First television duel between Biden and Trump: gladiator fight

Perhaps it was fortunate for both candidates that 87 percent of the voters had already formed a firm opinion. Because anyone who saw the first television debate between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday would not have been smarter, at least in terms of content. Only 13 percent of those surveyed told the Monmouth University Poll ahead of time that the television duel could still influence which candidate they would vote on in the November 3 presidential election.

Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump (right) seemed like two old fighters who did not want to argue constructively, but rather to leave each other for long periods of their first television matchup.

Pool / Reuters

What happened in Cleveland, Ohio, on the south shore of Lake Erie for a good 90 minutes between Trump and Biden was not an exchange of views, but a dispute between two older men who kept interrupting and trying to interrupt each other. And among them sat host Chris Wallace, who tried in vain to control the president and seize the challenger.

Trump, 74, was more aggressive. The Republican kept interrupting Biden, even when he hadn’t spoken. He dominated the debate, but the impression he made was anything but positive. “Stop, stop, stop,” host Wallace yelled at him, as if the American president were a small child.

But what is even more serious: in this heated atmosphere, Trump was unable to provide information about his political program for a second term and, for example, explain to viewers how he wants to reshape the world’s largest economy. If you went into detail, for example, on the subject of environmental protection, then your statements did not seem really well founded. I want crystal clear air. I want clean water, ”said the president vaguely when speaking of climate change.

Democrat Biden, on the other hand, was repeatedly provoked by Trump. So he called the president a “clown” and yelled at him, “You can shut up!”

The Democrat had his best moments when he looked directly into the camera and spoke to voters. For example, Biden countered Trump’s attacks on his son Hunter, who played a supporting role in the Ukraine affair, with a clever camera stunt. The debate does not revolve around his family, Biden or the Trump family. “It’s about his family,” the former vice president told the camera, addressing the television audience.

Biden also managed to distance himself from the left wing of his party, which in Trump’s eyes wants to replace the capitalist system in America with a mix of socialism and communism. Thus, the Democrat found words of praise for the righteous police officers; Biden also distanced himself from the “Green New Deal,” the environmental policy ideas of young Democrats. But he also satisfied his party activists, who are not exactly enthusiastic about the veteran professional politician’s election campaign, by calling Trump a “racist.” He also called him a liar and “the worst president” the United States has ever had.

By the way, Biden didn’t look like the cartoon Trump and his campaign advisers had drawn of him in recent weeks. The 77-year-old was present, attacked the president where he could be attacked, for example on the corona pandemic and health insurance reform issues, and did not have a mass defection.

Ultimately, compared to his expectations, Biden fared better than Trump, who lags behind in opinion polls. Almost all commenters agreed, however, that the overall debate did not make a good impression. Some did not hold back in disappointment: CNN commentator Dana Bash spoke unflatteringly of even a “shit show.”