“Bumble,” “Bluster” & Questions Over Whether Biden Should Step Down: World Media Reacts To First Presidential Debate

The Biden vs Trump debate took place in the small hours of the morning in many parts of the world but one only needed to watch a few clips and glance at headlines within minutes of waking up to get a feel for what had happened.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of the global press focused on a very tough night for the Democratic candidate, who failed to land meaty blows and at times rambled to the point of being incomprehensible, once again raising concerns about his age. Perhaps more surprisingly, some of the press coverage that Deadline has analyzed was positive about Trump’s performance, although there was a laser focus on his falsehoods and CNN‘s failure to correct them – a key tenet of Deadline’s review, which said Trump “tossed out one whopper after another with no fact-checking from CNN moderators.”

In France, where the country is currently focused on the first round of parliamentary elections this Sunday, in which far right party Rassemblement National is expected to come out on top, the consensus, whatever the political persuasion, was that the debate had been a disaster for the Biden and Democratic camp.

The focus was on his frail demeanor and questions over whether the 81-year-old president was still physically and mentally capable of running the U.S. for another four years.

“Biden appeared diminished by age, facing an adversary in full possession of his means, who asserted truth and lies with equal aplomb,” commented centre-right newspaper Le Figaro correspondent Adrien Jaulmes.

“Instead of convincing an electorate already skeptical about his physical fitness and mental acuity, the Democratic president’s performance instead confirmed the general impression: that he no longer has the capacity to hold the presidential office for four more years,” it continued.

These sentiments were echoed throughout.

“Crossing swords on live TV again for the first time in four years, the current and former president offered the painful spectacle of an extremely diminished Democratic incumbent in the face of the lies spouted by his Republican rival on the network,” wrote left-wing newspaper Liberation’s New York-based correspondent Julien Gester. “It was not a night to have a cold. Almost 82 years old, with more than half a century in politics, Joe Biden has his good days and his less good days,” he continued.

There was focus on how Trump lied throughout the debate coupled with the sense that he would probably get away with it.

“It doesn’t matter that he is making up at full speed, martyring the facts, refusing to unconditionally recognize the results of the next election (after having denied his 2020 defeat until today), or that he brushes aside his recent criminal conviction, unprecedented in American presidential history (“I did nothing wrong, it’s the system that is corrupt”), to place the label of ‘criminal’ on his opponent. His ease is his trump card,” wrote Liberation.

Some publications went surprisingly easy on Trump.

In the UK, which heads to the polls in less than a week, the BBC described his performance as “disciplined and nimble,” in stark contrast with the “interruptions and belligerence that undermined his first debate showing in 2020.” The item is currently leading the website above an article about campaigners for Trump’s pal Nigel Farage’s new party being “caught making racist slurs.”

The BBC went hard on Biden, opting for: “Stumbling debate performance worsens age fears,” while reporting that Democrats have been “backed into a corner”. “Before Thursday evening, many Americans had expressed concerns about Joe Biden’s age and fitness for office. To say that this debate did not put those concerns to rest may be one of the greatest understatements of the year,” wrote the British pubcaster, pulling no punches.

Canada’s CBC was similar to the BBC in its praise of Trump. While it went with the majority’s line by concentrating on his “falsehoods,” it reported that Trump had seemed “confident and focused” compared with Biden’s “seeming to ramble and lose his train of thought in a shaky performance that has reinforced concerns about his age.”

The Guardian said Democrats are in “panic” but reserved ire for CNN, whose moderators “failed to fact check,” wrote U.S. reporter George Chidi. “Trump regularly answered straightforward questions – about the economy, or abortion, or the opioid crisis – with non sequiturs about immigration or China. He also repeatedly spewed false claims about abortion, the environment, and the border.”

Some press toed a more balanced line.

The South China Morning Post was even handed. The paper noted that the pair had “sparred” over areas such as, unsurprisingly, China, economy and security. The two presented “starkly different visions for America’s place in the world in a high-stakes debate,” it added.

ABC in Australia was impressed by neither in equal measure. The Aussie national broadcaster described Biden as “bumble” but Trump as “bluster,” with “neither man exactly living up to those expectations.” While Biden “had a brain fade,” the paper wrote, his opponent “blustered and deflected.”

“The story is now about whether Biden can be persuaded to step down”

Of even more concern for Biden, much of the world’s media went big on calls for him to step down with months to go until the general election.

Germany’s Die Welt said the Democrats are “considering replacing Biden after all,” leading its website with Trump’s putdown: “I don’t know what he said, I don’t think he knows either.”

Elsewhere in continental Europe, Italy’s centre-left newspaper La Repubblica suggested that wife Jill Biden should step in and help him make his mind up.

“With a hoarse voice and the gaffes: in the TV dual Biden has paved the way for Trump’s triumph. Now it’s up to Jill to convince her husband to leave,” it wrote.

Back to Germany, Der Spiegel was even harsher, writing: “Biden should do the world a favor and renounce”.

The UK’s Daily Telegraph focused on Biden “facing calls to quit.” “This wasn’t a debate, it was a medical emergency,” wrote columnists Tim Stanley and Tony Diver.

Rupert Murdoch’s The Times said Biden’s campaign had been “plunged into crisis… causing panic among Democrats about his chances of winning back the White House.”

And writing in The Financial Times, columnist Edward Luce wrote witheringly: “The best that can be said of Joe Biden’s stumbling debate performance was that it took place in June.”

“For more than a year, private conversations in Washington have been dominated by the president’s ageing,” he added. “But the public omerta on that topic broadly held up. That cognitive dissonance has now collapsed. The story is now about whether Biden can be persuaded to step down.”