses to COVID-19 safeguards at the time. He even reminded the audience of the time Trump advised people to inject some bleach into their arms, and that they should be alright.
But his tone fell completely flat against his more bombastic opponent, especially during the early stages of the debate. Later on, President Biden somewhat picked up the pace and pushed back against Trump’s slew of factually incorrect assertions related to immigration and abortion.
But Democrats still raised the alarm over Biden’s performance. Some of them even considered replacing him on the presidential ticket. There will be discussions about whether he should even continue.
As Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris backed him right after the debate, saying substance matters a lot more than style in this particular election, she conceded that it might have been just a “slow start.”
Presidential hopefuls completely came to blows over…golf
President Biden and former President Trump danced back and forth over which one of them was physically and cognitively capable of holding another 4-year mandate. Naturally, Trump boasted about his strength, stating that he is in good shape, just like he was 25 or 30 years ago.
In response to that, a snickering Biden also implied his opponent was lying about both his height and weight. Trump also added he had won two championships on his golf course, while Biden isn’t able to hit the ball 50 yards.
But that’s not all, as this further pushed Biden to challenge Trump to a golf match, only if Trump would carry his own bag. Trump responded to this: “Let’s not act like children” (too late, isn’t it?) to which Biden responded: “You are a child.”
Trump called Biden a “bad Palestinian”
As for the genocide that’s currently occurring in Gaza, Biden boasted over the fact that they are “the biggest producer of support for Israel of anyone in the world.” By doing this, he was trying to reiterate US support for Israel’s horrendous action in Gaza, in which over 37,718 Palestinians have been brutally killed since October last year.
Biden also added that his administration still sends experts and intelligence to hinder Palestinian group Hamas in the war. Trump snapped back, stating that it is Israel that wants to continue with the war, He also added that Biden should let them go, calling Biden a bad Palestinian.
In the almost nine months of the war that left Gaza completely rife with power outages and food insecurity, the United States continuously provided military and diplomatic assistance to Israel, repeatedly blocking any ceasefire solution. A US-sponsored resolution that would endorse a ceasefire proposal passed at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) eight months into the war.
Biden accused Trump of lying about abortion
Trump also invoked anti-abortion sentiment by blaming the current President and his party of allowing late-term abortions. During the debate, Trump even claimed that Biden and Democrats might be willing to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month.” To which Biden responded that he is lying and that it’s simply not true.
“We are not for late-term abortion, period. Period.” Trump went on and accuse the Democrats of “taking the life of a child even after birth,” even if infanticide is illegal in every single US state. In America, late-term abortions are quite uncommon and are generally referred to as a last resort when there are serious complications with a wanted pregnancy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 1 percent of abortions were performed at or even after 21 weeks in 2020.
Immigration dogged the entire debate
Throughout this debate, Trump turned the topic to immigration. He accused Biden of “opening up the safest border in the entire world to terrorists and prisoners.” He even accused Biden of being “responsible for killing people with a bad border and flooding hundreds of thousands of people dying and killing the citizens when they come in.”
Joe Biden, on the other hand, decided to mention the work his administration has done to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants, and also tightening border security, and working on the bipartisan National Security Agreement.
A wide-eyed Biden then added that “the border patrol has endorsed me, and my position.” He also reminded me that when Trump was president, he decided to separate babies from their mothers, put them in cages, and make sure their families were separated.
Trump simply didn’t want to say if he would honor election results this time
When asked if he would honor the results of these elections, former president Donald Trump refused to answer directly. He did say that he would only accept the results if the election is completely “free and fair”, mentioning all the false claims he already said in the 2020 presidential election when he lost to Biden.
“The fraud and everything else was ridiculous” he added. Following those election results, Trump incited his supporters to go on and storm the US Capitol on the infamous day of January 6, 2021.
During this debate, Trump decided to completely downplay the riots, which were basically the deadliest attack on US power in over 200 years. “They talk about a small amount of people that went to the Capitol, and in many instances, they were ushered in by the police,” he added. So far, the next presidential debate is slated for September 10 and is expected to be hosted by ABC News.
If you simply can’t wait until the next debate, we recommend you listen to this audiobook: “Breaking Biden: Exposing the Hidden Forces and Secret Money Machine Behind Joe Biden, His Family, and His Administration” by Alex Marlow. If you want to know more about former President Donald Trump, we also want to share this read: “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” by Bandy X. Lee MD.
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