​Triumphant Trump posts reel of Biden freezing after debate disaster (2024)

A gloating Donald Trump took to his own TRUTH Social platform following last night's 'car crash' presidential debate to share a video of Joe Biden stumbling and freezing as he asked 'will this guy last another four years?'

Trump, 78, was quick to capitalize on the agonizing performance at the first televised debate of the election campaign, recounting a series of Biden's gaffes to his 7.08million followers.

'When you think about the Joe Biden you saw debate, ask yourself a question: do you think the guy who was defeated by the stairs, got taken down by his bike, lost a fight with his jacket, and regularly gets lost makes it four more years in the White House?' the narrator asked.

'And you know who's waiting behind him, right?' the video continued, cutting to a clip of Vice President Harris. 'Vote Joe Biden today, get Kamala Harris tomorrow.'

Allies have acknowledged the difficulty Biden, 81, appeared to have getting words out at last night's event in Atlanta, Georgia, Harris herself telling CNN, 'Yes there was a slow start' but claiming 'there was a strong finish' as calls mount to replace Biden and save the Democrats' chances.

Following the debate, senior Trump campaign advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles claimed victory for the 45th president, claiming Trump 'delivered the greatest debate performance and victory in history to the largest voter audience in history'.

They added: 'Despite taking a week-long vacation at Camp David to prepare for the debate, Biden was unable to defend his disastrous record on the economy and the border.

'President Trump is spot-on when he says that if Joe Biden is too incompetent to stand trial, then Biden is too incompetent to be President.'

The 'Trump War Room' account, posting to 1.9million followers on Twitter/X, shared a 1:35 cut of Biden mumbling and struggling to make points on medicare, tax and his golfing record during the debate, widely circulated.

Biden's Democrat allies also had difficulty defending Biden's performance in Georgia. Maria Shriver, former first lady of California, said that while she 'loves' Joe Biden, she found the debate 'heartbreaking' to watch.

'There's panic in the Democratic party,' she said.

Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in the Democratic primary said: 'The Dems should nominate someone else - before it's too late.'

Daniel Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, said on CNN:'I think there was a sense of shock actually how he came out at the beginning of the debate, how his voice sounded, he seemed a little disoriented.'

He added that there would be 'discussions' in the party about whether Biden should continue his run for re-election in November.

Commentator and former Clinton administration official Jamie Metzl tweeted after the debate: 'Joe Biden is my former boss. I love him and respect him deeply. He has made a tremendous contribution to our country. His greatest act of patriotism must now be to pass the torch to a new generation'.

On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart - who reluctantly backed Biden in 2020 but has been critical of his policy and raised concerns about his age since - said: 'Let me just say after watching tonight's debate, both of these men should be using performance enhancing drugs...'

'Performance enhancing drugs that will improve their lucidity, their ability to solve problems, and in one of the candidate's case, improve their truthfulness, morality, and malignant narcissism. Whatever magical drugs that can kick their brains into gear, because this ain't Olympic swimming.'

As the two went head to head, Biden appeared to make light of wild speculation about drug use on Twitter/X: 'I don't know what they've got in these performance enhancers, but I'm feeling pretty jacked up. Try it yourselves, folks.'

The post showed Biden holding a can of 'Dark Brandon's Secret Sauce' - a branded can of water tagged on the campaign shop website with 'The key to a good debate performance? Staying hydrated. Get yourself the same performance enhancers Joe Biden took before going on stage. 100% water, 0% malarkey.'

Users took aim at the president over the post, one writing: 'It's kind of a weird flex to draw attention to the fact that everyone thinks you're doping to get through a 90m debate.'

The Biden camp previously dismissed Trump's calls for him to take a drug test as 'silly'. There is no evidence Biden ever used 'performance-enhancing' substances during debates. Trump fell back on similar tactics against Hillary Clinton ahead of their 2016 debates, and against Biden in 2020.

Biden followed the post with a string of Tweets warning against voting Trump backing into the White House.

'Donald Trump spent the night talking about himself, his lies, his legal woes, his affairs with a p*rn star, and his golf championships at his own club. What a bunch of malarkey. Together, we can keep him out of the White House,' he wrote with a link to his campaign fundraiser.

He also pledged to restore Roe v. Wade, criticised Trump's handling of the economy and described his opponent as 'a convicted felon with the morals of an alley cat'.

Voters were less convinced about Biden's performance on the stage, however.

A CNN poll on Thursday night found 67 per cent felt Trump did better than Biden.

This rose from the 55 per cent who expected Trump to do better ahead of the event.

Before the event, 59 per cent of US adults said they were 'very concerned' Biden is too old to be president, according to a Gallup poll.

31 per cent of Democrats voiced the same level of concern.

Meanwhile, 18 per cent of US respondents had the same concern about Trump.

Biden was given just a 29.4 per cent chance of winning the election after the debate, with odds for a second term falling to 4/1, according to OLBG betting experts.

Gavin Newsom was pegged to step in if he is replaced, with odds of 5/2. Kamala Harris tied with Michelle Obama on 9/1. Hillary Clinton had odds of just 28/1.

Trump, meanwhile, saw odds slashed to 8/13, his lowest of this election campaign.

Biden's campaign said the President was suffering from a cold as he appeared notably off-color throughout the debate.

Anti-Trump Republicans also laid into Biden following the performance.

Steve Schmidt, co-founded of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, acknowledged: 'Biden lost the country tonight, and will not get it back.

'If Trump is a threat and democracy is on the line, then Biden must step aside.'

Biden took a different view. After the debate, he went to a Waffle House with his wife and told press travelling with him: 'I think it went well.'

When asked about the mounting calls among Democrats for him to drop out, and whether he has any concerns about his performance, Biden said: 'No. It's hard to debate a liar. The New York Times pointed out he (Trump) lied 26 times.'

He did admit to being sick, saying, 'I have a sore throat.'

Asked by the BBC about the possibility of standing aside, Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks said they were'not going to dignify that with a response'.

'President Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, and President Biden is going to win this election,' he said.

Twelve minutes in to the debate, Biden froze and appeared to lost his train of thought, mumbling: 'Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person...eligible for what I've been able to do with..the...Covid...excuse me...dealing with everything we had to do with...look...if...we finally beat Medicare.'

Trump replied: 'He's right he did beat Medicare – he beat it to death.'

And Trump landed a blow when Biden fumbled an answer about the border, replying 'I really don't know what he just said.'

Pressed on abortion, an issue Biden has been vocal about, the incumbent President made a bizarre segue into talking about the border.

'Look, there are so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just was murdered, and he went to the funeral. And the idea that she was murdered by an immigrant coming in, to talk about that.

'But here's the deal. There's a lot of young women are being raped by their in-laws, by their, by their spouses. Brothers and sisters, by — it's just ridiculous.

'And they can do nothing about it. And they try to arrest them and they cross state lines.'

Still, Biden celebrated the result as supporters in North Carolina met him on the tarmac chanting 'Four more years.'

A campaign official said the fundraiser had had the best hour of fundraising to date after the debate.