Opinion | The Worst Debate Performance in American History

It’s likely to be the most quoted line of the evening: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either.” The problem for President Joe Biden is that well before Donald Trump said that, Biden partisans from one end of the country to the other were saying pretty much the same thing.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this was the worst performance of any general election presidential candidate in any debate in modern American history. Nothing in the past — not Richard Nixon’s sweat in 1960, not Ronald Reagan’s serpentine wandering down memory lane in 1984, not Barack Obama’s vacuous indifference in 2012 — comes close to what we witnessed, through the hands that covered millions of eyes.

Biden’s performance, from his first rushed, unfocused answer on the economy to his disjoined closing statement, suggested he was utterly unprepared to make a coherent argument for his second term. Biden’s efforts to confront Trump on his lies — and there was a tsunami of dishonesty, from Trump’s ridiculous notion that every constitutional scholar wanted to end Roe v Wade to his claim that he never labeled servicemen and women “suckers and losers” despite his former chief of staff confirming it — were often as hard to understand as his substantive points.

The Biden campaign was eager to hold a debate to prove their 81-year-old candidate had what it took to serve as president for another four years — and that he’d look especially good next to a deranged authoritarian like Trump. Instead, within minutes of the debate’s start, calls for Biden to step aside from the Democratic nomination were mounting.

But there is another point worth noting since it is likely to be overwhelmed by the all-out lamentations over Biden’s performance: Donald Trump was a disciplined, focused debater.

I cannot believe I just wrote those words, but contrary to the confident assertions of many Trump-watchers, he was relatively constrained. He actually resorted to something resembling a policy argument at times, and frequently managed to “pivot” from a difficult issue. For instance, when asked about whether he had violated his oath of office on January 6th, Trump cited the low inflation, full employment and generally sunny conditions on that day. On abortion, he was striking clearly moderate tones, noting that some states had embraced liberal policies, others less so, while accusing Democrats of being the extremists. On immigration, he stressed the cost to taxpayers and the impact on Black and Hispanic workers.

Were many of those answers accompanied by flat-out falsehoods? Of course. No, Nancy Pelosi did not say she was “responsible” for the disorder on Jan. 6. Yes, January 6th was an insurrection supported by Trump. Biden tried to pin Trump down there, but it’s far from clear that he broke through.

There were also moments when Trump could not resist being Trump, calling Biden a criminal after attempting to soften his promise of “retribution,” explaining why he’d become the best president ever, and triggering a genuinely silly argument about golf handicaps. But if you think back all the way to… two or three days ago, with confident predictions that Trump would rage on long after his microphone was turned off, this was a Trump that — grading on a sharp curve — was under control. If there is any solace to Biden supporters, it’s that Trump did not turn to a broader theme of promising a second term with less divisiveness, nor could he resist resorting to personal assaults. (Some things are beyond imagination).

For Biden’s partisans, Trump’s affect will count for much less than his prevarications. They will demand to know why the moderators did not fact check in real time (Spoiler Alert: It’s not their job, it’s the candidate’s job; in fact, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash did first-rate work). They will argue that Biden did better as the debate went on, provided you don’t count the closing statement, which bookended the incoherence of his first answer. Their sharpest questions however, might be directed at the team of experienced, seasoned debate prep mavens, who are now doing Google searches about the Witness Protection Program.

As for the rest of the Democratic Party, I suspect there will be even more urgent searches looking into the details of convention rules, and just how bound the delegates are.