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There has been a storm of protest on social media over Biden’s performance during the debate.
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Many felt disappointed by the prospect of either candidate – and their age.
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Biden already struggled to reach Gen Z voters, many of whom follow the news on TikTok even before the debate.
There was one bright spot in Biden’s appalling performance during the CNN debate: Relatively few people were watching.
But a critical audience did not need to see it live.
Polls show Biden has major problems with Gen Z and millennial voters, with their support for him falling even before the debate.
And those younger voters are watching TV less and less: About a third of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 consistently get their news from TikTokas found in a 2023 Pew Research Center survey.
But if Biden was hoping TikTok would respond better to the debate than panicked Democrats, he will be disappointed.
A study by social intelligence firm CredoIQ found that the 450 most popular TikToks were about the debate, which collectively received approximately 483 million views.
The report found that 39% of the videos only expressed negative sentiments about Biden.
By comparison, only 9.5% of those videos were purely negative about Trump, the study found. Negative TikToks about Biden also outperformed videos critical of both candidates, which accounted for about 35% of the videos.
Overall, TikTok users seem to be feeling pretty down about the whole event. CredoIQ said only 5% of the top posts contained positive sentiments.
Biden’s ‘memeable’ face
While political pundits are focusing on Biden’s clumsy answers, some on TikTok are taking aim at his “memeable face.”
One video that collected short clips of Biden looking confused, with his mouth open and his brow furrowed, has been viewed more than 5 million times. In the background, the creator can’t help but laugh out loud.
Others have now compared Joe Biden to Joe Biden of old. A side-by-side video comparing Biden’s performance in the 2012 vice presidential debate to his performance on Thursday drew more than 8 million views, with many commenters saying he seemed like a different person.
“I need a prescription for Adderall, and it’s not for me, it’s for that fucking Joe Biden,” James Charles, a popular influencer, said at the beginning of a video that has been viewed nearly 19 million times.
Charles also took a swipe at Trump in his two-minute tirade, criticizing his federal convictions and calling both candidates “corpses.”
But Charles also faced a flood of criticism over his video, in which he blamed Biden for the demise of abortion rights and Roe v. Wade.
And to be fair, Biden did have some defenders. One creator, for example, speculated that his performance could be due to past health issues or his “speech impediment.”
Nihilism everywhere
Many users lamented the political course America took after Biden himself. Critics criticized Trump’s widespread lies and criminal charges.
On a TikTok channel with nearly 18 million views, the 2012 Obama-Romney confrontation was compared to the disastrous Trump-Biden confrontation.
The warm dialogue between Obama and Romney is interspersed with patriotic music, while Trump and Biden’s voices sound faster and higher.
One commentator noted the candidates’ ages, writing, “It’s just sad that Obama and Romney are both younger than either Biden or Trump today.”
“Give them both a PDF,” wrote one creator on X in a post viewed 4.6 million times. “First one to rotate becomes president.”
Despite the somber reception, there were several moments that stood out and even led to lightness.
An Instagram post collected the night’s top memorable moments, including Biden’s dig at Trump as having the “morals of a street dog,” Trump calling Biden a “really bad Palestinian,” and a discussion about which candidate could hit the golf ball the farthest.
“My fellow Americans,” concluded one commentator, “we are fed up with this.”
Correction: July 1, 2024 — An earlier version of this article incorrectly displayed the number of views for a TikTok video of clips of Biden looking confused. It received more than 5 million views, not nearly 9 million.
Read the original article on Business Insider
