WASHINGTON (AP) — “Oh, Joe.”
That sigh from Chicago bar patrons when the president Joe Biden stumbled verbally for the first time in his debate with donald trumpspoke to many Americans on Thursday night.
At watch parties, bars, bowling alleys and other places where people from all over the country gathered to tune in, happy Trump supporters and Biden supporters, in their anguish if not dread, seemed to largely agree. party who had witnessed an unbalanced confrontation.
At the end of more than 90 minutes, some Democrats said what supporters say to put their best foot forward: it’s still early. A debate does not necessarily influence the nation. Judge him by what he has done and wants to do, not by how he says things.
But many were disappointed.
Biden “just didn’t have the spark that we needed tonight,” said Rosemarie DeAngelus, a Democrat from South Portland, Maine, at her Broadway Bowl party. Trump, she said, showed “more courage or more vigor,” even if, in her opinion, he was telling a pack of lies.
Lynn Miller, a fellow Biden supporter and bowling alley attendee from nearby Old Orchard Beach, said: “It’s like someone gave Trump an Adderall and I don’t think they gave Joe one.” (The medication is used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.)
“I’ve never seen Trump look so coherent,” Miller said. “And I hate to say it, but Joe seemed a little strange. But I still support him over Trump because Trump lied about everything that happened.”
Trump supporters certainly agreed that the difference in energy and coherence between the candidates was striking. Wearing her red MAGA hat at a festive pro-Trump party in the Detroit suburb of Novi, Bonnie Call said of Biden: “He just can’t think on his feet. President Trump is on.”
In McAllen, Texas, near the border with Mexico, the London Bar & Grill is normally noisy on a weekend day, but many customers were quiet as they absorbed the debate on TV screens. Biden supporters, Trump supporters and undecided voters mixed here.
Among them, Vance Gonzales, 40, a moderate Democrat, said the debate convinced him that “we need another Democratic candidate, to be honest, because this one is not competitive.” He said of Biden: “He’s not on board with anything. I think it’s disappointing.”
Marco Perez, 53, voted for Biden in the last election and expressed frustration with what he heard and saw. “I want to hear more facts, more action, rather than more accusations, more accusations or false accusations,” he said.
His friend Virginia Lopez, sitting with him, left still not knowing who she will support in November. She heard quick but unsatisfactory responses from the Republican. “Trump is just dodging all the answers and just lying,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a real debate.”
Biden? “I just feel like he’s too old,” she said.
Sitting at the bar, Hector Mercado, 72, a veteran wearing a U.S. military beret, was a distinguished customer as he listened intently to the debate. Although he was a Democrat for several years, he changed parties under Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
Mercado heard Biden accuse Trump of making derogatory comments about veterans, but that didn’t affect his support for Trump. “Yes, he said some bad things about veterans at one point in the early days,” he said of Trump. “But now he’s saying, ‘No, I support veterans and I’ve never had a problem with him. I received a raise in my VA disability when Trump was president.
Biden’s performance left him cold. “I think Trump is stronger,” he said, “and Biden is a little weak.”
At a migrant shelter in Tijuana, near the border with Mexico, people mainly from southern Mexico hoping to seek asylum in the U.S. watched the debate on folding chairs in front of a screen on the wall.
The migrants, most of whom have been waiting for months for their nominations in this process, stared blankly at the screen as a translated Spanish version of the debate took place. They watched an American democratic ritual in action.
Andrea, who did not give her last name due to threats of violence in her country, has lived in the shelter for nine months. The conclusion of the debate: “Well, I feel like the people of the United States don’t love the Mexicans right now.”
At Hula Hula, a tiki bar in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, patrons cheered wildly when their city got a Trump mention — even though it came as the Republican was complaining about lawlessness. Biden supporter Amy Pottinger of Seattle said the Democratic president did better when Trump pissed him off.
“As soon as he started talking about Roe v. Wade, it was like Biden woke up and was here,” she said.
At the same Chicago bar where patrons exclaimed over Biden’s stumbles — the M Lounge in the South Loop — the president scored with this comment to Trump: “You have the morals of a stray cat.”
“Wow!” said viewers.
But at a Democratic party in downtown Atlanta, it was a nervous night.
“I’m so nervous, I feel like my son is walking on stage,” Georgia State Senator Nikki Merritt said at the start, patting her stomach as if she had butterflies.
Technicians had difficulties with sound and video. During an interruption, the crowd chanted “Let’s Go Joe!”
“I want to hear Joe Biden talking to voters and ignoring the crazy person in the room,” said Matthew Wilson, vice chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party.
But there was no ignoring the man they called crazy.
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Associated Press journalists Charlie Arbogast in Chicago; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Gregory Bull in Tijuana, Mexico; Mike Householder in Detroit; Robert Bukaty in South Portland, Maine; Mike Pesoli in Washington, D.C.; and Lindsey Wasson in Seattle contributed to this report.
