The first debate between President Biden and former President Trump on Thursday night will be a true test of Americans' sense of civic duty. I basically get paid to watch; Political journalism is my job. But given the kind of embarrassing schoolyard commotion that Trump provoked between the two men in their initial meeting four years ago, it's a fair question why anyone else would tune in.
Except for dedication to good citizenship.
opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical look to the national political scene. He has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
So here we go again, paraphrasing Ronald Reagan's quote. memorable response to then-President Jimmy Carter in their 1980 debate. Don't expect edification, not when Trump is involved, but expect something anyway.
About 73 million viewers I tuned into the melee between Biden and Trump in September 2020 (not for the full 90 minutes, I'm sure) and additional viewers streamed live. the show. For perspective, that compares to about 160 million registered voters. Viewership was smaller than expected, below the 84 million who watched the first showdown between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016, and also below the number of people who watched the Carter-Reagan debate 40 years earlier.
However, as my colleague Stephen Battaglio recently wrote, presidential debates are “one of the last remaining mass audience experiences in a highly fragmented television landscape.” Six in 10 American adults said they would watch all or most of Thursday's showdown, and nearly a quarter said they would closely follow news coverage about it, according to PBS News/NPR/Marist. survey this month. Good for them. In our polarized nation, a presidential debate is a rare communal experience, though far less enjoyable than a Super Bowl.
As with the NFL championship, most viewers will come to the presidential debate rooting for one contender or another, and nothing about the spectacle in Atlanta (no lies or imbecilities from Trump, no gaffes or stumbles from Biden) will deter them from your man team. This makes the candidates' target audience the few persuadable voters. Those who will actually go to the trouble of looking at the virtually impossible to see in the hope that it will help them make a decision.
However, almost everyone will be united in their approach: What do both men look, sound and act like? Biden and Trump are the oldest people to serve as president, and each has been credibly criticized for being too old to be president again.
As stated by Republican pollster Whit Ayres put it to PBS News: “Can't Joe Biden look like a senile old man? Can't Donald Trump be an obnoxious jerk?
The answer to the first question is yes, Biden can, as evidenced by his impressive performance recently. in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and months before in his fighter State of the Union. He desperately needs to look and sound presidential again, to a much broader audience of voters who, by definition, are politically engaged. But he also needs that fight, not to give everything he gets from Trump (who would want that?), but to counterattack sparingly and strategically in ways that underscore Trump's inanity. For example, Biden's 2020 quip: “Will you shut up, man?” He spoke for so many millions of us that night.
The answer to the second question is no, Trump can't be anything but unpleasant. However, for his own electoral sake, he should really try. CNN's debate rules lend a hand: Given Trump's penchant for the kind of continuous interruptions and insults that nearly ruined the 2020 debate, CNN will cut off both candidates' microphones when it's not their time to speak. And there will be no studio audience for the performative Trump to perform.
Maybe that's why he started calling it “false debate.” The rest of us can expect it to be closer to the real thing, with less theatrics, lies and meddling, a confrontation a high school debate coach might recognize.
Except for this: The degree to which viewers' emphasis will be on the two candidates' style over substance will be unprecedented in the history of presidential debates, especially in the 64 years they have been televised. (Possible spoiler, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., fortunately, failed make the cut for the CNN-sponsored debate; the conspirator has not yet qualified for the votes of enough states).
Emphasizing style over substance is perhaps inevitable, and even important, when such old men seek re-election as leaders of the free world. But it is not a good thing at a time when so many issues of concern to the nation demand substantive policy responses.
Take the existential threat of climate change, for example. As Biden and Trump prepare for the debate, much of the country is enduring deadly record heat, along with the wildfires and intense storms that have become common on our warming planet. Biden is implementing the most ambitious clean energy agenda in history and Trump has vowed to repeal it. That dichotomy deserves probing questions from CNN moderators and our attention to the answers.
And what about the continued threats to reproductive rights following the Dobbs decision that Trump's Supreme Court justices made possible? The debate will occur three days after the second anniversary of that ruling. Or the unsustainable growth of the national debt, to which both Biden and Trump contributed? Or the current chaos in the country's immigration system, which was also a big problem during Trump's administration, despite his false revisionism about how well controlled the southern border was back then.
The candidates are likely to respond with more heat than light, especially the policy-phobic Trump. However, his advisors Project 2025 The plan is packed with sweeping, detailed policies to gut the civil service, repeal environmental laws, impose mass deportations that would shake the economy, and defund or close entire government departments, should he return to office. Trump must be held accountable for these dangerous ideas, whether by the moderators, Biden, or both.
If everyone who says they will pay attention does, Americans will have passed the test of civic duty. We can expect candidates to approve of theirs and commit more than gaffes and complaints. Unfortunately, there is nothing in Trump's dismal rhetorical record to suggest he will rise to the occasion. However, that would also be informative. Stay tuned.
@jackiekcalmes
