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Joe Biden and Donald Trump met Thursday for their first debate of 2024.
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It was an unmitigated disaster for Biden, because of his visibly weak performance.
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Trump has been able to take advantage of this and appears relatively calm and collected.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump met on Thursday for their first debate of the year.
It was a high-stakes gamble for Biden — and it went terribly.
From the start of the debate, there was an unmistakable weakness in the president’s behavior.
In response to CNN moderator Jake Tapper’s first question, Biden appeared breathless, rushing to list facts, slurring his words and occasionally leaving words out.
Biden sometimes uttered nonsensical sentences.
In response to another question about the war in Gaza, Biden said: “We are the largest producer of support for Israel of anyone in the world.”
When asked another question about the national debt, Biden inexplicably concluded by saying, “We finally defeated Medicare.”
President Biden appears to stumble while answering a question about drug prices, pausing before saying, “We finally defeated Medicare.”
Donald Trump: “He’s right, he defeated Medicare, he defeated it to death.” photo.twitter.com/JxyJXW6atJ
— The Recount (@therecount) June 28, 2024
“Well, he’s right,” Trump responded. “He defeated Medicare. He killed it.”
Trump, in turn, effectively capitalized on Biden’s weak performance, remaining calm and disciplined, though occasionally criticizing the president.
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” Trump said. “I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Thursday’s debate was the first general election debate ever recorded: although both men are the presumptive nominees of their respective parties, they have yet to be officially nominated.
There were some key differences between this debate and previous debates, including the two Biden-Trump debates in 2020: There was no studio audience, the microphones were turned off when the others spoke, and there would be two commercial breaks.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
Read the original article on Business Insider
