That sickening thud you heard was jaws hitting the ground. That sickening sound you heard was that of hearts sinking into boots. That raspy sound you heard was an American president embodying what felt like the last gasp of the ailing republic.
Say it ain’t so, Joe.
The first US presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday was the night Democrats went from “Don’t panic!” to “Okay, time to panic!” After months of preparation and anticipation, they arrived at the altar and suddenly realized they were marrying the wrong man.
In 90 miserable minutes, Joe Biden accomplished two things that seemed impossible. He lived up to expectations that were already at an all-time low. And he managed to make it Donald Trump sounds almost coherent. Trump didn’t win the debate, but Biden certainly lost it.
There was a fitting, mournful silence as the president, wearing a blue tie and a flag pin, and Trump, wearing a red tie and a flag pin, entered the red, white and blue CNN studio. This was the first presidential debate without an audience since John F. Kennedy v. Richard Nixon in 1960 (those two candidates were a combined 90 years old; this time, they were a combined 159).
Journalists in Atlanta were forced to watch on TV just like everyone else. But the mutual hostility and contempt between the men shone through the screen. It was clear that neither of them even thought about shaking hands with the other.
Democrats were lulled into a false sense of security by Biden’s energetic performance during the State of the Union address. They expected Superman again. Instead, they got Clark Kent in his old age.
The crisis was apparent almost as soon as Biden opened his mouth. His voice was hoarse and hard to hear. Clear your throat, man! His team later claimed he had a cold. Or had he prepared too well?
Early on, he bluffed: “We have 1,000 trillionaires in America — I mean billionaires in America.” Then: “…making sure that we can qualify every single person for what I’ve been able to do with the — with — with — with the Covid. Excuse me, with everything that we have to do with …”
His voice trailed off. “Look, when we finally defeat Medicare.”
Trump attacked: “Well, he’s right. He defeated Medicare. He killed it.”
Trump is only three years younger, but he is a television creature. When Biden spoke, you could see the former president, his hair floating like a glossy cloud above his head, frowning, pursing his lips or working his ass off for a response. But when Trump spoke, the white-haired Biden stared off into the distance, his mouth open, looking as weak and fragile 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 “draft Trump into Americans’ living rooms” and wake them up to the threat. They instituted rules, including muted microphones and no studio audience, that seemed to backfire and work in his opponent’s favor.
The restrictions helped Trump remain relatively controlled and disciplined, at least by his own epically low standards. He didn’t interrupt constantly as he did in the first 2020 debate. He didn’t play to an audience or get carried away with unhinged shark talk.
Not that Trump should be left alone. This was an unwatchable debate between an old man who couldn’t finish his sentence and an old man who couldn’t tell the truth. It was Rip Van Winkle versus Pinocchio.
Biden failed to push back on Trump’s lies. But neither did CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. This gave the impression that Trump’s falsehoods carry just as much weight as Biden’s facts, especially to viewers just tuning into the election. Expect Democrats to use this argument to distract from their own man’s shortcomings.
More than an hour into the debate, when most people had turned off and gone to bed, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale went on air and said Biden made nine false claims while Trump made 30. Trump’s claims include some Democratic states wanting people to execute babies after birth; the US currently has the largest budget deficit ever; Biden gets a lot of money from China; no terrorist attacks during Trump’s presidency; Biden wants to quadruple taxes; the US provides much more aid to Ukraine than to Europe; Nancy Pelosi rejects Trump’s offer of 10,000 National Guard troops on January 6; “ridiculous fraud” in the 2020 election; NATO goes bankrupt before he becomes president; Biden is suing him; his tax cut is the largest in history.
First impressions — and viral clips — are everything, so voters will forget that Biden gradually grew stronger in style and substance as the debate progressed. He went for 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 threatening, Biden insisted: “My son was not a loser, was not a loser. You are the loser, you are the loser.”
And again: “How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for harassing a woman in public, for doing a whole host of things, for having sex with a porn star at night – and while your wife was pregnant ? I mean, what are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.
Trump shot back: “I haven’t had sex with a porn star, number one.” An immortal sentence, never before uttered in a presidential debate. Carve it in marble!
Related: The Trump-Biden debate has likely increased American dismay over the election
Biden and Trump debated which of them is the worst president in history. And who is the better golfer? Trump boasted, “I just won two club championships, not even seniors, two regular club championships. For that you have to be pretty smart and be able to hit the ball far. And I do it. It does not work. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards. He challenged me to a golf match. He won’t be able to hit a ball for fifty years.”
Biden responded: “Look, I would like to have a riding contest with him. I had my handicap reduced to a six when I was vice president. And besides, I told you before that I like to play golf when you carry your own bag. Do you think you can do it?”
Trump: “That he has a handicap of six is the biggest lie of all.”
Biden: “I had a handicap of eight.”
Trump: “Yes.”
Biden: ‘Eight, but I have – you know how many…’
Trump: “I’ve seen your swing, I know your swing.”
As Bash tried to intervene, Trump said, “Let’s not act like children.” Biden shot back: “You’re a child.”
Tellingly, when the horror show was over, it was Trump’s surrogates who flooded the media center’s “spin zone.” Standing on a bright red carpet on what is normally a basketball court, former Housing Secretary Ben Carson said of Biden, “I felt really sorry for him. He was having a hard time coming up with answers. He was trying to remember the things they told him.”
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said: “I think President Trump has been strong and coherent and I think President Biden has been weak and confused most of the time. What started as a policy debate has turned into a capabilities debate… It’s pretty hard to believe that President Biden can continue to do this job.”
After a while, Biden’s surrogates emerged, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and his beaming smile. It is still highly unlikely that he will be the Democratic nominee in November. But a little less unlikely than before.
