At 9 p.m. Eastern Time on June 27 (9 a.m. Beijing Time on June 28), the first candidate debate for the 2024 U.S. presidential election was held at CNN's studio in Atlanta, Georgia. The debate lasted 90 minutes.
This debate between Biden and Trump will make history, becoming the first debate between the current president and the former president. This will also be the first time in four years that the "Biden-Trump showdown" will be staged again.
"One-on-one" "closed-door debate"
The televised debates between candidates in the US presidential election are the highlight of every US presidential election. This "one-on-one" approach is believed to have a great impact on the voting preferences of voters, especially swing and middle voters, and has always been valued by the parties involved, the two parties and political observers.
In the 2020 presidential election, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, only two televised debates ended in failure, and the two remaining "one-on-one" debates eventually turned into a farce.
The first match not only evolved from a "literary fight between gentlemen" to a "street quarrel like shrews", but both sides also competed to "grab the microphone", resulting in their opponents' speeches being interrupted repeatedly. Biden, who spoke slower, was obviously at a disadvantage facing Trump, who was a talk show host, and even uttered "Can you shut up, man?"
The second debate was postponed as the epidemic worsened, and Trump was diagnosed with the virus. When the debate opened late, the two even skipped the routine courtesy of shaking hands.
The two who stood on the debate stage this time were both at the same starting line of "lack of warm-up and practice". In the past four years, not only have they never appeared together offline, but they have also never participated in any form of political debate alone.
As the incumbent president, Biden will of course try his best to avoid debates to avoid "saying too much and making more mistakes." This presidential primary is just a "formal exercise" for the Democratic Party, just like any other primary with an incumbent president. There is no opponent, and of course no need for debate.
During the Republican primary, his competitors had already given up their efforts, leaving Trump alone, so there was no need to participate in debates.
According to the organizers, in order to avoid the embarrassment of four years ago, the host will turn off the microphone of one candidate when the other is speaking. In this way, the two will not be able to repeat the old trick of "grabbing the microphone". This will certainly make the debate smoother, but it may also make the "melon-eating crowd" lose a lot of "melons" to eat.
In addition, this debate was held behind closed doors, with no ordinary audience on site. The few who needed to stay on site for work were asked "not to make any noise."
Many insiders and observers believe that this is a manifestation of Biden’s “halo as the incumbent president” and “home advantage” (CNN is a pro-Democratic media).
It is reported that last year, at Trump's "Town Hall Forum" hosted by CNN, Trump interacted enthusiastically with the audience. The Biden campaign team witnessed the scene and feared that "our Joe" would suffer, so they solemnly made a special request to the organizer to "keep the venue quiet and behind closed doors."
This time, Trump arrived in Atlanta 4 and a half hours early. He bypassed his supporters and went straight to the event without saying a word, showing unusual solemnity.
Biden arrived about two hours earlier than Trump and was welcomed by the mayor of Atlanta and other officials, as well as a large number of local Democratic politicians including Jason Carter, grandson of former President Carter. He stopped on the way from the airport to the venue to interact with supporters who chanted "Four more years."
All of this reflects the Democratic Party’s “home” background of the first debate: Georgia is a traditional “blue state” and the organizer CNN is the “toxic media” that Trump hates.
The focus of the debate amid the back-and-forth
Polls before the debate showed that voters generally gave Trump higher scores on economic and immigration issues - these two issues happened to be the top two issues that American voters were concerned about in this election. Biden was more popular with voters on many "small items" such as abortion, health care, and the environment. It can be said that this debate was "full of gunpowder" from before it started to the official start.
The debate started on time, and the order of speaking was decided by a coin toss for the first time. Biden got the chance to speak first and chose to stand on the right side of the screen. What was not surprising was that in his first speech, Biden refuted the argument that "the US economy is not performing well" and interpreted the inflation problem that caused the most public outrage as "the sequelae of Trump's term", boasting that his government "did a good job".
Trump defended his idea of increasing tariffs, saying that this move "will only punish foreign countries that exploit the United States, but will not increase the tax burden on the United States." He accused Biden of weakening the United States' global position under his administration and boasted that "the U.S. economy and employment were the best during my administration."
Biden then fiercely criticized Trump's policy of "cutting taxes for the rich", while Trump defended his "greatest tax cut in history". When talking about health care, Biden made an obvious slip of the tongue for the first time, and then turned to criticize Trump's position and behavior on abortion.
The third round entered the stage of "catching faults". Biden accused Trump of belittling American soldiers who died in the war as "fools" and "losers", which Trump firmly denied. Biden also accused Trump of "passing the burden of unemployment to his successor." Of course, from a statistical point of view, this is not true.
In terms of international policy, Trump mentioned the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying that if elected, he would "quickly resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict in some way" before taking office. But he did not reveal what method he would use, apparently realizing that it was not appropriate to discuss the issue in depth. Biden then accused Trump of "intending to withdraw from NATO," to which Trump avoided the question.
Next, the two sides repeatedly tangled over details such as abortion, and mentioned Trump's conviction for the "hush money case". Trump chose to "counterattack" in response, not only mentioning "Biden's son was convicted", but also threatening that Biden himself "will likely be convicted of a felony as soon as he leaves office."
When the debate switched to Trump's strong point - illegal immigration, Biden showed "suspected old age syndrome" for the first time, such as shaking and closing his eyes, allowing Trump to do whatever he wanted.
It is worth noting that when Biden mentioned any field of issue, Trump always tried to get around to the immigration issue, for which he has the most support, and showed his eloquence as a former talk show host. On the other hand, although Biden defended his economic "achievements" in a clear and coherent manner, he often gave the impression of answering questions that were not asked when answering Trump's questions.
Observers have noticed that Biden and Trump have very different positions on the important issue of "America's current strength." Biden insists on the traditional proposition that "America is the most respected country in the world," while Trump says that the United States has been "destroyed." Obviously, Biden wants to show off that "my leadership ensured America's greatness," while Trump wants to remind people that "Biden's leadership destroyed America."
To this day, Trump has never admitted that he lost the 2020 election. This time, he also tried to refuse to state whether he would accept losing again, and instead accused Biden of putting the country on the path to World War III. After repeated questioning by the host, Trump said, "If this is a fair, legal, and good election."
After the debate, pro-Democrats, especially those in swing states, gave a frustrated evaluation of Biden's performance. David Plouffe, a senior Democratic campaign manager during the Obama era, believed that Biden's performance reminded people of his advanced age, which was his biggest weakness. "Obviously, both of them are old, but today Trump seemed to be 30 years younger than Biden."
But some Democrats believe that "it's not surprising that the incumbent president usually performs poorly in the first debate." Biden said confidently, "Let's move on and see you next time." But in any case, this further exposes the degree of division in American society.
Are TV debates becoming increasingly irrelevant?
Previously, many analysts have pointed out that the greatest historical significance of this debate is that it is the earliest one in contemporary American history. In the past, "face-to-face" debates always had to wait until the party primaries were officially over, but with the Democratic primary being dealt with as usual and the Republican primary having long since become a one-man show, waiting any longer would have become meaningless.
But as many election experts have stressed, holding presidential debates too early can also lead to "desensitization" to the debates. The election vote is in November, and in recent years, the attention of ordinary American voters to politics has become increasingly "fragmented." They are likely to not start paying attention to the election until the eve of the vote. In this way, for most people, the painstaking "June showdown" will be destined to become a "distant memory."
Both parties and candidates are focusing more on their respective national conventions in late summer, which makes the next debate on September 10 hosted by ABC more eye-catching. Of course, this also means that this debate becomes less important.
It is understood that the first televised debate between US presidential candidates took place in 1960, between Kennedy and Nixon. At that time, Kennedy, who was originally lagging behind in the polls, fully demonstrated his ability to debate, and eventually reversed the election situation, making the televised debate between presidential candidates more important.
But as analysts have said, this is an era of voter polarization and "locked positions," a major reshuffle of the media landscape, and "highly targeted" campaign strategies by both sides. For most listeners, the 90-minute debate is just for listening, because their voting intentions have already been determined.
Some experts point out that, in fact, only a very small and decreasing number of swing voters will decide their voting intentions based on the performance of both sides in the debate. They believe that the real key is the competition between the two teams in the days and weeks after the debate, which is the so-called "public opinion memory cycle." Those who can grab more "real space" at this opportunity may become the final winner.
