America’s detractors not only think President Biden was trounced in Thursday’s debate, they claim it was actually America that lost.
Russia, China, Iran and other countries voiced their opinions after Biden’s poor performance left viewers stunned. Media outlets from these countries, many of them state-owned, took advantage of the debate debacle to criticize the U.S.
“Every shop, big and small, gives details of what happened,” rebecca kofflerThe strategic military intelligence analyst and author of “Putin’s Playbook” told Fox News Digital. “Some have more than one. Most of them, if not all, are derogatory toward both candidates and mocking the United States.”
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin sees that American society is deeply fragmented and bogged down in its own problems,” Koffler said. “Putin believes that Russia will win no matter who wins, because he thinks the US will be plunged into chaos after the election, because The country is so divided and polarized,
“Ultimately, Moscow believes that the social crisis in the United States is good for Russia,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Putin “I was too bored to get up in the morning and watch the American debates,” but “we have seen media reports about these debates.”
Peskov said the Kremlin had made no attempt to “assess this debate” or draw “official conclusions” and stressed that Russia had “never interfered in election campaigns in the United States.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visit the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s far eastern Amur region, Sept. 13, 2023. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin via Reuters/File Photo)
Outside the Kremlin, Russian media have reportedly promoted the debate as a victory for Russia, with Putin in a position to dictate the terms in the war in Ukraine – especially if Donald Trump wins the White House.
He highlighted Biden’s “half-open mouth, unblinking eyes” and “impressionlessness on his face.”
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“it is How Joe Biden looked “The incident took place in front of millions of viewers,” Valentin Bogdanov, the New York bureau chief of Russian state TV, said on Kremlin-backed RT.
According to East2West, news reports focused particularly on CNN’s response, describing anchors as “powerless” and the Democratic Party as being in “deep panic”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban jointly meet the press after their talks in Budapest, Hungary on May 9, 2024. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images)
China also took a hostile view of the debate. State media generally ignored it, but the state-run Global Times called it “the most chaotic presidential debate ever” and “like a reality show”, while also highlighting occasions when Biden and Trump spoke negatively about China. According to the BBC,
The Global Times particularly objected to Trump blaming Beijing for “the COVID-19 pandemic and US economic woes.”
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The state-owned Beijing News claimed the debate exposed the shortcomings of both candidates, with a “habitually confusing” Biden and Trump spreading “rumors” instead of answering questions directly.
News agency Xinhua presented the debate in the context of an America “weary from another Biden-Trump contest” and focused on Biden’s “numerous verbal gaffes” and “vague” speech, while attacking Trump for failing to answer questions directly and making statements that “contained numerous exaggerations and lies.”
President Joe Biden (right) and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk together after a meeting during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week in Woodside, California, November 15, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Chinese social media personalities were even more scathing. On social media platform X, former state media editor Hu Xijin mocked the US presidential debate, saying it proved “very entertaining to many Chinese people.” According to Newsweek,
“In essence, the low-quality performance by these two old men was a negative advertisement for Western democracy,” he wrote.
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Other social media users described the debate as a “disaster”, “train wreck” and “a waste of time”, though it should be noted that Chinese media has regularly tried to portray the US as a country in turmoil with an uncertain political future.
Iran’s Republic news agency did not pay much attention to the debate, as tensions remain high in the country. electing their own president The debates dominated coverage this weekend, but Middle East expert and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk Lisa Daftary warned that a mediocre performance in the debates would pique the interest of all of America’s rivals.
In this photo released by the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with a black turban, leads prayers over the flag-draped coffins of late President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions, who died in a helicopter crash in a mountainous region of the country’s northwest on Sunday, at the Tehran University campus, during their funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP) (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via AP)
“Any anti-American could view President Biden’s performance as a reminder that the leader of the free world is currently less than capable,” Daftary said. “It has always been the case that the United States has the capacity to defend its interests and bring stability around the world, simply through deterrence and appropriate rhetoric and positioning.”
“This has not always been the case with the Biden administration, and (Thursday) night’s display leads to an even more extreme perception of American weakness,” he said.
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“We are witnessing a number of dangerous global crises at this time, including China’s invasion of Taiwan, the Iranian regime’s possession and/or use of nuclear weapons, the Iranian regime’s continuation of its proxy war against Israel and Western assets in the region (and) Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine,” Daftary said. “Of course, any of these existing crises could gain further momentum between now and the election.”
Reaction among the Allies was not as enthusiastic, starting with a cryptic message on X from Polish Foreign Minister Raduslaw Sikorski, which some have taken as an unfavorable comparison between Biden and the great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Giorgia Meloni (left), Prime Minister of Italy, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan, Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Charles Michel, President of the European Union Council (hidden), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Emmanuel Macron, President of France, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, and US President Joe Biden, watching parachutists at the G7 summit; Biden watches parachutists on the far right. (Photo: Michael Kappeler/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
“Marcus Aurelius was a great emperor, but he messed up his succession by giving the position to his son Commodus (he, from Gladiator), whose disastrous rule initiated the fall of Rome,” Sikorski wrote. “Managing your ride into the sunset is key.”
French news outlet Le Monde described that debate as a “fierce storm” and bemoaned Biden’s obsession with trying to “upset his opponent” by mocking Trump’s responses to questions. The BBC reported,
German outlet Der Spiegel compared the debate to a “car crash” and half-heartedly praised both candidates’ “dramatic performances”, claiming that supporters on both sides would feel their candidate had done their job.
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Another outlet, Die Welt, lamented that Biden was not an exciting candidate but had “common sense and a stable personality” who would maintain “normalcy” in the White House.
