GOING INTO TONIGHT’S DEBATE, I wanted to write about policy, thinking that too much debate coverage focuses on optics and vibes. But neither candidate intelligently discussed policy. This was the first presidential debate I’ve watched where I came away thinking neither candidate could hold an in-depth discussion of today’s important issues.
CNN’s moderators tried to ask about policy. They asked about Ukraine, Gaza, immigration, and the economy. They asked about democracy and January 6th. They repeated a few questions when candidates avoided answering the first time. But neither Trump nor Biden did the standard debate moves of answering the question they wish they got instead of the one asked—they barely answered anything coherently.
Both seemed very old, albeit not in the same way. It was angry grandpa vs. tired grandpa.
Both counted off their points—“number one, number two”—and sometimes lost track. Dismayingly, toward the end, they tried to brag about golf, although even that was barely comprehensible.
Both got in some prepared talking points, but often jumped from one to another without really connecting them. I follow politics closely enough to pick up on the poorly articulated references to policy arguments, but I don’t know if anyone tuning in to the 2024 election for the first time could’ve come away with improved understanding. Someone else would have to explain what they meant.
Still, while viewers could not learn much from this debate about what specifically either man would attempt to do if elected in November, it was possible to get a better sense of their personalities and tendencies.
Trump lied and lied. Biden mumbled and mumbled.
Trump lied incessantly, egregiously, about things big and small—there were conspiracy theories, scapegoating, fearmongering, made-up stories, and wildly false statistics. He rambled; he flitted from topic to topic; he dropped references that only fans of the Fox News Cinematic Universe would understand.
Biden called Trump a liar in various ways but in most cases wasn’t sharp enough to rebut a specific lie or smoothly pivot to his own arguments. He lost his train of thought multiple times, trailing off, or tried to cover by shifting topics but often stumbled. His stutter seemed worse than in previous elections. He didn’t have any winning moments, ones supporters will eagerly clip and share, like “will you shut up, man” and “I love my son” from his first debate with Trump in 2020.
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT is often treated like a cross between an elected emperor and the main character of a grand story, singlehandedly responsible for everything, but that’s not how it actually works. Voters pick administrations and policy programs, not really individuals. And this time, we’re choosing between historically different directions for the country.
Trump is a criminal trying to put himself above the law, and will shift U.S. foreign policy in favor of Russia and other authoritarians; Biden shows respect for constitutional democracy and supports America’s democratic allies. I think that makes the choice between them easy. But in the debate I did not see a person who looked capable of handling the high-stakes parts of the job that come down to the individual president. One who could, for example, negotiate with Vladimir Putin, personally pressure Benjamin Netanyahu, or weigh numerous considerations to pick the wisest option when the National Security Council is divided in a crisis.
The pre-debate political wisdom said Biden needed to show voters who are undecided, unenthusiastic, and wavering that he is on top of things, in command, energetic—all ways of saying “not too old for the job.” In the State of the Union this March, he succeeded. In last night’s debate, he colossally failed.
Correction (June 28, 2024, 11:08 a.m. EDT): The last paragraph of this article as originally published referred to the 2024 State of the Union address as having been in January. It was in March.
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