WASHINGTON — Thursday presidential debate was a repeat with two candidates with a combined age of 159, but it went especially poorly for one of them, President Joe Biden.
Biden, 81, was already battling voters’ concerns about his age but wavered and appeared to lose his train of thought, leading to swift concerns among Democrats about the man they hope will stop former President Donald Trump to return to office. For his part, Trump has repeatedly made false claims and provocative statements. But Trump seemed smoother and more forceful than Biden, who is just three years older than the Republican ex-president.
The debate covered a wide range of topics, including a former president — Trump — who reneged on his promise to prosecute members of Congress and even the man he was debating. But the overarching theme was the disparity in the candidates’ performance.
Here are some conclusions from the confrontation.
Presidential debates are often judged more on style and impact than substance. Trump was confident and composed, even when he steamed facts on abortion and immigration with false claims, garish exaggerations and empty superlatives. Biden was often halting, his voice hoarse, even when he had the facts on his side. He had difficulty finishing his arguments and organizing his attacks.
Trump’s supporters seemed unconcerned about his relationship with the truth, and his actions and actions helped him. Biden’s supporters consistently express concerns about the president’s age and abilities, and he did little to reassure them.
One of the first glimpses viewers got of Biden was when he lost the thread while explaining his stance on tax rates and the number of billionaires in America. He fell silent and looked at his lectern before muttering briefly and saying, “We finally beat Medicare.” When he wanted to finish his point, he was interrupted due to the time limit.
At other times, Biden made a number of puzzling non sequiturs that appeared to undermine what the campaign sees as his strengths, including the economy and abortion rights. As Biden criticized Trump’s economic performance, the president suddenly focused on Afghanistan and how Trump “did nothing about it” — even though Afghanistan’s failed withdrawal is widely considered one of the lowest points of Biden’s presidency.
Later, when Biden cited state restrictions on abortion, he confusingly pivoted to immigration and referred to a “young woman who had just been murdered” by an immigrant. It was unclear what he was trying to say.
Trump was opening the debate when he suddenly stumbled over how to reassure voters that he would respect his oath of office following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He continued to deny the attack and refused to charge those who attacked the police and stormed the building by smashing doors and windows, suggesting that those charged would somehow be proven innocent one day.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot. Of those, more than 850 people have pleaded guilty to crimes including seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers. About 200 others were convicted during the trial.
Trump did not attempt to address the issue. He defended the people who stormed the Capitol and accused Biden of prosecuting them. “What they did to some people who are so innocent, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Trump told Biden.
Trump warned that members of the congressional committee investigating January 6 could face criminal charges, as could Biden himself.
Biden shot back: “The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I am looking at.”
Trump did not go back on his promise to retaliate. Combined with his refusal to condemn the January 6 attackers, it made for a grim moment.
When asked if he would accept the outcome of the election, Trump said, “If it’s a fair, legal and good election, absolutely,” which is notably not an unconditional yes.
In what may be a first in a presidential campaign, Trump called the president, Biden, a “criminal” and said he could be prosecuted after he leaves office. Biden then brought Trump’s recent criminal trial to New York, in which prosecutors presented evidence that Trump had sex with a porn actor. “I haven’t had sex with a porn star,” Trump said.
Abortion is an issue that Democrats believe could contribute to a victory in November. Trump campaigned in 2016 to overturn Roe v. Wade, appointing three Supreme Court justices as president who provided the tie-breaking votes and revoked the 49-year rule on the procedure. In response to a question from moderators, Trump vowed not to go further if he returns to the White House, where his administration would have the authority to ban the widely used abortion pill mifepristone.
Overturning Roe is one of Trump’s biggest political weaknesses, but on Thursday the former president claimed everyone was happy with what he did.
“As far as abortion is concerned, it’s back to the states,” Trump said, claiming the Founding Fathers would have been happy with the end of Roe. “Everyone wanted it to come back.”
That’s not true. Polls have shown significant opposition to overturning Roe, and voters have punished Republicans for it in recent elections. “The idea that the Founders wanted politicians to make decisions about women’s health is ridiculous,” Biden shot back.
In a unanimous decision this month, the Supreme Court upheld access to mifepristone, a pill used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year.
Until Thursday, Trump had not outlined his position on access to the drugs, but during the debate he indicated he supported the judge’s decision, saying, “I will not block it.”
In recent months, Biden has sought to reverse his poor public standing over his handling of immigration, first by endorsing a bipartisan Senate bill with some of the toughest border restrictions in recent history and then, after that legislation collapsed, taking executive action to control immigration. about migrants seeking asylum at the southern border.
But while Biden sought to tout the progress he has made, most notably the 40% drop in illegal border crossings since his border directive was implemented this month, Trump invoked his signature dark and catastrophic rhetoric to paint a portrait painting a chaotic border under Biden’s watch.
For example, Trump has argued that migrants arriving at the U.S. border come from “mental institutions” and “insane asylums” — a frequent refrain of his at rallies for which he has provided no evidence. He has also claimed that the U.S.-Mexico border is the “most dangerous place in the world” and cited examples of immigrants in the U.S. illegally committing violent crimes.
Although some immigrants commit heinous crimes, a 2020 study published by the National Academy of Sciences found that there are “significantly lower crime arrest rates” among people in the United States illegally than among legal immigrants or natives. But Trump often takes advantage of his certainty.
The debate began with Biden defending his economic record, saying he inherited an economy that had been thrown into “free fall” by the pandemic and that his administration had gotten it back on track.
But after Biden praised his administration’s achievements — such as lowering the cost of insulin and creating millions of new jobs — Trump boasted he was overseeing the “greatest economy in the history of our country” and defended his state of service in the field of the pandemic.
Biden responded: “He’s the only one who thinks that.” But Trump responded by attacking him on inflation, arguing that he had inherited low inflation when he came to power in January 2021, but that prices had “gone up under his leadership.”
Biden — whose late son Beau served in Iraq — had one of his most powerful moments in 2018 when he attacked Trump’s alleged comments that he refused to visit a U.S. military cemetery in France because the veterans buried there were “suckers” and “losers.”
It was an argument Biden, then the Democratic challenger, made against Trump in their first 2020 debate, and one the incumbent president has frequently used against Trump, portraying him as a commander in chief who nonetheless discredits veterans. “My son was not a loser, he was not a sucker,” Biden said. “You’re the sucker. You’re the loser.”
Trump responded that the publication that initially reported these comments, The Atlantic, “was a third-rate magazine” and had fabricated the quotes. But what undermines Trump’s response is the fact that his former chief of staff, John Kelly, confirmed these private comments in a statement last fall.