HONG KONG — The first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump offered few reassurances to America’s restless allies.
The two candidates have distinctly different ideas about how to meet the challenges of a world consumed by multiple wars, rising geopolitical tensions and doubts about America’s commitment to its longtime partners.
That contrast was occasionally on display Thursday night, but it was Biden’s performance that dominated the headlines.
The debate was watched around the world – by allies concerned about their future ties with the US, as well as by autocratic governments seeking to rival the US-led global order – and neither candidate appeared to impress.
“Personal attacks, blurred memory, mutual mockery… this debate was very entertaining for many Chinese,” Hu Xijin, a Chinese nationalist commentator, said in a statement. post on X.
“Objectively speaking, the shoddy performance of these two old men was bad propaganda for Western democracy.”
But the focus was mainly on Biden, whose shaky performance has already prompted calls from within his own party for him not to move forward with his campaign.
The prospect of Trump returning to the White House is alarming for many US allies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, with his ties with Washington often strained during his presidency.
The verdict of the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz was that “the meandering Biden, the pathological Trump” offered a “sad night for America.”
Germany’s Der Spiegel headlined “The President Falls”. And British tabloid The Sun had just one word at the top of its website on Friday: “JOE-MATOSED.”
With his “low, hoarse, meandering voice,” Biden “missed the chance to convince not just American voters but also viewers watching in India,” said Robinder Sachdev, president of the Delhi-based think tank Imagindia Institute, and founder of US non-profit organization. -Indian Political Action Committee, told NBC News.
Kim Darroch, who was British ambassador to the US during Trump’s presidency, said of Biden that it was “very difficult to see him winning now” and that he should stand aside after “a historically poor performance”.
“Every response from Trump, if you listen to them carefully, is a mix of wild exaggeration and total fantasy. And it’s a politics-free zone,” Darroch told Sky News. “So his performance is also terrible, but it was fluent, confident nonsense, rather than stumbling and losing my train of thought, nonsense.”
Political conflicts
During his presidency, Biden has sought to advance U.S. global leadership and strengthen relationships with allies around the world, particularly in response to growing challenges from China and Russia.
Trump, who has expressed admiration for autocratic leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, favors a more restrained role while the US focuses on its domestic problems.
In Thursday’s debate, Biden criticized his rival’s approach to Putin and Trump said the president’s policy toward Israel meant he was effectively a “very bad Palestinian” as the foreign policy discussion focused in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Trump argued that the world has become a more dangerous place since Biden took office.
Putin says he will only end his war against Ukraine if Russia keeps all the Ukrainian territory it has already conquered and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stops pushing for Ukraine to join NATO, the US-led military alliance.
Trump said he would not accept those terms, but that “this is a war that should never have started.”
“I will resolve the war between Putin and Zelenskyy as president-elect before I take office on January 20,” Trump said, without explaining how.
He also criticized the $175 billion in military aid the US has provided to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, including $60 billion in weapons and other assistance this spring that Zelenskyy says is crucial to victory over Putin. .
Trump argued that countries in Europe should provide more since they are physically closer to the conflict.
Biden said Putin has made clear he is trying to reestablish the Soviet empire and that Trump would be foolish to rein in support for Ukraine as this could be just the beginning of Putin’s territorial ambitions.
“He wants all of Ukraine. That’s what he wants,” Biden said. “So you think he’s going to stop there? Do you think he will stop if he takes Ukraine? What do you think will happen to Poland?”
Poland is a member of NATO, whose 32 member states have committed to defending each other in the event of an attack. Trump has threatened to withdraw from the 75-year-old alliance unless those nations spend more on defense.
“We’re paying everyone’s bills,” he said.
The Kremlin said Putin did not get up in the middle of the night to watch the debate, adding it had no comment. “We never interfere in US election campaigns,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov, an assessment not shared by Western intelligence agencies.
Both candidates expressed strong support for Israel. As with Ukraine, Trump said Israel “would never have been invaded” if he were president, a claim that cannot be proven or disproved.
He also said that Biden did not support Israel enough, saying “he has become like a Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he is a terrible Palestinian.”
Biden, whose ceasefire plan has stalled, has lost support from the left due to the war’s devastating impact on civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Pushing back against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the US has withheld weapons, Biden said the US has provided Israel with “all the weapons it needs when it needs them.”
The only exception, he said, are 2,000-pound bombs that Biden said “don’t work very well in populated areas” and “kill a lot of innocent people.”
He also said he coordinated Israel’s defense during Iranian missile attacks in April.
“We saved Israel,” Biden said.
Both candidates said that an electoral victory for the other would lead to World War III.
“His military policies are insane,” Trump said of Biden, adding that the Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars “will never end with him.”
World leaders like Xi, Putin and Kim “don’t respect him, they don’t fear him,” he added.
“You want a war,” Biden responded, “just let Putin go ahead and take Kiev.”
He added: “Then you have a war.”
Biden also defended America’s global image and said it was not a “failed country,” as Trump claimed, but rather “the envy of the world.”
For the rest of the world on Friday, that was up for debate.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
