ATLANTA — One of the most dramatic presidential debates in decades played out for more than 90 minutes here Thursday — and left Democrats reeling.
A halting, halting and hoarse President Biden fought hard in a confrontation he sought in an effort to change the trajectory of a campaign he appears to be narrowly losing.
The Biden team had hoped a strong performance would restore the president’s parity, at the very least. The opposite happened. Subsequently, new speculation arose about whether Biden would be replaced as the Democratic nominee.
Incumbent presidents have already faced difficulties in the first debates of their re-election campaigns. GOP challenger Mitt Romney was widely seen as having beaten then-incumbent Obama in 2012, for example.
But Obama was 51, not 81, at the time. And he recovered in a second debate soon after. There will not be a second Biden-Trump debate until September.
Biden’s struggles have left the field largely clear for Trump, despite the former president displaying his usual tendencies toward hyperbole and belligerence.
Here, for the first time, virtually no one outside the most radical partisans disagreed about who the main winners and losers were.
WINNERS
Former President Trump
Trump won because Biden lost.
This is the brutal mathematics of a presidential debate, an inherently gladiatorial contest.
From a performative point of view, Trump was much more insightful and forceful than Biden.
He also used potential attacks to his advantage, such as when he claimed that his propensity to fire former members of his administration was a good thing.
“That guy [Biden] he didn’t fire anyone,” Trump said. “He should have fired all the soldiers involved in that Afghanistan [withdrawal] horror show.”
He also dodged tougher questions with almost no resistance from Biden or the debate moderators, CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.
On abortion, Trump sought to position himself as someone who just wanted to leave the issue up to the States. Asked about the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, he spoke about the state of border security and tax policy at the time.
Trump was visibly ambiguous when asked whether he would accept the election results. He claimed he did “nothing wrong” despite his recent conviction for 34 felonies – and the three other charges he faces.
Yet despite all this, Trump and his allies will be thrilled with the way the debate went. He leaves Atlanta with a better chance of winning back the White House than when he took the stage.
Democratic alternative nominees
It’s hard to overstate the degree of Democratic panic that spread across social media — and through text messages with reporters — half an hour after the debate began.
It’s a testament to the scale of Biden’s stumble that talk of replacing the president as the Democratic nominee became instantly popular.
No other potential candidate appears to be satisfied with the president’s performance.
But in the brutal business of politics, Thursday was a good night for Democratic figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom — who was a big presence in the spin room here — and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Vice President Harris, who faced a tough interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper shortly after the debate, is another possibility, although she has her own weaknesses.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is many Democrats’ dream candidate — but the fantasy is unlikely to become reality, given her adamant opposition to any run for elected office.
CNN
CNN pulled off a coup by getting the debate in the first place.
There are many questions about the conduct of the moderators, in particular their reticence regarding fact-checking.
There was also media confusion over the network’s refusal to allow a White House reporter into the room where the debate was taking place.
Still, any network that hosts a debate expects it to make headlines.
Thursday night’s matchup easily reached that mark.
This will be discussed in a few years – and CNN’s name is present in everything.
MIXED
Jake Tapper and Dana Bash
The spotlight is unforgiving for any moderator in a presidential debate.
Tapper and Bash avoided any negative moments and the debate never devolved into chaos.
But Tapper and Bash’s reluctance to take a stronger stance on questionable or false claims has drawn widespread criticism, including on social media.
“I wish CNN moderators would do more fact-checking, letting the public know when things are said that are completely false. I’m not sure how helpful it is for a platform to broadcast falsehoods disguised as facts,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on social media.
LOSERS
President Biden
Everything went wrong very quickly for the president.
From the start, it was meandering and indistinct.
He claimed to have capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $15 per injection, when the real limit is $35 per month.
The worst moment of all came next. In a response that began with Biden confusing millionaires and billionaires, the president then fell into pauses and total incoherence.
“Making sure that we are able to make every single person eligible for what I was able to do with… with COVID. Or, excuse me, for dealing with everything we have to do with. Look if. We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said.
It was painful to watch, especially for Biden supporters. And it will definitely be played on conservative TV, radio and social media in the coming days.
Other times, Biden has let clear opportunities slip through his fingers.
His comments on abortion – perhaps the strongest political issue for his party – dissipated into a confused approach to the three trimesters of pregnancy. An attempted attack on Trump for allegedly demeaning veterans as “suckers” and “losers” ran aground due to the lack of energy with which it was delivered.
Biden has undoubtedly improved – a little – as time has gone on. But by then the damage was done.
A debate the president sought turned into a disaster.
Facts
It wasn’t a good night for the truth.
Spin is normal in debates. But the number of actual falsehoods uttered was staggering.
Trump said a “relatively small number of people” went to the US Capitol on January 6.
As an Associated Press fact check noted, more than 1,400 people have been charged with crimes related to Jan. 6 and more than 1,000 have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.
Trump said Biden has in the past used the racially charged term “superpredators.” There is no evidence that the president used this phrase.
There was, of course, also hyperbole.
Trump insisted he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine before he even took office. He claimed that a universal 10 percent tariff on imports would not raise prices for American consumers, a claim with which economic experts overwhelmingly disagree.
But the distortions and exaggerations did not all come from Trump, by any means.
The president said the Border Patrol union “endorsed me, endorsed my position.” The union backed a deal on border security that Biden also promoted earlier this year. But it was necessary to turn to social media to notice that he never endorsed him. And, as mentioned above, Biden got it wrong in describing a cap on insulin prices.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
