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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA raspy and sometimes halting President Joe Biden repeatedly sought to confront Donald Trump in their first debate ahead of the November election, as his Republican rival countered Biden’s criticism by leaning into falsehoods about the economy, illegal immigration and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Biden’s uneven performance crystallized the concerns of many Americans that, at age 81, he is too old to serve as president. It sparked a fresh round of calls for the Democrat to step aside.
Meanwhile, the 78-year-old Trump’s rhetoric offered Americans an unwelcome reminder of the bombast he launched daily during his tumultuous four years in office, as he struggles to win over skeptical voters. He declined to clearly state he would accept the results of the November election, four years after he promoted conspiracy theories about his loss that culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Biden repeatedly tore into Trump in personal terms in an apparent effort to provoke him, bringing up everything from the former president’s recent felony conviction to his alleged insult of World War I veterans to his weight and golf game. But his halting delivery from the beginning of the debate drew the most attention immediately afterward. Trump’s allies immediately declared victory while prominent Democrats publicly questioned whether Biden could move forward.
“I think there was a sense of shock, actually, of how he came out at the beginning of this debate, how his voice sounded. He seemed a little disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on but by that time, I think the panic had set in,” said David Axelrod, a longtime advisor to former President Barack Obama, said on CNN immediately after. “And I think you’re going to hear discussions that, I don’t know will lead to anything, but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
Said Van Jones, another Democratic strategist, on CNN: “He did not do well at all.”
David Plouffe, Obama’s former campaign manager, described the debate on MSNBC as a “DEFCON1” moment for Democrats.
Biden began the night with a raspy voice and a halting delivery as he tried to defend his economic record and criticize Trump. A person familiar with the matter said Biden was suffering from a cold during the debate, adding that he tested negative for COVID-19.
Biden appeared to lose his train of thought while giving one answer, drifting from an answer on tax policy to health policy, at one point using the word “COVID,” and then saying, “excuse me, with, dealing with,” and he trailed off again.
“Look, we finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, as his time ran out on his answer.
Biden began to give clearer answers as the debate progressed, still with a rasp, and attacked Trump’s record on issues like fighting climate change.
“The only existential threat to humanity is climate change, and he didn’t do a damn thing about it,” he said.
The current president and his predecessor hadn’t spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss that culminated in the Capitol riot by his supporters.
Trump equivocated on whether he would accept the results of the November election, saying he would accept them if the vote was “fair” and “legal,” repeating his baseless claims of widespread fraud and misconduct in his 2020 loss to Biden that he still denies.
Pressed on his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump was unapologetic.
“On Jan. 6, we were respected all over the world, all over the world we were respected. And then he comes in and we’re now laughed at,” Trump said.
After he was prompted by a moderator to answer whether he violated his oath of office that day by rallying his supporters seeking to block the certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory and not acting for hours to call them off as they raided the Capitol, Trump sought to blame then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Biden said Trump encouraged the supporters to go to the Capitol and sat in the White House without taking action as they fought with police officers.
“He didn’t do a damn thing and these people should be in jail,” Biden said. “They should be the ones that are being held accountable. And he wants to let them all out. And now he says that if he loses again, such a whiner that he is, that this could be a ‘bloodbath’?”
Trump then defended the people convicted and imprisoned for their role in the insurrection, saying to Biden, “What they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
The former president has allied himself with Jan. 6 rioters and sometimes opens his rallies by playing a rendition of the national anthem performed by people jailed on riot-related charges.
Trump and Biden entered the night facing stiff headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics and broadly dissatisfied with both, according to polling. But the debate was highlighting how they have sharply different visions on virtually every core issue—abortion, the economy and foreign policy—and deep hostility toward each other.
Their personal animus quickly came to the surface. Biden got personal in evoking his son, Beau, who served in Iraq before dying of brain cancer. The president criticized Trump for reportedly calling Americans killed in battle “suckers and losers.” Biden told Trump, “My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser.”
Trump said he never said that—a line attributed to Trump by his former chief of staff—and slammed Biden for the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, calling it “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”
Trump himself agreed to the withdrawal with the Taliban a year before he left office.
Biden directly mentioned Trump’s conviction in the New York hush money trial, saying, “You have the morals of an alley cat,” and referencing the allegations in the case that Trump had sex with a porn actress.
“I did not have sex with a porn star,” replied Trump, who chose not to testify at his trial.
Trump retorted that Biden could face criminal charges “when he leaves office,” evoking his familiar threats of retribution. Though there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, Trump said, “Joe could be a convicted felon with all the things that he’s done.”
Pressed to defend rising inflation since he took office, Biden pinned it on the situation he inherited from Trump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden said that when Trump left office, “things were in chaos.” Trump disagreed, declaring that during his term in the White House, “Everything was rocking good.”
By the time Trump left office, America was still grappling with the pandemic and during his final hours in office, the death toll eclipsed 400,000. The virus continued to ravage the country and the death toll hit 1 million over a year later.
Trump repeatedly insisted that the three conservative justices he appointed to the Supreme Court helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and returned the issue of abortion restrictions to individual states, which is what “everybody wanted.” Biden countered that abortion access was settled for 50 years and that Trump was making it harder for women in large swaths of the country to get access to basic health care.
At one point, Trump defended his record on foreign policy and blamed Biden for the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, suggesting the conflicts broke out when the aggressors felt free to attack because they perceived Biden as weak.
“This place, the whole world, is blowing up under him,” Trump said.
“I never heard so much malarkey in my whole life,” Biden retorted.
Trump was asked what he would do to make childcare more affordable. He used his answer to instead boast about how many people he fired during his term, including former FBI Director James Comey and criticized Biden for not firing people from his administration.
Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the U.S. government if he returns to the White House and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.
Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted—and Trump agreed—to hold the debate without an audience and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak. The debate’s two commercial breaks offered another departure from modern practice, while the candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.
Both men abided by the rules and didn’t speak out of turn. Near the end, Biden also appeared to question Trump’s weight—leading Trump to respond while his mic was muted, making his answer partly inaudible—and the two squabbled about their golf handicaps.
“Let’s not act like children,” Trump replied.
Trump walked straight off the stage alone, after the debate. Biden was joined by his wife Jill, who watched from a green room. They hugged and kissed and she held his hand and seemed to assist him down the stairs as they approached Bash and Tapper to greet the moderators before leaving.
Heading out of the debate, both Biden and Trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. Trump is heading to Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years.
Biden is set to jet off to North Carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest-yet rally of his campaign in a state Trump narrowly carried in 2020.
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Biden should step aside and promote Secretary of State Antony Blinken as his replacement to continue his policies.
Wasn’t Tony Blinken one of the 51 liars in 2020 who said Hunter Biden’s laptop was from Russia?
The IBJ refers to Trump’s time in office as his “tumultuous four years in office”.
I’am curious as to how they would view the last 3 1/2 years under Biden. Is the country better off now??
Agree! I was hoping the IBJ could use a news source that seemed less biased, but that’s the state of affairs with media nowadays
Demonstrably, yes. The country is better off now. By like, every quantifiable measure.
A.R.: out of control inflation, unaffordable homes, disaster in Afghanistan and Ukraine, surrender to China, stagnant real net worth of average Americans, out of control energy prices.
Better off according to who?
Inflation and housing unaffordability started before Biden. Unaffordable housing is a predictable outcome of 40 years of bad housing policy across all levels of government and the housing crises started well over a decade ago; we’re just now recognizing it as a problem. Inflation is well below where it was when Biden initially took office and is below half the rate of the rest of the Western world.
More people are gainfully employed, high rates of small business openings, deficit reduction, and we aren’t hiding in our homes from an out of control virus with a President who likes to make up stuff as he goes and fails to maintain clear and concise communication and an effective response.
Out of control energy prices? Where? Fuel prices are lower (adjusted for inflation) than when Bush was in office.
Surrender to China? How? I don’t see that at all. In fact, Biden has been tougher on China than Trump was. Biden actually implements policy, Trump was a loose cannon that got us into a trade war with China that didn’t go well for either party. Don’t forget how Trump wants to open the floodgates for Putin and Ping by screwing over NATO.
Your claim that the real net worth of average Americans is just a lie. It took me two seconds to find that the real net worth of the average American household increased 37% between 2019 and 2022.
I’m not saying things are “good,” but they’re definitely better than they were. I’m much happier and better off in a Biden economy than I am in a Trump one. Trump just wants to strip the government for parts and sell it off to the highest bidder.
401k highest ever.
So I’d call that a success?
Before Trump took office, NATO countries were NOT paying their fair
share. That’s why many Scandinavian countries and others were able
to expand their welfare states.
Second, many European countries let their militaries detoriate to
very low levels. They chose to spend their money on social welfare programs.
👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻 the only thing that made it tumultuous was the media.
And, you know, his really terrible policies, catastrophic communications and response to a pandemic, disastrous foreign policy approach (remember how he cozied up to Putin, screwed over NATO, and lost the nuclear non-proliferation deal we had with Iran based on nothing other than his feelings?), the giant mess he created at the border, and deficit-exploding tax policy.
A.R., more people died under Biden than Trump.
Trump did everything humanly possible to combat the Covid crisis.
To say that Trump’s response to Covid was lacking is pure leftwing nonsense promoted
by the ( leftwing ) national news media.
Trump implemented the war powers act to manufacture supplies and
equipment to fight the Covid crisis.
Trump also let the states try to decide their course of action to fight
Covid.
Remember that Nancy Pelosi and other Dems failed to recognize the pseriousness
of Covid even after Trump realized it. There is video of Dems promoting attendance to China town parades and festivals in their cities. Especially in
NYC and San Francisco.
Last, Putin would NEVER have invaded Ukraine if Trump were in office.
There also would NOT have been the Hamas attack in Isreal on October 7th.
Both men are unfit to be President.
Yeah, but one is felon and habitual liar.
You are not getting a pony. Your choice is between an old workhorse, or a narcissistic pig.
Dan.
The national news media are still covering for Biden.
Trump told many lies during the debate, but so did Biden.
Biden lied every bit as much as Trump did.
I bet the IBJ about choked hitting the publish button on this article. As for the mainstream media misleading and flat out lying to the public about Biden for the last 3.5 years, they should all be held accountable but we know that will never happen. And they have the audacity to act shocked today as to Bidens cognitive decline?????
This is an A.P. story, not one from IBJ
Randy, when IBJ publishes a story even if it is regurgitating another source, they own the story.
And yes, IBJ employees must be in their safe spaces after that traumatic experience
A.R.
The national news media are overwhelmingly leftwing. They chose sides
decades ago. They’ve also been covering for Biden every step of the way.
Why does that surprise anyone??
That was no huge win for Republicans. Your nominee is a felon and a pathological liar, but that is not today’s story.
What lengths has the entire occupation of “journalism” gone to in the last 3 years covering for this guy? G7 clip- “oh, Joe was just talking to someone off camera”. Right.
Even last night he can’t walk down 3 steps right in front of the “journalists” but we have to see it in a rouge video
IBJ employees, you have a long 5 months of covering up for your Dementia in Chief. I hope you are well rested
Special Counsel Hur said Biden was too senile to prosecute for felonies.
Hur was proven 100% right last night.
No wonder Biden didn’t want to release his tapes.
A very poor article indeed.
This article, surprisingly, sounds as though it was penned by MSNBC with editing by CNN. From a strictly pragmatic historical position Trump’s 4 years were extremely successful. Does anyone remember when #45 ‘magically’ subdued Middle East tensions when addressing the Arab/Muslim world at a head of state conference in Riyadh? Biden, like all Presidents, swore to protect and defend the United States from enemies foreign and domestic. He went out of his way to not only abrogate that solemn duty, but went out of his way on day #2 of office to do just the opposite. Whatever one might think of Trump, Biden has proven to be everything Trump pointed out his administration has been at least as destructive as he pointed out. It hasn’t been an accidental ‘turn of events’ but through Presidential executive actions from Afghanistan forward.
Lol this is hilarious!
Lmao Trump’s presidency was a disaster. What are you on, because I want some.
His foreign policies sucked and he opened the gates for Putin to come into Ukraine, he entered into a trade war with China that went poorly, he lost the nuclear deal with Iran (based on absolutely nothing), stole classified documents and tried to hide them (all while showing them off to his party guests), made a massive administrative mess of the border, and enacted horrible tax policy that blew up the deficit. Don’t forget his performative nonsense, like when he cleared a park to hold a Bible upside-down outside of a church for optics. Rex Tiller was an absolute joke and the fact that Trump’s former cabinet is saying, “He sucks and shouldn’t be President” tells you everything.
Trump was absolutely awful in nearly every way that matters. Bad foreign policy, bad tax policy, bad economic policy, can’t communicate, can’t stay focused, and easily manipulated.
Putin invaded Ukraine twice: once on Biden’s watch and once on Obama’s watch.
Both Biden and Obama were instrumental in loosening sanctions and funneling billions of dollars to Iran, which in turn used the funds to foment insurgency and terrorist activity in the Arab world.
Biden has lorded over the largest influx of illegal aliens into the US in history, many of which are of questionable motive and background.
Those are the facts.
I remember three years the promised “Infrastructure Week” that never happened under Trump. Trump’s crowing legislation was tax cuts that ballooned the deficit. Or we could point to the grain tariffs that resulted in the successful passage of the bill that had to pay billions of dollars in farm subsidies to farmers that suddenly had nowhere to sell their grain.
The real chaos started when Trump politicized everything about the pandemic and up to 300,000 more Americans died because of his botched response.
There is a reason why history scholars rate Trump as one of the worst presidents ever.
Trump is not only the worst POTUS ever, he is the worse US citizen ever. His policies sucked and he’s primarily responsible for the inflation (40% increase in deficit under Trump) he weakened NATO and Ukraine while strengthening Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Trump is a career mob boss and convicted felon and rapist and only cares about himself. Trump is a pathological liar and inherited a strong economy and destroyed it and will destroy it again. There’s a reason many conservative GOP aren’t supporting Trump and 40/44 cabinet members and staff aren’t supporting him. Trump is a cult and laughingstock of the world.
Biden did a great job and passed very important and productive legislation despite little cooperation from the GOP. Yes, Biden is now too old and is past his prime and should drop out. But I would vote for Biden over Trump even if Biden was brain dead and on life support.
+1
Biden gets both of your votes. Congratulations. Good luck with that.
Thanks, Rich! It’s worked out so far. Much better than the bumbling orange traitor. Glad our two votes will cancel yours out and then some 🙂
Lol and who are you, exactly? Say something with substance instead of personal attacks. It gives you more credibility (albeit marginally).
LOL. “Worst US Citizen ever”. IBJ , you need to hire Mark immediately. He represents you perfectly and would make a great “journalist”
He does help illustrate the problem. Similar to Republicans voting for a reality show cartoon character, I have zero doubt Mark and his fellow Democrats would vote for a corpse if it had a D next to the name
Two awful choices. Rambling. Lies. Misrepresentations. Loss of thought. Yuk is the most polite thing that can be noted.
Massive tax cut benefitted big business but did not bring more revenue. Many jobs created are low-pay hence the push for higher wages.
The border issue needs not a wall but more more patrol and immigration judges to vet each applicant — we never should just “let ‘em in” because we run our of shelter space. Bu each state should bear the brunt, not just border states should be responsible for housing and related accommodation for immigrants.
US needs more workers. Social Security will be unsustainable.
US is [hopelessly] linked to cheap multinational coordination, be it call centers or steel or chips. An isolationist MO won’t work.
Abortion. Hmm. Back to the past with back alley abortions. Just as it was before in Indiana and other states. And the false rhetoric on this topic was shameful. The majority of abortion occur early, few have multiple abortions, and late term abortions were for health reasons. And abortions are sought by republicans and democrats.
Accompanied by a dysfunctional Congress more interested in insults, vendettas, and power plays, the US is imploding from within. Foreign manipulation of social media has effected mind control on many US cotizens who don’t know laws, procedures, or the Constitition so many yell about.
And that Electoral College still exists is proof that the US is a fake democracy. The EC is an anachronism. It should have been abolished decades ago. Let citizens directly elect a president — this would make candidates speak to all citizens, not just those on swing states as political advisors count to 270.
One so-called nation. 50 nationettes Two bad options. Choose the lesser of two evils or do not vote. Tough decision.
Millions of people pouring over our ‘sovereign’ border isn’t immigration, it’s an invasion. Exactly which land bridge did 30,000+ Chinese males of military age take to get here? Iranians, 31 arrested ISIS operatives, Guatemalans, charged in the murder and sexual assaults on at least 3 girls etc etc etc? By the way, for the Trump haters, obviously you weren’t the one buying groceries, paying rent, trying to buy a house, filling up at the ⛽️ , or even eating out at a fast food place let alone a sit down restaurant. As for telling ‘whoppers’ …..Biden is the all time champ. He was a lying creep as a junior congressman, a Senator, VP and now! He never met any of his son’s business partners, yeah right. Joking on tape at a meeting of the Council of Foreign relations about getting a prosecutor fired (which he did) is evidence in and of itself of his real personality and political extortion. It’s also evidence that he’s not too bright,….cognitive age problems or not.
Phew, you have taken some BIG GULPS of that Fox News Kool-Aid. Biden is pretty far from perfect, but he’s not the creep that Trump and the rest of the GOP are trying to project onto Biden. The reality is this – Only one of them has been found liable for sexual assault, only one of them has been sleeping around and then illegally using campaign funds to cover up their wrongdoings and paying off people for “catch and kill” on media stories, and only one has openly bragged about their control and disgust of women. And that person is Donald J. Trump.
Things were only “cheap” because Trump tanked the economy with his garbage management of literally everything. Demand crashed, there was mass unemployment, of course prices are going to fall. “Things were better because it was cheap” is not the argument you think it is. And don’t forget, Trump absolutely TRASHED the country financially. Second-biggest deficit spender in American history!
A.R., didn’t Joe Biden take naked showers with his daughter, which she attributed in her diary to screwing her up so badly she became a drug abuser?
Let’s see Democrats….a $34 trillion debt and climbing rapidly; policies that will destroy this economy long-term due to worshipping at the phony altar of “science” of “Climate Change”; (human beings can’t control the climate fools…and yes, we’ve been in a period of warming…. a helluva lot better than cooling!!!) policies designed to take “woman-hood” away from real women; policies that would never stop anyone from killing a baby in the womb regardless of when in the gestation period even if its a day before birth; failure to protect those most vulnerable in society from violent felons because “its racist” …I could go on and on but Biden is just a symptom of the disease of the Democrats …what a disgusting group of liars and fools!
Most of what you just said was a flat out lie. Like, right out the gate you blame the debt problem on Democrats when the Republican record is WAY WORSE. Trump was the second-largest deficit spender in American history. Your rant against intellectuals and peer-reviewed research is indicative of a general misunderstanding of the world. What ever happened to “facts don’t care about your feelings?” Kinda seems like conservatives are setting policy based on their fee-fees and not real life.
Also you can spare me with the “murdering babies” BS. Members of the last Trump admin have said, out loud and on record, that they don’t think the West is having enough babies and they want to restrict family planning and care to force more births. Once you’re born, good enough! That’s all you care about.
The Dems. above are all avoiding talking about the huge issue that was obviously apparent last night. Biden does not have the cognitive health to lead this country for four more years.
A.R. must be unemployed. Who has this much time during the weekday to argue on IBJ in favor of Joe Biden?
Where is IBJ’s own Joe B? He should have been here by now to Democrat-splain how having a president with severe dementia is perfectly normal and not a concern.
One more take: the biggest culprit here other than the “journalists” systemically lying to protect their guy, is “Dr” Jill Biden.
Any other rational family would be having heartfelt, hard conversations about taking away grandpa’s keys and is he a danger to himself. She is perfectly happy to hide the issues and foster him off on our country as president. She is grotesque.
The White House said that Joe’s terrible debate performance was due to the fact he is fighting a cold. Sounds like a very reasonable explanation to me. Let’s hope no domestic or international crisis ever happens when Joe has a runny nose.
The Indianapolis Star did something right and changed its policy this year to no longer have “comments” after its articles. They serve no purpose other than to let out frustration in a semi-public way. The IBJ might consider that as well.
I’ve been pretty well amazed that the comments in this section are pretty sane, with few personal attacks. They seem to be more representative of split media environment, where we have MSM on one site and the “conservative” propaganda machine on the other side.
It’s pretty amazing to me how people think the economy is tanking when my personal experience and what I can see with my own eyes tells me the opposite. There are more big cranes on our city skyline than I think I have ever seen in my life. There is more construction going on city wide than I have ever seen.
It’s as if no one read the ‘By line’ and realized the AP wrote this story, not IBJ.
It’s also obvious A-aRon can’t get over himself or Biden’s failing dementia. Maybe A should get a job writing biased journalism.
I must confess it was really encouraging to see nearly every right wing pundit in America this morning demand that Trump remove himself from consideration as the Republican nominee after his dismal performance last night. They all noted with great sadness that during the debate last night he lied constantly and denied having sex with a porn star (while his third wife was at home with their new infant)—despite a jury verdict finding him guilty of 34 felonies, not to mention being found liable for sexual assault (the judge said it was the same as “rape”). These pundits all wrung their hands with anxiety and fear that Trump could lose the election! And no wonder: what moral person could possibly vote for a sociopath who wants to destroy America?! At least the right wing pundits have a sense of right and wrong, even if their candidate does not.
Neither should be president, end of story. Biden has less dangerous people surrounding him. Trump is a threat to democracy, lied repeatedly during the debate, and rarely answered a question asked of him. Biden clearly is nor physically or mentally capable to serve another 4 years. We know the Republicans don’t have the courage to replace him as the nominee. Let’s hope that the Democrats have the courage to replace Biden. Independents like myself will be deciding this election.
Biden went out from his bunker today, speaking with his dem buds. Damage control. Then he spoke to a sparse gathering in that irritating ‘Walter’ voice..saying “at least I know how to tell the truth.” 🤣😉