“The war in Ukraine would never have happened with me” in power, Donald Trump hammered home during the first debate against Joe Biden on Thursday. “That’s right!” Monika Rothenbuhler loudly agreed, amid applause in a San Francisco bar.
The vice-president of the local Republican Party is on familiar ground in the pub chosen by the conservatives to watch the televised duel together, in a town where they represent a minority of voters.
Donald Trump’s many insults and sarcasm aimed at the Democratic president are greeted with laughter and shouts of approval, while every hesitation and throat clearing from Joe Biden makes the audience exult.
Except for Hazel Reitz, 80. “I don’t understand a word he’s saying,” she says, overwhelmed, to her neighbor. “Yeah, it’s really sad,” she replies.
The two women do not know each other, but quickly recognize each other by their reactions, which are the opposite of those of the rest of the audience.
“My God…” laments Adina Erridge, while Hazel shakes her head, looking desperate, while the former head of state defends his attitude during the assault on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6 2021.
“At least he articulates”
And when he assures that he will “evacuate” all illegal immigrants from the United States, they exclaim in unison: “And how are you going to do that?!”
The two women, who will vote for Joe Biden without any enthusiasm, came with their husbands, doubtful Republicans.
Before the debate began, Hazel Reitz hoped the exchanges between the two politicians would be “entertaining,” but an hour later, she seems dejected. “Biden is too old,” she sums up.
“Trump is not answering questions, and that’s typical of him. And he’s probably not telling the truth. But at least he’s articulate. He’s the one who won (the debate),” said Adina Erridge, 55.
At the Continental Club, a bar in downtown Los Angeles, the frustration of a largely Democratic audience is also palpable.
But Mike McFarland refuses to admit his candidate’s defeat.
“There are appearances and there are facts. And what matters to me are the facts. So for me Biden won,” he declared. “Even though I know that image-wise he doesn’t look good.”
He chose the evening as his first date with a potential girlfriend, Denise Hernandez… a fervent supporter of Donald Trump. “We agree to disagree,” they joke.
“Not here!”
At the Kezar Pub in San Francisco, silence falls when the candidates are questioned about the opioid crisis, which is wreaking havoc in a city where the highly paid employees of Silicon Valley rub shoulders on a daily basis with the many homeless people often under the influence of drugs.
“Fentanyl use went down for a while,” Biden ventures. “Not here!” a woman shouts.
Republican activists are clearly enjoying the gathering, whereas they are usually very isolated in San Francisco. Donald Trump won 9% of the vote there in 2016, and nearly 13% in 2020.
“Did Trump win?” asks John Dennis, the party chairman for the California city, with a big smile. The room goes wild.
“I was afraid that Trump would be too aggressive from the start, but he did very well,” he comments for AFP. “Just give someone enough rope to hang themselves and that’s what Trump did with Biden.”
“He is angry because we have stolen from him these last four years,” assures Monika Rothenbuhler, in reference to the unfounded allegations of the billionaire and his supporters about electoral fraud in 2020.
But “he’s mentally and physically at the top of his game,” she enthuses. “I don’t think he can do much more.”
