President Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off in a crucial 2024 presidential debate on Thursday, and the contrast between the two men couldn’t be starker, body language expert Susan Constantine told Fox News.
Constantine said the physical differences between the two candidates were noticeable from the moment they took the stage in Atlanta, and they set the tone for the night: Trump exuded strength and confidence in his stance, while Biden appeared tired and sluggish, exacerbated by his raspy voice, muttered answers and often stunned expression.
“I was really worried. [Biden] When he got on stage, [was] “He looked sick,” Constantine said. “His skin was pale and pale, and he literally looked like a dead man walking.”
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Biden will participate in and watch the first presidential debate of the 2024 election alongside former President Trump on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“It was like everything was in slow motion,” she continued. “The way his fingers moved, the lack of facial expression when he was talking, he was like a frozen statue on stage. It was really painful to watch.” [Trump] He was more serious. He didn’t have as many facial expressions as we normally see. He didn’t flash any big smiles at anybody. When he got on stage, he had a serious look on his face, and that didn’t change throughout the debate.”
“Biden looked very weak and Donald Trump looked very strong,” Constantine added.
Biden’s campaign claimed the hoarseness was due to a cold, but the president’s shaky performance at the debate dominated the headlines and prompted renewed calls from political pundits and some Democrats for him to consider stepping down as the party’s standard-bearer.
But Biden’s aides pushed back against such comments, defending the president and accusing Trump of lying throughout the debate.
Constantine said it was clear Biden had rehearsed many of his answers and was repeating the scripted answers very quickly so he wouldn’t forget them. But when he actually couldn’t remember his lines, it confused him, often resulting in an unblinking stare that she described as a “stalker stare.”
“Then he forgot a couple of words and it was all over, and he had this stunned look on his face, his mouth hanging down,” she explained. “His eyes were wide open, he looked like a zombie. I mean, he had this very cold stare in his eyes.”
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Biden and Trump held a crucial debate on Thursday night, and physical experts say their body language says a lot about them. (Getty Images)
She also said Biden has had so many cosmetic injections that he is physically unable to produce the right facial expressions.
“He really did overdo the Botox, which is a real problem because suppressing emotion with facial effects can affect the brain,” Constantine explained. “It almost felt like abuse to literally make him do Botox… [to] To me, putting that kind of pressure on my son, knowing that he was in severe cognitive decline, was bordering on abuse.”
“And it was sad to watch. It was heartbreaking,” she added. “Literally, I was crying watching him struggle to find the words. It was really painful to watch. The emotion I felt was sympathy, empathy, because he looked so pathetic.”
Trump, on the other hand, maintained discipline and controlled the stage space well, Constantine said, adding that the lack of an audience worked to Trump’s advantage by allowing him to focus on the debate and avoid distractions.
She said Trump also uses hand gestures to get his messages across and that he expresses emotion through his facial expressions, most notably by lowering his head in a sad expression when he feels hurt or attacked.
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Trump used his hands to get his point across during the debates. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“He’s a big guy with big hands, right? And he commands attention,” Constantine said. “He’s so big and wide and open, so all of his gestures and movements are big and loud. His hands are nothing more than additional communicators of what he’s saying.”
Constantine said Trump would make the chopping gesture when he was serious and the “OK” sign when he was focused on something that really mattered. Trump would also make the “L” sign at ear level and move his hand toward his chest as if he was playing an accordion, which Constantine described as a “listen and learn” gesture.
“[Trump’s gestures] “His gestures are much quicker, much more menacing, much more intense, but it’s in line with his character, it’s in sync with his personality,” Constantine said. “Some politicians get so in sync with their gestures that they lose their authenticity. He kept that window open, he was gesturing, but he kept that balance, staying in the frame, connecting with the audience, not gesturing too much in front of the camera, but just enough to get his point across.”
“It’s very powerful,” she added.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
