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By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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President Joe Biden failed to shake off concerns about his physical and mental health during Thursday's debate, while Donald Trump pushed a host of falsehoods, experts said.
Biden, 81, came into CNN's debate facing ongoing concerns that he is too old to run for office again, and he failed to dispel voters' worries with a low-energy performance that included confusing answers, such as an almost incoherent response about the national debt.
Biden mistakenly said the U.S. had a "thousand trillionaires," before correcting himself to say billionaires. He then trailed off, ending with "we finally beat Medicare." The president's voice also sounded hoarse and raspy, which his team said was due to a cold.
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Trump, though 78, has not faced the same level of concern about his age, and he pounced on Biden's meandering, stumbling answers, saying at one point, "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence," after Biden delivered a confusing response to a question on immigration.
The Republican was also more restrained than he was during the first 2020 presidential debate against Biden, no doubt helped by the muted microphone rule imposed by CNN. The network's moderators also did not fact-check statements live on air, allowing Trump to make a series of falsehoods, including that Democrats supported post-birth abortions.
Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said that while Biden won "on points," he may have damaged his 2024 hopes. Reeher added that both candidates were "all over the place" in terms of discussing policies.
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"Trump seemed to bring almost every issue back to immigration and the harms he asserted were coming from that—that was obviously one of his main strategies. President Biden seemed to address different policy questions more in their own terms. He talked fast and in a staccato, hoarse whisper," Reeher told Newsweek.
He continued: "Each was the worst president in history, according to the other, and we heard this over and over again. Each of them were great liars, according to the other.
"For these reasons, I think most Americans probably found this debate hard to follow at times, and probably not terribly helpful in forming their judgments of the candidates, if they were not already cemented prior to the debate. And Americans who are not happy with either candidate probably feel worse than they did before."
The professor added that Biden's worst moments arrived in the first 30 minutes of the debate, where the president looked and sounded "frail and confused."
"I don't think he did very much to dispel the concerns about his age that his detractors are emphasizing, and probably added to them," he said.
In comparison, Trump's worst moments were his "increasing hyperbole and untruths about his own accomplishments," some of which Reeher said were "cartoonish" in their over-the-top nature.
"So in terms of winners and losers, I think Biden probably 'lost' the first half hour, which at times seemed like it would turn into a complete disaster for him," Reeher added.
He continued: "Then he rallied—perhaps his anger at Trump helped him here—while Trump became irritated and descended increasingly into hyperbole. So I suppose I would give it to Biden on points, but I wonder how much those first minutes hurt him in the overall impression made.
"Neither candidate accomplished their main job—for Biden, that he is physically and mentally up for another four years; for Trump, that he can actually be somewhat presidential."
Newsweek contacted Biden's and Trump's teams for comment via email.
Carl Cavalli, a professor of political science at the University of North Georgia, told Newsweek that Trump "looked and sounded better" than Biden during the debate, and that is what voters will take away.
"I would not be surprised to see Trump take a clear lead in the polls in the coming days," Cavalli said. "Not a huge lead, but more than the back-and-forth we've seen."
Cavalli also suggested how each side could capitalize on its opponent's performance during the debate.
"Republicans would do best to use the images of Biden staring and stammering to reinforce their questions about his fitness," he said. "Democrats would do best to act very quickly to highlight Trump's inaccuracies and denials."
"They should also round up the military personnel who were with Trump regarding the WWI memorials to fallen soldiers to reiterate that they heard him refer to those soldiers as 'losers' and 'suckers,'" he added.
Biden's performance left many Democrats wondering whether he should continue to lead the party in the 2024 election.
"I'm not the only one whose heart is breaking right now. There's a lot of people who watched this tonight and felt terribly for Joe Biden," former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill told MSNBC, adding, "I don't know if things can be done to fix this."
Biden, who won enough delegates to secure his party's nomination following a string of primary wins in March, can be replaced as the party's candidate only if he ends his 2024 campaign himself.
The president has long denied suggestions that he shouldn't seek a second term. He told a group of supporters at a debate watch party, "See you at the next one," in reference to the next televised debate in September.
Lauren Hitt, Biden's campaign spokesperson, told the Associated Press after the debate, "Of course he's not dropping out."
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