Donald Trump seems to score a point in his favor in the first presidential duel on TV against Joe Biden. The US president appeared with a weak and hoarse voice (due to a cold, he explained), stuttering more frequently than usual, sentences confused or repeated mechanically, and a blank stare. So much so that among the Dems there is already "strong panic" over the performance which risks sinking him in the polls.

The tycoon, in comparison, seemed like a lion full of energy, capable of controlling his usual aggression, even if he avoided many questions.

What mattered most in the challenge between the two oldest candidates ever was the test of age, i.e. lucidity and physical appearance. Biden and Trump arrived in Atlanta, at the CNN studio, in mid-afternoon. The first with his wife Jill, the second alone, without Melania and any family.

They didn't shake hands or even look at each other during the two commercial breaks. They clashed harshly on everything, accusing each other of lying, from the economy to immigration, from the climate to abortion, without the two anchors being able to press them when necessary, for a format of fixed times that showed all its limits. The tycoon hit out at inflation "which is killing our country" and at the open doors on the border with Mexico where "criminals and terrorists" enter. Biden boasted of his successes after the "chaos" left by his predecessor, accusing him of favoring the rich with his tax cuts by increasing the deficit.

Opposites also in foreign policy. The tycoon repeated that the war in Ukraine would not have broken out if the US had had a true leader but did not illustrate his recipe for peace. And he sidestepped the question of whether he is for the Palestinian state, limiting himself to saying that Israel "must finish its work with Hamas" and that Biden "has become a Palestinian not even loved by the Palestinians because he is weak." There was no shortage of personal insults. “You are a loser and an idiot,” attacked Biden, who then called his rival a “convicted criminal,” accusing him of having cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star and of having the womanizing morals of an alley cat.

To which the tycoon reminded him that his son Hunter is also a convicted felon and threatened that he too could be convicted as soon as he leaves office "for all the horrible things he has done".

The Donald boasted of his splendid form and challenged his rival to take a cognitive test, saying he was certain that he would not finish the first questions, while the president deflected the question about the 86 years he would be at the end of his second term with a joke.

(Unioneonline/ss)

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