President Joe Biden’s dismal showing at the CNN presidential debate against former President Donald Trump resonated around the world, with foreign diplomats expressing shock and concern while raising questions about the implications for a consequential US election that could upend the foreign policy status-quo should Trump be elected again.
“Hard to watch” is how multiple foreign diplomats described Thursday night’s debate between Biden and Trump to CNN.
The overwhelming sentiment among more than half a dozen diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and Asia whom CNN spoke to was that it was “a bad night for Biden,” as one European diplomat put it.
“It is a sad reality that Biden is old, and he is getting older. We saw it. I had difficulties understanding what he was saying, and I understand English pretty well,” said a second European diplomat.
“Trump ate him alive,” said an Arab diplomat.
“I was shell-shocked. I could not believe my eyes,” an Asian diplomat said of Biden’s performance.
Biden’s debate flop was front-page news across Europe, with left- and right-leaning newspapers excoriating the president — even in France, where the country has its own elections coming up this weekend.
The president’s debate performance also compounded already pronounced concerns about the policies Trump would likely enact if he wins in November. Trump on Thursday once again displayed his isolationist tendencies and his NATO-skeptic worldviewthat often alarmed US allies during his first presidential term. At the debate, Trump questioned continuing to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia and falsely claimed that the US had given more in aid to Ukraine than all other European countries put together.
Trump even suggested that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about his “dream” of invading Ukraine. He also attacked Biden over the Afghanistan withdrawal and argued it was the reason Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.