A flash poll by CNN following the US presidential debate on Thursday (June 27) showed former president Donald Trump leading against Biden with 67 per cent of debate watchers in Trump’s favour. Only 33 per cent believed that Biden won the debate.
“Stunning number from voters who witnessed his performance with their own eyes,” political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin posted on X in response to the poll.
Biden’s team pushed back, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who told CNN, “It was a slow start but a strong finish.”
“Joe, you did such a good job!” First Lady Jill Biden said to the president on a stage after the debate. “You answered every question. You knew all the facts.”
But unlike Jill Biden, the chatter on the internet overwhelmingly favoured Donald Trump whose assertive belligerence derailed Biden’s fragile train of thoughts.
For instance, when Donald Trump invoked Ronald Reagan to talk about “exceptions” related to the reproductive rights of women, Biden retorted by saying: “I support Roe v Wade, which had three trimesters. The first time is between a woman and a doctor. The second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. A third time is between the doctor, I mean, between the women and the state.”
What did Biden intend to convey here? Nobody knows.
At another point, Biden flummoxed at the difference between millions and billions, medicare and taxes raised from ultra-wealthy people. Trump appeared doubtful and lost his usual belligerence for a moment in disbelief.
Later on during the debate night, the Trump Campaign released a video showing Biden’s moments of frailty, right from his walk to the fumbling retorts that failed to impress at least 67 per cent of those who watched the debate. Tim Stanley wrote in The Telegraph that it was not a debate but rather a “medical emergency”. Another pundit wrote that Democrats will now grow more frustrated with Biden’s inability to debate and simply be comprehensible.
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The November numbers are not in (because it’s still the end of June). But the verdict is already out. Trump resoundingly won the first US presidential debate.