Joe Biden: Ex-consultant unpacks over catastrophic TV duel

It was a memorable TV debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the summer of 2024. The then President Biden, he regularly smacked, spoke indistinctly and also had hardly any convincing arguments to offer. Biden reinforced the impression that many citizens and observers had from him: that he was no longer (more) suitable for the office of president.

Biden had built on Ron Klain when preparing for the TV duel. The political advisor had previously acted as his chief of staff for two years and should prepare him for the debate. In a new book by journalist Chris Wipplle about the election campaign in the USA, Klain explains how difficult it was to give the President the right tool for the discussion with Trump.

The British “Guardian” quotes some passages from the interview in advance that Wipple led with Klain. Accordingly, bidges were poorly informed and did not understand the seriousness of the situation. Biden “didn’t understand what Trump said” and where the weak points were his opponent. In addition, it was difficult to make important lines of argument – for example in terms of inflation. Preparations should have been interrupted several times because bids had been too exhausted.

The president’s mental and physical performance was much discussed before the election. Biden finally withdrew, Vice President Harris took over and lost the election against Trump. In a conversation with “politico”, however, Klain emphasized that his statements did not refer to the spirit of bidges. Rather, he criticized the closest employees of the 82-year-old.

“He had been decoupled from domestic politics by a team in the White House,” said the bidding. The Democrat politician therefore “only focused on foreign policy”. This required special attention in particular from the war in Ukraine – but bids offered a lot of attack space for Trump.

According to Klain’s view, the then president lost a view of the problems and mood in his own country through his focus on foreign policy. Biden had rely on the confirmation of foreign heads of government. “These people say I did a good job as a president, so I have to be a great president,” Biden thought. According to “Guardian”, Klain criticizes that bidges were unable to offer the citizens for their second term in office in the next week.

“Biden had no idea what was going on in his own election campaign,” Klain describes his impression of the first preparatory meeting. He had to cancel an actually 90 -minute trial debate after 45 minutes – because bidges were too badly prepared. The second ended the second after 25 minutes. His explanation: he was too tired.

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