'Babbling' and 'hoarse': Biden's debate performance sends Democrats into a panic
'Babbling' and 'hoarse': Biden's debate performance sends Democrats into a panic
The president often had a weak, raspy voice during his first debate against Trump, in what Democrats had hoped would be a turning point in the race.
So, we've got an old, racist guy who lied through most of his statements and refused to possibly say that he would accept the results of the election vs an old guy with a history of a speech impediment that showed signs of his speech impediment and regularly pointed out the lies spouted off by his convicted felon opponent. Why are the media companies banking Trump again?
Biden's performance wasn't an impediment. It was him fumbling and stuttering over his words, forgetting his debate prep and saying nonsensical things. I absolutely do not want Trump to win, but Biden's debate performance in reality was poor. Many Democrats don't want to accept that. It is fine if they want to ignore facts. The truth is the Democrats would be far better off if Kamala or AOC or someone else was running for President, and they are risking way too much despite the facts.
It's not just a speech impediment, it's a speech impediment in a fucking 81 year old man who shouldn't be dealing with a stressful job in politics. Been around many octogenarians? He did great for someone his age.
If he were up against someone in their 30s or 40s, it would be terrible but, against an old racist nazi who can only seem to make complete statements when they are provably false? Well, I'd still prefer someone else but at least he has the balls to actually say the forbidden words of "you're lying" and he's the only choice that we're allowed to have as infuriating as that is.
AOC? An ambitious woman who just barely will have squeezed past the minimum age requirement by the time of the election and half the country has decided is a communist? Don't get me wrong, I think she'd be a fantastic candidate, maybe even the best, but I sincerely doubt that she'd poll better than Biden, even considering his horrendous performance in yesterday's debate.
I watched it and this wasn't a stutter. This was a loss of his train of thought, switching topics unexpectedly, and creating needless openings for Trump to talk about things Biden didn't have a good defense for. To be clear his decision making faculties are obviously intact. But this performance was really really bad. Night and day from 4 years ago.
It absolutely wasn't just a stutter. It was an 81 year old with a history of speech impediment - things like that can manifest differently in old age. Maybe it's from having grown up with a mother who was a nurse at an assisted living facility but, I really think that anyone who was shocked was setting expectations that are disconnected from the reality of how age impacts our communication abilities. If setting the bar at standards for people 10, 20, or 50 years younger, yeah, it was terrible. Relative to people of advanced age? He did well. When you're that old, 4 years in a high-stress position is a long time.
It's a bullshit choice as neither are in an age range where they should have power over long-term policy. It's also pretty horrific in terms of ethics. But, a soggy turnip would be better than any nazi, much less a nazi who is a compulsive liar intent on using the political system for revenge and installing himself as dictator.
Exactly. I guess we are learning that most of our fellow citizens have a hard time with nuance, and all they can do is shit their pants instead of toughen up.
Some people just aren't living in denial
Did you see the audience metrics during his last presidency?
How come when they show old campaign videos of Biden where he's plagiarizing others his so called stutter/speech impediment doesn't seem to be there? And I thought the new excuse was that Biden had a cold anyway
...He was younger and the videos, being campaign videos, are edited to show him in the best possible light?
ETA: To be clear, I don't think that he or anyone else too old to have to worry about the long-term consequences of their actions should be in office. But, he's the only non-nazi choice available.
Joe's a racist too. His immigration policy is identical to Trump's and he's been outspoken in his seeing palestinians as subhuman.
The guy fought against school integration even before he got this old. He's always been a racist pos same as any Republican.
While I think that Joe's got some dated views, being 81, if you're honest, you've got to acknowledge that the immigration bill was nothing more than calling the GOP bluff and getting extra fodder for election ads. They knew that the GOP wouldn't allow it to pass. It's politics at its most bullshit; playing with human lives for points.
For the bussing, that was fifty, 5 0 years ago and his views have clearly changed. Yes, he has no legitimate place in politics at his age but neither does his opponent, who has been known to admire fascist and authoritarians of yore and the modern day.
How high are you right meow?
It was dumb just going along with Biden as the nominee, hubris and status quo thinking. Now the Democratic party needs to come up with something to energize the electorate. Scaring people with democracy being on the line, while completely true, isn't gonna do it. Hoping the attacks on reproductive rights will carry them over the finish line is a bad idea. Trying to bring Harris out now into the limelight isn't gonna work. People are tired and struggling. The youth feel betrayed and themselves are struggling. There is no energy coming from up on top. Dems have always sucked at messaging.
Bernie Sanders would have eaten Trump alive in every debate, including this last one.
Dem leaders prefer Trump to a real structural progressive economic reform.
The billionaires buy both parties now. Capitalism sucks chunks.
The billionaires of today love the status quo.
Is a full on fascist dictatorship the “status quo” now? Surprised billionaires would be behind this.
The
billionairesrich buy both parties now.
🌎👨🚀🔫👨🚀
Dem leaders prefer Trump to a real structural progressive economic reform.
Literally no Dem in the entire country prefers Traitorapist Trump to even a house plant. Trump and "real structural progressive economic reform" are completely disconnected things. It's not even remotely an either/or choice.
He could energize the electorate by ending the genicide in Palestine, nationalizing the rail industry or Boeing, expanding the Supreme Court and investigating their corruption, or displaying unlimited support for clean energy and dismantling the fossil fuel industry. But I doubt any of that will happen.
I think we've been operating on the false assumption that the Democratic partys primary goal is to win. I would wager that as far as campaign contributions go, it's likely better for them financially if they barely lose. I feel like the past few presidential races have been the American populace trying to force them to win anyways when they obviously didn't want to.
A lot of their decisions make a lot more sense in that context.
It’s easier to fundraise as an opposition party.
it’s likely better for them financially if they barely lose
LMFAO that makes absolutely no sense. The only use of the money they raise is to win elections. It's not like if they lose they can use the leftover money to buy a new car. If there even is any leftover money, which there almost always is not.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Show real people who have been helped by Biden's policies in the commercials.
People don't trust institutions anymore. They don't trust authority anymore. But put a real person in front of them and there's a chance a plurality won't call them paid actors and will understand that things are getting better.
What a disaster. I can’t remember the last time I saw a decent presidential debate, they all devolve into completely failing to answer the questions and just attacking the opponent. The only thing this new format did was prevent them from constantly talking over the opponent when their time was up.
What the hell happened to Biden? I mean, he’s old…but normally his speaking is far, far better despite his stutter. He could hardly get coherent rebuttals out half the time and had a hard time enunciating his policy goals.
Trump…nothing but a torrent of lies, [insert group] loves me, and “hurr durr you’re stupid, Biden.” But he was able to spew his word salad clearly.
They should have had fact-checkers, but the problem is that trump told so many lies so fast that 75% of the debate would have been the moderators having to correct trump’s bs.
This was embarrassing, to put it mildly. Terrifying to see trump look better than Biden - if you ignore what was actually said.
Legitimately planning how I'm going to weather a Trump presidency after the debate. Unimaginably disheartening.
You could call your congressional representatives asking that they encourage Biden to step aside for a better candidate.
Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport III 5.56 NATO w/ bump stock
/liberalgunowners is on Reddit.
There will be other elections. And more debates including the VP one. Maybe we will get lucky and one of them will die.
that was the worst fucking thing i've seen on tv in my life. holy shit that was depressing. yet it feels incredibly vindicating seeing every single media outlet openly say 'that was a disaster, he should probably be out'. that was an absolute failure. rescheduling the debate would look better than that shit.
the take away from social media is fascinating, especially on the lemmyverse: the pejorative stores about biden's performance are everywhere online and tv, but heavily downvoted on .world while the rest of the lemmyverse is much more closely matched with everything else in the world.
seeing every single media outlet openly say 'that was a disaster, he should probably be out.’
So it should be easy to source a couple of them saying that, right?
you're quibbling about sources after that?
i mean ok:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/biden-debate-performance-democrats-panic-rcna157279
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4745090-biden-debate-disaster-democrats-concerned/
There was a 12 point swing towards Trump in the before and after CNN flash poll. That's bad. That's wake everyone up and reef the sails because an out of season hurricane blew up on us bad.
People who aren't the VBNMW crowd saw the writing on the wall for Biden. This debate only helped Trump even tho Trump literally didn't answer anything. That is Trump's style all insults or jokes and no substance. Not sure what happens here it is way too late to switch to anyone else. We're cooked.
I literally counted every one of Convicted Felon and Sex Offender Treason Trump's lies and the total was over 200.
As for Biden, I am deeply hoping that behind the scenes other Dem politicians are furiously trying to convince Biden to drop out and be replaced with Gavin Newsom. The party rules are that Biden would need to agree to formally release his delegates. But since Biden has maintained all along that he only ran to keep Treason Trump out of office, I think it would be possible to persuade Biden to drop out. Leave Harris as VP because she would need to have buy in as well. The convention is not till August so it doesn't have to happen tomorrow but it does need to happen before the convention so they need to start working on it right now.
I watched about 30 minutes, gotta say Trump was all over the map and not answering questions. Biden was raspy and stuttered, like he does , but he actually answered the questions. Trumps answer about what he would do about the fentanyl crisis was 'I bought a dog'
When asked if he supports some restrictions on abortion, Biden said he “supports Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters. The first time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. A third time is between the doctor, I mean, between the women and the state.”
Guess we didn't learn the RGB lesson? Oh well, repeating our mistakes it is!
Well get ‘em next time. Oh wait…
Ruth Gader Binsburg
Haha good catch. Too many LEDs for me apparently!
Yep, that was so much worse than I ever imagined it was going to be.
I expected nothing and I was still disappointed.
The only realistic person who would replace Biden is Kamala Harris, and I don't think people would vote for her.
She's not Trump. People would vote for her.
Those of us who pay attention and give a shit would vote for her, but Biden (or what’s left of him) already has our votes whether we like it or not.
But for the people who are disconnected or ignorant enough that they aren’t already itching to vote against Trump? They can be influenced by the dumbest things.
Hillary isn't Trump. And people still hated her, more than they disliked Trump. And now, the DNC and the Biden campaign has the onerous and extremely difficult, if not impossible task of making people hate Trump more than they dislike Biden.
This seems to be the only criteria anyone can evaluate. But if that's the case, why bother removing Biden? Let the man drool his way into a second term. Its all the same, so long as he isn't Trump.
The only realistic person who would replace Biden is Kamala Harris, and I don’t think people would vote for her.
Nope. We need Gavin Newsome. If Biden released his delegates they would not be bound to Harris they could vote for anybody. But it would be helpful to have her buy in and I think she should be kept on the ticket as VP.
Still better than the Traitorapist.
Traitorapist.
OMG Awesome label! I am so stealing that from you!
Please spread it far and wide
Traitorapist
Oh come on, you're not even trying now, lol
No doubt it's easy pickins...
They did this to themselves. Total strategy failure, holding this debate so early in the race. Also trusting CNN's moderator to follow all the rules and fact check both candidates live.
Why do liberals fail at strategy? I suspect it's due to their tendency to spend more time thinking about how to go about things than on what things they should go about. Valuing the means at the expense of the ends, yet again.
In this instance, the moderators specifically refused to be fact checkers and declared that fact checking would be left to the candidates. It was a bit of a missed opportunity that Biden didn't refute more of Trump's falsehoods.
You're not wrong, but the mics being turned off worked against Biden. Because his mic was cut off during the debate, Trump had free reign to spew falsehoods like a damn fire hose, and Biden had no time to even go, "Will you shut up, man?"
Wow, you're smart! You should be president! You can fix everything right?
This sarcasm doesn't help. But to answer your obviously facetious question, no, I can't fix everything. But what I can do, is consider that perhaps pursuing justice rather than manners might actually be "going high". And if Republicans are going to break rules, I'm certainly within my rights to bend them. We can all agree that "The ends justify the means" is a shitty moral philosophy, but you liberals tend to overcorrect to the point where thinking about the ends at all is -in some vaguely reflexive kinda way- innately immoral.
And I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but even I know there is a moral imperative to disobey the rules when following will not lead to justice.
I can also call a fascist, a fascist. Instead of simply requesting that the rules be followed, and trusting that fascist ideas will be voted against, we should do to fascists, everything that they would do and have already done to us.
He seems like he's doing a-ok today. Wtf???where was this guy last night?? https://youtu.be/eWylhLOPk8c?si=E5uZIHS15XQ_TKma
Jesus effing Christ, if this huge difference in energy was down just to some misfortunate cold at the time of the debate, it would be one of the most unfortunate timings. I don't know if Trump would agree to a second debate now that he's reaped some positives (or more like negatives for Biden), and also on another network that does any fact-checking. So sadly this failed debate might turn to be a pivotal point for the election.
They forgot to give him his stims last night /s
Sounds good. I will enthusiastically vote for Biden. Let's go.
Can you spread that enthusiasm to 82 million more people?
Yes.
This whole night was so many layers of exhausting, but probably not for the reasons you think... No rational, serious person was expecting Biden to Willy Wonka front somersault into this debate? it was going to be what this was, the only true surprise was probably the volume of his voice (which they chalk up to a cold, okay fine, I guess) and actually how well he did quickly processing and responding to trump's gish gallop and unchecked stream of consciousness mistruth firehose with little help from the impotent moderators for the majority of the night.
The people in this country, in their immediate reaction to this debate, demonstrate that they just fundamentally lack the focus, empathv and frankly basic intelligence to process the substance of this or any debate. On average, we respond solely to voice pitch, tonality, body language and facial expressions, like a still developing toddler... Or a dog.
On average, we respond solely to voice pitch, tonality, body language and facial expressions, like a still developing toddler... Or a dog.
And so knowing that, the DNC should have put somebody up who appeals to those... dogs.
Like, obviously the smart decision is to vote for Biden anyway, but fuck me if they aren't making this November win, what should be a slam dunk against a fascist, the most difficult in recent history.
If Trump wins, the DNC owes us blood.
Or a gorilla, but I think a gorilla is too much credit.
Shoulda given him the juice!
The gaslighting ran out of gas
There’s a rumor that they are going to replace Biden with Jimmy Carter, so he can get a second term. I joke.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
ATLANTA — President Joe Biden was supposed to put the nation’s mind at ease over his physical and mental capacity with his debate showing Thursday night.
In one of the most notable moments, Biden ended a rambling statement that lacked focus by saying, “We finally beat Medicare,” before moderators cut him off and transitioned back to Trump.
Nearly an hour into the debate, a Biden aide and others familiar with his situation offered up an explanation for the president’s hoarseness: He has a cold.
Even the Biden campaign acknowledged that the debate would be a critical moment in the election, with officials hoping it could shake up the race to the president’s benefit.
The public concerns are exacerbated by deceptively edited videos, some of which have gone viral, that cut off relevant portions of an event, making it appear as if Biden is wandering or confused.
A Biden aide said that it was “not an ideal start” for the president at the beginning of the debate, but that there was “no mass panic” at the campaign headquarters in Delaware.
The original article contains 675 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I dont get why people attack Biden for having a stutter. He stutters. We know. He always did, its why he does these breaks when speaking. Everything else is warranted though. He is way too old and slow. Still much better than the other old and slow dude.
Bruh he sounded ancient. I actually found it challenging to follow what he was saying.
he wasn't so bad in 2020. he just aged a lot
The conspiracy theorists all say Joe is supposed to step down and Gavin Newsom somehow is added to the ticket which then will win. These conspiracy theorists also say that candidates are selected in advance by the powers that be and it’s all pagentry to deceive the gullible masses. Try to look surprised when he gets replaced and they add Gavin.
I heard quite a few people earlier in the year stating that the plan was for Joe to bow out last minute due to health issue, and announce that Michelle Obama would be the candidate. I know it's probably not likely, but it's an exciting thought. Someone like Newsom would be another decent option
That would be way too risky, and I like Obama and Biden wasn't even my first choice!
Sanders, on the other hand...
I didn't say it wasn't risky. I'm saying what I heard. But, I also don't think it's that risky.
She would be a much better debater and candidate, and it would likely erase much of the voter apathy with the huge 40 and under group. Especially with abortion and womans rights on the table.
And I'm a huge Bernie supporter, but we've seen several times now that the DNC isn't going to give him a chance. So who else you got cause Bernie's chance died in 2016
Without reading this- I’m going to say…… no, it didn’t.
Doesn't Biden have a cold?
Immune systems of 80 year old men are notoriously not great.
I find it ironic when the Left says "I don't care if Biden is senile and incoherent, I'll still vote for him!" no one cares... But, when the Right says "I don't care that Trump is being charged with all these different things, I'll still vote for him!" they're idiots... funny how that works on Lemmy and Reddit...
Because one of these wants to destroy democracy and the right of many people to even exist.
But tell me again how the tangerine terror isn't going to corrupt everything....
I don’t care if Biden is senile and incoherent,
There is not a big overlap between what skills a candidate needs and what skills a president needs. 99% of the job of president is to make decisions. That's the job. Even if he lost his voice entirely and was in a wheel chair like FDR, he could still make excellent decisions. President Biden absolutely killed it for 2 hours at the state of the union speech. Nobody who was "senile" could have done that.
I’ll still vote for him!”
Have you not been paying attention to current events? The country is at a critical junction between democracy and neofascism. OF COURSE I'm going to vote for the continuation of democracy. Anybody who does not would be an idiot. I would vote for a literal corpse over Convicted Criminal and Sex Offender Treason Trump.
Neofascism an overrated word thrown around by the Left. That's like me saying that the Democrats are going to turn our country into socialism, when we know that's not true. We heard all these things before, how horrible the country would be if Trump got elected, the "end of democracy"...and yet, under Trump none of those things happened. Both sides use scare tactics, the Democrats are no better.
The system leaves us with a binary choice. Even the third "option" of inaction is essentially leaving it up to fate at best, and at worst is just handing the controls over.
The room you're in is sealed, filling with water, and you can access a snorkel or a fire hydrant.
One of these things is not like the other...
If you are upset with Bidens chances, Bidens genocidal foreign policy, bidens too little too late climate policy or bidens xenophobic foreign policy:
Consider voting for a third party that actually has a platform and politics that aligns with your own.
Now that it’s clear the democrats won’t win. Now that it’s clear the only people throwing their votes away are the ones who carefully, tactically, thoughtfully attach their support to the democrats. Now that it’s clear a new American political formation has to emerge.
Take this opportunity to record your needs in the only way that cannot be ignored, glossed over, deepfaked or otherwise denied.
Voting won’t be enough, but it’s the start to a new alignment within the power structure we have. Be kind and understanding towards your neighbors.
Classic bloodfart.
If you got a messed up Linux I’ll help you with it.
I'm not in a panic. I knew this. Should he have run again? Hell no. I wish he would have had the courage to call it a day.
That being said, I'm fully willing to endure 4 years of Weekend at Bernie's if it means I won't have to go through the embarrassment of having the orange moron at the helm.
Are you willing to let Trump win though than have Biden step aside? That is what the DNC should be asking themselves. The polls are way to close for Biden to have that poor of a performance. If Democrats are seriously worried about Trump being the end of Democracy then they would not be okay with Biden being the DNC's best choice.
I think it's to late to change things up. That's the problem, everyone told the DNC this was going to happen and yet they all just kept with Biden.
That being said, I don't think either Trump or Biden are in a state to actually run the country. Their cabinets are going to hold all the power, and I trust Bidens cabinet over Trumps any day.
While I agree, it's way too late in the game to change up now. There's no strong candidate waiting in the wings. It's not about willing, it's about alternatives.
Now I'm sad because I remember wishing Bernie had won.
You and me both, man. He was my guy.
We all are dude. Or so I am guessing.
But it was Hilary's turn! /s
C’est la vie
Embarrassment and danger.
There's no danger. Even frail Biden is 1000x more competent than trump
We'll need to see the polling in about a week but I haven't seen a performance this bad since Palin. The Democrats may need to go to an open convention.
DEAR PLEASE GOD someone turn this into comedic satire before the election!!!
I would. You would. But there are millions of voters who aren’t as informed. And what they saw last night was an ancient, out of touch candidate channeling Walter Mondale. Many will probably still vote for him, but this performance will depress voter turnout.
After he wins the election, he could retire and let Harris rule in his stead.
Then there's Schumer (provided he's still the majority leader.)
There really is no need for a weekend at Bernie's situation.
The tradition for an out-of-it pres is the first lady runs the show.