Although the US Vice President, Kamala Harris, acknowledged that Joe Biden had a "slow start" in Thursday's CNN debate with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, she still nevertheless believed that Biden had a "strong finish".

"It was a slow start, that's obvious to everyone. I'm not going to debate that point," she told CNN, noting Biden's shaky performance. 

Harris said Biden's record was "extraordinarily strong," only to admit and then engage in a damage-control mode, saying, "Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish."

Playing down Biden's bad performance, Harris posted on X: "The contrast is clear: Donald Trump lied over and over and over again during the debate."

Moreover, waving the January 6 riots card, she maintained, "He would not disavow what happened on January 6. He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results."

The contrast is clear: Donald Trump lied over and over and over again during the debate.

He would not disavow what happened on January 6.

He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results. pic.twitter.com/gegRg0AJub

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 28, 2024

Kate Bedingfield, a former Biden communications director, also expressed to CNN that "it was a really disappointing" evening for Biden, adding, "I don't think there is any other way to slice it."

According to a CNN survey, 67% of those who watched the debate said Trump had won.

'Jacked up'

Trump has been spreading rumors and fueling talk before the big and first CNN debate about Biden submitting to a pre-debate drug test which the Biden campaign called "desperate".

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday afternoon: "DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!" 

During his rally on Saturday in Philadelphia, Trump insisted that Biden's strong show on Thursday night was the result of him using performance-enhancing drugs.

"So, a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass — they want to strengthen him up so he comes out, he'll come out, okay, I say he'll come out all jacked up, right? All jacked up," Trump told the crowd, and a Biden campaign spokesperson quickly jumped to deny it.

There won't be much chance for Democrats to choose another candidate unless the president steps down, especially as the Democrats are due to formally announce Biden as their nominee in Chicago in August.

Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer predicted that Biden's fans would be "extremely concerned", stating, "Biden fueled the basic perception that has continued to overshadow him."

A few highlights

During the debate, Trump said that the United States has become uncivilized and is no longer respected in the world, blaming Biden for it. 

Biden asserted that the economy was in disarray under Trump's administration, while Trump blamed Biden for the red-hot inflation rates. "He has not done a good job. He's done a poor job, and inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us," Trump stressed.

In yet another one of his gaffes, Biden falsely claimed that no US troops had died abroad during his presidency.

"Truth is, I'm the only president… that doesn't have any, this decade, troops dying anywhere in the world," Biden said. However, this statement overlooked the deaths of 13 US military service members during the withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 26, 2021, and three US troops killed by a drone attack in Jordan on January 28, 2024.

Trump also claimed that Hamas would have never carried out October 7's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood had he been in office. "Israel would have never been invaded in a million years by Hamas. You know why? Because Iran was broke with me. I wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. They ran out of money…They had no money for Hamas; they had no money for anything; no money for terror," Trump claimed.