Biden’s five biggest fails of the first Presidential debate
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00:00Well, it was the debate we were all waiting for and really what the audience wanted to see today
00:05was if the 81-year-old President Joe Biden could get through it without making enormous mistakes,
00:11which is unfortunately what we've been used to seeing over the last four years.
00:14Well, despite being in hiding for a week at Camp David with an empty schedule so his staff
00:19could prepare him for going up against Donald Trump, the moment Joe Biden entered the stage
00:25he shuffled his way to the microphone and he looked like he was in desperate need of assistance.
00:34Now after just 10 minutes on stage it appeared as though he was falling asleep at the podium.
00:40His eyes were shut for a few moments as if he was going into a micro sleep before suddenly he
00:44opened up his eyes and he was back with us again and he continued to do that throughout the first
00:50half of that debate. But that was just the beginning. When Joe Biden started speaking,
00:55well, you know, that's when we really got into dangerous territory, he was referencing tax laws
01:00and he claimed America has a thousand trillionaires.
01:05What I'm going to do is fix the tax system. For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in
01:09America. Look, I'm not sure if that's the case, Joe Biden, but look, sounds great. And then when
01:14he was trying to make more points it was just more rambling waffle and a lot of losing his
01:19train of thought. I'm eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with
01:27dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare.
01:37Thank you, President Biden, President Trump.
01:39Then when he wanted to make his point about abortion, he just repeated the word period
01:45three times. But we are not for late term abortion, period, period, period.
01:51Very strong Joe Biden. Well done. Now, nearly every journalist and commentator that I caught
01:57up with in the lead up to this debate told me that they were expecting a stronger than usual
02:02Joe Biden to turn out today due to the amount of time he had to prepare and the amount of
02:06assistance that he was getting in the lead up to this debate. But he has failed to do that today.
02:12If it somehow wasn't clear before, it is crystal clear now. He is no longer cut out for the top
02:18job. Yesterday, I caught up with podcaster Brad Palumbo, who told me the rules of this debate
02:23were set up to favor Joe Biden, including a halftime break.
02:27Well, we can expect a show, that's for sure. Donald Trump, if he's one thing, is an entertainer.
02:33And then Joe Biden has a lot to prove to the American public because a lot of people,
02:37including Democrats and independents, are really concerned about his ability to
02:42actually do the job of being president. We've seen him glitch and freeze and look confused.
02:47We've seen him call out to dead people or non-existent human beings on too many occasions
02:54to count during public events or ceremonies. And so he's got the most to prove here. All Trump
03:01needs to do. He's up in many polls. He's in a strong position. Trump just kind of needs to
03:06not mess anything up, not cause himself any problems, which, you know, with him,
03:10he could always say something unexpected. But Biden's the one who I think will really
03:14be scrutinized intensely to see, is he up for it? Apparently, Joe Biden's team have
03:21scheduled frequent breaks during his preparation for this debate. They're trying their best to
03:25keep him sharp for this debate against Donald Trump. And the 81 year old president and his
03:30close team have moved to Camp David for intensive practice sessions gearing up for the first of two
03:36crucial debates. How nervous would you be if he worked for Joe Biden right now?
03:42Well, I would have, I would have absolutely refused to let him on the debate stage. I would
03:46have said, we're not doing it. Make whatever excuse you have to, to avoid it. But one thing
03:51I noticed is that they were able to negotiate something unusual, which is there's going to be
03:56two commercial breaks during this 90 minute debate. And that's unusual. Historically,
04:02in general election, presidential debates in the US, there are no commercial breaks.
04:06You just run through for 90 minutes. You'd think the leader of the free world should be able to
04:10just speak and answer questions from a podium with a glass of water for an hour and a half.
04:16You'd think that'd be no big deal, but they were actually able to negotiate for two commercial
04:20breaks and other rules that seem very favorable to Biden. For example, the other person's mic
04:26will be turned off while the other is speaking, which stops Trump from getting his jabs in or
04:32undercutting or throwing Biden off, which is something Trump's very good at. We saw him
04:36famously do that to Hillary Clinton on multiple occasions in 2016.
04:41So this debate stage seems to have been skewed to be as favorable as possible to Biden with
04:48some unusual accommodations. But I would still be very worried that he's going to
04:53refer to himself as a Senator, refer to himself as vice president, reference a dead colleague
05:00who died years ago as if he's just spoken to them or as if he's just seen them confuse world
05:05leaders that he's recently engaged with for ones that have actually been out of office or dead for
05:11years. I'd be very concerned that he'd be going to do that on the debate stage, but I guess he
05:17feels like he has to because things aren't going well for him, I guess. He feels behind in a lot of
05:22the polls or that he's got to try to make a case to the people to show them he's not too frail or
05:28too old to do the job. So the onus really is on Biden. I would argue that he's really failing to
05:33make that case, though, when there is so much concern around his age and his mental health.
05:38The fact that there are breaks in this debate, I think really doesn't help. It really feeds into
05:42the narrative that, no, he's not up to the job. It definitely does, but only if you know that
05:47that's unusual. And I guess because in the presidential primary debate, so the Republican
05:53primary and the Democratic primary, they have presidential debates and it's fairly normal for
05:58there to be commercial breaks during those ones, but it's just the general election televised
06:02debates where historically there haven't been commercial breaks. So you might be banking on the
06:07fact that a lot of people won't notice that. I mean, heck, we have commercial breaks mid-American
06:12football games here, so people are pretty used to commercials. So I think he's probably hoping
06:18that people don't notice that that's actually quite unusual. Well, we are going to notice if
06:22there's another gaffe, which, look, I would put my money on that there probably will be. I don't
06:26know how long he can really last speaking until he stumbles and makes a mistake, but we will
06:31wait and see tomorrow. How crucial is this debate really when, of course, we know the two candidates
06:37so well, Donald Trump and Joe Biden? Is this debate actually going to change the minds of voters?
06:45Well, the impact of presidential debates is pretty limited, but it's definitely not
06:49zero. And the thing is, I think pretty much everyone agrees this is going to,
06:54especially with the electoral college system, it could be an incredibly close election. It
06:58could come down to just thousands of votes in a handful of swings dates like it famously did for
07:03Trump's 2016 victory. So in that kind of an environment where it's so razor thin,
07:10a moment from these debates where Biden looks confused or where he mixes up a name or refers
07:16to a dead person, which he does all the time, that could actually hurt him. Whereas a couple
07:21months ago or a little while back, he gave a speech for the State of the Union where
07:26he was yelling a lot. There was a lot of bizarre substance to it, but he actually was,
07:32you know, seemed to be present and alert for the whole thing. And it gave him a little bit
07:36of a boost because people were like, hey, OK, maybe he's not as far gone as I thought.
07:41If he could have a showing like that, obviously we have no idea. But if there's any way they
07:46could get him just for 90 minutes to lock in and seem fully present, maybe that could reassure
07:52people who are on the fence about voting for him. But honestly, if I were him, I'd be really
07:57concerned. What are your thoughts on RFK Jr.? Should have he been allowed to join in?
08:03Well, they notoriously make the rules very hard for a third party candidate to get in
08:08because historically the people who have made the rules is a committee of Democrats and
08:12Republicans who can't agree on much but can certainly agree that they don't want third
08:16party candidates to be on that debate stage. And look, I disagree with RFK Jr. on many things. I
08:23agree with him on a few things. But I think having more voices and more perspectives is a good thing.
08:29So I would have liked to see him on the debate stage. I would have liked Americans to know that
08:33you don't only have two options this November. There's also going to be Libertarian party
08:38candidates and Green Party candidates. So people do often forget about these options because in
08:44many ways the U.S. electoral system is heavily, heavily skewed by the two mainstream parties.
08:50The only time they can work together is to keep third parties out, basically. It's the only time
08:55they can ever agree on anything. So they set a very high bar that RFK Jr. doesn't appear to have
09:01met. But honestly, he got surprisingly close, which tells you the fact that he got 15 percent
09:06in any polls is really quite something we haven't seen in a long time for a third party candidate.
09:12Yeah, that's true. It shows you that there are plenty of Americans out there that want change.