Biden and Trump, 78 both have faced concerns about their age and fitness in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election but they have weighed more heavily on Biden.
On Thursday with his voice hoarse from a cold, Biden hurried through some of his talking points on the debate stage stumbled over some answers, and trailed off during others.
About halfway through the debate, a Democratic strategist who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign called it a disaster.
Trump unleashed a barrage of criticisms including well-worn falsehoods like migrants carrying out a crime wave and that Democrats support infanticide. Early in the debate Biden paused as he was making a point about Medicare and tax reform and seemed to lose his train of thought.
Tax reform would create money to help strengthen our healthcare system making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the COVID excuse me with dealing with everything we had to do with Biden said pausing. We finally beat Medicare.
Trump jabbed Biden for being incoherent, saying at one point I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said.
Biden’s not talking in a measured way, and looks like he’s searching for words, said Ray La Raja a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Ahead of the debate, Biden confined himself to nearly a week of debate camp with top advisers at the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of western Maryland an indication of how important his campaign considered Thursday night. It didn’t reflect on his performance critics said.
Trump is Trump, every word out of his mouth is bul. But Biden sounds old. And lost. And that’s going to matter more than anything. So far this is an absolute nightmare for Biden Joe Walsh a former 2020 Republican presidential candidate who has been critical of Trump said on X