U.S. Presidential Debate: Biden Stumbles Early, Trump Fires Out Falsehoods
Editor
28 June 2024 09:28 WIB
POLARIZED NATION
The debate takes place at a time of profound polarization and deep-seated anxiety among voters about the state of American politics. Two-thirds of voters said in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll that they were concerned violence could follow the election, nearly four years after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Trump took the stage as a felon who still faces a trio of criminal cases, including to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president, who persists in falsely claiming his defeat was the result of fraud, has suggested he will punish his political enemies if returned to power, but he will need to convince undecided voters that he does not pose a mortal threat to democracy, as Biden asserts.
Biden's challenge was to deliver a forceful performance after months of Republican assertions that his faculties have dulled with age.
While national polls show a tied race, Biden has trailed Trump in polls of most battleground states that traditionally decide presidential elections. Just this month he lost his financial edge over Trump, whose fundraising surged after he was criminally convicted of trying to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Neither Biden nor Trump is popular and many Americans remain deeply ambivalent about their choices. About a fifth of voters say they have not picked a candidate, are leaning toward a third-party candidate or may sit the election out, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
"They're horrible candidates," said Kathy Elder, a 59-year-old sales manager who voted for Trump in 2016 before switching to Biden in 2020.
Elder, who planned to watch the debate, said she cringes whenever they speak – for different reasons.
When it comes to Biden, she said, "Can he speed this up and actually talk?" As for Trump, she said, "What the hell is going to come out of his mouth?"
Trump's niece Mary Trump, who has been critical of her uncle, will join Biden's campaign in its media spin room following the debate, a campaign official said.
Several contenders to be Trump's vice presidential pick - North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and U.S. senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio - traveled to Atlanta and were expected to make Trump's case in the post-debate spin room.
The second and final debate in this year's campaign is scheduled for September.
REUTERS
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