Created Equal: Reacting to the Biden, Trump presidential debate

Thursday night was the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Both men went back and forth over which of them should be the nation’s leader for the next four years. There were many things that stood out about this debate — but one of the biggest takeaways for viewers was each of the candidate’s profound shortcomings.

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Created Equal host Stephen Henderson was joined by PR and communications consultant Karen Dumas and Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani to discuss the first 2024 debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — strong and weak points, the presidential race and how the debate affects African American and Arab American voters.

Dumas found the debate to be very disappointing, especially from Trump’s perspective — stating Trump’s narcissism was on full display. However, Dumas believes there was disappointment from Biden’s performance as well, with clear cognitive decline and compromise from the President.

“It was more entertaining than it was informative,” said Dumas. “From a presentation standpoint, Donald Trump appeared to be well prepped, he didn’t stutter, he didn’t seem to get too emotional…age notwithstanding, in direct contrast to the presentation of Biden.

“Substance is a whole different thing. AP [Associated Press] did a very extensive analysis of the debate and talked about some exaggeration of facts on Biden’s part — but Donald Trump just outright lies.”

Siblani agreed with Dumas’ assessment.

“This is unbelievable,” said Siblani. “What we saw yesterday, it was a decline in our highest office in the land and was very disappointing.

“The world is laughing at us. Is that really what we can offer in this country? What happened to the leadership in the Democratic and Republican party? Why can’t we offer something better?”

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.