Biden blunders in face-off with lively Trump: 3 takeaways from the Atlanta debate
Donald Trump needed to show sobriety and curb his instinct for chaos.
Joe Biden had to display vigor and reassure the country about the visible infirmities that accompany his age.
In the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle and the earliest in modern history, the former president largely accomplished his goal while the current occupant of the Oval Office often struggled to stitch together cohesive answers and took longer to accumulate the blows he needed to stem Trump’s march to a second, non-consecutive term.
Many Democrats saw it as missed opportunity for the incumbent, who is already an underdog against the first former president convicted of a felony.
Biden and Trump’s 90-minute debate in Atlanta was thoroughly substantive. They sparred over abortion law, the crisis at the southern border, a complicated and puzzling economy and how to make peace in a world with multiple hot wars.
In most instances, Trump curbed his worst impulses and avoided the type of over-the-top attacks that have defined his persona. In fact, it was Biden who arguably launched the most brutal barb of the night when he assailed Trump’s character with personal and visceral language.
“How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties, for molesting a woman in public, for having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant with your son?,” Biden said of Trump’s legal travails, including being held liable for sexual assault and convicted of 34 felonies in for falsifying business records. “You have the morals of an alley cat.”
But while Trump continued to make a litany of false claims, he exhibited energy and spark that Biden lacked throughout.
Here are 3 takeaways from the first Biden-Trump debate:
BIDEN STUMBLED OUT OF THE GATE
The 81-year-old Biden started slowly, discharging a voice that sounded hoarse and dispensing answers that meandered without the vitality necessary to assuage voters’ concerns about his age.
He mistakenly referenced the creation of 15,000 jobs when he meant 15 million. And when he was challenged by Trump on the economy, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought, inexplicably settling on, “We finally beat Medicare.”
It was a gift to Trump.
“He did beat Medicare and he beat it to death,” the former president clapped back.
During an exchange on immigration, Trump went back to the well one more time: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Biden began to recover in the second half hour, but Trump was strongest in the initial 20 minutes, when most eyeballs are paying attention.
TRUMP’S WEAKEST ISSUE IS STILL JAN. 6
When the question arrived, Trump at first unfurled the answer that must have made campaign aides Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles smile.
Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether he violated his oath to protect and defend the Constitution as rioters ransacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump nimbly pivoted to his record on taxes and immigration and blamed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for turning down 10,000 soldiers.
For a moment, it looked like he would refuse to take the bait of defending the actions on that day.
But that dam wouldn’t hold after Biden cited Trump’s own words calling the Jan. 6 rioters “patriots” and saying he would be ready with pardons in hand if he wins back the White House.
“He didn’t do a damn thing and these people should be in jail,” Biden said of those who breached the U.S. Capitol. “And he wants to let them all out.”
Trump then called some of the people convicted “so innocent,” attempting to minimize his own conduct on that day. And when Biden asked Trump directly to denounce those involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump looked straight into the camera and refused.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal offenses, more than 850 have pleaded guilty to crimes, including assaulting police officers, and about 200 have been convicted through trials, according to an Associated Press tally.
Biden also used the exchange to label Trump a convicted felon.
It amounted to Biden’s strongest moment and exposed one of Trump’s most enduring weaknesses.
DEMOCRATS WILL RUN AWAY FROM THIS DEBATE
Flash polls and focus-group snap reactions help shape the post-debate narrative, but it will take at least a week for more precise polling to truly measure the impact of the clash.
Democrats will attempt to turn the page from it as quickly as possible. But some are already panicking out loud.
“I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race,” wrote Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist on social media, calling for a fresh nominee at an open Democratic National Convention in August.
Symone Sanders Townsend, a former Biden aide who is now a host on MSNBC, acknowledged that Biden’s “start was bad.”
“He improved throughout the debate, but this wasn’t the Biden allies hoped to see tonight,” Sanders Townsend wrote.
On CNN, Kate Bedingfield, another former Biden aide, concurred with the assessment.
“No two ways about it, this was not a good debate for Joe Biden,” she said.
One of the reasons the Biden campaign agreed to the historically early debate was to give the president enough time to recover in case of a poor performance. Many Democrats were already expressing an urgent need for a reboot as the debate came to a close.
They can only hope that fewer people consumed the debate, or will remember it by time voting begins.
Whereas 84 million watched Trump’s first debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, viewership slid to 73 million in Trump’s first debate against Biden in 2020. Given the early summer date in the midst of vacation season, it’s unlikely Thursday night’s ratings will top either.
The next debate is more than two months away, scheduled for Sept. 10, if both campaigns agree to honor it.
Fewer fireworks, more substance: 5 takeaways from the final Biden-Trump debate
