President Biden and Former President Trump squared off for the highly anticipated Presidential Debate hosted by CNN, and only two words can describe the night: utter disaster. The President of the United States was lambasted for his look of frailness, numerous gaffes, and a sense that he almost seemed lost on stage: this a far cry from his lauded 2020 performances. Former President Trump was hit for numerous mistruths and evasion of questions, with the CNN hosts having to correct him for his seemingly bizarre and off-topic answers. One fundamental truth from the debate remains: the importance of optics. Biden arguably lost the debate through a performance dubbed as raising the “DEFCON one” alarm inside the Democratic Campaign, as stated by Obama’s 2008 campaign David Plouffe. It remains to be seen what the debate’s effect will be on polling numbers, but it certainly wasn’t a good night for President Biden.
President Joe Biden’s Performance
Inside democratic circles, there’s a pervading sentiment of unbridled panic at Biden’s debate performance. Biden’s task during the debate was to flip the script about overarching concerns from voters over his mental acuity: he failed overwhelmingly, according to Democrats. If anything, this performance exacerbated concerns among Democrats over Biden’s ability to withstand another four years in the White House.
Numerous Gaffes
Biden began with a hoarse, low voice attributed by his campaign to a “cold” he’s been suffering from for days. During the course of the 90-minute debate, Biden’s answers went into the realm of the bizarre mumbling through incoherent responses that made him look frailer than ever. In a particularly awe-inspiring gaffe, Biden declared, “We finally beat Medicare,” trying to reference Covid but misspeaking. Former President Trump immediately jumped upon the opportunity to declare that Biden had “beat Medicare to death.” Biden continued to misspeak about his own Presidential record, saying he had added “15,000 jobs” to the economy instead of the 15 million attributed to his tenure. Biden even conceded ground to Trump on multiple occasions; fuming Democrats ripped their hair out when multiple opportunities described as layups were missed. During the Democrats’ marquee issue that’s driven their overperformance in the last two years, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Biden bizarrely changed the topic to immigration: immigration being an issue described as the Achilles heel of the Biden Presidency.
What’s more, Biden’s gaffes extended to stating that there were “one thousand trillionaires” in the United States before quickly correcting himself to say “one thousand billionaires.” One final gaffe came from Biden, who stated he had the support of the border patrol on his immigration policy: the border patrol union quickly clapped, stating they’d never endorse Joe Biden.
A Loss Just Through Looks
Biden appeared absolutely dazed while Trump was answering questions; many Democrats acknowledged that Biden’s loss can be attributed to the frail appearance of Biden during the debate. Voters already had concerns over his appearance of being too old, carefully engineered by RNC research to give Trump an advantage, and last night, this was all but confirmed. Optics have been and will continue to be important for American elections, and Biden lost the optic war last night.
A Coup at the Convention?
Worried and dismayed Democrats in recoil at Biden’s performance are now considering a potential coup at the convention. Numerous democratic campaign operatives, house democrats, and other individuals inside the Obama world have begun a crescendo of calls to replace Biden at the party’s August Chicago Convention. Even media figures so supportive of Biden, like those within MSNBC, are questioning Biden’s ability to withstand the rough and tumble of the Democratic campaign. High-profile Democrats like Gavin Newsom have tried to quell the open revolt that’s just begun by stating that this discourse towards Biden was “unhelpful” and that the main objective of the election is defeating Donald Trump. This objective, defeating Donald Trump, has been the rallying cry for Democrats during this 2024 cycle. Still, Biden’s performance last night may have opened a fissure on this fundamental bedrock upon which the Biden re-election campaign has laid itself.
President Trump’s Night
Former President Trump arguably won last night’s debate just through the optics that Biden portrayed. While Trump spewed his normal act that voters are accustomed to with his normal planks of stolen elections and numerous other mistruths, there was nothing particularly noteworthy from Trump that voters haven’t already heard a million times. Trump’s brand is well known, and last night it was just the usual show, but Biden’s worse-than-expected performance drew attention away and turned the debate from a referendum on Trump (as the Biden campaign wanted) to a referendum on Biden’s mental acuity and ability to serve as President.
Trump’s Gaffes and Other Statements
Donald Trump had his own host of statements that bordered into the realm of the bizarre, but his coherence, as compared to Biden, was certainly much more understandable. According to various fact-checkers from the Associated Press and other sources, Trump had a host of lies that didn’t conform to the actual facts. Trump’s statements ranged on him stating that those prosecuted for the capital attacks on January 6th were a “small amount of people, and in many cases, capital police escorted the protestors in.” This is not the case; a large number of people were prosecuted for actions on January 6th, an amount upwards of 1,800, and capital police did not escort protestors in, and there is no such proof about that. Continuing on the January 6th train, Trump claimed he offered 10,000 National Guardsmen to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that she turned him down–fact checkers have refuted this claim, and records show that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi did request National Guard help and that Trump delayed them.
More mistruths were stated by Donald Trump, such as the case where he stated, “I did not have sex with a pornstar,” when in reality, he was just prosecuted in New York for a hush money payment he paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels for her silence during the 2016 campaign. During the climate change portion, Trump claimed that his administration had a very “clean H20” and that he had the best environmental numbers of any President; the fact of the matter is Trump repealed many provisions of the Clean Water Act and a slew of other environmental regulations. Trump also parroted his attribution of the “super predators” quote to President Biden when, in reality, this quote was a term utilized by Hillary Clinton instead. These are some of the information Trump peddled at the debate, but again, this was expected from Trump, so the attention is drawn away from his particular performance on this issue.
Historical Precedence
Democrats more hopeful to Biden’s prospects point out numerous historical examples of bad debate performances not contributing to the election result. For instance, in Ronald Reagan’s bad performance during the 1st debate, Reagan aimed to allay fears very similar to Biden’s that he didn’t have the stamina to be President amid concerns about his age. This lousy performance against Walter Mondale was insignificant to Reagan’s 49-state landslide in November. Another example closer to Democrats is Obama’s disastrous performance in the 1st debate against Republican Mitt Romney; despite Obama’s bad first debate, he went on to soundly defeat Romney during the 2012 election; these are some examples that worried Democrats are clinging on to in efforts to calm the insurrection occurring within Democratic Party ranks now.
The Ultimate Conclusion
Optics matter. They really do. This debate confirms the importance of the optic war. The American people have this pervading sentiment of wanting a strong and firm President in the White House, and Presidents of the past have tried to convey this sentiment: the rough rider Teddy Roosevelt, the youthful (and sickly in private) John F Kennedy, the firm (yet paralyzed) Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Biden projected weakness on the debate stage, and this might ultimately cost him dearly.
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