A frail and raspy-voiced President Biden, looking gaunt with his mouth often agape while he drifted in and out of his most salient talking points, had a disastrous debate with presumed Republican nominee Donald J. Trump on Thursday night.
The earliest debate in presidential history was designed by the Biden campaign to change the trajectory of a frozen, toss-up race and allay fears about serving a second term at age 82. Instead, his halting performance set off a wide array of angst from Democrats and never-Trump Republicans and independents, setting in motion a movement to seek a younger nominee when the Democratic National Convention convenes Aug. 19 in Chicago.
If President Biden were to step aside, two of his possible replacements could be U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who sought the presidential nomination in 2020 while serving as the mayor of South Bend; and two-term Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Both are current residents of Michigan after Buttigieg and his husband moved to Traverse City several years ago.
Buttigieg won the Iowa caucus and finished second in the New Hampshire primary before Biden stormed back with wins in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut much of the nation down.
Former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, “The only job Joe Biden had last night was to reassure America he was not too old to do the job. And he failed. He failed miserably. Politically, it’s very hard for him to fix this.”
Said long-time Republican operative Steve Schmidt, “Joe Biden lost the country tonight and will not get it back. If Trump is a threat and democracy is on the line, then Biden must step aside. His duty, oath and legacy require an act of humility and selflessness.”
“I think the panic has set in,” said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to former President Barack Obama on CNN. “And I think you’re going to hear discussions that I don’t know will lead to anything, but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
Political analyst Taegen Goddard, who publishes the Political Wire, added, “Last night made abundantly clear that Biden’s insistence on running for another term — when the vast majority of voters believe he won’t be able to finish a second term — has imperiled Democratic prospects to defeat Donald Trump. The only good thing about last night’s debate for Democrats is that there’s still more than four months before the presidential election. That means they have time to fix the damage from that debacle.
“If this were a normal election, perhaps you could take a chance with Joe Biden since we know he’s had some very strong moments over the last few months,” Goddard continued. “But this election is not normal and the stakes are enormous. They’re much bigger than any one man.”
Ball State economist Michael J. Hicks, who is also a State Affairs/Howey Politics columnist, observed on X, “Biden’s performance is weak. Almost nothing Trump has said is factual. Just horrible for the Republic.”
Former Democratic legislator Dave Crooks posted a photo of Buttigieg on X, saying, “Call to the bullpen?”
And Keith Clock of the Indiana State Teachers Association said in an X post, “My only hope at this point is that the elites who recklessly convinced Biden to run for re-election reflect after this ‘debate’ and make the decision that Biden should withdraw from the race.”
Democrats are now girding for a potential polling collapse for Biden in the coming days. If that occurs, there will be ratcheting pressure for Biden to do what he said he would do in 2020 which was to serve as “a bridge” to the next generation of Democratic leadership.
That did not occur when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2016, handing President Trump one of three appointments that has changed the court’s trajectory. In 2023, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Rep. James Clyburn stepped away from their leadership posts, turning the House reins over to a younger cohort.
When one of Biden’s most important issues — abortion rights — came up Thursday night, he was halting and unfocused, trailing off into the immigration issue. Biden said he “supports Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters. 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 women and the state.”
Biden continued, “The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying we’re gonna turn civil rights back to the states. Let each state have a different rule. Look, there’s so many young women who have been — including a young woman who just was murdered. And he went to the funeral. The idea that she was murdered by an immigrant coming in. They talk about that. Here’s the deal. There’s a lot of young women being raped by their, by their in-laws. By their, by their spouses. Brothers and sisters. By — it’s just ridiculous. They can do nothing about it. And then they try to arrest them when they cross state lines.”
Biden became confused when he drifted from tax policy to COVID-19: “We’d be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system. Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the — with the COVID, excuse me — dealing with everything we have to do with …
“Look … we finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, losing his train of thought once again.
At one point when the topic turned to immigration, after Biden’s blinking answer, Trump said, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. And I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
The Associated Press reported that when pressed early Friday about Democratic concerns with his showing and whether he should consider stepping aside, Biden said, “No. It’s hard to debate a liar.”
While Trump was more composed, animated and tanner than Biden, CNN reported that Trump made some 30 misstatements and lies. He engaged in denialism about the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection and declined to clearly state that he would accept the results of the November election.
When Trump was pressed on his role and responsibility for a mob of his supporters ransacking the U.S. Capitol that wounded more than 140 police officers, he responded, “Let me tell you about Jan. 6. On Jan. 6, we had a great border. Nobody coming through. Very few on Jan. 6. We were energy independent on Jan. 6; we had the lowest taxes ever. We had the lowest regulations ever.”
CNN reported that Trump repeated falsehoods, including:
- His assertions that some Democratic-led states allow babies to be executed after birth;
- That every legal scholar and everybody in general wanted Roe v. Wade overturned;
- That there were no terror attacks during his presidency, and that Iran didn’t fund terror groups during his presidency;
- That the U.S. has provided more aid to Ukraine than Europe has;
- That Biden for years referred to Black people as “super predators,”
- That Biden is planning to quadruple people’s taxes;
- That then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 National Guard troops for the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021;
- That Americans don’t pay the cost of his tariffs on China and other countries; that Europe accepts no American cars;
- That fraud marred the results of the 2020 election.
Trump’s campaign swiftly declared victory after the 90-minute debate.
“Tonight President Trump delivered the greatest debate performance and victory in history to the largest voter audience in history, making clear exactly how he will improve the lives of every American,” top Trump campaign hands Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement. “Joe Biden on the other hand showed exactly why he deserves to be fired. Despite taking a week-long vacation at Camp David to prepare for the debate, Biden was unable to defend his disastrous record on the economy and the border.”
Mitch Landrieu, Biden campaign co-chair, said in a statement, “The president might’ve lost the debate on style, but he won it on facts. He won it on decency, and he won it on the ideas that people think are important in the country. I don’t think that you can call the debate as a great time for President Biden. I think he had a rough time last night. There’s no question about it.”
Brian A. Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.
