President Joe Biden is three years and seven months older than former President Donald Trump.
But in their debate, the gap between the 81-year-old incumbent and his 78-year-old challenger seemed much larger.
Biden, hoarse and displaying little vocal range, was often unable to express his differences with Trump with clarity. At one point, after Biden had trailed off as he defended his record on border security, Trump said:
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.”
Trump, meanwhile, repeated his frequent election denialism. He said he’d accept the results of the 2024 election if it’s “fair and legal,” but then repeated his lies about fraud in the 2020 election.
“You’re a whiner, and you lost the first time,” Biden said.
Here are the debate highlights:
Biden’s age problem just got a lot worse:
- Biden failed to put to rest voters’ concerns about his biggest vulnerability — his age — and turn the election into a referendum on Trump. He stumbled, particularly when he tried to cite statistics and legislation.
Biden’s one-liner offense:
- Biden’s offensive strategy was to deploy one-liners to ding Trump. During a riff about Trump being convicted for trying to cover up having an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, Biden said: “You have the morals of an alleycat.”
Trump makes news with abortion pill stance:
- Earlier this month, the Supreme Court dismissed a case that would have rolled back access to the abortion pill mifepristone. And Trump on Thursday backed the high court’s ruling. “The Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill, and I agree with their decision to have done that and I will not block it,” he said. Abortion should have been Biden’s strongest topic. Instead, Biden struggled to explain his party’s stance on abortion, rambled, appeared confused at times and, unprompted, gave Trump an opening to bring up crimes migrants have committed against Americans.
Inflation blamed on pandemic:
- Biden and Trump landed on the same scapegoat when asked to explain their economic records: the pandemic. Biden said he inherited an economy that was “in freefall” caused by Trump’s stewardship of Covid-19. He said the pandemic was “so badly handled” by his predecessor. Trump, for his part, blamed the pandemic for halting an economy he said was “the greatest economy in the history of our country” – a familiar refrain from the former president.
Fuente: CNN
