Biden looked 15 years older than 'energised' Trump, says former aide

Sky News

Updated 28 June 2024 at 8:52 am·4-min read

A former Donald Trump aide has said his ex-boss is "energised" and now "likely to win the election".

Anthony Scaramucci, who was Trump's director of communications in the White House for 10 days in 2017, also said on The Rest Is Politics US podcast that Mr Biden, who is three years older than Trump, "looked 15 years older".

It comes after the 81-year-old US president and Trump, 78, went head to head in this year's first presidential election debate on Thursday night.

"Trump came, hair dyed, made up and he was energised and the president looked 15 years older than Donald Trump tonight. That matters on television," said Mr Scaramucci.

The Mooch, as he is also known, is supporting Democrat Joe Biden in the election - but said Trump "has done the work to be president".

Latest: Reaction to Biden v Trump debate

"He's out there working every single day, he's meeting with people, he's signing dollar bills of young kids that are wearing Trump wigs," Mr Scaramucci said.

"President Biden got pounded tonight.

"This is not Joe Biden of 2020. Go back and watch those debates - he was coherent, when he was sitting his legs were crossed, when he was standing he was listening, taking in the information. He was very confident and very sure of himself.

"Unless something seismic happens to Donald Trump's health, he will likely win this election," he added.

Mr Scaramucci commended Trump's overall performance, including his "killer line" when he said: "I don't understand what he just said, and I don't think he understands what he just said."

"If you're not up to face Donald Trump, if you can't verbally jiu-jitsu this guy and hit him a few times and you're sitting there misremembering your lines, somebody's got to tell you the truth," Mr Scaramucci said.

"This is theatre, this is a popularity contest, this is not a hiring decision for the American people.

"Trump would be masterful tomorrow morning if he gets to a podium and in a compassionate way, says 'hey, I debated Joe Biden last night, he has served the country for 50 years, I think it's pretty evident that he's not the right guy to serve the country for the next four years'."

Watch a special programme with reaction to the US presidential debate on The World with Yalda Hakim on Sky News from 6pm

Meanwhile, former UK ambassador to the US Lord Kim Darroch, said Trump's performance was "pretty terrible too".

Speaking to Sky News, Kim Darroch said the difference between the candidates was that Trump produced "fluent, confident nonsense rather than stumbling, losing-my-train-of-thought nonsense".

"Every answer from Trump, if you listen to them carefully, is a mixture of wild exaggeration and total fantasy," Lord Darroch said.

"It's a policy-free zone. He is asked many times what he would do about the problems facing America, and he always retreats to how he had the 'greatest performance' of any president in history. So his performance was pretty terrible too."

Lord Darroch also added that Mr Biden gave a "historically terrible performance".

"This was just comprehensively bad. So bad in emphasising the concerns which American voters already had about Biden - about his age, about his physical frailty."

The odds are approaching 50/50 as to whether the Democratic Party changes its leader, Lord Darroch estimated.

Meanwhile, Mr Scaramucci criticised Mr Biden's campaign team's decisions.

"If your candidate has a cold, a sore throat, he can't speak properly, you've got to leak that before the debate so you can set expectations.

"Whoever agreed to the split screen on the Biden side should probably leave the campaign - you've got to be prepared for people staring at you while the other candidate is there. When you have your mouth open… the imagery of this is very, very bad," he added.

Mr Scaramucci also discussed how the president could be removed from the ticket and urged the Democrats to go with two younger people instead of Mr Biden and his vice-president Kamala Harris, whose personal approval ratings are also low amongst the public.

He said: "There's only one person in America that could tell Kamala Harris to step out of that ticket, I believe that's Barack Obama. I think she's got to get promised a Supreme Court justice appointment to do that."

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