It was a massacre. Within thirty seconds Biden had stumbled on his words. Trump grinned with glee, as Biden blinked and struggled through the first question on inflation.
Every year of Biden’s 81 was on display; He looked old and, in keeping with Trump’s infamous nickname, he looked sleepy.
The Democrat stared down at his notes as if he was snoozing.
There were coughs, he forgot basic words, and then he seemed to lose his trail of thought completely.
Joe Biden struggled throughout the debate
CNN
And if Biden was asleep, Trump was awake.
Whenever Biden froze, Trump pounced. He twisted Biden’s mistakes into a knife, and plunged it into the President.
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This wasn’t the shouty Trump of the 2020 debates, instead he was cool, calm and surgical.
There were more interruptions from Biden than Trump, who held his tongue in his mouth like it was stuck in with gum.
The Donald's Trump Card was immigration. “He opened the border,” the former President slammed time and again.
Trump was funny too. He called Zelensky “the greatest salesman in history” after Biden consistently offered up hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to the Ukrainian President.
Biden appeared to have several lapses
CNN
Trump is at his weakest when he is rambling, and there were a few questions, such as when he was asked about how he would make child care more affordable, when he simply ranted in hyperbole.
“I was the greatest and he was the worst” could summarise much of Trump’s arguments.
Biden was strongest on abortion. He came out in strong defence of Roe vs Wade, the Supreme Court decision that effectively legalised abortion throughout America.
When Biden was coherent, which wasn’t always guaranteed, his attacks could sting. He recalled a disputed story that Trump called veterans losers, and it clearly got under his rival’s skin.
CNN
Yet every time Biden launched an attack, there was an inevitable stumble. He would charge forward with a spear and more than half the time would trip up on a word.
“Millionaire, I mean billionaire,” the elderly President would mumble.
However, the debate’s lasting moments will likely not be in what was said, but how each candidate looked.
The contrasting images of the two will define the debate.
A portrait of Trump looking vaguely smug but confident while he listened to his opponent attempt to make it through the end of his sentence is an image many Americans will have recognised from the countless debates Trump has partaken previously.
However, it was the image of Biden looking dazed that was most memorable.
The most powerful man on earth seemed to stare into dead air, contemplating nothing.
It looked bizarre, surreal, old.
Already the Biden campaign is coming out with excuses, claiming he has a cold.
It won’t be enough to persuade Americans of his mental ability.
Trump will be coming out of the debate with his cheshire smile firmly wide.
This was his first major chance in the campaign to hit a blow on his opponent, and he hit him time and again.
The question for many now is, can Joe Biden survive this night as the Democratic candidate?