On Thursday, June 27, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden met for the first debate of the ongoing election cycle. After 90 minutes of bizarre exchanges regarding private golf club championships and alleged affairs with former adult film stars, much of the nation felt Trump emerged from the event as the clear winner.
“Trump was also the clear winner of the debate when we asked debate watchers to directly compare the two candidates’ performances. Sixty percent said that Trump performed best, while only 21 percent said Biden performed best. Nineteen percent said they didn’t know,” Aaron Bycoffe, Amina Brown and Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight wrote.
Despite the poor public reception of Biden’s debate performance, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries believes it may be the setup Biden needs for a major comeback.
“I’ve been very clear that it was an underwhelming performance on Thursday, during the debate, as President Biden and his campaign have acknowledged. It certainly was a setback. But of course, I believe a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback,” Jeffries told MSNBC.
Meanwhile, veteran members of congress like Jamie Raskin appear to be less optimistic about the President’s political future. He told MSNBC that there are “serious conversations” about the President’s ability to garner voter support.
“We’re having a serious conversation about what to do,” Raskin said.
“One thing I can tell you is that regardless of what President Biden decides, our party is going to be unified, and our party also needs him at the very center of our deliberations in our campaign, and so whether he’s the candidate or someone else is the candidate.”
Biden’s performance will likely remain a topic of conversation as the Democratic National Convention is set to take place next month, with the second and final presidential debate to take place in September.
