Biden v. Trump Debate 2024, Responses from Pointcast
by R. Anthony Arnold and
Francine Dash
June 2024
Response from R. Anthony Arnold
An endurance test. If asked to summarize the debate in one sentence, that’s what I’d say.Because that’s what it was, for both the candidates and the audience.
Neither man was sharp on the facts. If you were hoping, against the odds, that there would be some sort of policy focus tonight, then you turned off your TV after a very disappointing 90 minutes. Trump can’t stay on topic long enough to discuss policy, and he lies and exaggerates on a scale that makes it impossible. Biden frequently lost steam before the two minute time limit for answer was up. So neither man was looking to discuss the questions asked, despite the moderators (Dana Bash and Jake Tapper) frequently attempting to pin them down.
And absent any kind of deep or nuanced discussion of the facts, that only leaves less substantive matters to discuss.
Trump was clearly more comfortable with the format. Almost entirely due to the fact that his relentless braggadocio, frequent insistence on getting the last word by backtracking, and overall higher level of aggression works well on a televised debate. It wouldn’t work in a formal debate structure, but it works here. He just forces people to be on the backfoot from the moment he sets foot on-stage, especially if they’re playing by the rules.
Which is what happened in the beginning.
Except Biden didn’t play by the rules for large chunks of the night. Biden called Trump a…loose man (morals of an alley cat), made a fat joke, repeatedly called Trump a loser, and emphasized that experts had voted Trump the worst President of all-time. It wasn’t dignified, and honestly it was pretty embarrassing.
But it did throw Trump off his game. Because it was clear that Trump really does have such a strong craving for elite approval, despite his bluster about draining the swamp, and that he continues to be sensitive to those kinds of criticism. I would have expected Trump to excel when things got personal, but Biden showed, again, that scrappy and off-the-cuff is the style that works best for him.
I’ll say it again though, and you’ve probably noticed it in my breakdown, there was absolutely nothing of substance here. Just pure hot-air.
Immigration? Who knows what they’re going to do.
The economy? Again, I couldn’t really tell you.
Climate change? Strike number three.
I’m trying my best to be a good sport about this. I really am. I mean these two men, like it or not, are going to be the nominees this fall, barring divine intervention. So we’ve got to play the hand we were dealt.
But there really is no getting around the fact that when given repeated opportunities to lay out a vision for their second terms, neither one of them had anything compelling to say.
Tomorrow, they’re both going to claim wins. Their social media teams are probably already doing it as I type this. Which is the prediction I made to my brother when he and I talked about the debate earlier this week. Trump was an undisciplined mess. Biden really did look every bit his age. Both camps will point at the other and say “Look at how awful he is.”
And maybe they’re both so high on their own supply that they really believe that malarkey. Maybe they both think their campaigns are so big and beautiful.
But I can’t imagine a single fair minded voter agreeing with either one of them.
Final Grades
Biden: D- (Better at the end but he’s behind in the polls and I don’t think this will do much to help)Trump: D (He was sharper at the start and first impressions matter)
CNN: C (Bash and Tapper tried to focus things, but it didn’t help. And the pre-debate hype was weird with the music and the stage walks and the rule explaining.)
Response from Francine Dash
Rough start to the debate for Biden. Trump showed more vigor to start. And the moderators appeared to have control.With such a tight format, and no audience, there was an expectation that there would be more discussion on pressing social issues and policy ideas to address them. The only issue that the format seemed to most positively impact, however, was minimizing the amount of times Biden and Trump went over their time to speak.
Each candidate was methodically asked direct questions about and including climate change, abortion rights and access, taxes, the economy and rising costs, immigration and crime, and the inequities in healthcare and employment among Black Americans.
At times, Biden appeared to stutter to a point of forgetting where the discussion was and subsequently either misspoke or truly forgot the point he was trying to make. Trump had trouble answering direct questions and continued to support the actions of January 6th, while playing quick and loose with the facts.
Both men called each other dishonest in some capacity, with Biden going hard about Trump’s conviction and sleeping with a porn stop, while stating that he would reinstate Roe v Wade. Trump brought up Hunter’s conviction, blamed Biden for Putin’s attack on Ukraine and stated that he would end the war in Ukraine as president-elect.
For the undecided, I’m not sure if this pushed you in one direction over the other. For the single-issue voters, perhaps your stances have been affirmed. For diehard partisans, your minds were made up before tonight began.
But for people like me, I am disappointed in both parties for not providing candidates who can address real issues directly and maturely, articulate their positions on policies that they would help to create and implement and live long enough to see the impact of. Instead I saw two elderly rich White men fighting over who had the best golf score.
As a voter, I need to see a depth of understanding about the cost of making a living in an equitable, energy-independent, post-racist America; and how my government will play a positive role in that space.