Connect with us

Politics

Biden and Trump expected to brawl in first 2024 debate

Published

on

Biden and Trump expected to brawl in first 2024 debate

The earliest general election debate in a U.S. presidential contest is set to begin Thursday night, with President Biden and former President Trump expected to shower disdain on each other in a confrontation that will refocus attention on a razor-close campaign.

With polls tightening but still showing Trump with a narrow lead nationally and in most battleground states, the noisy showdown between two bitter rivals will be contrasted with the quiet setting — in a CNN studio in Atlanta, with no audience for the first time in recent debate history.

A majority of Americans have a negative view of both men, and a supermajority have told pollsters they wish they had other major-party candidates to choose between. But that does not reduce the stakes in the debate, set to begin at 6 p.m. PDT on CNN and other outlets.

Critics say that a principal challenge for the 81-year-old Biden is to show that he has the acuity and vigor to lead the world’s most powerful nation. He’ll likely to face tough questions about inflation that skyrocketed in 2021 and 2022 and an illegal immigration surge that hit a high at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022.

Trump critics say one of his top challenges is proving he cares about Americans outside his fervent political base. He’ll likely be asked to explain why he continues to perpetuate the fiction that he defeated Biden four years ago and why he appointed Supreme Court justices who eliminated the right of women to have an abortion.

Advertisement

Many Americans surely will spend the early summer evening avoiding the tempest. Even some political professionals (at least those not employed by the Trump and Biden camps) have been cringing about the spectacle that is now at hand.

“Never have so many had such low expectations for the next leader of the free world,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist in California who was a leader of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “Finishing the night without a broken hip or a racial slur would appear to be the barometer of success.”

Biden’s team made clear in an interview that the president plans to hit Trump on multiple fronts: “ripping away reproductive rights, promoting political violence and undermining our democratic institutions, and doing the bidding of his billionaire donors to fund tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy and corporations by hurting seniors and the middle class.”

Trump’s supporters have a litany of complaints about Biden, saying the incumbent has a “terrible record” that includes “a border crisis, rampant inflation, disastrous foreign policy and a war on American energy,” according to Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the California Republican Party.

Those who don’t like what they’re hearing from the two top contenders have another option: tuning in to a video stream from the campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It will show the independent candidate — still trailing badly in most polls — answering the same questions as the leading contenders. CNN refused Kennedy’s bid to be on stage with Biden and Trump.

Advertisement

Commentators and good-government groups have been yearning for a debate featuring real substance. But most also fear a reprise of the first debate between then-President Trump and Biden in 2020, when Trump talked over Biden repeatedly and moderator Chris Wallace could not restore order.

An exasperated Biden finally retorted: “Will you shut up, man?”

A nonpartisan group released a study last week that showed an escalating war of incivility in presidential debates — with interruptions escalating markedly in the Trump era. The organization, Open to Debate, counted a total of 76 interruptions by the two candidates in the first 2020 debate, though the vitriol decreased markedly in the second debate, with just four interruptions.

In an attempt to control Thursday’s give-and-take, CNN announced it will mute the microphone of whichever candidate has not been asked to answer a question.

Trump supporters have cast aspersions on the CNN crew and co-moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, saying Tapper, in particular, has shown a bias against the former president. They have also complained that Trump will be unfairly muted.

Advertisement

At least one Democratic strategist, Dan Newman, said he understands why the Biden team wouldn’t want Trump shouting over the incumbent. “But it does limit one of the way Trump shows he’s … repugnant,” Newman said.

In a recent interview with Byron York of the Washington Examiner, Trump signaled that he’s not comfortable with the prospect of speaking in an empty studio.

“You have no audience to read,” Trump said. “To me, the audience is easier because it’s telling you what is going on, indirectly, with applause or not applause. This room is a sterile, dead room, which is I guess what they want.”

Trump also told York that he was “very aggressive” in his first 2020 debate with Biden but got “great marks” on a second debate, when he was less combative.

Trump has not shied from unfounded claims in the debate run-up. He has suggested that Biden will not be able to perform without some pharmaceutical enhancement.

Advertisement

“Look, he’s going to be jacked up on something, like he was for the State of the Union,” Trump told one campaign crowd, with no evidence. “He was jacked up. That’s why I called for the drug test.”

As to the tone he will set Thursday night, the presumptive Republican nominee for president said: “I’m probably going to look at the scene at the time. It’s like a fight. It depends on what the situation is.”

Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan, said considerable uncertainty remains over how the two candidates, the oldest ever to face off for the presidency, will perform.

“The million-dollar question is whether Trump and President Biden have the self control to stay on task during the entirety of the debate or whether they could lose their cool,” said Kall, co-author of “Debating the Donald.” “Not knowing how the answer to this critical question will turn out is one of the main reasons tens of millions of Americans will tune in to find out on Thursday night.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Politics

The New Yorker editor calls for Biden to step down after 'antagonizing' debate performance

Published

on

The New Yorker editor calls for Biden to step down after 'antagonizing' debate performance

The New Yorker magazine has joined other major publications in calling for President Biden to step aside after its editor said watching Biden perform during Thursday’s debate was an “agonizing experience.”

The New Yorker is now the third publication, alongside The New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, to call upon Biden to step-aside for a younger Democratic nominee.

“We have long known that Biden, no matter what issue you might take with one policy or another, is no longer a fluid or effective communicator of those policies,” The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, wrote.

“Asked about his decline, the Biden communications team and his understandably protective surrogates and advisers would deliver responses to journalists that sounded an awful lot like what we all, sooner or later, tell acquaintances when asked about aging parents: they have good days and bad days,” he wrote.

ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION EDITORIAL BOARD CALLS FOR BIDEN TO DROP OUT ‘FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION’

Advertisement

President Joe Biden looks on as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections with former US President and presumed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Remnick wrote that watching Biden “wander into senselessness” moved observers to “pity” and “fear for the country.”

“Watching Thursday’s debate, observing Biden wander into senselessness onstage, was an agonizing experience, and it is bound to obliterate forever all those vague and qualified descriptions from White House insiders about good days and bad days,” he said.

“You watched it, and, on the most basic human level, you could only feel pity for the man and, more, fear for the country.”

President Biden, Jill Biden at CNN debate

President Biden, shown here with wife Dr. Jill Biden, faced presumed Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign season last week. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Remnick made his remarks despite defensive comments from Biden’s loyalists, like former President Obama, First Lady Jill Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Advertisement

THE DEMOCRATS’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT ATTEMPTS TO SPIN BIDEN’S DEBATE DEBACLE: ‘DID WE WATCH THE SAME DEBATE?’

“Such loyalty can be excused, at least momentarily,” he wrote. “They did what they felt they had to do to fend off an immediate implosion of Biden’s campaign, a potentially irreversible cratering of his poll numbers, an evaporation of his fund-raising, and the looming threat of Trump Redux.”

joe biden on the debate stage

President Joe Biden stands at his podium during the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections between himself and former president Donald Trump at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. (Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The New Yorker editor said that Biden staying in the race would be in direct opposition to his years of public service.

“To stay in the race would be pure vanity, uncharacteristic of someone whom most have come to view as decent and devoted to public service,” Remnick wrote.

“To stay in the race, at this post-debate point, would also suggest that it is impossible to imagine a more vital ticket,” he wrote.

Advertisement

Remnick concluded his piece by noting that there “is no shame in growing old” but rather there would be “honor” to step down and out of the race.

“It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it. There is no shame in growing old,” he wrote. “There is honor in recognizing the hard demands of the moment.”

Trump and Biden on debate stage

President Biden and former President Trump are facing off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. (Getty Images)

The New Yorker article came after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times called for him to drop out of the race.

“Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it,” The Times said. “His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020. That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.”

“Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer that he and his supporters were hoping for,” the Times concluded. “But if the risk of a second Trump term is as great as he says it is — and we agree with him that the danger is enormous — then his dedication to this country leaves him and his party only one choice.”

Advertisement
President Biden, Jill Biden at CNN debate

President Joe Biden walks off with first lady Jill Biden following the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Following the debate, Democrats and liberal media figures were reportedly in “panic” after Biden’s performance.

The optics led to a full-on meltdown in Democrat-friendly media, with journalists at various outlets reporting on dozens of Democratic Party officials who said the 81-year-old Biden should consider refusing his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE SILENT AS PARTY REELS FOLLOWING ‘EMBARRASSING’ DEBATE PERFORMANCE 

Biden gave no indication he would step down at his first rally following the debate Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, insisting he is capable of beating Trump. 

“I can do this job, because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high,” Biden energetically said. “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.” 

Advertisement
Trump and Biden

This combination of pictures created on October 22, 2020 shows US President Donald Trump (L) and Democratic Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

President Biden also addressed his stumbling performance, saying, “I don’t debate as well as I used to.”

“I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done,” he told a roaring crowd that chanted “Four more years.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.

Advertisement

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Column: After Biden's debate fiasco, Harris or Newsom could be Plan B

Published

on

Column: After Biden's debate fiasco, Harris or Newsom could be Plan B

As pressure mounts on President Biden to quit his reelection race after a shockingly dismal debate performance, the spotlight will turn more intensely on two Californians: Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

And although California won’t matter in the November election — whoever is the Democratic nominee will easily carry the state — its huge delegation to the party’s national convention in August could play a decisive role in choosing a Biden replacement.

Harris would top the initial list of possible substitutes with Newsom close behind.

But Harris, 59, has been less popular than Biden, according to polls. And she’s widely considered a drag on the ticket. One fear of many voters is that if Biden, 81, didn’t last out his second term, he’d be replaced as president by Harris.

Advertisement

The former California attorney general looked sharp, however, in a post-debate interview on CNN. And although I’ve long been a critic, I got the feeling while watching her that she might not be a campaign disaster after all.

In fact, Harris might perform well on the stump. Drop the robotic script and be more spontaneous. She certainly would be a more competitive debater against Republican Donald Trump than the weak Biden.

Harris showed genuine conviction — a look she usually lacks — in pitching Biden’s policies. She tried to put the best face on his debate performance.

“Yes, there was a slow start. That’s obvious to everyone,” she said. “But it was a strong finish.”

Well, no it wasn’t, but he did improve — after badly damaging himself, probably beyond repair.

Advertisement

One Harris hurdle, however, is that party leaders remember she bombed running for president in 2020.

Then there’s Newsom, 56.

If Newsom ever wants to run for president — and he acts like he does — now may be his best opportunity, assuming Biden can be coaxed out. There’s persistent speculation about him running in 2028. But he’s in the limelight now and there could be a Democratic incumbent seeking reelection in four years.

Newsom is already warmed up. The two-term governor has been promoting himself nationally while attacking red state policies and playing the role of an enthusiastic Biden surrogate. He has a veteran campaign organization.

Roger Strassburg wears a cowboy hat as he watches Thursday’s debate between President Biden and former President Trump in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Advertisement

(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

But Newsom would need to compete for the nomination against Harris, his old San Francisco ally. And he has said publicly he wouldn’t do that. If he did, he’d be considered a party pariah, especially among Black women, Newsom has said privately.

Actually, I’ve never thought that a California Democrat could be elected president in this era of hardened polarization. Our politics are just too leftist for most of America.

Newsom has Hollywood looks and oratorical skills. But his biggest political asset — being California governor — is also his biggest vulnerability.

Advertisement

One strength that both Harris and Newsom have, however, is that California’s delegation will be by far the largest at the Democratic convention. Presumably it would back a California candidate.

The 496-member slate will field 22% of the votes needed to win the nomination. So if Biden leaves the race, California could play a big role in choosing his successor.

Who else is a possibility? For starters, two governors of key battleground states: Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. There’s also Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

There’s no perfect candidate. But Trump is thoroughly imperfect.

Biden loyalists and lethargic naysayers have contended for months that it’s too late to change horses while the presidential race is underway, especially now that it has neared the final lap. Nonsense.

Advertisement

Conventions were invented to fight over nominations. But smoke-filled rooms unfortunately got a bad name and the Democratic Party went overboard on reforms. And the conventions became boring television shows that fewer people watched.

Republicans had the last convention battle in 1976 when they nominated President Ford over Californian Ronald Reagan. Ford then was beaten by Democrat Jimmy Carter. The last good Democratic brawl was in 1972 when the California delegation propelled George McGovern into the nomination. He was pummeled by President Nixon, a native Californian.

So convention battles sometimes backfire on a party. But this year could be different.

A Democratic donnybrook could stir new interest in the party and wake up the slumbering base that keeps telling pollsters it wants a president much younger than the 81-year-old incumbent.

Political leaders have a bad habit of plugging their ears when the public is saying things they don’t want to hear.

Advertisement

Voters aren’t satisfied with either of their choices. Trump, 78, seems healthier than Biden, at least physically. But Trump’s a pathological liar. “The morals of an alley cat,” Biden told him during the debate.

The voters’ anxiety about Biden’s ability to adequately serve a second term was re-stoked in his halting, hoarse-voiced, awkward performance. He seemed to lose his train of thought at least once and had trouble finishing sentences.

It was the worst presidential debate performance ever.

President Reagan blew his first debate against Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984, raising concerns about his age at 73. But he wasn’t nearly as painful to watch as Biden. Reagan fully recovered in a second debate.

Even if Biden’s decision-making is sound, people perceive him as weak. And that means he’d have difficulty leading the country.

Advertisement

If Trump’s election really would endanger democracy, as Biden contends, then the president should step aside to give the party a better chance of defeating the unfit jerk. He’ll naturally resist that. But those he trusts should level with him and push.

“You don’t turn your back [on someone] after one performance,” Newsom told a TV interviewer. “What kind of party does that?”

A winning party that prioritizes its principles and the nation.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board calls for Biden to drop out 'for the good of the nation'

Published

on

Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board calls for Biden to drop out 'for the good of the nation'

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) is calling for President Biden to step out of the presidential election after his debate debacle on Thursday night.

The AJC Editorial Board is publishing a front page editorial Sunday arguing that Biden should bow out of the election “for the good” of the country and to defeat former President Trump.

“The shade of retirement is now necessary for President Biden,” the board wrote.

THE DEMOCRATS’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT ATTEMPTS TO SPIN BIDEN’S DEBATE DEBACLE: ‘DID WE WATCH THE SAME DEBATE?’

An Axios report explained that Americans were so shocked by Biden’s debate performance because they’re more used to seeing a more competent version of him. (Getty Images)

Advertisement

Biden, they argued, failed to convey a “competent and coherent vision for the future of America” at the first presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday.

“He failed to outline the most fundamental aspects of his platform,” they wrote. “He failed to take credit for the significant accomplishments of his 3½ years in office. And he failed to counter the prevarications of an opponent, who, according to CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, lied 30 times during the course of the debate, approximately once every 90 seconds of his allotted time.”

Biden and Trump at the debate

President Biden and former President Trump participate in the first Presidential Debate at CNN Studios in Atlanta, Thursday. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

AJC said that responses by Biden surrogates, former President Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris as well as the cover-up attempt by aides that the president had a cold were “insulting to the American people.”

BIDEN DEBATE DEBACLE: 10 EYE-OPENING MEDIA RESPONSES, FROM MSNBC PANIC TO ‘THE VIEW’ CALLING FOR REPLACEMENT

Biden’s age and mental acuity was a concern only heightened by Trump’s resolve, the newspaper argued.

Advertisement

“President Biden’s ability to withstand the mental and physical rigors of another four-year term would be of concern regardless of his opponent,” they wrote. “The fact that he is all that stands in the way of Trump returning to the Oval Office significantly raises the stakes.”

Biden looking dazed

President Biden looks on as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections in Atlanta on Thursday. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

The editorial board pointed to Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s refusal to support the former president as proof of Trump’s “egregious” personal and professional conduct following the 2020 election.

“That Trump remains at the top of the Republican ticket is a testament to the deep divisions and tribalism that has come to define American politics in the 21st century,” they wrote.

joe biden on the debate stage

President Biden stands at a debate podium in Atlanta, Thursday. (Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The board encouraged Biden to pass the torch to the next generation of Democratic leaders at the convention in August.

“If he truly hopes to defeat Trump, he must pass the torch to the next generation of Democratic leaders and urge the party to nominate another candidate at its convention in Chicago in August,” they wrote. “Doing this will require a massive and unprecedented string of legal and regulatory actions to get a Biden successor named and placed on each state’s ballot. This is difficult and necessary work that must start immediately.”

Advertisement

BIDEN’S ‘DISASTER’ DEBATE PERFORMANCE SPARKS MEDIA MELTDOWN, CALLS FOR HIM TO WITHDRAW FROM 2024 RACE

The right Democratic leader, they argued, would move forward and make a compelling appeal to both Republican and Democratic voters ahead of the election.

“The Democrats have a number of talented and principled leaders who might take the president’s agenda forward and provide the nation with a viable alternative to Trump,” they wrote. “The right candidate would make it a priority to appeal to Republican and Democratic voters.”

President Biden, Jill Biden at CNN debate

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden leave the debate stage Thursday in Atlanta. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The board said that Biden’s very candidacy was “grounded in his incumbency and the belief of Democratic leaders and pollsters that he stood the best chance of defeating Trump in November.”

“This is no longer the case,” they said.

Advertisement

The Atlanta-based newspaper board said that while this may be difficult for some Democrats to swallow, it is the truth.

“Biden deserves a better exit from public life than the one he endured when he shuffled off the stage Thursday night,” they said.

“If he displays the courage and dignity that have defined his political career, he might follow in the footsteps of the nation’s first president and welcome his retirement, secure in the knowledge that he again served his country with honor,” the board ended.

People watching the debate on TV

People watch the 2024 presidential debate between former President Trump and President Biden in New York City, Thursday. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The AJC Editorial Board’s call for Biden to step down comes just one day after The New York Times called for him to drop out of the race.

“Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it,” The Times said. “His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020. That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.”

Advertisement

“Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer that he and his supporters were hoping for,” the Times concluded. “But if the risk of a second Trump term is as great as he says it is — and we agree with him that the danger is enormous — then his dedication to this country leaves him and his party only one choice.”

President Biden and Jill Biden

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at a campaign event in Raleigh, N.C., Friday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Following the debate, Democrats and liberal media figures were reportedly in “panic” after Biden’s performance.

The optics led to a full-on meltdown in Democrat-friendly media, with journalists at various outlets reporting on dozens of Democratic Party officials who said the 81-year-old Biden should consider refusing his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE SILENT AS PARTY REELS FOLLOWING ‘EMBARRASSING’ DEBATE PERFORMANCE 

Biden gave no indication he would step down at his first rally following the debate Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, insisting he is capable of beating Trump. 

Advertisement

“I can do this job, because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high,” Biden energetically said. “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.” 

President-Biden-Holds-Post-Debate-Rally-In-North-Carolina

President Biden speaks at a post-debate campaign rally Friday in Raleigh, N.C. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

President Biden also addressed his stumbling performance, saying, “I don’t debate as well as I used to.”

“I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done,” he told a roaring crowd that chanted “Four more years.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.

Advertisement

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending