‘Panic’: TIME magazine’s absolutely brutal Joe Biden cover

A major US outlet has debuted a devastatingly simple cover for their new issue, following Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

A major US publication has debuted a devastatingly simple cover for its next issue, the day after President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in his first debate with Donald Trump in the lead-up to November’s election.

President Biden appeared to flounder in the 90-minute televised debate, frequently mumbling, trailing off his sentences and getting mocked by former US president Trump for his at-times unintelligible statements.

Many US political commentators described the mood inside the Democratic Party after the debate using one word: “Panic.”
That’s the word TIME Magazine has opted for too, alongside a photo of Mr Biden seemingly wandering off the side of the cover:

The new cover of Time Magazine.

Joe Biden floundered during the debate. Picture: Getty

Mr Biden is 81, three years older than Mr Trump, and will turn 82 on November 20, two weeks after the presidential election.

Concerns about Mr Biden’s cognitive decline were exacerbated by the debate, which saw the President appear to freeze during one early question about national debt.

“(We’re) making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person … er, eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the … uh … with the Covid. Excuse me, with, dealing with everything we had to do with … uh … look”.

After a brief pause, he then said “we finally beat Medicare” as his final comment before the moderators moved on.

The two candidates face off in a debate that was hard to watch at times. Picture: AFP

Speculation Mr Biden might step aside and allow another Democratic candidate to step up so far appears incorrect. He intends to see the campaign through to election day, and will front up for a second debate against Mr Trump in September, according to CNN senior White House correspondent Kayla Tausche.

“I know I’m not a young man. I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t talk as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Mr Biden told the crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate.

“Well, I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. I know, like millions of Americans, when you get knocked down, you get back up.”

Mr Trump, meanwhile, was gloating at his own campaign rally, telling his supporters in Virginia that Mr Biden was “grossly incompetent” and a “trainwreck”.

Many shared Trump’s sentiments.

“This was a disaster for Biden. Many Democrats are looking for a new candidate after this debate,” Doug Muzzio, a retired public affairs professor at Baruch College, told The Post.

“Biden was tentative, rambling and sometimes incoherent,” he said.

“Trump, on the other hand, was clear and relatively coherent. He looked like he knew what he was talking about. Even though he repeatedly lied, he lies in an articulate way.”

According to a CNN flash poll, taken straight after the debate, 67 per cent of registered voters said Mr Trump had won the debate. Prior to the debate, 55 per cent of the voters had expected Mr Trump to prevail.

Originally published as ‘Panic’: TIME magazine’s absolutely brutal Joe Biden cover