ANALYSIS — We don’t really know what to expect in this first debate of the 2024 general election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but a look at the Roll Call Factba.se data from their two 2020 debates suggests it will be one full of interruptions, diversions and the candidates generally feeling in control.
Their first debate, on Sept. 29, 2020, in Cleveland, was notoriously raucous. Moderator Chris Wallace did not seem in the mood to let any nonsense go unchallenged. Trump tended to expound on topics that did not always concern the question asked. And Biden frequently jabbed at Trump with short interjections. This contributed to, according to Factba.se number crunching, each of the candidates getting out between 25-32 words before being interrupted, or once every, at most, 10.4 seconds.
Consider one very long 93-second stretch of that debate, starting at about 38 minutes and 46 seconds and ending at 40 minutes and 19 seconds, when Trump, Biden and Wallace spoke over each other or interrupted or interjected repeatedly, after a question about Trump’s taxes.
