Joe Biden's Chances of Winning Election Plummet After Debate

President Joe Biden's odds of winning a second White House term in November took a tumble with leading bookmakers after Thursday's presidential debate, during which the Democratic incumbent appeared to lose his train of thought at several points.

The debate in Atlanta, Georgia, which was hosted by CNN without a studio audience, raised fresh concerns among Democrats about the 81-year-old's mental fitness to serve another four years in office.

On Thursday, before the debate, Bet365 gave Biden a 13/8 (38.1 percent) chance of winning November's election but this slumped to 10/3 (23.1 percent) as of 3 a.m. ET on Friday, according to betting website Oddschecker.

Over the same period, Biden's odds of victory slumped from 13/8 (38.1 percent) to 3/1 (25 percent) with Sky Bet, 15/8 (34.8 percent) to 3/1 (25 percent) with William Hill and 13/8 (38.1 percent) to 7/2 (22.2 percent) with Betfair.

Betfair spokesperson Sam Rosbottom told Newsweek: "Biden's disastrous head-to-head with Trump has seen punters rapidly lose faith that the incumbent president has another five years in him.

"The two men were neck-and-neck back in April; now, despite Trump's varying legal and financial headaches, he has the punters' firm backing to be the next U.S. president."

Newsweek contacted representatives of the 2024 Joe Biden presidential campaign for comment outside of regular business hours on Friday.

Biden's age and mental ability has been a major talking point during the campaign, with a New York Times survey published in March finding 61 percent of those who voted for him in 2020 think he is now "just too old" for another term. Critics have also raised concern about Trump's cognitive abilities. On June 22 in Philadelphia, Trump, 78, complained he is portrayed as being "cognitively impaired" by the media if he says "one word slightly out."

During Thursday's debate, Biden appeared confused while arguing Trump posed a threat to Medicare, commenting: "Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the...with the COVID, excuse me, with um, dealing with everything we have to with, uh... Look, if we finally beat Medicare." At this point, CNN moderator Jake Tapper cut Biden off saying, "Thank you, President Biden" before handing the question to Trump, who claimed the incumbent "did beat Medicare...he beat it to death."

Later, Biden seemed to lose his train of thought while discussing immigration, stating: "I've changed it in a way that now, you're in a situation where there are 40 percent fewer people coming across the border illegally, it's better than when [Trump] left office. And I'm going to continue to move it until we get the total ban on...the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers."

Trump then responded: "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either."

Concern was also raised online about Biden's voice, which at times sounded raspy and hoarse. The president could be heard clearing his throat a number of times during the debate. A Biden aide told Newsweek he was suffering from a cold during the debate.

Trump's odds of winning the 2024 election improved after the debate, but not as much as Biden's fell, suggesting bet makers are factoring in the possibility another Democrat runs in November.

On Thursday prior to the debate, Trump's Bet365 and Sky Bet odds of winning in November were 4/6 (60 percent) and this improved to 4/7 (63.6 percent) as of 3 a.m. ET on Friday. Similarly with both William Hill and Betfair, he went from 8/13 (61.9 percent) before the debate to 4/7 (63.6 percent) the following morning.

A spokesperson for Trump sent Newsweek a campaign statement on what they called the former president's "historic debate victory."

It said: "Tonight President Trump delivered the greatest debate performance and victory in history to the largest voter audience in history, making clear exactly how he will improve the lives of every American...

"Joe Biden, on the other hand, showed exactly why he deserves to be fired. Despite taking a weeklong vacation at Camp David to prepare for the debate, Biden was unable to defend his disastrous record on the economy and the border. Throughout the debate Biden lied, invented stories and could not articulate a single plan to make things less expensive and keep our people safe, choosing instead to change the subject and dwell on the past."

After the debate, CNN chief national correspondent John King said Biden's performance had triggered "panic" within his party. He said: "This was a game-changing debate in the sense that right now as we speak, there is a deep, a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.

"It started minutes into the debate, and it continues right now. It involves party strategists. It involves elected officials. It involves fundraisers. And they're having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket, and they're having conversations about what they should do about it."

In a video posted to X, Johanna Maska, a Democratic consultant and former Barack Obama aide, said Trump had been "lying in so many ways" during the debate and would be a "terrible" choice in November.

But she added: "But we cannot do this Democrats. Joe Biden can't put a sentence together. We have to change our candidate, and we have so many good candidates who are sitting on the sidelines."

Update 06/28/24, 7:15 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with a response from a spokesperson for Donald Trump.