The Democrats are calling for Joe Biden to step down in the upcoming US Presidential Election after his performance in the first debate between him and Republican Donald Trump.
The 81-year-old Biden is up against the 78-year-old Trump to be the next President of the United States.
However, during their first debate on CNN ahead of the election in November, Biden had a stumbling performance, plagued with unclear and rambling answers.
His opponent, former US President Donald Trump, was able to land zingers at his expense such as “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence; I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Biden tried repeatedly to confront Trump’s falsehoods about the economy, illegal immigration and his role in the 6 January 2021 Capitol insurrection. However, the current US president’s performance brought back the feeling that many voters online have shared of him being too old to serve.
The men were asked about their ages and ability to serve into their 80s to which Biden focused on a litany of policy achievements, while also highlighting that Trump is only “three years younger” – to which Trump stated that he is in as good a shape as he was 25 years ago and perhaps “even a little bit lighter”.
Back in May Trump became the first ex-US President to be criminally convicted after being found guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records in a bombshell New York legal case.
Biden made that known on the night stating that “the only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now”, to which it seemed Trump nodded at this comment.
After the debate, many Democratic pundits, including former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod, stated their concerns on whether should Biden continue, or step aside to let someone else run against Trump.
When asked by journalists about his performance Biden said “I think we did well”, but said that he had a “sore throat”. But when pushed on the Democrat’s concerns to step aside, Biden stated: “No, it’s hard to debate a liar.”
The next debate between the two men vying for the Presidential status will be hosted by ABC News on Tuesday 10 September. The US citizens will be going to the polls to vote on 5 November 2024.