The unsettling thud you heard was the sound of jaws dropping. The queasy noise was hearts sinking. The raspy gasp was a U.S. president embodying what felt like the republic’s final breath.
Say it ain’t so, Joe.
The first U.S. presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday marked the moment Democrats shifted from “Don’t panic!” to “OK, time to panic!” After months of preparation and high expectations, they reached the altar only to realize they were marrying the wrong man.
In a miserable 90 minutes, Joe Biden managed two seemingly impossible feats. He lived down to the already rock-bottom expectations and somehow made Donald Trump sound almost coherent. Trump did not win the debate, but Biden certainly lost it.
A somber silence greeted the president, in a blue tie and flag pin, and Trump, in a red tie and flag pin, as they entered CNN’s red, white, and blue studio. This was the first presidential debate without an audience since Kennedy faced Nixon in 1960 (those candidates had a combined age of 90; this time, it was 159).
Journalists in Atlanta watched on TV like everyone else, but the mutual animosity and contempt between the men radiated through the screen. It was clear neither considered shaking the other’s hand.
Democrats were lulled into a false sense of security by Biden’s energetic State of the Union address. They expected Superman; instead, they got Clark Kent in his dotage.
The crisis was evident almost as soon as Biden began speaking. His voice was hoarse and hard to hear. Clear your throat, man! His team later claimed he had a cold. Or had he over-prepared?
Early on, he bumbled: “We have 1,000 trillionaires in America – I mean billionaires in America.” Then: “… making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the – with – with – with the Covid. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with…”
His voice trailed off. “Look, if – we finally beat Medicare.”
Trump seized the moment: “Well, he’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.”
Trump is only three years younger but is a creature of television. When Biden spoke, the former president, with hair hovering like a shiny cloud, could be seen frowning, pursing his lips, or revving up for a reply. When Trump spoke, the white-haired Biden stared into the distance, his mouth open, looking as frail as the democracy now resting on his shoulders.
It was a Greek tragedy because the Biden campaign pushed for this debate, the earliest in history, to “drag Trump into Americans’ living rooms” and wake them up to the threat. The rules, including muted microphones and no studio audience, seemed to backfire, favoring Trump.
The restrictions helped Trump stay relatively controlled and disciplined, at least by his standards. He did not constantly interrupt, as he did in the first debate in 2020. He did not play to a crowd or tell unhinged stories about sharks.
But Trump should not be let off the hook. This was an unwatchable debate between an old man who could not finish a sentence and an old man who could not tell the truth. It was Rip Van Winkle versus Pinocchio.
Biden failed to counter Trump’s lies. So did CNN’s moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, giving the impression that Trump’s falsehoods were as credible as Biden’s facts, especially to viewers just tuning in. Expect Democrats to use this argument to deflect attention from their own candidate’s failings.
Over an hour after the debate, when most had turned off and gone to bed, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale reported Biden made nine false claims while Trump made 30. Trump’s included falsehoods about Democratic states executing babies after birth, the U.S. having the biggest budget deficit ever, Biden getting money from China, no terrorist attacks during Trump’s presidency, Biden wanting to quadruple taxes, the U.S. giving more aid to Ukraine than Europe, Nancy Pelosi rejecting Trump’s offer of 10,000 National Guard troops on January 6, fraud in the 2020 election, NATO collapsing before his presidency, Biden indicting him, and his tax cut being the largest in history.
First impressions and viral clips are crucial, so voters will forget that as the debate wore on, Biden gradually became stronger in style and substance. He attacked Trump’s character: “The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is this man I’m looking at right now.”
Angry and glowering, Biden insisted: “My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker, you’re the loser.”
And again: “How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star while your wife was pregnant? I mean, what are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.”
Trump responded: “I didn’t have sex with a porn star, number one.” An immortal line, never before uttered in a presidential debate. Carve it in marble!
Biden and Trump debated who is the worst president in history and who is the better golfer. Trump boasted: “I just won two club championships, not even senior, two regular club championships. To do that, you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way. And I do it. He doesn’t do it. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards. He challenged me to a golf match. He can’t hit a ball 50 years.”
Biden retorted: “Look, I’d be happy to have a driving contest with him. I got my handicap, which, when I was vice-president, down to a six. And by the way, I told you before I’m happy to play golf if you carry your own bag. Think you can do it?”
Trump: “That’s the biggest lie that he’s a six handicap, of all.”
Biden: “I was eight handicap.”
Trump: “Yeah.”
Biden: “Eight, but I have – you know how many…”
Trump: “I’ve seen your swing, I know your swing.”
As Bash tried to interject, Trump said: “Let’s not act like children.” Biden shot back: “You are a child.”
Once the horror show ended, it was Trump’s surrogates who flooded the “spin zone” at the media center. Former housing secretary Ben Carson said of Biden: “I really felt sorry for him. He struggled to come up with answers. He was trying to remember the things they’d told him.”
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said: “I think President Trump was strong and coherent, and I think President Biden was weak and confused most of the time. What started out as a policy debate turned into a capability debate… It’s pretty hard to believe that President Biden can continue in this job.”
After a while, Biden’s surrogates emerged, including California governor Gavin Newsom with his beaming smile. It is still highly unlikely he will be the Democratic nominee in November, but a little less unlikely than it used to be.