During a clash over immigration, Biden stammered through some words while expressing his support for tougher border laws, to which Trump responded: ‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.’ NBC News (Debate Takeaways)
After Thursday’s presidential debate, who knows how Democrats will deal with Joe Biden? On the other hand, everybody now knows he’s too slow-witted to be America’s president. He was that bad. Remember, Biden’s handlers proposed this debate to show voters how fit-for-duty the President was – only to show America (and it’s adversaries) what the White House and its media allies have been hiding from we the people for the last forty-two months.
The octogenarian’s lips quivered whenever he forgot his talking points (a lot), and there were gaffes galore: “We created 15,000 new jobs…we finally beat Medicare…we have a thousand trillionaires in America”. The National Review wrote, “President Joe Biden looked old and disoriented during Thursday’s CNN debate.” Even former Biden aide Kate Bedingfield acknowledged the “really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden.”
Putting the debate into context, Biden was up 10 points nationally over Trump at this point in 2020. So, narrowly trailing Trump nationally – and widely in most battleground states – his campaign asked for a June debate on friendly CNN and specified the conditions to favor Biden. Nice concept, except 67% of debate watchers said Trump performed better than Biden (source: SSRS flash survey).
Check out the RCP betting averages to see the debate’s long-term damage to Biden. Trump had a 16-point lead over Biden on May 30, which dropped to 9.5 points after Trump’s June 1 guilty verdict, recovered to 19.2 points on June 19, and soared after Biden’s debate flop – Trump now leads Biden 54.8 to 22. No wonder Democrat pols and donors are in a panic.
The President’s worst case scenario – resigning his candidacy – is the buzz on liberal media; from MSNBC (“Democrats approaching panic levels”) to the New York Times (“the greatest public service [Biden] can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election”). Not so fast, because party rules essentially prohibit changing horses in midstream without Biden’s consent. He’s sworn off stepping down, and no “party savior” is going to be much better.
Kamala Harris polls worse than Biden. Governors Newsom (CA) and Whitmer (MI) are unknown nationally. Appointing Michelle Obama would just prove how un-democratic the Democrat Party has become. After telling swing voters Trump’s a “threat to our democracy” non-stop for two years, some cabal cannot dismiss primary results, coerce Biden to withdraw, appoint Obama’s spouse, and expect to win in November – and why is that?
One, Trump’s “favorability” has climbed in the polls, from 36.6% right after the 2022 midterms to 46% right after Thursday’s debate. That rise just happens to mirror the fall in voter interest in January 6; a shift corroborated by left-leaning Quinnipiac’s post-debate poll that found voter support for Trump just one point shy of 50%. I’m not the only voter to observe subtle changes in Trump; like the emotional patience on display Thursday night.
Biden was the “unhinged” old man yelling across the stage: “you’re the loser…you’re the sucker.” Sure, Trump gave fact-checkers some fodder, but the former president’s alternate facts and exaggerated numbers are no longer breaking news in America – except on MSNBC and The View.
Two, real evidence of the Great Democrat Deception has been snowballing since Trump left office, and Biden put a cherry on top with a reckless on-stage lie: “by the way, the Border Patrol endorsed me.” That false clam was debunked mid-debate by a tweet from the Customs and Border Protection Union: “To be clear, we never have and never will endorse Biden.” Debunked without Trump saying a word.
It was the FEC settlement and fine that debunked the Clinton Campaign’s 2016 Russia Collusion scheme. It was the FBI that debunked the Biden campaign’s 2020 Russian Disinformation Letter. It was the DOJ that debunked White House claims of Biden’s mental and physical prowess, when Robert Hur testified under oath in Congress that the President was such an “elderly man with a poor memory,” sympathetic jurors would not find him guilty of mishandling classified government documents.
Three, the Democrats around that “elderly man with a poor memory” every day did not insist on open primaries with live debates, robbing rank-and-file Democrats of their rights to inclusion and visibility. A reckless decision that blew up in their faces when party donors watched Biden self-destruct Thursday. Now, Democrat fat cats are threatening to withhold funds until the party dumps the President.
Four, President Biden has engaged the US in two proxy wars, meaning America’s national security leadership is around that “elderly man with a poor memory” every day. Yet, not a peep to Congress or leak to the press while the country they’re sworn to defend is on the brink of world war? Maybe that loyalty emboldened him into this self-serving false claim:
“I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any — this decade — that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like [Trump] did.”
Fact check: According to DCAS, 13 troops died in Kabul, and 1,009 US military died in 2021. And Biden’s the ONLY president to serve in this decade
Five, ahead in the polls, the debate was Trump’s to lose, and he did just enough to win. On the other hand, Biden needed to showcase his vitality for 90 minutes, and he did everything wrong but keel over on live TV. The SSRS flash poll – with 67% saying Trump won the debate – was the first metric. The second was Saturday’s EPIC/MRA poll from Michigan, a battleground state with 16 electoral votes.
Trump now leads Biden with Michigan voters 49% to 45%, meaning the President has dropped 12 points in the state since June 30, 2020, including a 2-point drop after the debate. I expect that post-debate drop to continue for Biden across swing states well into July. He was that bad.