One of my favorite pieces of recurring writing was Bill Simmons’ NBA Draft diaries, which he produced for many years while at ESPN. He would document his reactions to the selections, the reactions, the telecast, and more. It was an entertaining reflection on what is one of my favorite evenings of the sports year.
So as I prepared to subject myself to yesterday’s presidential debate, I decided to try my hand at a diary of my own. If nothing else, I hoped it would make the spectacle pass a bit faster than I thought it would.
So, without further ado, here’s Debate Diary 2024.
8:00 Central: Jake Tapper and Dana Bash welcome us to Atlanta for this “historic” event, and emphasize their job is to “facilitate a debate” between President Biden and Donald Trump. One can hope, right?
8:04: Biden, after gingerly making his way to the stage, plays the hits. Scranton! Corporate greed! The Trump administration did nothing and brought chaos!
8:08: After their first exchange on the economy, Trump comes off as more confident and in control, while Biden seems frail, weak, and even sickly. Not a great start for the president.
8:11: Trump calls America a “third world nation” under Biden, citing supposed chaos at the southern border and alleging Biden has politicized the Justice Department to go after Trump. This is the first instance of Trump getting demonstrably angry, which, coincidentally, is when Trump is at his weakest.
8:12: Biden staggers toward the end of an answer, stumbling and freezing before eventually saying, “We finally beat Medicare.” Trump takes advantage in responding, “Well, he’s right — he beat it to death.” This was a pretty shocking few seconds, especially given the narrative about Biden’s health and mental acuity. This wasn’t a simple instance of misspeaking or forgetting a word. Biden looked legitimately lost.
8:14: On abortion, Trump says he agrees with the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the availability of mifepristone, and won’t target medicated abortion access in a second term. He then says the Court (bolstered by three of his justices) did what a majority of people wanted: to overturn Roe and return the issue to the states. “Now,” he says, “the states are working it out,” with Ohio and Kansas adopting liberal policies, and states like Texas taking a different tack. Trump says he supports abortion access in certain, rare instances, but paints the issue in pragmatic terms (“You have to get elected first”). He paints Democrats as “radicals” on the issue.
8:16: Biden equates giving states the final say on abortion with letting states roll back civil rights protections, before—for reasons unknown—highlighting the death of a young woman at the hand of an undocumented immigrant. Trump responds with the importance of giving states the say on abortion policy. Three cheers for federalism, folks!
8:20: Biden says, “We are not for late-term abortion — period, period, period.” Compare this to his rhetoric on abortion in the days, weeks, and months ahead, and see if this checks out.
8:21: We’re just 20 minutes in, and I’m struck by how rambling and at times incoherent Biden has been relative to Trump.
8:22: Biden defends his immigration record, reminding people of Trump’s border separation policies. But again, he completely goes off the rails at the end of his answer. Trump cooly responds: “I don’t really know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.” This is approaching “Stop the fight!” territory.
8:24: Will Trump deport every undocumented immigrant? He dodges the question, pivoting to allegedly increasing violence at the hands of illegal immigrants.
8:27: We’re talking about veterans now. Biden points his finger at Trump, saying “You’re the loser, you’re the sucker,” referencing Trump’s alleged quote. It’s getting pretty heated. Both men say they’ve done more for veterans than any president, ever.
8:32: Are Putin’s terms for ending the war in Ukraine—namely, requiring Kyiv to cede all land currently held by Russia as a result of its invasion—acceptable to Trump? “No, they’re not acceptable.” But Biden, he says, has sent far too much money to Ukraine and has encouraged the deaths of too many. Trump promises to settle the war as president-elect, before January 20. Biden calls Putin a war criminal and says we’re not sending money, but weapons (which, by the way, are made in America).
8:36: Biden unequivocally states his support for Israel in its war against Hamas, but also says bombings and airstrikes should not be so rampant in populated areas in Gaza. This highlights the tension for Biden within the Democratic Party.
8:37: Biden accuses Trump of wanting to pull out of NATO, which he says would embolden Russia and lead to nuclear war. “He has no idea what the hell he’s talking about.” On foreign policy, Biden seems to hitting his stride and projecting more confidence and competence than before.
8:39: We’ve arrived at January 6. Trump says he doesn’t think many people really think he violated his oath of office, and then spends the rest of his answer talking about how good things were on January 6, 2021, before Biden took office. Tapper presses him, and Trump says he urged for peaceful and patriotic demonstrations. Besides, he says, it’s really Nancy Pelosi’s fault.
Biden, meanwhile, paints a picture of Trump relishing the storming of the Capitol, despite the urging of Mike Pence and top Republicans in Congress. This is Biden’s strongest talking point on the subject of defending democracy, but he basically sleepwalks through it.
8:43: Trump defends many January 6 defendants, contrasting their legal troubles to the supposed lack of consequences for those responsible for unrest and violence in cities like Seattle and Portland. He’s again painting a picture of selective prosecution, something that fits his broader narrative.
8:44: “The only person on this stage who is a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now.” Biden lands the line, but so what? Is there anybody watching right now who heard that and decided not to vote for Trump? Consider me skeptical.
8:45: Tapper asks Trump how he’ll respond to his political opponents if elected. “My retribution is going to be success.” But now that we’re on the subject, he says, Joe’s son, Hunter, is a convicted felon, too! And Joe could be one before he leaves office!
8:47: Responding to Biden’s claim that Trump “has the morals of an alley cat,” Trump says, “I didn’t have sex with a porn star.” Put that on the monument, folks.
8:49: Biden is coming across as very worried about Trump’s threat to democracy, citing Trump’s goal of retribution against opponents. “This guy has no sense of American democracy.” For his part, Trump angrily, dismisses the oft-discussed Charlottesville story — “[Biden] didn’t run because of Charlottesville. He ran because it was his last chance.”
8:52: Commercial break. Thank goodness.
8:55: And we’re back. That wasn’t long enough.
8:56: Biden says his administration has done great things for Black small businesses, childcare costs in the Black community, and more. Yet he admits, “I don’t blame [Black voters] for being disappointed” with a lack of progress in other ways.
8:58: Continuing a theme from earlier, Trump says inflation is “killing” American families. He then pivots to immigration, saying people coming across the border are taking “Black jobs.” Biden says Trump is the one to blame for inflation because of his “malfeasance” on the pandemic.
9:01: Bash, to Trump: Will you take any action on climate change? Trump: Let me talk about Black people some more. Bash: Anything on the climate? Trump: “I want immaculate, clean water.” Also says “H2O” — whoa, easy there, Mr. Science.
9:06: I tuned out for a bit (look, this is exhausting), but we’re on to Social Security. Biden says we need to have wealthy people pay more to shore up on Social Security, but the most important thing to be done “is to defeat this man.”
9:08: Trump says he’s never seen anybody lie like Biden, which prompts a Biden chuckle. Trump says Biden is destroying Social Security by giving Social Security to illegal immigrants,1 and putting them up in luxury hotels while veterans sleep on the streets.2 He paints a grim picture, doesn’t he?
9:10: Biden says 159 presidential scholars voted Trump the worst president in history. But to be fair, those scholars are all huge nerds.
9:12: Trump: “If [Biden] wins this election … we probably won’t have a country anymore.” I hate this kind of language. If your vision of America is weak enough to think that the country cannot endure four years of one presidential administration, you need a serious reality check.
9:13: Biden brings us back to the survey of presidential scholars again. So glad we’re spending time on this.
9:14 Tapper, to Trump: “The question was about what you would do to make child care more affordable.” Trump responds by sayiny Biden is the worst president ever, and Trump is the best. Cool. Cool cool cool.
9:18: “President Biden, do you think the Charlotte Hornets picked French prospect Tidjane Salaun too early in last night’s NBA Draft?” Okay, so this didn’t happen, but I would have enjoyed it.
9:21: Concerning Biden’s advanced age and the responsibilities of the presidency, Biden says Trump “is three years younger and a lot less competent.” I think this is his best canned line of the evening, but it would been stronger had the debate not showcased everybody’s worst fears about Biden’s age.
9:23: Trump says he’s passed multiple cognitive tests and is an excellent golfer. Biden disparagingly comments on Trump’s physique. Trump laughs when Biden says he has a six handicap, before they go back and forth on golf resumes and Biden invites Trump to play so long as he carries his own bag. A truly inspiring exchange.
9:26: Trump says he rejects violence in response to electoral defeats, before saying he wishes Biden was a great president, because if he was then Trump wouldn’t be running but rather relaxing at one of his properties and wouldn’t be under indictment. Also, reelecting Biden will bring about World War III.
9:28: Trump says of course he’ll accept the results of November’s election, as long as it’s fair and legal. Which, and I’m speculating here, he’ll deny if he loses. Biden then calls Trump a “whiner.”
9:35: Closing arguments. It’s almost over!
9:35: Biden speaks into the camera to the American people, promising to put more money into the hands of middle class families, blaming Trump for inflation via the pandemic, and generally stumbles through the rest of his statement. Hey, at least he’s consistent.
9:37: Trump says Biden is like other politicians, who complains but doesn’t do anything. He returns to the crisis at the border, reiterates his support among veterans, and concludes by saying that while we’re a failing nation, we won’t be for long if he’s elected president again.
Thanks for indulging me. Here are six takeaways from the debate:
Biden did nothing in this debate to convince people of his mental and physical fitness to be president. He looked and sounded old and tired. In that respect, the evening couldn’t have gone worse for him.
Biden was at his (relative) best when Trump couldn’t control some of his worst impulses. When Trump makes the conversation about him rather than the country, it goes poorly for him. Even with concerns about Biden’s age and fitness, when Trump seems like a loose cannon I’m willing to bet people are more comfortable with a steady (if old) hand at the helm.
I’m surprised the men didn’t attack each other more. Yes, there were occasional back-and-forths, including about their golf prowess. But I wonder whether CNN’s decision to mute microphones was actually effective. Or maybe Trump didn’t feel sufficiently threatened by Biden to lose his cool like he did during the first debate of 2020.
Donald Trump won the debate. Notice that I’m not saying he told the truth more often (he didn’t). But by any metric of what constitutes a good performance in contemporary political debates, Trump is the clear winner.
Prior to this debate I would have said the chances of Biden not being on the ballot in November were basically zero. I tend to be skeptical of this sort of political fan-fiction. But after last night, I’m more open to the idea. He’s still the favorite, of course, but I’d be less surprised if there was a move within the Democratic Party to make a change prior to the summer’s nominating conventions.
There’s a long way to go before November, but we might be looking at last night’s debate as the moment when Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
Lastly, this week Christianity Today asked me to write about how Christians can approach political debates (like last night’s) in a faithful way. You can read my thoughts here.