1 of 2 | President Joe Biden stands on the stage during a break in the CNN presidential election debate against former President Donald Trump in Atlanta on Thursday. Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/UPI | License Photo
June 28 (UPI) — President Biden’s hoarse stammering during Thursday’s presidential debate has ignited concerns among Democrats about the November election.
Sources within the Biden campaign told CNN the president has had a cold for a few days. That has not eased the apparent panic among many in his party after Thursday’s debate performance.
During a press gaggle at an Atlanta Waffle House Friday Biden said that he has a sore throat.
“It’s hard to debate a liar,” Biden said.
The debate was held in a CNN studio in Atlanta without an audience.
Some Democrats have been quoted Friday expressing fear that the president’s performance has doomed his campaign and may hurt candidates down the ticket. Biden’s age — 81 — already was a chief concern among voters.
According to a pre-debate poll by Gallup, about 59% of respondents said they were “very concerned” that Biden is too old to be president. About 18% said the same about former President Donald Trump, who is just three years younger.
Trump is currently the third-oldest president ever elected. If elected in November, he would be the second oldest behind Biden.
The 78-year-old former president also stuttered through his delivery on a few occasions, though his debate performance was more glaringly marked with dozens of falsehoods.
Neither candidate has been formally nominated to appear on November’s ticket. The Democratic National Convention will be held Aug. 19 to 22 at the United Center in Chicago. The Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee on July 15. Both candidates have earned the requisite delegates to be named their party’s nominee.
Speaking on CNN’s post-debate show, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged Biden’s struggles Thursday night.
“It was a slow start, that’s obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point,” Harris said. “I’m talking about the choice in November. I’m talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime. And do we want to look at what November will bring and go on a course for America that is about a destruction of democracy?”
The president struggled to deliver clear responses out of the gate on Thursday, muffling a cough and sounding raspy as he faced questions about the economy. His struggles became more apparent at other points, stumbling between billions and millions when discussing taxing the wealthiest Americans who benefitted from Trump-era tax breaks.
Biden also fell short of clearly touting his policy victories on healthcare, misstating “We finally beat Medicare.”
Trump seized on some of these slip-ups. He agreed that Biden “beat Medicare.”
“He’s right. He beat it to death,” Trump said.
Abortion was an issue that Democrats and Trump, alike, have lent credit to swinging the midterm elections in favor of Democrats. However, Biden did not capitalize on this either, delivering a confusing comment on the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
“I support Roe v. Wade. You have three trimesters,” he said. “First time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. Third time is between the doctor — I mean, between the woman and the state.”
A few Democrats were quoted sharing their concerns by Politico.
“Biden is toast,” said Jay Surdukowski, former co-chair of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“Not good,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif.
The Biden campaign did not address the president’s performance directly in campaign emails. Instead it pointed to the volume of unproven, disproven and outright false statements made by Trump. One release by the campaign, titled “All 50 of Trump’s Lies” detailed these statements, though it did not counter them with evidence.
The president also pointed to some of Trump’s false statements during the debate. He said early in the evening that he was not there to fact check the former president.
Biden also brought Trump’s character into question, highlighting his 34 felony convictions and the civil suit in which he was found liable of rape.
“You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden said. “There’s a reason 40 of his 44 top Cabinet officers refused to endorse him this time. His vice president hasn’t endorsed him this time. Why?”
The second presidential debate is set to be hosted by ABC on Sept. 10. Some pundits speculate that after Thursday’s debate, Trump may be more likely to bypass another debate. So far he has not indicated as much.
The presidential election is 129 days away.
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