President Biden’s disastrous first debate against Trump | The Excerpt

On Friday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: The first presidential debate of 2024 is in the books. For President Biden, it wasn't a good night. What were some of the key takeaways and how did undecided voters react? USA TODAY Chief Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey shares his insight into the night’s big moments. The U.S. Supreme Court issued three substantive rulings on Thursday, including emergency abortions in Idaho, a six billion dollar opioid settlement and cross-state pollution. USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent Maureen Groppe joins The Excerpt to unpack the big decisions. And for a deeper look at the underlying issues of the opioid case, listen to our podcast featuring then USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze from last fall. A grand jury in Texas indicted former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo yesterday over the police response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, a mass killing which resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers. Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters ordered all 5th to 12th grade classrooms in the state to incorporate the Bible. U.S. gymnastics Olympic trials have begun. Catch our live blog of the trials along with NBA draft updates and other sports news at USATODAY.com/sports.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Sara Ganim:

Good morning. I'm Sara Ganim, filling in for Taylor Wilson. Today is Friday, June 28th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, a historic debate between a former and current president of the United States. What were the big takeaways? Plus, three major Supreme Court rulings that will have big impacts on Americans health. And former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo is indicted for the police response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, which killed 19 students and two adults.

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For the first time in history, a former president, Donald Trump, and current president, Joe Biden, went head-to-head in what was the first presidential debate of the 2024 race for the White House. It's also the first time the men have formally sparred since the 2020 election when Americans ultimately selected Biden over Trump. On Thursday, the two opponents wasted no time attacking each other's record. But immediate reactions on the internet mostly focused on President Joe Biden's voice and delivery, which seemed frayed and included long uncomfortable pauses.

Joe Biden:

Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the Covid, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with... Look, we finally beat Medicare.

Sara Ganim:

Trump meanwhile went hard on Biden. His blustery style was restrained at first.

Donald Trump:

Our veterans and our soldiers can't stand this guy. They can't stand him. They think he's the worst commander-in-chief, if that's what you call him, that we've ever had. They can't stand him, so let's get that straight. And they like me more than just about any of them, and that's based on every single bit of information.

Sara Ganim:

This debate was the first since 1997 that was held without the more traditional rules of the Presidential Debate Commission, which stepped down at the urging of both candidates. Instead, the rules were set by CNN, the network hosting the debate. There were no notes, no advisors, and no audience allowed. And when time was up, mics were muted, so there was no interrupting.

For analysis on the big debate moments, the issues that dominated and the key takeaways, I'm joined by USA TODAY Chief Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey. Phillip, thanks so much for joining me.

Phillip M. Bailey:

No problem, Sarah. Thank you.

Sara Ganim:

I have to start with the big narrative circulating on social media, and that's Biden's performance. A couple of USA TODAY sources close to the campaign said that Biden has a cold, but it doesn't really seem to explain it. What happened here?

Phillip M. Bailey:

President Biden had a few jobs at this debate, and one of them was to quiet down and to end this speculation and concern within his own party about his age, his acuity, and his health. And I think for many Americans, if this is your first time really plugging into this presidential contest, President Biden failed at that test today. There is no denial that he sounds and looked feeble in that conversation. Even when he was... He got better as the debate went on. But for many Americans who already have it drilled in their head, that age was a big issue in this race. For Biden acutely, I think Democrats are in a panic at this point because what they saw today did not meet their expectation, in fact was far below their expectations.

Sara Ganim:

Staying on this point, some Democrats, even ardent Biden supporters, are now calling for him to step down as the presumptive democratic nominee. Is there a chance that that could happen?

Phillip M. Bailey:

Well, look, we wrote about this earlier in the year. What is the possibility, what are the chances of President Biden being replaced to the Democratic National Convention? And the answer is very little. He's the only person who can really put it into his campaign. He has a majority of the delegates, I believe he has actually sealed the needed delegates to be the official nominee for the Democratic Party. But that doesn't mean there won't be a floor fight. That doesn't mean that there won't be a immense amount of pressure. Look, the Democrats have a very deep bench when it comes to their 2028 candidates. Look, Joe Biden is the person who will decide if the Biden campaign will truly end and he'll pass this baton to someone else. But I do believe that there will be an immense amount, an immense amount of pressure by Democrats for Joe Biden to drop out of this race.

Sara Ganim:

Okay, now let's talk about Trump. Mudslinging was central to his performance. He said that American soldiers hated Biden. He said that Biden was the worst president in American history. And he said that Biden would send us to World War III. However, his tone did seem restrained compared to previous debates. What was his broader strategy here?

Phillip M. Bailey:

Well, I think for former President Donald Trump, what looked like he was going forward here is he understands that particularly independent voters are very wary of him, wary of his character after the conviction in the Manhattan courtroom. So I think what he was trying to go for was the opposite of the impression he gave in that first debate four years ago in 2020. He was far more restrained. He was more energetic obviously than Biden. He was more clear than Biden, but he certainly wasn't doing a lot of the same antics that people were familiar with in 2020. And I think he was trying to come off and show those independent voters in particular that, "You can trust me to be back in charge again. Maybe I've learned a thing or two about how to conduct myself at least in this particular venue."

And I think he was clearly trying to speak to those disaffected Republicans who are still voting for his former rival, Nikki Haley, in the Republican primary. I think he was also going for those independent voters who are still wary about his character and are honestly scared of some of the proposals they're hearing for his return to power.

Sara Ganim:

Okay, let's talk about substance.

Phillip M. Bailey:

Well, I think right out the gate, the question about the economy and inflation, right, we have two presidents there, two terms are right next to each other. And the question really comes down to, when did this economic downturn begin, and who's responsible for. Biden, I think, was walking more of a tightrope in his response. He started off by blaming all the economic woes on Trump and arguing that the freefall of our economy started with his predecessor during the rise of COVID and also mentioned the 2017 tax cuts as a giveaway to the rich. He said, "Things were in chaos." So for much of his answer, Biden also spotlighted the gains of under his administration, record low unemployment, lowering prescription drug costs, saying how the American economy is the envy of the world and the World Bank and others back that up. But given that there are two presidencies, again, our neighbors in history, and as voters continue to express this inflation hangover, Biden had to acknowledge there's more to be done.

Trump, I think took a more methodical approach in his responses compared to, like I said, four years ago, but he didn't take this lying down. He argued that, look, the US economy was roaring when he was president before the pandemic, and that currently "inflation is killing" our country. One interesting thing though, Sarah, is that when he's asked about his substantive ideas such as imposing a 10% tariff on all foreign imports, Trump defends this idea even though a lot of economists and critics say that that will drive prices up even higher. He then leans into during the debate saying this is going to stop foreign countries from "ripping us off." so you see there, Trump's still sort of mixing his foreign policy populism views of more isolationist views in that answer there. I think that that was the more substantive of some of the conversations, but I think in many ways that's going to be the hardest for voters to discern because when did Bidenomic downturn begin?

Sara Ganim:

In terms of persuading undecided voters, do you think this debate won over any of those ballots?

Phillip M. Bailey:

I think that, again, we cannot overstate President Biden's performance here. I think if you're an undecided voter and the current president's age and health and his physical abilities was on your mind, I think that this seals the deal for you and you probably will pull the lever for Donald Trump. I think if you're an adamant Donald Trump hater, I think if you're someone who is truly afraid of his policy prescriptions, I don't think there's anything that could have made you not get off the Biden train at this point. We remember the old Joe Biden. This isn't that Joe Biden. And his campaign and the Democratic Party writ large can no longer deny that, and they cannot use spin to convince the American people and the voters that they did not see what they just saw.

Sara Ganim:

Philip Bailey, I know it's a late night. Thank you so much for being with us.

Phillip M. Bailey:

No problem. Thank you.

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Sara Ganim:

Three big decisions were handed down by the Supreme Court yesterday. On the morning of the first presidential debate, the high court ruled on the hot button issue of abortion on a $6 billion opioid settlement and on cross-state smog. Here to help me digest these decisions and their impacts is USA TODAY Supreme Court correspondent Maureen Groppe. Maureen, thanks so much for being on the show.

Maureen Groppe:

Thanks for having me.

Sara Ganim:

Let's start with emergency abortions in Idaho, which the court decided to allow in cases where the health of the mother is at risk. News of this decision was briefly posted on the court's website Wednesday, where it was obtained by Bloomberg News and then widely reported by journalists ,including you. What did the justices say about this decision?

Maureen Groppe:

Well, first of all, the decision was a punt. What they did is they allowed the emergency abortions to happen in the state for now, but they did not resolve the underlying conflict between the state and federal laws on this issue and said they kicked that back to the lower courts to keep the conversation the litigation going there.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote an opinion for two of the other conservative justices in which she explained that both of the two sides in this dispute, the Biden administration and Idaho, she said they've been changing their arguments about this, which has made it difficult to understand exactly where there's a conflict between the state's abortion ban and federal requirements. But Justice Samuel Alito who wrote a dissent for the other conservative justices, he accused his colleagues of having essentially lost the will to decide such a politically and emotionally charged case, which of course would've landed right in the middle of a very competitive election year.

Sara Ganim:

What happens next in this case?

Maureen Groppe:

Well, since the Supreme Court didn't decide how to resolve the conflict between the state and federal laws, that's going to continue to be litigated in the lower courts, and it could very well end back at the Supreme Court, though not for a while. Before that happens, we may see the issue coming back to the high court another way. Texas has challenged the federal government's ability to enforce the federal law issue here, so that challenge may end up back at the Supreme Court before the Idaho case.

Sara Ganim:

Also, on Thursday, the Supreme Court upended a high-profile $6 billion bankruptcy settlement with the company that made the powerful and addictive painkiller OxyContin. Tell us about this decision.

Maureen Groppe:

The settlement had been approved by a bankruptcy judge in 2021, and it would've provided billions to creditors including state and local governments, individual victims of addiction, hospitals, and others who have sued the company. In exchange, it would've shielded the Sackler family, which made a fortune from OxyContin from future damages. States have planned on using the settlement money for drug treatment programs, which they can't do now because there is no settlement.

Sara Ganim:

Some people are saying that a better deal may not ever happen. What were the criticisms from each side?

Maureen Groppe:

The vast majority of victims supported the settlement. They, as you said, didn't think they could get a better deal, and this fight has dragged on for years. But the Justice Department stepped into the case to question whether courts could shield the Sacklers from future lawsuits.

Sara Ganim:

And finally, there was a decision on a case about upwind polluters whose smog is putting the health of residents of downwind states at risk. What was the ruling?

Maureen Groppe:

The Supreme Court sided with some of the polluting states that wanted to keep these pollution rules from going into effect while they challenged their legality. That means that the rules can't be enforced for now, but they could be in the future if the EPA decision survives underlying challenges.

Sara Ganim:

Thanks so much for joining me, Maureen.

Maureen Groppe:

Happy to be here.

Sara Ganim:

You can find links to all of our Supreme Court coverage in today's show notes, for a deeper look into the underlying issues of the opioid case. We have also included a link to a podcast we aired last fall featuring then USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze.

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A grand jury in Texas indicted former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo yesterday over the police response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, which killed 19 students and two teachers. The Uvalde County Sheriff's office said Arredondo was in custody Thursday where he was booked on 10 counts of child endangerment. Family members and parents of several victims gathered nearby. Officials said Arredondo, whose name has been at the center of the police failures, along with Adrian Gonzalez, who also worked as a school police officer, were both indicted. The indictments culminate a six-month grand jury investigation that includes months of in-person testimony, including from Texas Department of Public Safety Director Colonel Steve McCraw. The officers face up to two years behind bars and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

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Yesterday, the superintendent of Oklahoma schools said that all 5th to 12th grade classrooms in the state are to incorporate the Bible as an "instructional support into the curriculum." superintendent Ryan Walters justified the new rule by saying the Bible is an important historical document and said adherence to the policy will be mandatory. This comes just days after Louisiana's governor signed a law saying that the 10 Commandments must be displayed in every classroom in his state. Both mandates have been met with intense scrutiny from democratic lawmakers and groups that support separation of church and state. One state Democrat, Representative Mickey Dollens from Oklahoma City, said that the new rule will not improve the state's rank of 49th in the nation for education, and countered that the superintendent should "focus on educating students, not evangelizing them."

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And finally, some good news. If you're a team USA sports fan, the U.S gymnastics Olympic trials have begun. The men's competition began last night, and Women's will start tonight. Catch our live blog of the trials along with NBA Draft updates and other sports news at usatoday.com/sports.

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Thanks as always for listening to The Excerpt. We are produced by Shannon Rae Green. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get this podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Sara Ganim filling in for Taylor Wilson. I'll be back tomorrow.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden’s disastrous first debate against Trump | The Excerpt