Biden Gets Even Worse News After Horrendous Debate Against Trump
In what can only be described as more troubling news for President Joe Biden after his lackluster debate performance, the viewership ratings have been released.
The debate, aired by CNN and simulcast on 22 other networks, was viewed by an astonishing 51.3 million people, according to IndieWire. Including clips circulating online and on television, far more people witnessed the president’s disastrous debate than Democrats would have preferred.
“Thursday’s debate, hosted and moderated by CNN, was simulcast across 23 platforms in total: ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, News Nation, Newsmax, C-SPAN, Scripps News, Univision, Bloomberg, Telemundo, Fox Business, TheGrio, The First, OAN, BET, Newsmax 2, Spectrum News, and Merit Street. Nielsen measures only 17 of those,” the report stated.
“CNN averaged 8.7 million viewers, while Fox News Channel averaged 8.8 million, the highest for any single platform. The debate ran from 9 p.m. ET to 10:39 p.m. ET, followed by continued live analysis,” it said.
The silver lining for Biden, if there is any, is that his debates with Trump in 2020 attracted even more viewers.
“This was the first debate of the 2024 presidential-election cycle, but Biden and Trump have, of course, debated before. The first 2020 Presidential Debate on September 29, 2020, drew 73.132 million viewers, ranking third all-time. That debate was simulcast on 16 platforms: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Telemundo, Univision, PBS, CNN, CNN en Español, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, Newsy, Vice, and WGN America,” the report noted.
The president’s performance received harsh criticism, even from liberal media figures.
Shortly after the debate, former President Barack Obama’s advisers Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Jon Lovett, and Dan Pfeiffer discussed it. Favreau called it “possibly the worst” debate he had ever witnessed.
“I think it was a disaster. It might have been the worst debate I’ve seen in my entire life,” Favreau remarked. “Donald Trump poses a threat to democracy. He is a despicable human being who should not be president, and we must do everything possible to prevent him from becoming president again. That’s why Biden’s performance was so awful.”
The hosts praised Biden’s presidency but suggested he might not be the strongest candidate.
Vietor noted that the president “looked confused” and argued that he “exacerbated” concerns about his age.
“Debates are a performance, and both what you say and how you say it matter. The optics tonight were very poor. He needed to address concerns about his age, but he made them worse. His voice sounded frail, and at one point, he stalled halfway through an answer,” Vietor said.
Vietor also suggested that the second debate scheduled for the fall might be canceled.
“I’m also concerned there might not be another debate because if you’re Trump, you might think, why not just leave it at that?” Vietor said.
Pfeiffer warned that expectations were already low for Biden, yet he failed to meet even those minimal standards.
“If Joe Biden had delivered a b-minus performance last night, we would be focusing on Donald Trump. He lied, made little sense, and didn’t answer questions,” Pfeiffer said.
Lovett expressed feeling everything from fear to sadness while watching and suggested that there needs to be a “big open question” about whether Biden or another candidate is the best option to beat Trump.
“It would be foolish not to have this conversation,” Favreau added. “The best thing Biden did was propose this debate before the convention, giving us a chance to rethink this.”