Worst. Presidential. Debate Ever. President Joe Biden and former President have just squared off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign and the rest of the world has watched in slack-jawed horror as democracy’s once “shining city on the hill” hit a new low.
The hyperbole in that introduction may go too far, but I’ve used it to match the tone of what was a remarkable – and remarkably bad – debate. If you want to see how the middle of American politics has broken and the language of extremes and outrage now holds sway, this was a startling piece of evidence. Throughout the night, both candidates reached for ridiculous claims and insults, struggling to answer questions coherently or offer any hope and vision to US voters. Trump was by far the worst offender, engaging claims that went beyond the now all too common cynical spin of modern politics into lies and fantasy; but Biden let himself down as well.
If you believe Trump’s wild and childish claims, military veterans are dying in the streets while illegal immigrants live it up in luxury hotels; military leaders “like me more”; he will end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine between election day and inauguration day, should he win; there was “no terror at all during my administration”; Biden will increase taxes “four times” over; America’s exit of Afghanistan was the country’s “most embarrassing moment” ever; and when he was president America had the cleanest water ever.
Trump’s arguments were one fantasy after another.
Biden, while much more restrained, also threw out whoppers, such as the claim Trump would “get rid of social security” and he’d done “more for veterans than any president in American history”. More of a concern, Biden started sentences he couldn’t finished, lost his train of thought, and looked every one of his 84 years. He shared his concern that Trump’s plan to introduce news tariffs would increase the price of “food, um, and all the things that are important”. At least twice he simply stopped mid-sentence, unable to find the next words. This is a president who has done his country a remarkable service seeing off the worst strongman, anti-democratic tendencies of Trump and his cronies, but we are already seeing reports that tonight’s performance has set off serious discussions amongst his party as to whether he can convince US voters he has four good years left in him.
I can’t help but think back to the eloquence and deep political cut and counter-thrust of debates under presidents such as Obama, Bush Sr, Clinton and others. Even Reagan in his failing later years didn’t struggle with truth and coherence like these two.
If you want to read the fevered temperature of American politics right now, you only have to have seen the minutes spent by the candidates arguing over each other’s golf game. There were whole chunks of the debate when the candidates returned time and again to not only golf swings, but who history will regard as the worst president, who is the worst felon (with Trump falsely suggesting Biden could be charged with crimes whenever he leaves the White House) and who is the biggest loser. Did anyone in previous presidential debates ever imagine a candidate for president – a convicted felon no less – saying “I didn’t have sex with a porn star”? And his opponent saying to him he had “the morals of an alley cat”. That happened today.
Make no mistake, I don’t want to give the impression of any false equivalency. A dishonest president is worse than a tired one. While much of the initial coverage will focus on Biden’s incoherent performance, we should not overlook or accept as normal Trump’s wildly dishonest effort. His lies – and his ego - were as far and wide as America’s great plains. He also meandered off topic and at times looked utterly unhinged.
The rest of the sane world has watched this debate in horror. Because it was a disaster for democracy. We have seen how far it has fallen in the country that claims to be democracy’s greatest champion. We are appalled and scared by what we have seen. That a second Trump presidency would be disastrous for the world is beyond doubt; that the Democrats have the ability to prevent it (something I have until today been very confident of) is now in doubt. This campaign hasn’t even really begun yet. But it is already one like no other, one that raises very real fears for the state of the United States.