WorldNetDaily — largely indistinguishable these days from an official Trump campaign PR operation — got the outcome it hoped for from the first presidential debate, as Bob Unruh wrote in a June 28 article that cited a “snap poll” from a right-wing website:
The verdict is in on which candidate, incumbent Democrat Joe Biden or Republican President Donald Trump, won Thursday night’s presidential debate in Atlanta.
Trump. By 36 points.
And the Daily Mail said its “snap poll” showed that even many independent voters think Biden needs to drop out, now.
JL Partners polled 805 independents immediately after the debate, the report said, and 68% said Trump won the debate. And two-thirds say Biden should be off the ticket.
The report called the event a “car-crash” for Biden, pointing out, “Biden looked all of his 81 years on Thursday night as he repeatedly lost his train of thought and meandered into silence.”
And Trump, 78, “was able to land his punches while his Democratic opponent struggled.”
WND followed with more biased articles in the same vein:
- Editorial voices wonder how Democrats let debate happen
- WATCH Joe Biden wave to a debate audience that WASN’T THERE
- Congresswoman charges ‘elder abuse’ responsible for Biden’s catastrophic debate
- How Biden’s debate catastrophe made the world more dangerous
WND also relied on even more untrustworthy sources to push anti-Biden claims. Joe Kovacs wrote in a July 1 article:
Bill O’Reilly, the former Fox News powerhouse of “The No-Spin Zone,” is saying “the decision has been made” to have Joe Biden quit the 2024 presidential campaign.
O’Reilly made the announcement, yet to be confirmed, on his X feed Sunday afternoon, stating in two messages:
“Here’s a Biden update from http://BillOReilly.com news headquarters. The decision has been made that the President will quit the campaign. Two reasons: Democrat internal polling says he cannot recover from the debate, and fundraising is drying up.”
“So, it’s over for Joe. But the White House doesn’t yet know how or when to make the announcement. Stay close,” he concluded.
Kovacs offered no evidence that O’Reilly could possibly know what he’s talking about. Indeed, a Community Note attached to the O’Reilly tweet Kovacs embedded in his article states: “The article on his website quotes Bill’s opinion that Biden will quit the campaign. The post says that ‘The decision has been made..’ The website that the OP refers to does not back up the claim made in the post, which implies that Biden has decided to step aside.”
Meanwhile, Alicia Powe called on someone who presumably has had no contact with the Bidens for decades to offer an opinion:
Jill Biden’s ex-husband has joined the chorus of Democrats suddenly sounding the alarm on Joe Biden’s depleting physical and mental health following the president’s humiliating debate performance Thursday.
Bill Stevenson, who was married to Jill from 1970 to 1975 blasted his ex-wife for encouraging Joe to stay in the election amid the chorus of people calling for him to step down as the party’s nominee.
“The Dr. Jill Biden who I’ve seen on TV in the last five years is not the same person I married or that I recognize in any way,” Stevenson told the New York Post Saturday.
“She’s matriculated into a completely different woman.”
Stevenson of Delaware is an ardent Trump supporter who married the first lady when she was still a college student. He supported Biden when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1972 and when Biden ran as vice president with Barack Obama. He has since been vocal with his contempt for what he has at times called “the Biden crime family.”
“I just don’t understand why she is so adamant about defending him and keeping him in the race since it appears that he’s struggling,” Stevenson said. “It appears that he’s struggling with everybody these days.”
Stevenson is a very bitter ex who seems jealous that his ex-wife has become much more successful than he has. He first resurfaced in 2020 to whine that Jill dumped him for Joe Biden, which led the Media Research Center to hype a purported “cheating” “scandal.” The fact that he keeps resurfacing to pathetically ride her coattails for right-wing notoriety seems to demonstrate that Jill made the right decision by ditching him.