Well... That Was A Shitshow
A lying convicted felon, a hapless and hoarse current president, and two moderators receding into the background
Beating all expectations, the first (Maybe also the only and last debate of the 2024 election cycle) Trump-Biden debate became the worst presidential debate (If not the final debate in the US) in American history. And the entire golf conversation did not help at all!
Donald Trump presented himself for most of the time as “Normal Trump” and did not go off into deranged rants. Again, Trump continued to lie and lie, but this time with no pushback from moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, which was heavily criticized by Biden supporters online.
It was a five-alarm fire night for Joe Biden and the Democrats. There were multiple times Biden fumbled and slurred in his speeches, as it seemed like the president wanted to show he could respond effectively by speeding up. Biden’s voice sounded hoarse and tired, maybe from too much debate preparation. The gamble of having a June debate has quickly devolved into an unmitigated disaster.
Given this piece was published directly after the debate had finished, here are a few things that would happen. Republicans will pounce on the golden opportunities where Biden has misspoken, or at times, unintelligible, to form attack advertisements and further their arguments that Biden is senile. Democrats will be panicking, but this time not unwarranted, over whether they need to swap candidates from Biden to somebody else, and disaster control over Biden’s performance will be unconvincing to many voters. Get prepared for wall-to-wall pundit and politician talk over getting Biden off the democratic ticket not just from Democrats, but allies of the pro-democracy movement as well.
Regarding how it will change the electoral situation, it is unlikely there would be any polling change to either’s advantage. We have seen Trump’s conviction barely affecting his support, now we will see whether Biden’s poor performance will cause him to sink in the polls. If not, we can conclude the electorate is not affectionate to politics and America is in trouble. If there is a change in polling that goes down for Biden, the Democrats are in trouble, and America will be in a different level of trouble.
For those who have missed everything because you are not a political masochist like yours truly who watches this chaotic crap, these are the key events in the debate that will come up in next Monday’s Memeing The World.
On Thursday evening, it was make-or-break time for both presidential candidates after a tumultuous campaign season. Both Biden and Trump want to capitalize on the CNN debate set up after the Democratic candidate challenged his Republican counterpart weeks ago. In Biden’s case, advisors want to see the president’s performance assure concerned voters who are worried about his age and acuity while attacking Trump as being a convicted felon and unfit for office. In Trump’s case, he wants to accuse Biden of being unfit for office as well, but from the perspective of presiding over chaos and turmoil around the world while being too old to serve. President Biden headed to Camp David with a tight circle of advisors to prepare for the debate over the previous weekend, while Trump workshopped attack lines with his VP hopefuls and tried to rein in his bombastic rhetoric. Meanwhile, another battlefield is brewing online, especially on social media apps like TikTok. Both teams are preparing to churn out millions of online memes, TikToks, and rapid-response videos to expose low-engaged voters on the pros and cons of both candidates, in what was dubbed the “meme debate.” While on TikTok, third-party candidates like RFK Jr. and Jill Stein have participated in town halls with online creators that can bypass mainstream media and spread conspiracies.
On the day of the debate, we learned from Axios that Biden would seize the debate limelight to start going after “Project 2025,” a document formed by Trump allies to radically change the federal government. Hours before the main event, the two campaigns launched rivaling advertising blitzes. Biden’s campaign focused on pledging a “show of force” before the debate, while Trump’s campaign concentrated on the economy. The first topic was the economy, which Biden stumbled as Trump attacked his successor on immigration more than 10 minutes into the debate in a hoarse voice. The second topic is about abortion, Trump said he would not block access to abortion medication, but the topic inevitably dragged into immigration which was the third topic. Both candidates had confusing moments with slurred speeches, and Trump pounced again and again at Biden’s vulnerabilities on age and the border. Biden then brought up Trump’s “losers and suckers” comment and passionately defended his administration’s record on veterans, which triggered Trump to bring up Joe’s son Hunter. On the topic of foreign policy, Trump heavily criticized the pullout from Afghanistan and claimed Putin and Hamas invaded Russia and Israel because of Biden’s weakness, and repeated his claim of ending the Russo-Ukranian war in a short period of time if he returns to office and NATO is going out of business. The conversation briefly touched on ending the Israel-Hamas war, in which Trump used the word “Palestinian” as a way to insult Biden, and then Trump shrugged when Biden asked the former president if he wanted to pull America out of NATO. Finally, the fifth topic landed on democracy and Trump bumbled his way on answering a question about the January 6 Capitol riots, then the current president officially said the word “convicted felon” and questioned again on whether he would denounce the Proud Boys. When asked about political retribution, Trump brought up Hunter’s conviction and claimed he did nothing wrong. Biden condemned Trump’s crime and said he has “the morals of an alley cat,” which has visibly triggered the former president, which the president continued to add flame to the fire by pointing out the number of cabinet officials who are not supporting him. By the end of the first part of the debate, Democrats were incredibly nervous and shocked at Biden’s lackluster performance, while Trump acted more articulate and was not attacking the moderators as expected but did engage in excessive lying with no pushback by moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
By part 2 of the debate, all bets were off as the topic started on the subject of race, with Biden being asked about Black voters’ disappointments with his administration, while Trump used the economy to appeal to voters already slipping away from supporting the Democratic nominee. Trump again brought back immigration and claimed migrants have disproportionately hurt Black and Hispanic voters, then sparred over inflation again by accusing Biden of a “Green New Scam.” When discussing about the environment, Trump claimed “I had the best environmental numbers ever” while Biden mentioned he made the US rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. The subject then turned to social security and childcare, and reporters have pointed out Biden’s defense of the reputation of the US and talking about a need for a tax credit was the best sounding so far. Then on the opioid crisis, Trump claimed Biden is a “Manchurian candidate” in China but did not address what he would do to help Americans. When the age issue was finally brought up by the moderators, the case was already not looking good for Biden, and it even got worse when the two elders began discussing Trump’s brag about his golf game. When asked whether he would accept the results of the election and rebuke political violence, Trump lied his way out of the answer.
In closing statements, Biden slurred his way on guaranteeing economic promises instead of talking about the threat to democracy many suspected he would talk about. Meanwhile, Donald Trump lied and ranted his way attacking the president on things that were not directly under the control of Biden.
If you bother watching the shitshow, here is the debate in full.