2024-07-15 00:24:24
I saw him in the election campaign in 2008 and 2012, and he was a campaigner who went out there, who could definitely make an attack, who could speak clearly. And I think when we looked at the debate against Trump two weeks ago, it was obviously a very, very different Joe Biden.
US President Joe Biden is increasingly under criticism. The focus is on his mental health and physical fitness.
US expert and political advisor Julius van de Laar has been observing Biden for years. In an interview with t-online, he shows how drastically Biden has changed in recent years.
I think you saw very clearly that there is a progression in Joe Biden’s age, not just in his appearance, but also in the way he speaks. I remember seeing him in the election campaign in 2008 and 2012, and he was a campaigner who went out there, who could definitely make an attack, who could speak clearly.
If we look at the debate against Trump two weeks ago, it was of course a very, very different Joe Biden. It was a situation in which Joe Biden was unable to get the most important messages across.
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And I think that just shows how difficult it is to win in such a media-charged election campaign when a candidate fails to communicate in a pointed and succinct manner.
I think we’ve seen in the past that Joe Biden has benefited enormously from his empathy. Joe Biden in a one-on-one conversation, when he’s standing in front of people and can look someone in the face. I think that’s the strongest Joe Biden. But when the words don’t come and you have difficulty articulating exactly what you’re saying, I think Joe Biden naturally falls into a state where he tries to explain. And above all, when you can’t explain things rigorously – and I think we saw that this evening between Joe Biden and Donald Trump – Joe Biden has lost his rigor.
Another problem facing the US President is that the majority of voters have already formed an image of him as an ageing, frail man.
In politics, the mantra is: perception is reality. And the voters’ perception is, of course, that he is too old. These are polls that we have always seen throughout this entire election campaign, that up to 70 or 80 percent of voters have said that Joe Biden is too old and that he is becoming too frail and that we don’t trust him to last the next four years. There are many things that can be changed in politics. You can change your position, and of course you can also change the way you look. But the effect of age is something that you can’t reverse.
Biden’s opponent Donald Trump is also struggling with this. The expert also sees visible changes in him.
Donald Trump also has trouble finding his words from time to time. I don’t think Donald Trump is the same candidate he was in 2016. Donald Trump obviously has one big advantage: he has always positioned himself as an outsider, as a dealmaker, as someone who comes from the business world and who doesn’t adhere to the norms of established politics. And accordingly, his bombastic appearances have of course helped him to do away with the status quo and at least admit that he would do everything differently. That is exactly how he is positioning himself again in this election campaign. But I must say, I saw him in Iowa at the beginning of the year. And of course I also see a lot of Donald Trump’s TV debates and other appearances. He is not quite as sharp and pointed in this election campaign as he was in 2016.
One thing is certain: Biden in particular must now deliver if he wants to remain in the race for the White House. At the moment, however, he is providing one thing above all else: a target for his critics.