To get an idea of who "won" the debate — it certainly wasn't the American people — consider this. Usually, after a presidential debate, the Observer's email inboxes are flooded with Texas party officials and politicians giving their spin on why their guy won. This morning, the sound from the Democratic side was subdued. Almost nonexistent, though there was this from Texas Democrat Colin Allred, who's running for U.S. Senate:
We did have an email from Trump, whose subject line said simply, "I’m kicking Biden’s BUTT." At least he wasn't lying this time.Texas congressman @RepColinAllred, who is running against Ted Cruz, told reporters he had no immediate comment on Biden's debate performance last night. "I'm still processing it."
— Joseph Morton (@ByJosephMorton) June 28, 2024
Still, some say Biden won on substance, which is a polite way of saying he lost it on everything else. Biden’s performance — confused, inarticulate, filled with lapses of thought and coherence — sent some Democrats into a panic. When the chief theme among the Democrats and commentators post-debate is contemplating what it would take to get Biden to withdraw from the race and find a suitable replacement during August's Democratic national convention, it's pretty obvious who "won."
Asked about his performance at an Atlanta Waffle House later last night, Biden said it's hard to debate a liar. Hard, but not impossible, and it's not as though the Democrats weren't aware of Trump's willingness to lie. You need to be on top of your game, though. It's an unkind word, but for much of the debate, the 81-year-old Biden often appeared doddering.
We asked some readers on social media if they were tuning into the debate or avoiding it entirely. One person said they were packing up and moving to Canada. Another commenter wrote that both candidates need to be disqualified. A third said they weren’t watching, that no debate would change their mind, and that they were voting for Biden.
President Biden’s problems arguably started as soon as he walked on stage, looking sluggish and tired, his voice hoarse. But the most painful moment for Biden came in the first 12 minutes, when he completely lost his train of thought during a question about the economy.
He tried to recover, starting to say, “We finally beat Medicare” before his time was up. Trump ran with it. “Well, he’s right, he did beat Medicare. He beat it to death, and he’s destroying Medicare,” Trump responded.
Moments like this were plentiful last night. But we’re not sure what was more painful: Biden’s performance, Trump's lies or the utter lack of fact checking and pushback against both of the candidates' false statements and dodges. And, yes, both did make false statements on the debate stage and dodged questions.“Well, he’s right, he did beat Medicare." – Donald Trump
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CNN did a lightning round of fact checking after the debate was over. To Biden’s credit, the list of lies from Trump was much longer. For one, Trump claimed Democratic states allow people to execute babies after birth. This isn’t true. He also said the U.S. currently has the biggest budget deficit ever. But that happened under Trump’s watch, according to CNN. Biden claimed he’s the only president this century or this decade (he said both) who doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world. According to CBS News, at least 16 service members have died while serving overseas during Biden’s presidency.
The political commentary after the debate was a bloodbath for Biden. Immediately following the debate, CNN went into analysis mode. The station’s chief national correspondent, John King, said there was a deep, wide and aggressive panic within the Democratic Party. He said some of the conversations included whether Democrats should ask the president to step down from the race. Republicans also speculated Biden would be replaced after this debate based on his performance.
There hasn’t been any public indication from the broader Democratic Party that this will happen. Some even came out to back Biden after the debate.
“Tonight, we witnessed two men on stage, one who demonstrated he is ready to continue leading our country as Commander-in-chief for four more years with a booming economy, and another candidate running for deflector-in-chief,” Texas State Rep. Venton Jones, a Dallas Democrat, wrote on X. “President Joe Biden and the Democrats are committed to continue strengthening Texas and has fueled our state's future with a massive $150 billion investment and created 1.8 million new Texas jobs. Joe Biden is the only serious president in 2024. His vision for America champions freedom, the middle class, and progress for the future.”
Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett also came out in support of Biden. “I represent Texas, and we know that abortion is on the ballot,” she told reporters. “To be clear, tonight we saw two things: people can choose between a con-in-chief or a commander-in-chief. What we saw was someone who sat up there and was acting as if he was some used car salesman that wanted to just tell us whatever and pretend as if it was fact.”
She said Biden delivered substance while Trump lied and bragged about taking away Roe v. Wade. “There is only one clear choice and that clear choice is Joe Biden and the blue team,” Crockett said.“I represent Texas, and we know that abortion is on the ballot." – Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett
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Meanwhile, some Republicans, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, promoted the idea that this was some big set-up by CNN and the Democrats to get Biden replaced. “So obvious this was a set up,” Patrick wrote on X. “I told a large Republican group tonight that this whole debate sham was a ploy to make it absolutely clear that Biden had to be replaced. Now, we’re watching it happen.”
Jeffrey Engel, a presidential historian at Southern Methodist University, said the whole situation is just sad. “You know, my overall thought is that there's more than 350 million people in this country and it's sad that this is the match that we are left with,” Engel told the Observer. “We have one candidate, who, personally, I think is overseeing very good policies and has very good judgment, but is clearly incapable of doing the job of communicating his message, which is important for our president. We have another candidate, and I'll leave you to decide which I'm talking about, another candidate who seems entirely untethered to the truth.”Crockett: What we saw was someone who sat up there and acting like as if he was some used car salesman that wanted to tell us whatever and pretend as if it was fact pic.twitter.com/d4oq9dsnfD
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2024
He said Trump demonstrated that he was energetic and bombastic but that the words coming out of his mouth had no bearing on reality. “I'm hard pressed to find another example in American history where we have two such profoundly flawed candidates at this stage,” Engel said.
On Biden stepping out of the race, Engel said it’s possible but unlikely — although the likelihood is probably higher now than it was about 48 hours ago. But he said the nomination is still Biden’s if he wants it.
With the debate so early on in the presidential election cycle, Engel said there’s still plenty of time for Biden to bounce back from last night's performance. Asked what Biden could do to build back some momentum, Engel said, “Dig in, start working and do better next time.”
