'Biden Brain Freeze': US President struggles to form simple sentences in first presidential debate against Donald Trump

In the first presidential debate of 2024 elections hosted by CNN, President Biden stumbled and faltered on several lines as his voice appeared strained and his arguments appeared confused.

Throughout the 90-minute debate against former President Donald Trump, Biden's voice failed to recover, undermining his attempt to convince Americans that, at 81, he is fit to serve another four-year term in the White House. A recent CBS News poll indicated that only one-third of voters believe Biden has the cognitive ability to be president, compared to half who believe Trump does.

Forty-five minutes into the debate, sources close to Biden's debate preparations disclosed to ABC news, that he had been battling a cold for several days. A top official noted that the president had been examined by a doctor at Camp David, who confirmed the cold diagnosis. They also confirmed that Biden tested negative for COVID-19. However, his cold doesn't account for his inability to string two sentences together.

Biden lost his train of thought and struggled to mention several issues properly, including Medicare when discussing tax rates for wealthy Americans.

"We have 1,000 trillionaires in America — I mean billionaires in America. And what's happening? They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% taxes, if they just paid 24%, 25% — either one of those numbers — we'd raise $500 million dollars — billion dollars, I should say — in a 10-year period," he said, listing priorities such as child care, health care, and "making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with, dealing with everything we have to do with, uh…"

The president paused, struggling to find the right words.

"Excuse me," he said, "dealing with everything we have to do with…"

After another pause, he continued, "Look, if we finally beat Medicare."

"Thank you, President Biden," CNN moderator Jake Tapper interjected. "President Trump?"

Trump seized the moment, remarking, "He did beat Medicaid, beat it to death, he's destroying Medicare."

Biden's performance left some Democrats unsettled, with one House Democrat stating, "I've never seen a freakout like this." However, the same source cautioned that it remains uncertain how strongly they might push for Biden to step down from the 2024 ticket.