The first televised debate of 2024 between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was so disastrous and painful to watch that toward the end of it, both “horrible” and “Bernie” were trending on X. For Biden, who needed to beat back growing concerns about his age and mental acuity, the first half-hour was especially rough. He came off as weak, rambling, and undeniably old; his voice was unusually raspy — he told reporters afterward that he had a “sore throat” — and he struggled and stuttered through basic sentences. In one stunning moment that will probably haunt him until Election Day, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought and then inexplicably said, “We finally beat Medicare.” Clearly, he wasn’t on whatever cocktail of amphetamines and Mountain Dew the Trump team had claimed for weeks that he’d be taking, although some viewers wished he were.
An early question on abortion should have been a layup for the president, but there, too, his answer was incoherent. “I support Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters,” Biden said in response to CNN moderator Dana Bash asking whether he thought there should be limits on how late a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy. “The first time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between a doctor and an extreme situation. A third time is between the doctor, I mean, between the woman and the state.”
Trump, meanwhile, spewed lie after lie without any fact-checking or follow-ups from Bash and Jake Tapper (and that was by design). On the subject of abortion, he falsely claimed that “all legal scholars” wanted Roe to be overturned and that Democrats literally kill babies after they’re born: “They’ll take the life of a child at the eighth month, ninth month, and even after birth,” he said. And since no one in the room was willing to point out that obviously does not happen, the former president appeared to win the exchange through sheer confidence and strength of delivery.
Biden seemed to pick up steam midway through the night. He landed a few punches when Trump’s criminal indictments finally came up in the conversation. He pointed out that Trump had “molested a woman in public” and cheated on his then-pregnant wife, forcing the former president to utter the words “I did not have sex with a porn star” in response. But it felt like Biden’s bursts of energy were too little and too late, only coming after he’d stumbled and limped through enough exchanges to terrify many of his potential supporters watching at home.
The end of the debate, for anyone who made it that far, saw two cranky old men onstage arguing about their golf game, what handicaps each of them requires, and who’s strong enough to carry his own bag of clubs. “Let’s not act like children,” Trump finally said, to which Biden replied, “You are a child.” These cannot be the two most capable presidential candidates this country has to offer, or even in the top 50th percentile.
The debate didn’t have to be this bad for Biden. He performed strongly against Trump in the 2020 debates and showed surprising energy at his State of the Union address earlier this year. But what we saw tonight, we can’t unsee. Yes, Trump lied and blustered, and no, it’s not fair that the moderators threw him softball questions and then failed to fact-check his answers. But at the same time, this debate revealed a lot about where Biden is physically and mentally less than five months out from Election Day, and that revelation will have been especially jarring to voters who hadn’t already been paying close attention to the race. “There’s a real concern tonight that there’s damage done that cannot be undone,” CNN correspondent Abby Phillip said on air after the 90-minute train wreck wrapped. Headlines and cable-news chyrons quickly spread chatter of Democrats calling for Biden to be replaced as the party’s nominee.
Biden seemed a bit in denial afterward as to how badly his performance went over. “It’s hard to debate a liar,” he told reporters when asked about calls for him to drop out. “The New York Times pointed out he lied 26 times.” If the president doesn’t have a more compelling case than that to make for himself at this point, it may be time to tee up Gretchen Whitmer.
