(Reuters) – Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 race. Below are responses from lawmakers, political analysts, strategists and advocacy group leaders:
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT
“What we saw tonight is the president making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, it was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” Harris told CNN when asked about concerns Biden should have set aside.
“People can argue about style points, but ultimately this election… should be about substance,” she said.
“I’m not going to spend the whole evening talking to you about the last 90 minutes, when I’ve watched the performances of the last three and a half years.”
TOP BIDEN DONOR WHO DOESN’T WANT TO BE NAMED
“There is no way to spin this. His performance was disqualifying. There will be a call for a mediated convention. Whitmer, Pritzker, Newsom, Beshear. These can all be options. It’s inevitable.”
The donor added that it would likely be up to Jill Biden to convince him. “He (Biden) is a stubborn guy… There’s no way to describe how bad this performance was.”
The donor said they thought Andy Beshear, the popular Democratic governor of Kentucky, a deeply Republican state at the federal level, would be the likely winner.
“He won red Kentucky. He will be a great candidate who can still win this. I don’t think Newsom (Democratic governor of California) will win.”
Fundraising will “dry up,” the donor predicted. “Money follows enthusiasm. How can anyone with a straight face say donate to elect Joe? … I will continue to raise money for him. What else can we all do? There is no option.”
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR RAPHAEL WARNOCK
“I would be concerned if the president didn’t have a track record to campaign on, but the fact is this is a man who has passed historic legislation,” Warnock said after the debate.
JULIAN CASTRO, FORMER HUD SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
“Tonight was completely predictable. Biden had a very low bar going into the debate and failed to even break that bar,” Castro said on social media network X. “He seemed unprepared, lost and not strong enough to counter effectively with Trump. who lies constantly.”
AMY WALTER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT AND A PROMINENT POLITICAL ANALYST
The debate “only served to remind voters of Biden’s weaknesses, particularly his health and stamina,” Walters said. “Trump certainly didn’t ‘win’ this debate, Biden lost it. Trump spouted multiple lies and untruths. He failed to make a positive case for a second term, and spent more time arguing against Biden’s failures. But Trump is ahead in the polls and doesn’t need a ‘rest’ like Biden does.”
“I don’t think this debate will convince undecided voters, especially those who say they dislike both candidates. If you came into this debate thinking both men were unsatisfactory choices, their debate performances have not disabused you of this opinion. “
MITCH LANDRIEU, CO-CHAIRMAN OF THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN
“Well, I thought it was a very hard fight. I think they’re right, the president started slow, but then he came back,” Landrieu said on NBC News.
Landrieu acknowledged that the physical performance aspect of the debate will be uppermost in people’s minds. “But when you dig into the substance of what was said, I think the takeaway from this was that Joe Biden was right on the substance. He was telling the truth.”
MATT GROSSMANN, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCES AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
“The biggest factor, of course, is that Biden still seemed old and grating and less coherent than when he last came in, and that, I think, will be the big story out of the debate. I don’t think Trump has really done anything to advance himself beyond his existing base, but I think that’s overshadowed by people’s perceptions of Biden about his biggest vulnerability.”
Grossmann said Biden struggled to get his points across from the start of the debate “and just seemed a lot softer.” He said it wasn’t until 20 minutes into the debate that Biden really started giving effective answers. “It’s hard to recover from that.”
Grossmann said debates typically have a small impact on presidential races, and that impact fades over time. “Debates don’t typically have a big impact on election results. But because we’re in this 50-50 election, where the country is divided, any small change can make a difference.”
Grossmann said one problem for Biden is that some of his supporters are expressing concerns about his record rather than defending it. “So there’s no message in his favor. And to the extent that it has an impact, it’s going to be that people’s concerns about Biden’s age are going to be even more salient.”
TEVI TROY, BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER FELLOW AND PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN:
Overall, the debate “is going to be a problem for Biden,” Troy said. Biden had many answers that made him look weak. “There were other answers where he was more firm, but that doesn’t matter because the problematic answers will live on through Twitter and social media.”
Trump, on the other hand, was “more subdued” than in previous debates, Troy said. The debate rules of turning off the microphones “actually helped him (Trump) so he didn’t interrupt and didn’t come across as rude.”
“There’s this phenomenon of the double haters, where people don’t like either candidate… One guy’s crazy, the other guy’s too old. They were certainly validated in thinking that one guy is too old, and in terms of the crazy, I think Trump did that. He dialed it down.”
ADRIANNE SHROPSHIRE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF BLACKPAC, AN ORGANIZATION WORKING TO MOBILIZE BLACK VOTERS
Shropshire said she wrote two things in her notebook as she watched the debate. “One is that Trump is lying,” she said. The other was that Biden “wasn’t as forceful as I thought he needed to be.”
Shropshire criticized the moderators for allowing Trump to make several false claims without any pushback. “Trump was essentially allowed to do what he did at his rallies, which was say whatever he wanted, regardless of its relationship to the truth. And that was really unfortunate.”
Shropshire said Biden could have pushed back more forcefully on Trump’s false claims. “I think he was trying to take the high road by talking about policy. And I think that’s appropriate. But when we think about where our politics are now, it’s really necessary to just assert facts and assert them very clearly. And I think that has become a little bit confusing in his policy responses.”
Shropshire said she wasn’t as concerned as others who said Biden delivered an unstable performance that could increase around his age. “He has had some great achievements that people have been talking about over the last few months,” she said. “I also think it just doesn’t change the dynamics of the race because they also saw Trump standing next to Joe Biden, and I don’t think they saw anyone who was necessarily stronger. I think they saw the same unhinged. Trump that they see at every rally and in clips on social media.”
Shropshire said a powerful moment for Biden came when he pointed out that Trump was a convicted felon and criticized his morality. She also said Trump’s reference to immigrants taking black jobs “has become a hilarious meme on Black Twitter at this point.” She said it showed how Trump failed to connect with black voters. “That there are specific black jobs for black people that immigrants are coming to take. Complete nonsense.”
WALEED SHAHID, SENIOR DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND SPOKESPERSON FOR THE NATIONAL NON-ENGAGEMENT MOVEMENT AGAINST BIDEN
“You can be angry at Biden, but frankly the party establishment misled people about Biden’s electability. And it’s malpractice — political malpractice, moral malpractice,” Shahid said. “He completely lost the debate, and if the strategy is to use the same tactic, where they want to recycle the 2016 playbook and make it an election about fact-checking, that’s not going to win.”
Shahid called the debate “a turning point” and added that “voters are not stupid.”
“I think we’ll see in a couple of weeks what will come out of it. But if they end up replacing the candidate, that candidate will need time. So I don’t know what will ultimately happen. I mean, this is unprecedented.”
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Moira Warburton, Trevor Hunnicut, Kanishka Singh, Nathan Layne and Steve Holland; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
