Biden’s debate message: Get out and vote
The disgraceful first presidential debate Tuesday still reverberates in the hours since President Donald Trump and Joe Biden took the stage in Ohio. CNN’s Jake Tapper had perhaps the best comment of the night. The debate, he said, was a “hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.”
Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News was ineffective — but we’re not sure anyone could have moderated the behavior of Trump, who interrupted, lied, insulted and otherwise made the same mess of the debate format that he is making of the presidency. A post-debate analysis revealed an interruption every minute; Trump was responsible for 71 of them, Biden 22.
As Trump bloviated, Biden was swept away in a sea of the president’s almost unintelligible words. Trump seldom shut up, making a mockery of the so-called debate rules. The Commission for Presidential Debates must introduce a mute button; Wednesday afternoon, the commission did promise new “tools” to maintain order, and CBS reported that rule-breakers will have their microphones shut off.
Despite the obstacles, here is what the former vice president did that enabled him to walk away a winner from this train wreck, leaving Trump smoldering in the dumpster.
Biden did not allow Trump to get under his skin, even when the president attacked his son, Hunter. Biden spoke directly to the camera and reminded voters what is at stake in the election — them, their futures and their lives. He drew a clear connection between Trump’s incompetence and the 200,000-plus deaths from COVID-19.
Considering the Trump pre-debate strategy was to paint Biden as a senile old man, standing firm and focused for 90 minutes was important. Clearly, Biden is not senile. He might not be a debater on the level of Elizabeth Warren, but he is not slipping into dementia. His performance against Trump proved that claim, like so much else Trump peddles, to be a lie. Biden never backed down, either, even as Trump’s aggressiveness turned into abuse.
Empathy. Strength. Control. Determination. All important qualities in a president. Biden has them.
As for Trump, this was yet another low moment. He was a jerk, to put it plainly. Peter Wehner, a former Republican administration official and New York Times contributor, made this important point: “It was 90 minutes of watching the president of the United States show he is a sociopath. Most people have never fully internalized what it means to have a sociopath as president.”
Conservative pollster Frank Luntz said his focus group panelists were uniformly annoyed. One woman, Ruthie, described Trump’s behavior as resembling that of a “crackhead.” She was not far off. Luntz’s take is that the debate was so bad it could discourage voters from participating in the election. Which, of course, is another Trump strategy — depress broader voter turnout but keep the base riled up. With low turnout, he could eke out a narrow victory.
If that strategy fails, the courts are Trump’s hope. It is no wonder he is demanding his Supreme Court replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg be confirmed before the election. Trump wants what he considers “his” court in place in case of election lawsuits as it becomes increasingly apparent he will lose at the polls.
That’s not winning. That’s planning to steal an election, and it is just like Trump to announce his strategy as he commits malfeasance in plain sight.
Two moments of particular shame for this president stand out in a night of lows.
When asked to denounce white supremacy, Trump did not take a forceful stance. Instead, he told the right-wing group Proud Boys “to stand back and stand by.”
Trump’s closing statement, a monument to incoherence, was intended to make voters lose confidence in the election system. Trump falsely claims that increased voting by mail will increase voter fraud — always extremely rare — and lead to disputed results. His aim is for voters to lose confidence in the system; he depresses turnout while laying the foundation to challenge the results.
What a contrast to Biden, who used his final debate statement to remind voters that the nation’s future is theirs to control. Don’t let Trump interfere was the message: “He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of the election.”
And that’s what voters should take away from this debate. The future of the country is up to them. That’s a positive message, and one New Mexicans should remember. Absentee voting starts Oct. 6, and early voting, Oct. 17. The people have the power to step up and settle this — just vote.