Sometimes, a single sentence defines the 90 minutes of a presidential debate. The one that will remain in the memory of the one held this Thursday in Atlanta between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, could mark an era as the most disjointed and least round in the history of the electoral face-to-face in the United States.
It was delivered by Biden at the beginning: “We will be able to help ensure all those things that we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we can make every person eligible for what. .. I have been able to deal with COVID, excuse me, dealing with everything that has to do with…. “said the president of the United States before losing his thread and freezing for several seconds. “We finally beat Medicare,” continued Biden, at 81 years old, the oldest occupant of the White House in US history.
The moment was not pleasant to see live. And it will still not be so the millions of times that this isolated piece of debate is consumed on social networks in the coming days. It was early proof that one of the hardest nights of her political career awaited Biden, who had arrived a week later preparing for the big occasion. From that moment on, you could almost hear his advisors asking for the time: the problem was that there were still 85 minutes of debate left.
Trump, emboldened when his rival later lost the thread again, said he had not understood what he had just said when he was talking about immigration. “I don’t think he even knows it himself,” he added.
The split screen of the CNN broadcast did not help the image of a president whose mental abilities voters have doubts about due to his advanced age. And the format, without an audience, which gave the face-to-face an air somewhere between unreal and ascetic, did not work in his favour either.
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The cable television network, paradoxically following the wishes of the Biden campaign, tried so hard to sanitize the conversation between the two with a lot of rules that in the end there was a television product without insults beyond the personal disqualifications that both exchanged. , but also too bland, with two presenters, dressed theatrically in white (Dana Bash) and black (Jake Tapper), who were infected by the lack of tension of the conversation they were moderating.
No handshake
The producers had placed the two lecterns closer than ever to each other, but the candidates preferred not to shake hands. And although Biden cast incredulous glances at Trump, he avoided, with calculated disdain, any eye contact with his opponent throughout the debate.
Another rule imposed by the organizers of the event was that there would be two breaks and that speakers were not to take notes or engage in conversations with their aides. These breaks were, as television rules dictate, to allow for commercials, although one commentator could not help calling them “bathroom breaks,” considering that the combined ages of the two candidates add up to as many years as two-thirds of the history of the American republic.
![Democratic candidate Joe Biden is applauded by his wife, Jill Biden, at the end of the debate.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/QGYCV4W4X6C2SJ5KXVO2H4YRM4.jpg?auth=67991e6389ea6e0f805a9f1952d9ce68aaae98d455c04cbcdbae04caf212de19&width=414)
![Passengers follow the presidential debate aboard a flight to Miami, Florida.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/B3ZETHEJQ5DHZJV222NQ4ULGGI.jpg?auth=e28e54124c579d55d0be373cf59d1946e432b463ec8186927802acd54571188d&width=414)
![Donald Trump talks about immigration in the presidential debate](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/C5GCFL6LIRE7DAOXBV4FF4E3TY.jpg?auth=9a2d588db61eae3c25d80fea08cc2b1c1f19e149efaece7c39d152dbfc020b73&width=414)
![Candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden, during the debate.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/KG3EDISVL5HYNLRAYDZRVSH37U.jpg?auth=3f7b4c7b3464c7aff87815c433099f48716ea3af86606d16e238943b2f20202d&width=414)
![A television broadcasts the debate at a bowling alley in South Portland, Maine.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/XW56G4N3PJF7THVOJNV6ZG74V4.jpg?auth=f3d987555482f7b4193490ef4ac1c8c3de0fa3929152c7145b27c487d24a9c2f&width=414)
![Republican candidate Donald Trump during the debate held at CNN studios in Atlanta.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/VIH6UID3XPNEZ2MLOFSIKBJSBQ.jpg?auth=80924ff56363e092582f2d4afe08a699c75fdfd37b8edac0b01ef22374c039c4&width=414)
![A man with his dog follows the debate in a bar in Hollywood (California).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/QSBZBKSDSNC3XCHAYF6UZRFVEU.jpg?auth=2226021dce3010b0120b86a14655bd29a37416f44634b1bcef7445e9fe916ac7&width=414)
![A man jumps over a projection of Joe Biden's face during a pro-Palestinian protest in Atlanta.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/HH36CLTTLDY3YSQASWDVVSBH2E.jpg?auth=35f66efd70db5a4a6e77b7fd96dffb5a96d3671995e109c0e20117f30e4ba119&width=414)
![Student supporters of Donald Trump project the debate onto the facade of a college fraternity in Atlanta.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/UKLGKUUB7SDZXMFYBQY2SSFNDI.jpg?auth=a311e6064f6505ede8bc2f5f9eb180ce249ca391d9418e7a4c213d6ac4831b1c&width=414)
![Joe Biden, during the debate.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/WYT55YF2U2DNXHWRQNGYFWMTNM.jpg?auth=187461bca09222fb4aa4c37fa015b2665b980d50ebfccd69252f49c88219f36e&width=414)
![Donald Trump answers a question during the debate, on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/HUENZVIG5ZJJWGBXMHKPZQ2L7A.jpg?auth=b019e1302dd7a39f967ac2de48b082186eb60f93467276dc24f0663abb0a2969&width=414)
![A bingo card of phrases commonly used by Trump at a Michigan Conservative Coalition meeting to watch the debate, in Novi, Michigan.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/KIUNG7Q6XVKDYVU2MIAK4KR5MU.jpg?auth=bc0b0fbe4e6eded3f81c5c84d4545f78c8d8db1fc30112df1a0e25407f7bfd15&width=414)
![A broadcast of the presidential debate translated into Spanish at a migrant shelter in Tijuana (Mexico).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/INZT27ULGBFTNBOEQD5KF2LNKM.jpg?auth=572a7addedaed765861fab64bf79a7b4603d60f52fcfa088e8fc7a59f9f98c19&width=414)
![Supporters of the Democratic party gathered in Wilmington (North Carolina) to watch the debate.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/6HPNIMQCRWJHARJ7LPFWLCPUTI.jpg?auth=0e5a4b104181c422b41d6e8b245a5bf73c6d73dad463eba19d808c15289138b5&width=414)
![Young people watch the broadcast of the debate in San Diego, California.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/HMMLPTL6YOX42HOGOOXLVBCXD4.jpg?auth=983e441838ae58db8794a3c1b0dc615cdac5494aaa11fb0bfbc87ea70da5c700&width=414)
![Joe Biden, upon his arrival in Marietta, Georgia.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/E5SEJLFV6FAVHHEPBQSHKC3ABQ.jpg?auth=fe6e2d815f1e1208ec68f38acdaeefdcef5b9a0f976dec3da1e5e72c02707035&width=414)
![Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in Atlanta hours before the electoral debate between candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/4QKUQIVZRCFILIDTJ32WTXBA34.jpg?auth=f053ebe471187918c8dc9a3a97f889ef3a5f1b985abf26b0ddc6befc12a4eb06&width=414)
![Supporters of Donald Trump wait for the presidential candidate at the Atlanta airport on Thursday.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/G2NBTLB56WUF7D4AO6N3R6ZE6U.jpg?auth=66e70236e21f781687c34b1a05a3af705d100999447cc66f8c35bc8dc5b9ccac&width=414)
At the height of the first of those pauses, the analysts had already started to call what was happening with Biden by name (“painful to contemplate”, headlined The Washington Post) And on the conservative Fox News, CNN’s arch-enemy — which retransmitted the signal provided by CNN despite the pain that must have been felt by each of the logos that filled the stage — they were already starting to celebrate the victory of their candidate. Once the face-to-face was over, the unthinkable happened: the labels of both networks, which normally tell diametrically opposed stories based on the same reality, displayed a similar message and even a shared noun: “panic.”
It wasn’t just them: by the time the first polls came in (CNN’s poll gave Trump a victory with 67% of those surveyed), “panic” had already become the most repeated word of the night to describe the stupor in which the Democrats were plunged after seeing Biden’s performance. Many even dared to ask for their captain to be replaced before it becomes impossible to turn around a game that, just over four months from the election, many (including most of the polls in the decisive states) consider lost.
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