Putin's gleeful propagandists mock 'frail' Biden's disaster TV debate (2024)

Vladimir Putin's propagandists have come down hard on Joe Biden after last night's disastrous TV election debate - labelling the US president 'frail' and saying he should be 'at home babysitting his grandchildren' rather than leading the free world.

Pro-Kremlin media outlets and commentators taunted Washington, gleefully claiming the real stand-out winner of the clash was neither Biden nor Donald Trump, but Putin.

Supporters revelled in disparaging Biden's apparent implosion, which saw him stumble over his words and lose his train of thought, with so-called experts suggesting itleft leadership of the Western world in peril amid the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin itself also appeared to belittle the election showdown - with Putin's spokesman claiming the dictator was too busy to wake up to watch the debate.

'I don't think you would expect that the President of Russia could set an alarm clock, wake up in the morning and watch a debate in the United States,' said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov. 'After all, this is not an event on our agenda.'

Peskov went on to say: 'We have a lot of issues that are really important to our country and that are relevant to us. These are the issues that our president is dealing with.

'Debates in the United States are not in any way in the category of the top issues on the agenda. But nevertheless, of course, we have seen media reports about these debates, we will familiarise ourselves with them in more detail.

'This is an internal matter of the United States. So, of course, we will familiarise ourselves with all the statements that have been made.'

But, he said, there would be no attempt to 'assess this debate' or make 'official conclusions', and he insisted: 'We have never interfered in the election campaigns of the United States.'

Putin rarely comments on elections in the US, and has previously vowed to 'work with any US leader'.

But he blasted America's judicial and political systems last month following Trump's felony conviction, saying it was being used by the former president's enemies to damage his chances of re-election.

'They [the US] are burning themselves from the inside, their state, their political system,' he warned.

The impression in Moscow now is that Putin will be privately pleased with last night's chaotic debate, and that it will mean he is able to dictate terms in the war in Ukraine with the West appearing leaderless.

Many Russians believe that Donald Trump would be more favourable to Putin both in backing Moscow's demands and stopping the flow of Western munitions to Kyiv.

Professor Alexey Chesnakov, of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, declared: 'Who won today's debate? Putin!'

Russia propaganda TV rejoiced in exploiting Biden's weak performance.

'A half-open mouth, unblinking eyes, a blank expression on his face — this is how Joe Biden appeared before an audience of millions,' said Russian state TV New York bureau chief Valentin Bogdanov on Kremlin mouthpiece channel, RT.

'He added to this sad spectacle a hoarse voice, swallowed words and constant slips of the tongue.

'The most loyal liberal CNN anchors were powerless. The head of the White House did not even lose to Trump. To himself.' There was now 'deep panic' in the Democratic Party, he said.

Pro-Kremlin outlet Pool No. 3 mocked that Biden 'was taken out in public for an hour and a half without assistants, cheat sheets or a prompter, and everyone saw who he really was - an elderly, frail man with weak memory and partial loss of thinking, who, in an amicable way, should be babysitting his grandchildren at home, and not to impose democracy around the world in an aggressive manner.

'To put it simply, the States discovered that their king was completely naked. That is why there is such a howl in the Washington swamp.'

It claimed: 'Putin, naturally, won in the debates.'

Political scientist Alexander Gorbunov ridiculed the US political system, contrasting it with Russia's dictatorship which he claimed ensures strong leadership.

'Everyone understands that one [contender] has already lost his presence in this world, and the second is present purely for fun [Trump].

'In theory, both of them should have been dumped at the primaries stage: for health reasons and a combination of scandals.

'But in practice, no one will loudly say: 'Listen, these two have already sat in the Oval Office, let's consider someone else?'

The third [option] is not even in a hypothetical idea….How do you say in English: 'If not Putin, then who?'

Vladimir Kornilov, analyst at state news outlet Russia Today, noted a veteran Democratic strategist saying that Biden cannot now beat Trump.

The Russian pundit said: 'I just want to ask this 'experienced strategist': wasn't this clear to you before the debate?'

Earlier state-run Channel One said: 'For Donald Trump, the issue is that he is a convicted felon, and for Joe Biden, it is his age.

'This might seem a formality, but the chances of at least one or even both of them not being the candidate are not zero.'