Let’s say it right now: Donald Trump might have won the 2024 election tonight. You’d think President Joe Biden would have at least a good performance for one-third or even two-thirds of the debate. That never happened. Biden was incapable of delivering cogent and coherent remarks about the cornerstones of his presidency. He was incapable of defending what little legislative wins he clinched during his first term and was lost trying to pivot and deflect from the pointed attacks from Donald Trump.
The former president was disciplined and presidential. He didn’t jump on Biden when he suffered multiple brain malfunctions. As Katie wrote, there might be a full-court press to replace Biden from the ticket, and why not after this disastrous performance?
Biden claimed to have spoken to dead World War II veterans, bungled miserably on abortion, his signature issue, where his choppy delivery included oddities like in-laws raping family members. The main point of this debate was for Joe Biden to show America that he was capable, in control, and had the mental abilities to perform his duties as president. He failed on all fronts.
There are moments when elections are decided. Ronald Reagan expertly disarming questions about his age against Walter Mondale during the 1984 election, a moment where even Mondale admitted he knew he’d lost. Michael Dukakis’ trip in the tank and his cold and detached response about the death penalty during his debate with the late George H.W. Bush in the 1988 election.
In 2012, Eric Fehrnstrom with the “etch-a-sketch” remarks, followed by then-spokeswoman Andrea Saul’s failed spin on the Joe Soptic ad Obama’s SuperPAC released, which blamed Mitt Romney for essentially killing Mr. Soptic’s wife who died of cancer. At the time, Saul replied, “To that point, you know if people had been in Massachusetts under Governor Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care.”
This entire debate might have been one of those moments, and it could end with Biden losing the 2024 election.
Before this debate, a plurality of Biden 2020 supporters thought the president was too old to be effective. Eighty-six of Americans feel that Biden is too old to run for a second term, based on a Washington Post/ABC News poll. The latest New York Times/Siena Poll had Trump clinching nearly 30 percent of the black vote before this showdown. In most battleground states, Trump is leading. Black voters under 50 have fled Biden.
This performance did nothing to reset the debate for Biden, which was critical. Trump won decisively, and it might carry him all the way through Election Day.