On June 27, Donald Trump burned the Atlanta debate stage to the ground, significantly reducing Joe Biden’s chances to win re-election in 2024. But can Biden survive?
Although Joe Biden is a far better president than Donald Trump was and is much more decent as a man, I was hoping for this debate to end as soon as it started, just to put Biden out of his misery for the night.
Biden’s performance was neither strong nor convincing. He appeared unsure and incapable of being president for another four years. It’s ironic that Trump, the pathological liar, sounded more convincing that Biden. Now, I am not suggesting that Trump had a great night, however, everything is relative, and Biden had a very bad night.
As is well known, perception is more important than reality, and Trump took the advantage immediately upon his introduction to the stage. It was not a surprise—nor was it accidental– that Trump walked out on the stage with the swagger of a gangster to embody the facade of strength for America and the world to see.
Biden looked beaten from the start, and if this had been a boxing match, the towel would have been thrown into the ring to stop the fight.
Trump stayed true to his character, continuing to lie and spread misinformation, but he remained composed instead of unhinged.
This debate set up was the perfect scenario for Trump. He was not distracted by a studio audience because there was none, and he was able to avoid answering some of the moderators’ questions. In addition, the moderators did not factcheck Trump’s obvious lies. They did nothing more than ask the questions, something that could have been done by the candidates themselves reading the questions from a teleprompter. That’s how inconsequential the moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, were.
A main point is that Biden should have been more aggressive in exposing Trump’s numerous lies and misinformation. At times he looked stunned by Trump’s outright lies, yet he did not refute them when given the chance to do so.
When asked about Roe v Wade being overturned, Trump stated religious leaders wanted the abortion issue sent back to the states calling it “killing Roe v Wade”. That is not true, religious leaders don’t want abortion policies regulated by the states. They want a federal abortion ban.
Trump, who supports both sides of the abortion issue, lied and claimed that democrats are the radicals because they want abortions even after birth. Also not true.
Although Biden did have some good moments, he was not clear, was less forceful and not as effective as Trump. From the start Biden raced through his delivery in a half mumbling way, as if he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
A stunning moment came when Trump displayed the ultimate act of projection—something that is now a well-known tactic to deflect from his own misdeeds– when he said about Biden, “This man is a criminal” and, “I’ve never seen anybody lie like this guy”.
In another instance, Trump was asked a question about the ‘Jan 6’ insurrection, and he did not answer the question but instead repeatedly emphasized the date ‘Jan 6’ to say the border was better on ‘Jan 6’ and America was respected all over the world on ‘Jan 6’. He also didn’t answer whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election and when pressured said he would accept the result if the election were fair. In effect, we all know that means if he wins it’s fair and if he loses it’s not fair.
Trump claims he will get the American Wall Street journalist held in Russia on espionage charges freed from Russian custody before he’s inaugurated. Biden had an opportunity to expose Trump and should have responded that Trump may in fact get the journalist released because he will give Putin whatever he wants, namely, a win in Ukraine and a weaker NATO. But he blew that opportunity, as he squandered many others during the faceoff.
On June 24, I wrote that the democrats should not have agreed to these debate rules. Muting the candidate’s microphones helped Trump look like the better candidate by helping him keep his composure and also restricted Biden from interrupting when Trump was lying. Although we have to wonder whether Biden would have profited from that option had it been available.
The democratic party is now at a crossroad and has to ask itself if it is possible to recover from this defeat, not only because Biden decisively lost the debate but also because Biden lost to a twice-impeached and four times indicted convicted criminal.
I suspect the next national presidential poll will show Trump leading Biden.
The democratic party should consider nominating another candidate for president. The question is: who? The dugout looks empty, the Democrats seem to have gambled everything on the incumbent.
