US President Joe Biden delivered a broadside at Donald Trump at their Thursday debate, declaring "you're the loser" as he accused his Republican rival of disparaging veterans and members of the military.
"My son was not a loser, he was not a sucker," Biden said of his late veteran son Beau, over Trump's alleged comments in 2018 that he refused to visit a European cemetery with American war dead and called them "losers."
"You're the sucker, you're the loser,' Biden told Trump, who denied ever using the word to describe US troops.
The two men traded barbs on abortion, immigration, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, their handling of the economy and even their golf games as they each sought to shake up what opinion polls show has been a virtually tied race for months.
Two White House officials said Biden had a cold. But the president's uneven performance rattled some Democrats and could deepen voter concerns that the 81-year-old is too old to serve another four-year term.
Biden's campaign team and allies tried to put a brave face on the performance but it was a major blow, at least in the short-term.
One top Biden donor, who did not want to be named while criticizing the president, called his performance "disqualifying" and said he expected a fresh round of calls for him to step aside ahead of the party's national convention in August.
A hoarse-sounding Biden stumbled over his words on several occasions during the debate's first half-hour, but he found his footing at the halfway mark when he attacked Trump over his conviction for covering up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, calling him a "felon."
In response, Trump brought up the recent conviction of Biden's son, Hunter, for lying about his drug use to buy a gun.
Moments later, Biden noted that almost all of Trump's former cabinet members, including former Vice President Mike Pence, have not endorsed his campaign.
"They know him well, they served with him," he said. "Why are they not endorsing him?"
Trump, meanwhile, unleashed a barrage of criticisms, many of which were well-worn falsehoods he has long repeated, including claims that migrants have carried out a crime wave, that Democrats support infanticide and that he actually won the 2020 election.
Biden and Trump, 78, were both under pressure to display their fitness for office. Biden has been dogged by questions about his age and sharpness, while Trump's incendiary rhetoric and sprawling legal woes remain a vulnerability.
"Obviously. the biggest factor is that Biden still seemed old and raspy and less coherent than when he ran last time," said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University. "I don't think Trump really did anything to help himself beyond his existing supporters, but I think it's eclipsed by people's impressions of Biden on his biggest vulnerability."
Asked about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, the former president refused to accept any responsibility and claimed that many of those arrested were innocent.
"This guy has no sense of American democracy," Biden scoffed in response.
Biden also blamed Trump for enabling the elimination of a nationwide right to abortion by appointing conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court, an issue that has bedeviled Republicans since 2022.
