By Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night for a debate that will offer voters a rare side-by-side look at the two oldest candidates ever to seek the U.S. presidency.
These are some of the key conclusions from the debate:
NO HANDSHAKE, HOSEY VOICE
The two men, who have made no secret of their disdain for each other, did not shake hands as they walked to their podiums at the start of the debate. Biden frequently referred to Trump as “this guy” during his remarks.
Biden, clearly hoarse, accused Trump of leaving him a “terrible” economy. He did this in response to the moderators’ first question about the rising prices that consumers pay.
Trump responded that Biden’s handling of COVID was a “disaster” and said inflation was “absolutely destroying us.”
He blamed the pandemic for destroying the economy and his chances of re-election. “Everything was rocking good,” he said.
Voters now appear to be more in favor of Trump than Biden, with polls showing they favor Trump’s handling of the economy. Biden’s challenge on Thursday was to make it clear to viewers that his administration is the one that has pulled the country out of the hole left by the pandemic.
LOSING HIS MIND
Biden, 81, seemed to have lost the thread when he answered a question about the national debt.
Biden referred to “billionaires” several times, first calling them “trillionaires,” but then correcting himself.
Then, while arguing that the rich should pay more taxes, he seemed unable to complete his sentence. He paused for a long awkward moment before ending his thought in a way that sounded nonsensical. Tax reform would provide money to help “strengthen our health care system, and ensure that we can make every single lonely person eligible for what I was able to do with the, with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything that we had. have to do,” Biden said before pausing.
“We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, likely referring to COVID-19.
Trump, 78, collapsed.
“He’s right. He beat Medicare. He beat it to the death.”
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and James Oliphant; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)
