A debate between incumbent Democratic US President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump was held on June 27, 2024, hosted by CNN. It was the first debate of that year's presidential election. Throughout the debate, Biden spoke incoherently and repeatedly appeared to lose his train of thought. His poor performance was seen to confirm the assertion, frequently made by Trump, that Biden was too old and frail to serve a second term as president, and led directly to his decision to withdraw from the presidential race in less than one month later.
During the days and weeks following the debate, Biden and his campaign sought to reassure the Democratic Party and the general public that his performance was not representative of age-related decline. He gave several interviews and a press conference, which members of the press had previously criticized him for avoiding. However, these efforts did not succeed in persuading both senior and rank-and-file members of his party to support him. In particular, former Speaker of the HouseNancy Pelosi is believed to have played a significant role in persuading him that his position had become untenable. On July 21, Biden formally withdrew from the race and immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to stand in his place as the party's presidential nominee, with Tim Walz replaced Harris herself as the party's vice presidential nominee; they would go on to lose to the Trump–Vance ticket in the general election.
Prelude
Leading up to the debate, there were concerns that both Biden and Trump might refuse to participate in any debates at all. Trump chose not to appear at a scheduled debate during the 2020 general election, in addition to any of the 2024 Republican primary debates.[3] The DNC did not support hosting any official debates, and Biden did not participate in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums unsanctioned by the DNC.[4][5] In April, most of the United States' major news organizations jointly drafted a letter to the Biden and Trump campaigns urging them to participate.[6][b] On May 15, Biden and Trump agreed to debate on June 27 with CNN and again on September 10 with ABC News.[7] The arrangement did not include the Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit corporation that had sponsored debates for every presidential election since 1988.[8]
In the months prior to the debate, Trump sought to raise expectations for the debate, saying Biden was the "worst debater I have ever faced; he can't put two sentences together" and criticized his performance in the latest State of the Union address. However, in the days before the debate, Trump backtracked, saying "I'm not underestimating him... I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater."[9]
Qualifications
Although Trump claimed to have no objection to the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. participating in the debate,[10] the Trump campaign was later reported to have received "assurances" that Kennedy would not be invited.[11] The Biden campaign opposed Kennedy's inclusion.[10] On May 29, Kennedy filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Biden and Trump campaigns colluded to prevent him from appearing at the debate.[12]
The qualification criteria that were adopted for the June 27 CNN debate required participants to:[13]
Appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College
Agree to the rules of the debate
Reach at least 15% support in four national public opinion polls selected by CNN between March 13 and June 20, 2024.
17 polls met CNN's criteria, with Biden and Trump meeting the 15% threshold in every poll while Kennedy met the threshold in three, peaking at 16%. Both Justice For All Party candidate Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein peaked at 4% support, and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver peaked at 1% support. No other candidate was included in any qualifying polls.[14] Kennedy also did not meet the ballot requirement, having been confirmed in only five states at the time of the debate.[15]
The Biden campaign hired Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff, to assist him in debating Trump; Klain helped Biden during the 2020 presidential debates.[44] White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed collected material on policy contrasts with Trump.[45] Biden engaged in preparations at Camp David, arriving on the night of June 20 and remaining there nearly until the debate.[46] Biden was exhausted from traveling before the debate and needed to take naps during the debate preparations.[47]
According to political advisor Marc Lotter, Trump "views his rallies as debate prep" and engaged with limited debate preparation. The Trump campaign did not appoint a Biden stand-in for Trump to debate.[45] At a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, Trump suggested Biden would be a formidable opponent, alleging Biden would be on cocaine and that the moderators would assist him.[48]
The debate was streamed or broadcast by most major U.S. news organizations.[49][50] In contrast to previous debates, CNN did not allow reporters into the studio while the debate was occurring, instead requiring them to watch footage from McCamish Pavilion.[51] The decision was criticized by the White House Correspondents' Association, with its president Kelly O'Donnell stating that the lack of press access "diminishes a core principle of presidential coverage".[52]
The debate ran for 90 minutes,[1] with no audience members present. Trump's and Biden's microphones were only turned on when it was their turn to speak (in response to the events of the September 29, 2020 presidential debate).[53] Debate rules written by CNN allocated two minutes for answering the question posed by the moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, and one minute for rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals.[45] The primary issues of the debate were immigration, the economy and inflation, abortion, foreign policy and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, legal issues of the participants, Social Security, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the participants' ages.[54]
Debate
Biden's stiff gait and body language throughout the debate was noted by observers,[55][56][57] as were his hoarse, weak voice[55] and his tendency to stare into the distance with his mouth open as Trump was speaking.[58][59][60] Media sources also described him as frequently losing his train of thought and giving meandering answers, with many citing his "We finally beat Medicare" response to a question on the national debt as emblematic of this.[61][62][63]
The moderators asked 20 questions, excluding the closing. Four questions centered on the economy, four on democracy, three on foreign policy, two on immigration, two on abortion, and one each for climate change, age, opioids, race, and tax reform.[64] Moderator Jake Tapper began the debate with inflation figures.[65] Biden attributed the state of the economy to Trump's presidency.[66][55] Trump rebutted by claiming he built the "greatest economy in the history of our country" before the COVID-19 pandemic.[67] Trump claimed that Biden supported the job growth of illegal immigrants,[68] defending his ten percent tariff,[69] and criticized the 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.[70] He argued that Biden began his term with successes from the Trump presidency, but chose to implement negative reform.[71] After a question regarding the national debt, Biden trailed off and appeared to lose his train of thought, saying: "Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to deal with ... the COVID ... Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with ... look ... if we finally beat Medicare."[72][73] While Trump was talking, Biden often stared unblinking into the distance with his mouth agape.[60][63] On illegal border crossings, Biden said, "I'm going to continue to move until we get to total ban — on the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers." 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."[74][75] At one point, Trump and Biden briefly had an argument over golfing abilities during a question regarding their fitness as president due to age.[76]
Trump spoke more than Biden in the debate, with CNN reporting the former to have spoken 40 minutes and 12 seconds, and the latter 35 minutes and 41 seconds.[77] Trump went off topic about 50% of the time, while Biden went off topic about 30% of the time during the debate.[64] During the debate, Trump and Biden used personal attacks against each other.[78] Trump used the word "Palestinian" as a slur to attack Biden, calling him a "very bad Palestinian."[79] NBC News found that Trump made 106 attacks during the debate, while Biden made 72.[64]
Fact-checking
The moderators did not fact check the candidates.[80] News organizations published articles after the debate documenting the truthfulness of the candidates' claims, finding that Trump made more exaggerated and false statements, while Biden had incorrectly cited information. The New York Times called Trump's statements "often fact-free and absurdly hyperbolic."[81] However, some fact-checkers also noted that Trump's dishonesty was likely to be overshadowed by Biden's poor performance.[80] Numerous news outlets also mentioned lies and falsehoods,[k] and fact-checked the candidates.[86]
Glenn Kessler, fact-checker for The Washington Post, summarized "35 of the most noteworthy claims that initially caught our interest", claims which he analyzed in depth.[86]FactCheck.org summarized its coverage of the many false and inaccurate claims made by the candidates, which were also analyzed.[87] The Associated Press also analyzed a number of false claims.[88]
CNN reported that 47.9 million people watched the first debate, down from 73 million viewers during the first 2020 presidential debate. Nielsen Media Research later reported the number of viewers at 51.3 million;[89] this does not include individuals who watched the debate through social media, streaming services, or listened through radio.[90]
Polls from CNN,[102]YouGov[103] and Ipsos and FiveThirtyEight found that most viewers thought Trump had won the debate, although it did not significantly change support for either candidate, with Biden only losing a small amount of support.[104]Amy Walter, the editor of The Cook Political Report, said that while Biden's poor performance stunned "Democratic elite types", many voters had already "priced this in".[99] According to Crowdtangle, "most of the top 10 most-liked posts on Instagram about the debate were either pretty neutral or emphasized how bad it was for both campaigns....And on TikTok, there was also a universal vibe that both candidates, not just Biden, were less than ideal for the moment."[105] Nevertheless, a poll by Morning Consult released on June 28 indicated that 60% of voters were in favor of replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee.[106]
Debate winner
Outlet
Trump
Biden
Not sure
CNN
67%
33%
YouGov
43%
22%
35%
Ipsos/538
60%
21%
19%
In the aftermath of the debate, the Biden campaign was flooded with requests for comment. The Trump campaign received only a few media requests the next morning, as reporters continued focusing on Biden.[107] "No one was more shocked at Biden's performance than Donald Trump", an advisor told the Washington Post. Trump reportedly told aides that he could not even look at Biden.[108] There was also heavy criticism of Biden's performance by some Democrats, with one Democratic strategist dubbing it a "disaster".[77][109] Several political analysts, including Susan Glasser,[84]Tim Miller[110] and Jeff Greenfield,[93] described it as the worst televised presidential debate ever, with Biden's weak performance overshadowing Trump's falsehoods. Several congressional Democrats thought that Biden "didn't even clear the lowest bar", and that Biden was not even able to articulate what his policies are even if they agreed on them.[111]
After being deemed ineligible, Kennedy counterprogrammed the debate with a campaign event from Los Angeles dubbed "The Real Debate", moderated by John Stossel, in which he provided his own responses to the questions that were posed to Biden and Trump during the actual debate. The event was live streamed on Rumble and X; on X, Kennedy's stream began with roughly 618,000 viewers, and peaked at over five million.[112][113][114]
Biden campaign's response
"I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious. I don't walk as easily as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done. And I know like millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up."
—Joe Biden, responding to criticism of his debate performance during a speech in North Carolina the following day (June 28, 2024).[115]
The Biden campaign attempted to explain Biden's poor performance by saying he had a cold.[60] He had been administered a COVID-19 test during his stay at Camp David, which was negative.[85] Biden attended a debate watch party shortly after the debate, where he reportedly energetically thanked his supporters.[111]
President Biden remarked to reporters at a Waffle House after the debate: "I think we did well" and said he did not have any concerns about his performance or calls for him to drop out of the presidential race, stating that it was difficult to debate "a liar."[82] Biden's running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden's campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon both defended Biden.[116][117]
The day after the debate, Biden admitted that his debate performance had been weak,[118][119]Time magazine reported that panic spread, "throughout the Democratic Party from top to bottom during the debate."[120] Biden spoke about his debate performance on July 2, blaming it on fatigue from "foreign travel".[121]
Democratic Party response
Several prominent Democrats, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, initially rallied behind Biden, and resisted calls for him to step down due to one "bad debate."[122] Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who had a similarly weak debate performance in his 2022 election, told fellow Democrats to "Chill the fuck out", stating that he refused to join the "Democratic vultures on Biden's shoulder".[123]
Other associates of Biden were more critical. Biden's 2020 campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said that there was no way to interpret his debate performance as good, while political consultant David Axelrod noted that it "confirmed people's fears" about Biden's age.[124] Democratic strategist Van Jones said that Biden had failed a test to restore the confidence of the country, and that the reaction for many supporters was "not just panic, it's pain".[83] Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro called the results of the debate "completely predictable", and that Biden failed to clear a very low bar by seeming unprepared, lost, and not strong enough to resist Trump's attacks or lies.[83]
Because of the debate's unusually early schedule, Congress was still in session. Reporters swarmed Democratic members, asking them to comment on Biden's performance. About half avoided commenting. Tom Suozzi of New York even boarded an elevator going in the wrong direction to avoid being questioned, and another representative allegedly faked a phone call. Others acknowledged that Biden performed poorly but still endorsed him. A small number of congressional representatives, notably Jared Huffman of California and Greg Landsman of Ohio, publicly said they were unsure whether Biden should continue to be the nominee.[125] Others, such as Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, stated they believed that Biden could not win the election, but believed it was too late to replace him as nominee.[126][127]
In the days following the debate, Democrats serving in Congress or as governors mostly refrained from explicitly calling for Biden to withdraw, fearing to harm Biden's chances of winning the election if he ended up remaining the nominee.[128] However, there were almost immediate calls from Democratic party strategists, commentators and donors for Biden to step aside.[129] The editorial boards of several newspapers, including The New York Times and The Economist, also published editorials urging him to do so.[130][131] Despite having been a long-time financial supporter of Biden, on July 1 philanthropist and former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson said: "If the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden right now, it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has almost no chance of beating Trump."[132][133]
On July 2, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to publicly call for Biden to step aside as the party's nominee.[134] On July 7, four more House Democrats called for Biden to exit the race during a private call: Adam Smith of Washintgon, Jerry Nadler of New York, Mark Takano of California, and Joe Morelle of New York.[135][136]
Biden stated in an ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos on July 5 that he would not end his candidacy[137] unless "the Lord Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, get out of the race,'" adding "The Lord Almighty’s not coming down."[138] The president again refused to drop out on July 8. That day Biden appeared on Morning Joe on MSNBC by telephone, advising the "elites in the party" against his nomination to "run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention". He sent a letter to Congressional Democrats before Morning Joe explaining his decision, stating that "The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it's time for it to end".[139] In an attempt to show voters and Democratic politicians that he was capable of facing Donald Trump in the 2024 election, he held a solo press conference on July 11, 2024, following the NATO2024 Washington summit.[140]
On August 3, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Democratic Party presidential primary challengerRepresentativeDean Phillips said, “If people write anything, I just hope that they might write if [Biden] had debated me then and he had been on one stage, unscripted, with a national audience, and he demonstrated that decline then, this would have been very different circumstances.” He continued, “And that’s what I was trying to do.”[142]
International
Chinese journalist and former Global Times editor Hu Xijin said the debate was "very entertaining for many Chinese people".[143] The debate was a trending topic on microblogging website Weibo, where users noted Biden's age. Trump's tie was compared to the red scarves worn by young communist revolutionaries; Trump has been referred to as a "nation-builder" (建国) in China due to a belief among Chinese people that he allowed China to ascend in global affairs.[144] Israeli newspaper Haaretz and British tabloid The Sun criticized Biden's performance, and statements made by German politician Norbert Röttgen and former British ambassador to the United States Kim Darroch also expressed concern.[143] Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski commented on X that Biden should now manage a succession plan.[145] Many European allies were extremely concerned with the debate, while Russian state media mocked Biden's performance.[145]
Notes
↑ Both Biden and Trump were participating in the debate as presumptive nominees for their parties. Biden would withdraw his candidacy following the debate
↑ Some news outlets included the following four states in Oliver's total which are not included here for the following reasons: Two state party affiliates rejected Oliver as the party's nominee
↑ The Kennedy campaign also claimed they were certified for the ballot in two other states, but these claims were not verified by independent media outlets:[24]
1 2 Kashinsky, Lisa; Cancryn, Adam; Daniels, Eugene (June 28, 2024). "Dems freak out over Biden's debate performance: 'Biden is toast'". Politico. Archived from the original on June 28, 2024. Retrieved July 20, 2024. And when he wasn't speaking, he stood frozen behind his podium, mouth agape, his eyes wide and unblinking for long stretches of time.
↑ Rogers, Katie (June 27, 2024). "Six Takeaways From the First Biden-Trump Presidential Debate". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 28, 2024. Retrieved June 27, 2024. President Biden has clearly been practicing at condensing his message. He is very hoarse and is answering a question on the economy very quickly, essentially blaming the state of the economy on Trump's tenure.
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