ATLANTA — If the scene in the spin room after Thursday’s presidential debate is any indication, Republicans got what they wanted, and Democrats got what they most feared.
Former President Donald Trump’s surrogates — a cast of more than a dozen campaign staffers, sitting members of Congress and Republican National Committee officials — cheered, even celebrated, Trump’s performance.
“It was very clearly a matter of strength versus weakness,” he said Lara Trumpthe RNC co-chair and Trump’s daughter-in-law.
“It was the most dominant performance we’ve seen tonight in the history of debates,” said Senator Tim Scott.
“I think what we saw tonight was a dominant performance by the president,” RNC Chairman Michael Whately said of Trump.
Meanwhile, the Democrats were long gone. President Joe Biden’s surrogates appeared briefly about 15 minutes after the debate ended. They stood in a corner, close together, and alternated with short, powerful statements. Led by Governor Gavin Newsom of California, they were determined to defend Biden’s vision and policies. They tactfully avoided full expressions of support for his actions. Ten minutes later they walked out of the room.
It was a vote of confidence in Biden’s record, but a quiet avoidance of defending his debates. Other Democrats, though anonymous, were more forthcoming. Biden was “unintelligible,” one Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives told CNN. “Disaster,” said another. “Strong on substance,” acknowledged another, “but a painful presentation.”
When Americans tuned in for a test of Biden’s mental acuity and stamina, they were treated to a president whose voice was soft, gravelly and prone to muddled digressions. When he had a chance to point out Trump’s abortion position, Biden told a hackneyed anecdote that allowed Trump to return to immigration. When offered the opportunity to defend his climate record, including his government’s investment in clean energy, he stopped short of rejoining the Paris Agreement.
And perhaps most strikingly, when moderators specifically asked about his age — questioning whether he was capable of “handling the toughest job in the world, well into his eighties” — Biden stumbled.
By the end of Q&A, Trump and Biden were already engaged in a debate over who had the better golf handicap.
It was the performance many Democrats feared most: The Biden administration’s stellar record was clouded by choppy and often incoherent execution.
Republicans, on the other hand, saw in Trump what they expected: he was powerful and brutal, nostalgic about America during the Trump era and dystopian about America under Biden. He dealt loosely with facts, but presented them in an optimistic manner.
CNN moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper did not conduct a single fact-check during the debate. Afterward, CNN staffers noted at least 15 false claims Trump made, providing lengthy explanations for each one. In a debate setting, Trump moved so quickly — and spoke so forcefully — that Biden couldn’t pin him down. And when Biden tried, as he did during Trump’s sentencing, Trump fired back with fire — threatening to prosecute Biden for his own alleged crimes. (Biden is not facing criminal charges.)
Trump’s most damning moments came not from Biden’s attacks, but from Trump’s own admissions. He refused to take any responsibility for the January 6 riots, calling the rioters “warriors.” He said he would accept the outcome of the 2024 election, but only after being asked three times and with one major caveat: “if it is a fair, legal and good election.” There was not enough evidence of widespread election fraud to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, and Trump has still refused to acknowledge that he lost.
His deputies defended that position. “I’m not sure anyone should give a blank-check answer,” Ben Carson, a former Trump cabinet member, told me. “It depends on whether it’s done honestly and openly, of course.”
Yet Trump’s side paths in a war of words were more powerful than Biden’s mutterings. Democrats tried to limit the damage at a late stage. Vice President Kamala Harris took to CNN after the debate and defended the Biden administration’s record. Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement that Biden presented a “positive and winning vision” in contrast to Trump’s “dark and backward look at what America will look like” under him.
But as the spin room emptied, Democrats seemed to have lost their vision, too. An hour into the debate, long after Newsom had led the Biden candidates off the floor, the California governor stood in a private corner of the hall, deep in conversation. He seemed to explode on an aide — his eyes wide, his hands waving, his head nodding.
When he saw reporters approaching, he quickly darted in the other direction. He gave a pained grin. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” he said.
