The reality of the 2024 presidential contest is setting in now that the first debate of the election cycle showcased the two main options voters have in November.
Joe Biden, apparently sick with a cold, mumbled through the debate, failing to land otherwise well-crafted lines. Donald Trump, a prolific purveyor of falsehoods, repeatedly told lies and avoided answering tough questions.
The prevailing reaction to the debate was one of resignation and disbelief that these two candidates were their parties’ choices to lead the country at one of its most critical moments.
Whether the debacle will sway undecided voters toward one candidate or the other remains to be seen.
Biden performs poorly
The president joked about the rightwing conspiracies that he would take some kind of performance-enhancing drugs before the debate, posting a link to a can of water for sale on his campaign website called “Dark Brandon’s Secret Sauce”.
But his low-energy, muted and garbled performance didn’t live up to expectations. And keep in mind: Biden challenged the former president to the debate, which looks like a strategic error in retrospect.
Voters regularly say they are concerned about Biden’s age and fitness for office. This debate will not assuage their fears.
If someone were reading a transcript of Biden’s remarks, some of his lines would sound smart and aggressive. But the delivery failed – and for a visual medium like TV, that’s critical. He failed to sell his signature accomplishments, like his infrastructure plan.
From the start, Biden’s voice was muffled. He trailed off. In one gaffe, attacking Trump on his tax cuts and the national debt, he confusingly ended his remarks with: “We finally beat Medicare.”
Trump jumped on the moment: “He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death, and he’s destroying Medicare.”
On an abortion question, which should be one of Biden’s strongest assets for voters concerned about rolling back reproductive rights, Biden brought up girls killed by migrants – pivoting, for some reason, to one of his weakest areas.
He became more lively over the course of the evening, but not enough to change the narrative of how the debate went down optically. The evening will undoubtedly lead Democrats to debate whether Biden should somehow be replaced at the convention.
Trump lies endlessly
As expected for a politician so consistently factchecked, Trump repeatedly tried to sell falsehoods and half-truths to voters.
When questions were posed that would require tough answers, like one about the January 6 insurrection, he deflected and talked about something he could attack Biden on.
CNN’s moderators did not factcheck statements live. At times, when he avoided the question, they would reiterate it – sometimes successfully getting Trump to answer.
He falsely claimed Democrats want abortions up until and after birth. He said without evidence that Nancy Pelosi refused his offer for national guard troops on 6 January 2021 to respond to an insurrection he encouraged. He said his administration had the “best environmental numbers”, whatever that means.
And his promise that retribution would mark a second term in office surfaced too, in what seemed to be a veiled threat of prosecution: “He could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office. Joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he’s done. He’s done horrible things.”
Different visions were starkly on display
The two men showed the distinctions of the two Americas in which they live.
Trump repeatedly talked about how the US had failed, how Biden was the worst president in the country’s history and how the world views the country dismally now.
“Joe, our country is being destroyed. As you and I sit up here and waste a lot of time on this debate. This shouldn’t be a debate. He is the worst president, he just said about me because I said it. But look, he’s the worst president in the history of our country. He’s destroyed our country.”
Biden disagreed, offering an optimistic view of the US on the world stage.
“We’re the most admired country in the world. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing beyond our capacity. We have the finest military in the history of the world, the finest in the history of the world. No one thinks we’re weak. No one wants to screw around with us, nobody.”
The adult film actor moment
Trump’s convictions and varied court cases didn’t come up in the debate until it was well under way, a missed opportunity from Biden to hammer on one of Trump’s key liabilities.
When the issue finally surfaced, Biden hit at Trump for having sex with an adult film actor while his wife was pregnant, referring to Stormy Daniels and the hush-money trial that concluded in 34 felonies for Trump.
“You have the morals of an alley cat,” Biden quipped at Trump.
Trump responded with a line that surely has not been uttered at presidential debates in decades past: “I didn’t have sex with a porn star.”
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