New Delhi:
Former President Donald Trump fared better than current President Joe Biden in the eyes of most viewers of America’s first televised presidential debate. This is in contrast to the situation in 2020, when debate watchers saw the 81-year-old Democrat (Biden) as a better candidate than his Republican rival Trump.
Biden, who is seeking a second term in the White House, appeared to stumble during the debate, raising alarm bells among top Democrats about whether the incumbent can stay on top during the difficult months before the US presidential election.
On Thursday, the two leaders had a heated discussion for about 90 minutes regarding the elections to be held on November 5.
During this period, President Biden and the 78-year-old Trump are considered the future presidential candidates of the Republican Party on the economy, immigration, foreign policy, abortion and national security. Both leaders called each other a liar and the worst president in American history.
“We’re like a third world country and that’s a shame,” Trump said. No more respect for us.
Trump, looking very confident at the high-level debate at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, also repeatedly told lies about everything from abortion to taxes and the deficit. But he avoided answering the question whether he would accept the results of the 2024 elections.
Trump also linked the country’s problems to the influx of migrants crossing the southwestern US border with Mexico, saying they were hurting the US economy.
“We had the most secure border in the world,” Trump said of his 2017-2021 tenure in the White House. But now it is the most dangerous place in the world.
In response to Trump’s statement, Biden said, “He’s exaggerating, he’s lying.” Biden underlined that 40 percent fewer migrants are now crossing the border into the United States because of the recent tightening of restrictions on their entry into the United States. Biden called Trump an idiot and a loser.
On the issue of age, Biden reminded Trump that he is only three years younger than him. 81-year-old Biden is the oldest president in US history.
Trump called Biden a criminal because Biden called him a ‘convicted criminal’, referring to his conviction in a New York ‘hush money’ case. ‘Hush money’ means money given improperly and clandestinely to a person to keep his mouth shut or for any other purpose. Biden accused Trump of not knowing what he was talking about.
Questioning Trump’s ethics, he said, “How many billions of dollars do you owe for publicly molesting a woman, having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant, and many other things?” What are you talking about?”
Trump also questioned giving more than $200 billion to Ukraine, saying that so much money should not be spent on Russia-Ukraine.
Trump said he would resolve the war between Putin and Zelensky as president-elect before taking office on January 20, prompting Biden to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that Biden got off to a ‘slow start’. “What we saw tonight is a stark contrast to President Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people,” Harris said in a one-on-one interview with CNN. Yes, it started slow but ended strong.
The debate comes as Biden and Trump have not been officially declared presidential candidates by their parties. Republicans will hold their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from July 15 to 18 to select their presidential nominee, while Democrats will hold their convention in Chicago on August 19.
According to a CNN flash poll conducted by SSRS, 67 percent to 33 percent of those who registered to watch the debate said Trump did better. The first of three presidential debates was held in Atlanta, hosted by CNN.
Before the debate, the same voters (55 percent to 45 percent) said they expected Trump to do better than Biden.
CNN said the survey results only reflect opinions about the debate among voters who participated and do not represent the views of the entire polling public.
Among survey respondents, a Republican-affiliated coalition was five points more likely than a Democratic-affiliated one.
According to a CNN report, these results differ from the situation in 2020, when debate watchers rated Biden better than Trump in the presidential debate.
Of those who watched Thursday night’s debate in the US, 57 percent said they had no confidence in Biden’s ability to lead the country, and 44 percent said they had no confidence in Trump’s ability to do so.
The report said that only 36 percent of those who watched the debate said they had a lot of confidence in Trump’s ability to lead the country, but only 14 percent said the same about Biden.
The CNN survey is based on 565 registered American voters who admitted watching Thursday’s debate. The survey was conducted by written message.
(This news is not edited by the NDTV team. It is published directly from the syndicate feed.)