WASHINGTON (AP) — Thursday’s presidential debate was a rematch featuring two candidates with a combined age of 159. But for one of them, President Joe Biden, the debate went particularly badly.
Biden, 81, who already faces voter concerns about his age, was hesitant and appeared to lose his thread, quickly raising concerns among Democrats about the man they hope will stop former President Donald Trump from returning to office. Trump, for his part, 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 and included a former president – Trump – who did not back down from his promises to prosecute members of Congress and even the man he was debating. But the overarching theme was the difference between the candidates’ performance.
Here are some insights from the duel.
Style vs. substance
Presidential debates are often judged more on style and impression than on content. Trump appeared confident and composed even as he steamrolled the facts on abortion and immigration with false claims, blatant exaggerations and empty superlatives. Biden was often halting and his voice scratchy, even when he had the facts on his side. He had difficulty finishing his arguments and organizing his attacks.
Trump’s supporters don’t seem to be worried about his handling of the truth, and his demeanor and manner of expressing himself have helped him. Biden’s supporters keep raising concerns about the president’s age and abilities, and he has done little to reassure them.
One of the first glimpses viewers got of Biden was when he lost his thread while making his points about tax rates and the number of billionaires in America – he stopped speaking, looked at his lectern and muttered briefly, “We finally beat Medicare.” As he tried to finish his point, he was interrupted due to time constraints.
At other times, Biden made some enigmatic non sequiturs that seemed to undermine his supposed strengths, including the economy and abortion rights. While Biden was criticizing Trump’s economic record, the president suddenly pivoted to Afghanistan, saying Trump “did nothing about it” – even though the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is widely considered one of the low points of Biden’s presidency.
Later, as Biden highlighted federal restrictions on abortion, he confusingly pivoted to immigration, speaking of a “young woman who was just murdered by an immigrant.” It was unclear what he was trying to say.
January 6 and Trump’s revenge
Trump was just about to open the debate when he suddenly stumbled upon the question of how he would convince voters that he would respect his oath of office after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He continued to deny the attack and refused to denounce those who attacked the police and stormed the building, breaking doors and windows, saying that somehow the accused would one day be proven innocent.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes in connection with the riots. More than 850 of them have pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to riot and assault on police officers. About 200 others have been convicted in court.
Trump tried to avoid the subject, defending the people who stormed the Capitol and blaming Biden for prosecuting them. “What you did to some such innocent people, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Trump told Biden.
Trump warned that members of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents could face impeachment, as could Biden himself.
Biden replied: “The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I have before me.”
Trump stayed true to his vow of vengeance, and combined with his refusal to condemn the January 6 attackers, it was a powerful moment.
When asked if he would accept the election results, Trump replied: “If it is a fair, legitimate and good election, absolutely.” Which, however, is not an unconditional yes.
Low Street
In what is perhaps the first time in a presidential campaign, Trump called President Biden a “criminal” and said he could face criminal prosecution after leaving office. Biden then revived Trump’s recent criminal trial in New York, in which prosecutors presented evidence that Trump had sex with a porn star. “I did not have sex with a porn star,” Trump said.
Trump’s promise on abortion
Abortion is an issue that could assist Democrats win in November. Trump campaigned on the overturning of Roe v. Wade during his 2016 campaign, and as president appointed three Supreme Court justices who cast the deciding votes to overturn the 49-year-old abortion law. In response to a question from moderators, Trump vowed not to go any further if he returns to the White House, where his administration would have the power to ban the widely used abortion pill mifepristone.
The fact that he wants to overturn Roe is one of Trump’s greatest political weaknesses. But on Thursday the former president insisted that everyone was elated with his decision.
“As far as abortion goes, it’s back to the states,” Trump said, claiming the Founding Fathers would have been elated with the end of Roe. “Everyone wanted it brought back.”
That’s not true. Polls have shown forceful opposition to overturning Roe, and voters punished Republicans for it in the last election. “The idea that the founders wanted politicians to be the ones making decisions about women’s health is ridiculous,” Biden countered.
In a unanimous decision this month, the Supreme Court secured access to mifepristone, a pill used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States last year.
As of Thursday, Trump had not detailed his position on access to the drug, but during the debate he indicated that he supported the judges’ decision, saying, “I’m not going to block it.”
But when it was his turn to speak, Biden stumbled through his statement on Roe, which he said lasted “three trimesters” – a missed opportunity for the Democrat to present a rhetorically compelling issue crucial to his party.
“The first time it’s between a woman and a doctor,” Biden continued. “The second time it’s between a doctor and an extreme situation. The third time it’s between the doctor, I mean, between the woman and the state.”
Border skirmishes
In recent months, Biden has sought to repair his penniless public image over his handling of immigration policy. First, he supported a bipartisan Senate bill that would have imposed some of the toughest border restrictions in recent history. After that bill failed, he took executive action to crack down on asylum seekers at the southern border.
But while Biden tried to tout his progress, particularly the 40 percent drop in illegal border crossings since implementing his border policy this month, Trump used his typically gloomy and catastrophic rhetoric to paint a picture of a disordered border under Biden’s watch.
For example, Trump claimed that migrants arriving at the US border come from “mental institutions” and “insane asylums” – a statement he frequently makes at rallies without providing evidence. He also claimed that the US-Mexico border is the “most dangerous place in the world” and gave examples of immigrants living in the US illegally committing violent crimes.
Although some immigrants commit gruesome crimes, a 2020 study published by the National Academy of Sciences found that the rate of arrests for sedate crimes among people living in the U.S. illegally is “significantly lower than among legal immigrants or native-born citizens.” Yet Trump often benefits from his certainty.
It’s the economy, and Trump said Biden was stupid
At the start of the debate, Biden defended his economic record, saying he inherited an economy that had been in “free fall” due to the pandemic and that his administration had gotten it back on its feet.
But after Biden touted his administration’s accomplishments – such as lowering insulin costs and creating millions of modern jobs – Trump boasted about overseeing the “greatest economy in the history of our country” and defended his record on the pandemic.
Biden replied, “He’s the only one who thinks that.” But Trump responded by attacking him on inflation, arguing that he inherited low inflation rates when he took office in January 2021, but prices “exploded under his leadership.”
Idiots and losers
Biden – whose overdue son Beau served in Iraq – had one of his strongest moments when he attacked Trump’s alleged comments in 2018 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 that Biden, then the Democratic challenger, made against Trump in their first debate in 2020 and that the incumbent president has regularly used against Trump, portraying him as a commander in chief who nonetheless disparaged 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 newspaper that first published those comments, The Atlantic, was “a third-rate magazine” and had fabricated the quotes. But Trump’s retort is undermined by the fact that his former chief of staff, John Kelly, confirmed those private remarks in a statement last fall.
