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The strategies of the presidential candidates after the debate

2024-07-04 16:28:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The strategies of the presidential candidates after the debate

Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Source, Reuters

The question that follows the first presidential debate for this year's election is whether Joe Biden will continue to remain in the race, after a poor performance, raising questions even within his own party about the president's age and mental capacity to lead.

Meanwhile, as Voice of America correspondent Carolyn Pressuti reports, his Republican rival, Donald Trump, is trying to keep the public's attention on the poor performance of Democrat Biden in the debate.

In the first presidential debate, the audience saw two elderly men accusing each other. The general impression is that President Joe Biden, 81, had a poor performance and was sometimes difficult to understand.

At one point, President Biden had difficulty expressing his plans for overcoming the border crisis, while in his speech former President Trump said that he did not understand what he wanted to say and that perhaps even the president himself does not know what he was talking about.

Texas lawmaker Lloyd Doggett is the first Democrat to publicly state that President Biden should withdraw from the race. Analysts say this changes the dynamics.

"If I had to make a bet, I'd say the odds are 50-50 that Biden won't be in the race," says Thomas Schwartz of Vanderbilt University.

For his part, the president admits that he is old, but emphasizes the false statements of his rival.

"I don't speak fluently like I used to. I don't argue as well as I used to, but one thing is for sure; I know how to tell the truth," President Biden said at a rally with his supporters.

However, a CNN poll shows that 3 out of 4 voters say Democrats have a better chance of winning the presidency without Mr. Biden as the party's nominee.

Historically, losing the first debate does not necessarily mean losing the presidency.

In 2012, analysts say then-President Barack Obama had a poor showing in the debate. But then he won by being re-elected.

"In the case of Obama, the reason for the poor performance in the first debate was that he was not so prepared, but in the second debate he came back and did very well," says expert Schwartz.

Another American president who was seeking re-election but had a poor showing in the debate was Ronald Reagan, who appeared confused at the age of 73.

"In the first debate, he really didn't perform well for his age, but he performed well in the second debate. So there's a short-term strategy to strengthen the base and a long-term strategy to show that it's just a fluke and that he's able to act with the energy of a president," says John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute.

Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump is trying to keep the public's attention on last week's debate.

"Joe Biden spent the whole week at Camp David resting, working and learning. He prepared a lot. So much so that he didn't know what he was doing," Mr. Trump said.

Analysts say that President Biden's withdrawal from the race depends on support for him in the Democratic Party and increasing public calls for his resignation./ VOA