What Was That?

Last night's earliest-ever presidential debate between two highly unpopular candidates was a mess, with exaggerations and falsehoods thicker than flies at a landfill. Still, it was consequential.

I remember the first time I truly watched a presidential debate. I think it was in the fall of 1976, as a graduating senior in college and strongly supporting Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign against “incumbent” Gerald Ford (and his running mate and my future boss, Sen. Bob Dole [R-KS]).

Carter’s disastrous presidency cured me of being a Democrat. Four years later, I was working for a Republican candidate for Congress in Oklahoma and voting for Ronald Reagan. I’ve never looked back.

The first “gaffe” I remember was President Ford’s infamous line that Eastern Europe wasn’t under Soviet domination “and never would be under a Ford Administration.” Of course, they were, as was all of Eastern Europe at the time, from the Baltic nations down to Romania, Bulgaria, and what was then Yugoslavia (now split into ethnic Slavic tribal nations: Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Boznia-Herzegovina). They were Warsaw Pact nations and very much under Soviet domination, including troops and Russian nuclear weapons deployed in many of them.

Ford doubled down during the debate and days afterward until he clarified his remark. The damage was done. Ford trailed badly throughout most of the campaign until the final days when he almost pulled off an upset. Carter narrowly won with 50.1% of the popular and 297 electoral votes (270 are needed to win). Some attribute Ford’s debate remark as consequential in the outcome. He never really admitted that he made a mistake with that comment.

A prior September 1976 debate in Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theater featured an embarrassing 28-minute pause when the audio failed. The candidates just stood there. It was awkward.

As I watched last night’s slugfest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, I harkened back to the first-ever televised one between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960. It was serious and sober. They were careful with facts and respectful of the moderators, the audience, and even each other. Both candidates were well prepared, perhaps too much so. After all, Nixon and Kennedy served in the House and Senate together and were friends. I miss those kind of debates.

Nobody will ever accuse Trump and Biden of being friends. It’s clear that while Trump despises and disrespects Biden and his presidency, Biden hates Donald Trump with unbridled passion (as do most of his supporters). That much is obvious and may be the only reason Biden is running for reelection (or ran in the first place).

Where do we start unpacking last night’s mess of a debate?

First, let’s look at the format and the moderators. Given their long history of partisan “journalism,” CNN’s Jake Tapper - a former press secretary to a Democratic congresswoman, Marjorie Margolis Mezvinsky (D-PA) and staffer for Handgun Control, Inc. - had previously compared Trump to Adolf Hitler. Fortunately for viewers and the candidates, he was fair, impartial, and professional.

And despite her passionate fixation on abortion and climate change, CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash also was largely professional. Kudos to both for not trying to fact-check the candidates (they could have), although Tapper bailed out Biden during his brain fart some 13 minutes into the debate. Both candidates at least treated the moderators with respect, attacking neither nor their largely discredited and partisan network.

I am also troubled by CNN's 90-second delay in feeding the video to other networks, which gives them a chance to edit it. We will soon find out if they did. The same is true of their “rush transcript.” Given CNN's descent into partisanship, I don’t trust them.

It became clear early, even before the debate, that the candidates strategies were identical - make the debate about the other guy’s record.

On that score, Trump won. Or, at least, he didn’t lose. As in sports, especially playoff games, with debates, he or she who makes the fewest mistakes often wins.

The falsehoods started right off the bat, with Biden’s delusional gaslighting about the economy he inherited from Trump. He repeated oft-debunked stories about the Charlottesville Hoax, Trump encouraging people to inject themselves with bleach during Covid, the “suckers and losers” allegation about service dead in Europe, and even about his deceased son Beau’s dying of brain cancer from his service in Iraq. Beau, a brilliant and respected attorney and public servant in his own right, died of brain cancer in 2015, long after he returned from Iraq.

He lied about no US soldiers losing their lives on his watch. Afghanistan, anyone? He was also provably wrong about the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or as they’re called, the “Trump Tax Cuts.” Federal revenues indeed increased after they were implemented. Many of them are due to expire in 2025, a major issue that isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

Trump was more guilty of multiple exaggerations than falsehoods, but that’s debatable. Where Trump performed best was on the very Democratic issue of abortion. As a pro-life Republican, I winced at his support for making the abortifacient Mifepristone widely available. Still, he focused on turning the issue to the states and the extreme position - abortion on demand, even after birth - of many Democrats. He may not have “won” the issue, but he survived. Not much there for Democrats to use for partisan political purposes. It may force them to express support for some restrictions, which most Americans support (a 15-week limit on abortions, similar to most European nations, has wide public support).

Trump twice cited former Virginia Governor and pediatric neurologist Dr. Ralph Northam and his infamous WTOP interview where he talked about keeping an infant “comfortable” while the mother and her doctor decide whether to kill the infant or not. Don’t believe me? Watch this, which I’ve shared before:

Biden was also incorrect in asserting that later-term abortions were not permitted under Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that even the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said was wrongly decided and was overturned in 2022 in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which found no Constitutional right to an abortion (thus returning the issue to the states or Congress). Biden wants to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which provided that states could impose restrictions after viability (about 26 weeks).

Some states did, some states didn’t. Many abortion clinics specialize in late-term abortion. It is simply a fact that Biden seems unaware of. And it may not prove the issue Democrats think it will be.

Biden also was clobbered on the issue of immigration. He tried to assert - wrongly - that more people were coming across the southern border during Trump’s time in office than now, which is laughably false. He also lied about Trump separating families in cages (they were chain-linked fences built during the Obama Administration). “Families” were separated to find out if kids were being brought across the border separate from their families by illegal migrants trying to game the system.

Trump largely ducked a question on the January 6th attack at the Capitol by focusing on his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops, which then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down. That’s been confirmed by a recent video. Trump’s response to largely “defensive” questions was to go on the attack - a smart tactic.

Ultimately, the debate’s consequences in voters' minds weren’t on issues but on Biden’s demeanor and presentation. His staff rushed to claim that he was suffering from a cold. No matter.

Seems to me that Special Counsel Robert Hur, who refused to recommend prosecution over Biden’s mishandling of classified information, is owed an apology. Hur was viciously attacked for asserting Biden was an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

There’s no way to sugarcoat this for my Democratic friends. Biden lost, and lost badly, from his deportment to his never-ending falsehoods and inability to counter Trump’s claims.

There’s no way for Democrats or the Biden campaign to spin their way out of this. After all, are you going to believe them or your lying eyes?

I predicted earlier this year that neither Biden nor Trump would be their respective nominees. I may now be only half right. But good luck getting Biden to drop out - and there’s no other way for him to be replaced unless he does so voluntarily. His pride, ego, and hatred of Donald Trump may not let him.

We won’t know the political fallout for a few days as the polling rolls in. The only way Democrats can recover from this is to trot out a suddenly rejuvenated Biden (unlikely) or persuade him to drop out. And then what?

Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18