In the first TV debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the presidential race, the incumbent embarrassed himself across the board. The 81-year-old has a simple explanation for his disastrous performance.
US President Joe Biden has attributed his weak performance in the first televised debate against challenger Donald Trump to the consequences of strenuous foreign travel. At a campaign appearance in the US state of Virginia on Tuesday evening (local time), Biden said, according to journalists traveling with him, that shortly before the TV debate he had actually traveled around the world several times, crossing around 100 time zones – which was “not very smart”. He did not listen to his staff – “and then I almost fell asleep on stage”. That is not an excuse, but an explanation, said the incumbent.
President with jet lag? Biden’s busy travel schedule
Biden’s schedule actually included two major trips abroad last month. First, at the beginning of June, he attended a memorial event for the Allied landings in Normandy in France. Immediately afterwards, Biden made a state visit to Paris, where the French president received him with a major program. Then he flew back to the USA – only to travel to Italy again for the G7 summit just a few days later, in mid-June. From there, he traveled across nine time zones back to the US West Coast, where he attended an exclusive fundraising gala for his election campaign in Los Angeles.
On June 17, Biden received NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington. From June 20, he was finally at Camp David – the US President’s country estate near the capital. There, Biden and his team prepared for the debate and did not have any public appointments for about a week.
Biden embarrasses himself in TV debate against Donald Trump
Biden – at 81 years old, the oldest president in US history – spoke in a hoarse voice during the TV debate with his likely challenger Donald Trump on CNN on Thursday evening, repeatedly getting tangled up in his formulations and leaving sentences unfinished. Although the heavyweights in the Democratic Party have publicly expressed their support for Biden, the nervousness of supporters and donors has been increasing since the TV debate.
Is there no alternative to the Democrat?
According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, one in three Democrats think Biden should end his bid for re-election after the debate. However, in a hypothetical comparison with Trump, no prominent Democratic candidate fares better than Biden. Despite the controversy, the poll sees both candidates neck and neck in the race for the presidential election on November 5. Both Trump and Biden receive the support of 40 percent of registered voters each, suggesting that Biden has not lost ground since the debate.
