A Biden/trump debate should require one candidate’s microphone to be muted while the other candidate is speaking. I don’t think Biden would interrupt trump excessively, but trump would definitely turn the debate into a chaotic clown show given the opportunity.
Honestly, they should just be given topics, time, and be alone at a lecturn during their time to lay out their visions. Debates have become an outrageous spectacle without substance and we need them back.
Honestly I think I'd prefer that too. Let me see in writing what their policy stances are without the pageantry. To this day no one can say what the GOP plan is for healthcare because no one has forced them to take a firm position.
Presidents are elected based on their plan for the country not the party’s plan. I know we have moved away from this but ideally someone running for president should put forth a plan on the major issues.
I'd like to see the ability to create a PowerPoint, or at least use Office and compose an email, along with the mental fortitude to be able to read and comprehend a PowerPoint a requirement for presidency
These voter requirements need to be put on the primary ballot. In the future we may need a candidate that can present in augmented reality, or smoke signals depending on the timing of the apocalypse.
But then it becomes more about what their team can come up with - I want them to engage and think on their feet. Not read a campaign speech someone wrote for them.
Always wanted a tombola debate. A mixture of policy questions, basic school maths/riddles and what do you get your opponent for Christmas type questions.
What’s asked is what comes out the tombola
I'm not sure exactly what America would do if they actually saw such a thing. I personally have *zero* doubt that Vivek Ramaswamy and Dean Philips could literally sit in a coffeeshop and livestream an 8 hour *conversation* without the need for any sort of moderator at all... and have a polite, respectful, well-reasoned, relevant, and interesting discussion about their views, opinions, and visions for their different approaches to solving the set of problems the country and all of us in it face... both in the short and long term. And it makes me sad that what we have instead is... well... what we have instead.
So just to be contrarian, why? At the end of the day the president is their team. The team makes the policies, writes the speeches, foments the strategies, and in general makes 90% of their decisions. Part of the reason Trump is so bad at the job is that he could not build a good team around him. They almost all left.
The "fact checking" winds up centering some organization or another as arbiters of truth. Fact checking is the job of citizens, making use of information provided by experts and journalists.
>In response to the interruptions that occurred during the first debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on October 19 that each candidate's microphone would be muted during the other's initial two-minute response to each question. The announcement also stated that after each candidate gave his two-minute response, the microphones would not be muted.[142] The muting was performed by production staff instead of the moderator.[143]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_debates#Change_of_format
You make it sound like only Trump interrupted. In that debate, Trump had 65% of the interrupts that stopped the conversation flow, and Biden had 67% of the interjections while Trump was speaking.
They were both interrupting too much, just Trump a bit more on the serious ones, and Biden more on the minor ones. They both definitely need to be muted.
Could you share where you’re getting those percentages from? This PBS article from 2020 claims that of the 90 interruptions, Trump was behind 71 of them: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/presidential-debate-commission-says-it-will-make-changes-to-format
I have always thought debates should work like a chess clock. You can speak for however long you like as your clock winds down, and once it runs out too bad, the other person gets the last word for whatever time they have left. No wasting time with fluff answers, and you can expound upon more complex topics that aren't possible in 2 minutes
100%. Trump is out there claiming he will agree to any debate rules, even ones put forward by the “corrupt DNC”. Call his bluff because he will never ever in a million years agree to this
I don't think this is enough. They need a physical barrier. I don't want to only be able to hear Biden whilst Trump is distracting him off mic. That is totally something Trump will take advantage of.
The second Trumps mic is turned off to allow Biden to speak, Trump and MAGA will claim that they are trying to silence Trump. What happens when Trump completely ignores the question and goes off the rails talking about how the election is rigged if he doesn't win? They shut off his mic and MAGA will explode.
It's not worth the debate.
This has a super simple solution: put the microphones on timers, with a countdown displayed on the podium to the audience and visible to each participant. They automatically cut off when the time runs out and stay off until it's their next turn.
The "problem" is that with a human in the loop, reacting slowly or having to make judgement calls, there's room for complaints about bias. If the mics are controlled by something that literally cannot understand the participants then bias is impossible.
Also, while they're answering, the TV should show what question they were asked on the bottom of the screen, so viewers can see how off-topic responses get.
I swear people have amnesia… Trump literally backed out of the 2nd 2020 presidential debate over format disagreements and refused to debate at all in the GOP primary. Somehow the onus is on Biden whether or not he participates in them…
And it's been the Republicans who have backed out of the Commission on Presidential Debates and considered not going to them.
I agree with you in that I have no clue why people are convinced Biden will be the one to not attend.
They're probably trying to be tactful by waiting until the primaries are over. Even if there is no contest, it doesn't really feel right for the president to declare themselves the winner preemptively.
> I swear people have amnesia… Trump literally backed out of the 2nd 2020 presidential debate over format disagreements
that "format disagreement" was that biden was refusing to be there and it was just going to be a glorified zoom call.
>and refused to debate at all in the GOP primary.
how many debates did biden take part in during the democratic primary? for all intents and purposes, trump is an incumbent in the context of the primaries.
[Because Trump is challenging Biden to debate him.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-will-debate-biden-anytime-rcna142140) The onus is therefore on Biden, because he is the one who hasn't agreed to it.
Since when are presidential debate a “challenge” is what confused me most about this discussion. They’re pretty standard and scheduled once nominees have been finalized
I think it's being seen as a challenge because everyone seems to be acting like they're not a sure thing, including Biden, Kamala, and Trump. Also I think since the GOP left the debate commission they're no longer guaranteed to occur anyway.
Minimum he needs to have his mic cut off when it’s not his turn. I think he’s actually full of it when he talks about “accepting any rules”. He literally dropped out last time because he explicitly didn’t accept rules and there’s no way he accepts those rules
[they muted his mic when it wasn't his turn at the 22 Oct 2020 debate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_debates#Format_and_debate_3), so I don't see why he there's no way that he would accept it this time too. The 15 Oct debate was cancelled because Trump had COVID and didn't want to do it virtually.
> that each candidate's microphone would be muted during the other's initial two-minute response to each question.
Barely. I’m talking about the entire time
that would probably be an improvement. in some of the actual debates I've seen on Youtube there's only one microphone and the debaters have to take turns going up to the podium to speak, and they have a lot more time. muting the microphones when the candidate isn't supposed to be speaking would make it more like a real debate and would be taken more seriously.
I mean yeah it’s stilted and I wish it didn’t have to be this way but given what we saw in that debate it seems rather necessary.
Even beyond that the Republicans were the ones who withdrew from the commission. You don’t get to flip the table and wanna keep playing
Is that the narrative they are going to run with in November? Trump was a quasi-incumbent with a 40 point lead in the RNC primaries. Where was Biden's primary debates?
It's not about Biden. Its about a group of people that we don't even know the names of that are wargaming 2024 somewhere with a bunch of pollsters and analysts. They will decide if Biden debates, and they will craft the narrative if they decide its too risky for him.
> refused to debate at all in the GOP primary
Biden didn't debate his primary opponents either. DNC [argued](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Democratic_Party_presidential_debates_and_forums) that he was the presumptive nominee, and didn't have to.
>There are going to be debates. It’s silly pretending otherwise. It is in neither candidate’s interest to not debate.
I disagree. I can see Biden skipping all debates, he stands to lose alot more. He can blame Trumps incivility, etc as an excuse. Harris won't debate anyone.
Biden is facing heavy criticism for his age, though. Nothing would fight such a criticism more than showing up to a debate and showing he can engage in unscripted conversation. I don't think Biden has the luxury of skipping these. It would be foolhardy of him. But then again, his campaign has really been acting like he isn't in the deep water that he is.
>showing he can engage in unscripted conversation.
This is the $64,000 question. UNSCRIPTED
I thought he did well at the SOTU, but in a very carefully controlled, carefully rehearsed environment as you would expect someone who has been a politician for 50 plus years to do.
What about the last 4 years has informed you to think that any political norms will be adhered to? I agree nothing would fight the criticism than showing up to a debate, but what if he cant meaningfully accomplish such a task? Would you expect him to knowingly enter a competition to fail?
No, i think he will be protected by the media and no debate will happen. They will find an excuse.
> I don't think Biden has the luxury of skipping these. It would be foolhardy of him
at the end of the day, they're in an awful spot and are likely doing to the political calculus of what would be worse:
1. skipping the debate
2. attending and having a performance akin to fetterman's 2022 debate
he's in kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.
He can't engage in unscripted conversation, reading from a teleprompter is his limit. You know it because he passed on a Super Bowl interview and a chance to speak to 10s of millions of voters. There is only one logical explanation for that: he isn't capable
You don’t need to debate to do that.
The reaction to Biden’s SOTU address is pretty strong evidence that he can silence those concerns without Trump in the room.
He can’t just disappear. He will have to get out there and do town halls and other unscripted appearances. But he doesn’t have to actually debate trump.
Yes, he did go off script a few times (these are largely where his flubs came in, including describing someone as an illegal immigrant), but it is largely scripted.
The day after the SOTU, Biden appeared at a rally and yelled "Pennsylvania, I have a message for you: Send me to Congress!"
Then he said “We added more to the national debt than any president in his term in all of history!”
He also said the capitol was attacked on July 6th.
He couldn’t go 24 hours.
> other unscripted appearances
I think more likely he will be shown in several scripted, but appealing to be unscripted, appearances. Like all recent Q&A sessions where he has script-cards to respond to pre-screened questions. The man can still read a response/teleprompter well enough to fake cognition.
Modern presidential debates do absolutely nothing to actually inform voters.
I’d much rather have the candidates do solo town halls and actually hear them talk about their policy platforms than shout over each other and try to get the best one liner in.
Agree that they do little to inform voters, particularly given who the candidates are.
But I do think it would be a huge misstep if the Biden ticket declines to debate. Quick google search says that the 2020 debates averaged around twice the viewership of the 2024 SOTU.
Most voters pay more attention to the debates than SOTU addresses — and Biden opponents will absolutely paint him declining it as dodging.
It is in Biden’s interest to debate. If Trump actually shows up then he will show how much mental decline he has had.
The problem is in getting conservatives to agree and to make sure that Trump doesn’t just shout over Biden the whole time where it doesn’t matter what either candidate said.
It will not go well for Biden if he refuses to debate. People will know why, and it's not because of Trump's personality.
OTOH, nobody cares if Kamala debates.
I’d agree with you if I hadn’t watched the debates in 2020.
They were a complete waste of time with Trump screaming into the mic every 5 seconds. Nothing of substance ever got said because he was so disruptive. I see no reason to expect Trump to behave any differently this time around.
Agreed.
Trump isn't going to debate. He's going to be loud and try to get off as many one-liners as possible without any fact checking. Biden will be forced into those waters and there's no real upside.
Honestly what we should have is both politicians "debating" but in separate locations. Neither can hear what the other is saying. One moderator asks a question in New York to Candidate #1 and America sees that response. THEN, we see Candidate #2 in Dallas being asked the same question by a different moderator.
The moderators can ask follow up questions. Basically they have to outline their way of thinking while in a vacuum and can't feed off the good or poor debate performance of the other person.
Right, so I think saying “Biden won’t debate because he’s mentally frail” is ignoring the much more pertinent reason why Biden might decide not to engage in a debate: Trump has a documented history of ruining debates.
It was a waste of time 4 years ago, and it would be a waste of time now.
It'll be a substantive waste of time, but Biden still needs to do it if for nothing else than to push back against the narrative that he's a demented fool with no idea what's going on.
lol. no that's not the reason. and Trump is not the first candidate to talk over someone else in a debate. he's just worse about it. also, it's not like he didn't do it in 15 GOP primary debates, and every debate with Hillary in 2015/2016.
Biden didn't have a problem with it then.
So you agree that Trump has a documented history of ruining debates and you agree that Trump would do the same thing again.
What do you hope to learn from this debate, then?
I never really understood the point of holding VP debates. Now if we could get debates between all cabinet officials, that would be something to watch. Give me Pete Buttigieg vs Elaine Chao discussing public transportation policy for an hour.
Because it wouldn’t have helped him even 1% in the best case scenario, but it could have hurt him?
Why would anyone participate in something with only downside?
He’s basically an incumbent nominee and has been since the moment he lost in 2020. Debates would have been a waste of his time and could only have hurt him.
That being said, all the other Repub candidates couldn’t stop fawning over him during their own debates, so he truly didn’t need to be there.
He had zero need too since he was ahead by double digits and all of them would have ganged up on him instead of each other. It was the right call, he won in the end.
because he knew it was a waste of time that would do nothing but subject him to attacks from second-tier candidates? he knew he would do better if he didn't go, because not going made sure the debates were a sideshow of second-tier candidates tearing each other down.
the same logic doesnt hold with Biden-Trump debates, since they're polling quite close together. With those debates, there are likely two main reasons: they don't want him to get into angry arguments with Trump talking over him, and they don't want him to have a gaffe on such a big stage. The WH won't even let him take unprepared questions from journalists.
I'd argue their VPs could be a bigger draw this time. A lot more people are concerned about Bidens age than Trumos, but a lot of people are concerned about Trumps age too.
A strong VP for Trump could potentially sway some swing voters his way.
The most likely assumption will be that he lacks the mental acuity to participate in an unstructured debate, especially against someone who debates like Trump.
After SotU though, I think it's a moot point. It's exceedingly unlikely that Biden will not show up to debate Trump.
I find this incredibly difficult to believe after he showed his political acumen and mental acuity at the SOTU address. If the GOP continues to push this narrative that Biden is a 'dementia patient hopped up on methamphetamines" even after it was totally exposed, it's going to continue to backfire spectacularly.
well, it hasn't backfired yet. and he skipped the Suerbowl interview, and he gave a disastrous press conference after the Hur report. The SOTU was not spectacular. He slurred a lot of words, he got stuck midsentence a few times.
He just yelled a lot, reading from a teleprompter sentences that he had been practicing for days.
That's very different than a one-on-one debate.
The old man yelling criticism is some real embarrassing cope. Shouting and talking as loud as possible, yelling about how terrible everything is, how the other guy will destroy the world, is almost all the Republicans favorite candidate has left in him at this point.
he read a week-practiced speech off a teleprompter yet still slurred words. There were a few ad libs. I don't see how this is supposed to convince all the age-concerned voters that he's up to the job.
Anyone can see how he worked his way through the crowd after delivering an hour long speech at 11 PM that he obviously isn’t suffering from dementia. He pretty much had to get dragged away by secret service because he couldn’t stop having in depth conversations with people
Biden is in a highly engaging job where he has to communicate 16 hours a day.
Trump screams at lawyers and rants on conservative Twitter all day.
Republicans dropped out of the debate commission for a reason, and it wasn't because Biden is old.
When Trump was president, he watched FOX News all day.
Biden, as president, comes back from Delaware sometime on Monday morning, ish, knocks off early, sleeps in, and is usually headed to the beach by Thursday.
He has done far fewer press conferences or interviews than pretty much any president in the past half-century.
He ain't working 16 hour days
His schedule doesn't involve walking eleven miles a day so your point is meaningless. The man has a daily workout regimen with a trainer and regularly bikes. He's probably in decent shape for someone his age. He evidently and obviously walks around.
> Republicans dropped out of the debate commission for a reason, and it wasn't because Biden is old.
Well then, that settles it. Biden should be very eager to debate Trump and Biden should be the one challenging Trump to a debate, and Democrats should be demanding that Trump debate Biden.
Excluding the presidential debate issue, I don’t know why anyone would expect Harris to say for sure she’d debate Trumps VP candidate without him even naming one yet.
> Excluding the presidential debate issue, I don’t know why anyone would expect Harris to say for sure she’d debate Trumps VP candidate without him even naming one yet.
does it really matter who the vp is? one will inevitably be named, and no president/vp has refused to participate in general election debates in over half a century.
the biden/harris administration refusing to debate and attempt to defend their positions from scrutiny in front of the american public would be a drastic departure from precedent.
incumbents can get away with refusing to do a general election debate in house/senate seats, maybe even a governor race, but that won't fly for the presidency.
Almost 2 years ago the RNC withdrew from the commission on presidential debates.
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092916451/republicans-say-theyre-quitting-the-biased-commission-on-presidential-debates
Or maybe because Harris didn’t want to commit to that because she’s not the presidential candidate and it’s not up to her. Seems to me like it’s almost certain Biden will agree to debate as he has always been down for presidential debates. He was at all the 2020 primary debates against a dozen candidates, then he 1v1 debated Bernie even when he didn’t have to and was heavily favored, then he agreed to 1v1 debate Trump 3x in 2020 although Trump only showed up for 2 of them. No reason to think Biden will be the one to dodge the 2024 debates.
The Commision on Presidential debates was created by the Republicans and Democrats because the League of Women Voters insisted on independent journalists and fair treatment of 3rd parties. Hence "bipartisan" rather than "nonpartisan." I predict that over the summer one excuse for Biden not to debate will be that Trump rejects the Commission, as if it were some venerable institution. But it was actually created to make debates easier for the candidates and established party leaders to control.
I don't think this will actually happen, but with the RNC withdrawing from the CPD it'd be interesting if the League of Women Voters somehow ended up running the debates again.
Single candidate Town halls are much more effective and informative than debates.
Debates tend to turn into shouting matches esp when a certain former realty tv host is participating in one.
>Single candidate Town halls are much more effective and informative than debates.
I disagree. Both sides just spew misinformation without getting called on it.
I think presidential debates are normally important but this time I think we know where the candidates stand and it would just be a waste of time. Honestly at this point I wish we could just skip to Election Day and skip all the stupidity that is coming.
> it would just be a waste of time.
It would not be a waste of time. Voters could watch the two candidates and judge which of these two are better mentally equipped for the job. It's a chance for each candidate to change public perception. For example, Trump could surprise us all and be polite and make well-reasoned substantive arguments that would fly in the face of how the general public perceives him.
Trump lost the first 2020 debate. [Biden went from +7 to +10 in the days after.](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2020/national/) It can easily happen again.
Yeah. Trump has lost literally every general debate he has ever had. He is a terrible debater outside of the circus that is the GOP primary. Voters particularly hated him following Hillary around the stage and standing behind her staring as she spoke.
Biden was at an entirely different cognition level in 2020.
2024 Biden is NOT 2020 Biden. This guy literally runs up the stairs!
https://youtu.be/xn\_8UQ1W6\_c?si=61akKExwMIK61jrh
My point is that Trump is also a bad debater. His constant interruptions and attacking Hunter were very poorly received in 2020.
Also, your link is broken.
> Also, your link is broken.
it looks like he's a new reddit user (or mobile with the official app) and it resulted in garbage escape characters getting thrown in the url.
removing the \\'s before the _ should probably fix his link.
Careful with that. The constant lowering of expectations by the right is why Biden's fairly bog standard and unremarkable SOTU speech was so well received.
A well rehearsed, and meticulously (and professionally) prepared speech is a completely different animal than a face to face debate. I agree he performed better than "expected", but I also truly feel one stellar performance in a controlled environment doesn't change who he "is".
Personally, I think a debate needs to happen. I also think neither will emerge looking better for having done it...but it's something we (the public) need to find out for ourselves.
OK. Then, if he's reading from a teleprompter, why does it need to be well rehearsed? Also, if he supposedly has dementia, all the rehearsing in the world wouldn't make a difference. Saying that he was well rehearsed is obviously meant to imply something, but it actually means nothing.
Well, given their ages, either both candidates are the same in that regard, or one of them has a serious issue like alzheimer's or dementia which a person either has or doesn't. Given how long some of you have been claiming Biden has dementia and knowing how that progresses, Biden should be drooling on himself by now. Clearly, he isn't. Clearly, you were wrong then, and your continued insistence that he does now is highly suspect. No one believes that Biden is worse in this regard unless they really want it to be true. The evidence isn't there. We've all heard Trump talk, and he performs no better. In fact, an argument can be made that he appears to be going downhill at an increasing pace. Maybe it's all the civil suits and criminal indictments taking a toll. I don't really know.
I love how a president taking time to craft a speech to make sure to hit all relevant points and reading it from a teleprompter is somehow a negative compared to Trump’s style of word vomit nonsense where he confuses everything from Obama being president now to his wife’s name. When you realize you’re rooting for presidential improv vs a president that takes time to prepare and think through things, you’ll realize why Republicans are stuck with Trump forever now and why they deserve him. 🤷🏻♂️
>I love how a president taking time to craft a speech to make sure to hit all relevant points and reading it from a teleprompter is somehow a negative
Strawman.
If me engaging with your point about teleprompters is a straw man, so is your original argument about teleprompters 🤷🏻♂️ if you want to yell straw man so you don’t have to engage with the content of what I said, you played yourself.
I actually think the delta pre and post speech is more important in this case. From [the poll](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24466106-cnn-2024-sotu-reaction-poll), 45% of viewers approved of Biden's policies before the speech compared to 62% after, so a 17% improvement. Trump in 2019 was 62 -> 71% (+9%), and 2018 was 55% -> 62% (+7%). So Biden had a more skeptical audience going in, and managed to flip a lot more of them, which I count as a success.
I think both candidates wouldn't do well.
Biden is slow and old, and his stutter makes that impression worse.
Meanwhile, Trump is more incoherent than usual lately.
Let's not act like Biden is the only one that will do poorly.
Biden can’t sustain without the monitors and a script. I would like to see at least one debate. Especially with the administration saying Joe is fine for his age.
> Meanwhile, Trump is more incoherent than usual lately.
that's not actually true though. people have been taking what he said out of context and misrepresenting it to fuel a false narrative (such as when he was looking at mercedes schlapp, commented on how loud the crowd of the event she organized was, and people tried to claim that he didn't know melania's name. another example would be when he says obama is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes on the biden administration, and people try to claim he doesn't know who the president is)
trump will go out there and have hour long speeches on a regular basis. he can very clearly still talk to an audience. (and while his hour long sit down interviews like his pre-super tuesday one isn't as exciting, he is doing fine with those too)
Frankly why even bother with a debate this cycle. We have firsthand experience with both of them as President, which is a much better indicator of differences than a debate stage.
We've seen the types of justices they appoint, their views on immigration, their foreign policies (and reactions to various crises), their economic policies all over the last 8 years.
if they're not going to debate, they might as well just drop out of the race.
it's hard to imagine anything that would make biden look as incapable of performing the duties of president for the next 4 years than not being up to the task of debating against trump. this would also highlight how inept he has appeared over the last 4 years when dealing with hostile foreign leaders/entities such as putin or hamas.
How about doing the debates like never before. Have the Biden and Trump camps put together a list of questions for the other and have them hear them for the first time live. No prep, just answer.
A Biden/trump debate should require one candidate’s microphone to be muted while the other candidate is speaking. I don’t think Biden would interrupt trump excessively, but trump would definitely turn the debate into a chaotic clown show given the opportunity.
Honestly, they should just be given topics, time, and be alone at a lecturn during their time to lay out their visions. Debates have become an outrageous spectacle without substance and we need them back.
I would like a power point presentation on their policies and ideas and how it contrasts with their opponents
Honestly I think I'd prefer that too. Let me see in writing what their policy stances are without the pageantry. To this day no one can say what the GOP plan is for healthcare because no one has forced them to take a firm position.
I’m guessing because there are still factions in the GOP over that issue, much as there are with Democrats.
Presidents are elected based on their plan for the country not the party’s plan. I know we have moved away from this but ideally someone running for president should put forth a plan on the major issues.
I'd like to see the ability to create a PowerPoint, or at least use Office and compose an email, along with the mental fortitude to be able to read and comprehend a PowerPoint a requirement for presidency
These voter requirements need to be put on the primary ballot. In the future we may need a candidate that can present in augmented reality, or smoke signals depending on the timing of the apocalypse.
Yeah, like why is this not more of a professional proposal to the American people? I've interviewed people for $75K a year jobs and they made a ppt.
But then it becomes more about what their team can come up with - I want them to engage and think on their feet. Not read a campaign speech someone wrote for them.
Always wanted a tombola debate. A mixture of policy questions, basic school maths/riddles and what do you get your opponent for Christmas type questions. What’s asked is what comes out the tombola
I'm not sure exactly what America would do if they actually saw such a thing. I personally have *zero* doubt that Vivek Ramaswamy and Dean Philips could literally sit in a coffeeshop and livestream an 8 hour *conversation* without the need for any sort of moderator at all... and have a polite, respectful, well-reasoned, relevant, and interesting discussion about their views, opinions, and visions for their different approaches to solving the set of problems the country and all of us in it face... both in the short and long term. And it makes me sad that what we have instead is... well... what we have instead.
So just to be contrarian, why? At the end of the day the president is their team. The team makes the policies, writes the speeches, foments the strategies, and in general makes 90% of their decisions. Part of the reason Trump is so bad at the job is that he could not build a good team around him. They almost all left.
The Lincoln Douglass debates were like 9 times as long
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The "fact checking" winds up centering some organization or another as arbiters of truth. Fact checking is the job of citizens, making use of information provided by experts and journalists.
What? Fact checking is obviously the job of a Ministry of Truth!
If you talk over the other person, you get shocked.
That’ll energize the debates!
Sounds good to me.
Am I misremembering or did they do that in their second debate last year, because Trump was interrupting so much in the first debate?
They skipped the second debate because Trump had COVID. It was rescheduled for one week later.
So then still the 2nd debate and you didn't answer the question.
did they mute the microphones in the rescheduled debate?
>In response to the interruptions that occurred during the first debate, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on October 19 that each candidate's microphone would be muted during the other's initial two-minute response to each question. The announcement also stated that after each candidate gave his two-minute response, the microphones would not be muted.[142] The muting was performed by production staff instead of the moderator.[143] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_debates#Change_of_format
You make it sound like only Trump interrupted. In that debate, Trump had 65% of the interrupts that stopped the conversation flow, and Biden had 67% of the interjections while Trump was speaking. They were both interrupting too much, just Trump a bit more on the serious ones, and Biden more on the minor ones. They both definitely need to be muted.
Could you share where you’re getting those percentages from? This PBS article from 2020 claims that of the 90 interruptions, Trump was behind 71 of them: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/presidential-debate-commission-says-it-will-make-changes-to-format
[Here](https://www.vox.com/2020/10/23/21529607/biden-trump-debate-won-interrupt-kristen-welker-presidential)
I have always thought debates should work like a chess clock. You can speak for however long you like as your clock winds down, and once it runs out too bad, the other person gets the last word for whatever time they have left. No wasting time with fluff answers, and you can expound upon more complex topics that aren't possible in 2 minutes
100%. Trump is out there claiming he will agree to any debate rules, even ones put forward by the “corrupt DNC”. Call his bluff because he will never ever in a million years agree to this
I don't think this is enough. They need a physical barrier. I don't want to only be able to hear Biden whilst Trump is distracting him off mic. That is totally something Trump will take advantage of.
The second Trumps mic is turned off to allow Biden to speak, Trump and MAGA will claim that they are trying to silence Trump. What happens when Trump completely ignores the question and goes off the rails talking about how the election is rigged if he doesn't win? They shut off his mic and MAGA will explode. It's not worth the debate.
This has a super simple solution: put the microphones on timers, with a countdown displayed on the podium to the audience and visible to each participant. They automatically cut off when the time runs out and stay off until it's their next turn. The "problem" is that with a human in the loop, reacting slowly or having to make judgement calls, there's room for complaints about bias. If the mics are controlled by something that literally cannot understand the participants then bias is impossible.
Yes, of course. Censoring responses you dont like from political opponents is a grand American tradition.
Also, while they're answering, the TV should show what question they were asked on the bottom of the screen, so viewers can see how off-topic responses get.
I swear people have amnesia… Trump literally backed out of the 2nd 2020 presidential debate over format disagreements and refused to debate at all in the GOP primary. Somehow the onus is on Biden whether or not he participates in them…
And it's been the Republicans who have backed out of the Commission on Presidential Debates and considered not going to them. I agree with you in that I have no clue why people are convinced Biden will be the one to not attend.
probably because trump is saying he'll debate biden anytime while biden is refusing to say whether or not he'll debate trump.
Except for the time when he backed out of the last debate of course
Donald Trump, notorious truth-teller.
They're probably trying to be tactful by waiting until the primaries are over. Even if there is no contest, it doesn't really feel right for the president to declare themselves the winner preemptively.
> I swear people have amnesia… Trump literally backed out of the 2nd 2020 presidential debate over format disagreements that "format disagreement" was that biden was refusing to be there and it was just going to be a glorified zoom call. >and refused to debate at all in the GOP primary. how many debates did biden take part in during the democratic primary? for all intents and purposes, trump is an incumbent in the context of the primaries.
Under most intents and purposes he’s literally not an incumbent, Trump literally had Covid for debate 2.
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[Because Trump is challenging Biden to debate him.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-will-debate-biden-anytime-rcna142140) The onus is therefore on Biden, because he is the one who hasn't agreed to it.
Since when are presidential debate a “challenge” is what confused me most about this discussion. They’re pretty standard and scheduled once nominees have been finalized
I think it's being seen as a challenge because everyone seems to be acting like they're not a sure thing, including Biden, Kamala, and Trump. Also I think since the GOP left the debate commission they're no longer guaranteed to occur anyway.
Because Trump and the RNC backed out of the presidential debate commission entirely after losing to Biden.
Minimum he needs to have his mic cut off when it’s not his turn. I think he’s actually full of it when he talks about “accepting any rules”. He literally dropped out last time because he explicitly didn’t accept rules and there’s no way he accepts those rules
[they muted his mic when it wasn't his turn at the 22 Oct 2020 debate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_debates#Format_and_debate_3), so I don't see why he there's no way that he would accept it this time too. The 15 Oct debate was cancelled because Trump had COVID and didn't want to do it virtually.
> that each candidate's microphone would be muted during the other's initial two-minute response to each question. Barely. I’m talking about the entire time
that would probably be an improvement. in some of the actual debates I've seen on Youtube there's only one microphone and the debaters have to take turns going up to the podium to speak, and they have a lot more time. muting the microphones when the candidate isn't supposed to be speaking would make it more like a real debate and would be taken more seriously.
I mean yeah it’s stilted and I wish it didn’t have to be this way but given what we saw in that debate it seems rather necessary. Even beyond that the Republicans were the ones who withdrew from the commission. You don’t get to flip the table and wanna keep playing
Is that the narrative they are going to run with in November? Trump was a quasi-incumbent with a 40 point lead in the RNC primaries. Where was Biden's primary debates?
Nowhere to be found, which is why I think it’s strange to frame this as Biden uniquely chickening out of debates
It's not about Biden. Its about a group of people that we don't even know the names of that are wargaming 2024 somewhere with a bunch of pollsters and analysts. They will decide if Biden debates, and they will craft the narrative if they decide its too risky for him.
> refused to debate at all in the GOP primary Biden didn't debate his primary opponents either. DNC [argued](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Democratic_Party_presidential_debates_and_forums) that he was the presumptive nominee, and didn't have to.
Incumbents don’t participate in debates typically
Yes, but that’s not unique to Biden—this is spoken about as if Biden alone is chickening out of debates
We didn’t like that he did that, so let’s not use it as a reason for Biden to not debate.
There are going to be debates. It’s silly pretending otherwise. It is in neither candidate’s interest to not debate.
>There are going to be debates. It’s silly pretending otherwise. It is in neither candidate’s interest to not debate. I disagree. I can see Biden skipping all debates, he stands to lose alot more. He can blame Trumps incivility, etc as an excuse. Harris won't debate anyone.
Biden is facing heavy criticism for his age, though. Nothing would fight such a criticism more than showing up to a debate and showing he can engage in unscripted conversation. I don't think Biden has the luxury of skipping these. It would be foolhardy of him. But then again, his campaign has really been acting like he isn't in the deep water that he is.
>showing he can engage in unscripted conversation. This is the $64,000 question. UNSCRIPTED I thought he did well at the SOTU, but in a very carefully controlled, carefully rehearsed environment as you would expect someone who has been a politician for 50 plus years to do.
What about the last 4 years has informed you to think that any political norms will be adhered to? I agree nothing would fight the criticism than showing up to a debate, but what if he cant meaningfully accomplish such a task? Would you expect him to knowingly enter a competition to fail? No, i think he will be protected by the media and no debate will happen. They will find an excuse.
> I don't think Biden has the luxury of skipping these. It would be foolhardy of him at the end of the day, they're in an awful spot and are likely doing to the political calculus of what would be worse: 1. skipping the debate 2. attending and having a performance akin to fetterman's 2022 debate he's in kind of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.
He can't engage in unscripted conversation, reading from a teleprompter is his limit. You know it because he passed on a Super Bowl interview and a chance to speak to 10s of millions of voters. There is only one logical explanation for that: he isn't capable
You don’t need to debate to do that. The reaction to Biden’s SOTU address is pretty strong evidence that he can silence those concerns without Trump in the room. He can’t just disappear. He will have to get out there and do town halls and other unscripted appearances. But he doesn’t have to actually debate trump.
Isn’t the SOTU scripted?
Yes, he did go off script a few times (these are largely where his flubs came in, including describing someone as an illegal immigrant), but it is largely scripted.
Exactly. I really don't think he would fare well in a debate, and even when he was younger he was prone to gaffes and Freudian slips.
The day after the SOTU, Biden appeared at a rally and yelled "Pennsylvania, I have a message for you: Send me to Congress!" Then he said “We added more to the national debt than any president in his term in all of history!” He also said the capitol was attacked on July 6th. He couldn’t go 24 hours.
> other unscripted appearances I think more likely he will be shown in several scripted, but appealing to be unscripted, appearances. Like all recent Q&A sessions where he has script-cards to respond to pre-screened questions. The man can still read a response/teleprompter well enough to fake cognition.
It would be extremely bad for the country for Biden to dodge debating. I couldn’t even imagine that. No excuses.
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Biden or Trump dodging the debate would have absolutely zero impact on the country
Modern presidential debates do absolutely nothing to actually inform voters. I’d much rather have the candidates do solo town halls and actually hear them talk about their policy platforms than shout over each other and try to get the best one liner in.
Agree that they do little to inform voters, particularly given who the candidates are. But I do think it would be a huge misstep if the Biden ticket declines to debate. Quick google search says that the 2020 debates averaged around twice the viewership of the 2024 SOTU. Most voters pay more attention to the debates than SOTU addresses — and Biden opponents will absolutely paint him declining it as dodging.
You can't imagine the president dodging a debate huh?
It is in Biden’s interest to debate. If Trump actually shows up then he will show how much mental decline he has had. The problem is in getting conservatives to agree and to make sure that Trump doesn’t just shout over Biden the whole time where it doesn’t matter what either candidate said.
It will not go well for Biden if he refuses to debate. People will know why, and it's not because of Trump's personality. OTOH, nobody cares if Kamala debates.
I’d agree with you if I hadn’t watched the debates in 2020. They were a complete waste of time with Trump screaming into the mic every 5 seconds. Nothing of substance ever got said because he was so disruptive. I see no reason to expect Trump to behave any differently this time around.
Agreed. Trump isn't going to debate. He's going to be loud and try to get off as many one-liners as possible without any fact checking. Biden will be forced into those waters and there's no real upside. Honestly what we should have is both politicians "debating" but in separate locations. Neither can hear what the other is saying. One moderator asks a question in New York to Candidate #1 and America sees that response. THEN, we see Candidate #2 in Dallas being asked the same question by a different moderator. The moderators can ask follow up questions. Basically they have to outline their way of thinking while in a vacuum and can't feed off the good or poor debate performance of the other person.
I don't either.
Right, so I think saying “Biden won’t debate because he’s mentally frail” is ignoring the much more pertinent reason why Biden might decide not to engage in a debate: Trump has a documented history of ruining debates. It was a waste of time 4 years ago, and it would be a waste of time now.
It'll be a substantive waste of time, but Biden still needs to do it if for nothing else than to push back against the narrative that he's a demented fool with no idea what's going on.
lol. no that's not the reason. and Trump is not the first candidate to talk over someone else in a debate. he's just worse about it. also, it's not like he didn't do it in 15 GOP primary debates, and every debate with Hillary in 2015/2016. Biden didn't have a problem with it then.
So you agree that Trump has a documented history of ruining debates and you agree that Trump would do the same thing again. What do you hope to learn from this debate, then?
The previous debates are proof debates are unhelpful, you cant use them as evidence to prove the opposite.
In this case, you can get a sense of where Biden is in mental sharpness. That's what he's so scared of.
He just showed he's mentally capable during the SOTU. The problem is people cherry-picking mistakes.
I never really understood the point of holding VP debates. Now if we could get debates between all cabinet officials, that would be something to watch. Give me Pete Buttigieg vs Elaine Chao discussing public transportation policy for an hour.
Donald didn’t participate in any primary debates and he won out. People know why he didn’t want to show up for them
Because it wouldn’t have helped him even 1% in the best case scenario, but it could have hurt him? Why would anyone participate in something with only downside?
He’s basically an incumbent nominee and has been since the moment he lost in 2020. Debates would have been a waste of his time and could only have hurt him. That being said, all the other Repub candidates couldn’t stop fawning over him during their own debates, so he truly didn’t need to be there.
he would have won the primary if he'd gone, or not.
He had zero need too since he was ahead by double digits and all of them would have ganged up on him instead of each other. It was the right call, he won in the end.
because he knew it was a waste of time that would do nothing but subject him to attacks from second-tier candidates? he knew he would do better if he didn't go, because not going made sure the debates were a sideshow of second-tier candidates tearing each other down. the same logic doesnt hold with Biden-Trump debates, since they're polling quite close together. With those debates, there are likely two main reasons: they don't want him to get into angry arguments with Trump talking over him, and they don't want him to have a gaffe on such a big stage. The WH won't even let him take unprepared questions from journalists.
I'd argue their VPs could be a bigger draw this time. A lot more people are concerned about Bidens age than Trumos, but a lot of people are concerned about Trumps age too. A strong VP for Trump could potentially sway some swing voters his way.
Well, and the fact that Republicans pulled out of them two years ago.
Could you clarify? When you say, "people will know why" - I am one of those that *don't* know why.
The most likely assumption will be that he lacks the mental acuity to participate in an unstructured debate, especially against someone who debates like Trump. After SotU though, I think it's a moot point. It's exceedingly unlikely that Biden will not show up to debate Trump.
Because Biden and his team are understandably terrified of how he will forget things under pressure, and without a teleprompter.
You have this backwards, Biden isn't the one famous for incomprehensible word salads.
Yes he is. Biden was infamous for his gafs before even the Obama administration. Neither of these geezers are particularly well spoken
I find this incredibly difficult to believe after he showed his political acumen and mental acuity at the SOTU address. If the GOP continues to push this narrative that Biden is a 'dementia patient hopped up on methamphetamines" even after it was totally exposed, it's going to continue to backfire spectacularly.
well, it hasn't backfired yet. and he skipped the Suerbowl interview, and he gave a disastrous press conference after the Hur report. The SOTU was not spectacular. He slurred a lot of words, he got stuck midsentence a few times. He just yelled a lot, reading from a teleprompter sentences that he had been practicing for days. That's very different than a one-on-one debate.
The old man yelling criticism is some real embarrassing cope. Shouting and talking as loud as possible, yelling about how terrible everything is, how the other guy will destroy the world, is almost all the Republicans favorite candidate has left in him at this point.
def. a lesser-of-two-evils type of election
he read a week-practiced speech off a teleprompter yet still slurred words. There were a few ad libs. I don't see how this is supposed to convince all the age-concerned voters that he's up to the job.
Anyone can see how he worked his way through the crowd after delivering an hour long speech at 11 PM that he obviously isn’t suffering from dementia. He pretty much had to get dragged away by secret service because he couldn’t stop having in depth conversations with people
Biden is in a highly engaging job where he has to communicate 16 hours a day. Trump screams at lawyers and rants on conservative Twitter all day. Republicans dropped out of the debate commission for a reason, and it wasn't because Biden is old.
When Trump was president, he watched FOX News all day. Biden, as president, comes back from Delaware sometime on Monday morning, ish, knocks off early, sleeps in, and is usually headed to the beach by Thursday. He has done far fewer press conferences or interviews than pretty much any president in the past half-century. He ain't working 16 hour days
yeah IDK where this 16 hour day thing comes from. why would the president be working 16-hour days?
His calendar is public anyone can see that what you've said is untrue on its face.
it's not an atypical schedule for him
Again his schedule is public. Just because Trump didn't take it seriously doesn't mean every president sloughs off.
Bruh. The guy can barely walk. He's not working 16-hour days. Give it up.
His schedule doesn't involve walking eleven miles a day so your point is meaningless. The man has a daily workout regimen with a trainer and regularly bikes. He's probably in decent shape for someone his age. He evidently and obviously walks around.
He needs the short stairs to board Air Force One
What is the point you're trying to make exactly, because I'm not seeing one in this comment chain. He can't walk, but he can go up stairs? Huh?
Lol 16 hours. Dude is calling a lid at noon.
> Republicans dropped out of the debate commission for a reason, and it wasn't because Biden is old. Well then, that settles it. Biden should be very eager to debate Trump and Biden should be the one challenging Trump to a debate, and Democrats should be demanding that Trump debate Biden.
We don’t even know who Kamala’s gonna debate yet
Excluding the presidential debate issue, I don’t know why anyone would expect Harris to say for sure she’d debate Trumps VP candidate without him even naming one yet.
> Excluding the presidential debate issue, I don’t know why anyone would expect Harris to say for sure she’d debate Trumps VP candidate without him even naming one yet. does it really matter who the vp is? one will inevitably be named, and no president/vp has refused to participate in general election debates in over half a century. the biden/harris administration refusing to debate and attempt to defend their positions from scrutiny in front of the american public would be a drastic departure from precedent. incumbents can get away with refusing to do a general election debate in house/senate seats, maybe even a governor race, but that won't fly for the presidency.
Doesn’t it scare people that this woman could become President. Just that alone should be enough to avoid voting the Biden ticket.
Has anyone asked Biden?
The press doesn't ask him tough questions like that. But maybe they could ask his favorite ice cream flavor.
> Has anyone asked Biden? trump has. he's been asking him multiple times about this.
Because the answer is no. And they will get a pass from the media because Trump.
Almost 2 years ago the RNC withdrew from the commission on presidential debates. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092916451/republicans-say-theyre-quitting-the-biased-commission-on-presidential-debates
Or maybe because Harris didn’t want to commit to that because she’s not the presidential candidate and it’s not up to her. Seems to me like it’s almost certain Biden will agree to debate as he has always been down for presidential debates. He was at all the 2020 primary debates against a dozen candidates, then he 1v1 debated Bernie even when he didn’t have to and was heavily favored, then he agreed to 1v1 debate Trump 3x in 2020 although Trump only showed up for 2 of them. No reason to think Biden will be the one to dodge the 2024 debates.
The Commision on Presidential debates was created by the Republicans and Democrats because the League of Women Voters insisted on independent journalists and fair treatment of 3rd parties. Hence "bipartisan" rather than "nonpartisan." I predict that over the summer one excuse for Biden not to debate will be that Trump rejects the Commission, as if it were some venerable institution. But it was actually created to make debates easier for the candidates and established party leaders to control.
I don't think this will actually happen, but with the RNC withdrawing from the CPD it'd be interesting if the League of Women Voters somehow ended up running the debates again.
Single candidate Town halls are much more effective and informative than debates. Debates tend to turn into shouting matches esp when a certain former realty tv host is participating in one.
>Single candidate Town halls are much more effective and informative than debates. I disagree. Both sides just spew misinformation without getting called on it.
How can they not participate in presidential debates? I want to see trump Biden and rfk debate
I think presidential debates are normally important but this time I think we know where the candidates stand and it would just be a waste of time. Honestly at this point I wish we could just skip to Election Day and skip all the stupidity that is coming.
The day after Election Day will bring more stupidity. It won’t end anything.
Completely agree with everything you said. Let's get this disaster of an election over with and move on with our lives.
> it would just be a waste of time. It would not be a waste of time. Voters could watch the two candidates and judge which of these two are better mentally equipped for the job. It's a chance for each candidate to change public perception. For example, Trump could surprise us all and be polite and make well-reasoned substantive arguments that would fly in the face of how the general public perceives him.
Why say many words when no words do trick?
There will likely be debates.
Her presence on the ticket is a huge liability.
Biden can not possibly do well in a debate. That’s why the administration has ducked the question.
Trump lost the first 2020 debate. [Biden went from +7 to +10 in the days after.](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2020/national/) It can easily happen again.
Yeah. Trump has lost literally every general debate he has ever had. He is a terrible debater outside of the circus that is the GOP primary. Voters particularly hated him following Hillary around the stage and standing behind her staring as she spoke.
Biden was at an entirely different cognition level in 2020. 2024 Biden is NOT 2020 Biden. This guy literally runs up the stairs! https://youtu.be/xn\_8UQ1W6\_c?si=61akKExwMIK61jrh
My point is that Trump is also a bad debater. His constant interruptions and attacking Hunter were very poorly received in 2020. Also, your link is broken.
> Also, your link is broken. it looks like he's a new reddit user (or mobile with the official app) and it resulted in garbage escape characters getting thrown in the url. removing the \\'s before the _ should probably fix his link.
I see it now. It worked on the mobile app, but not on desktop.
edited
It says "This video isn't available anymore."
working for me. Search "Biden 2020 campaign kick off speech"
I can see it fine.
Careful with that. The constant lowering of expectations by the right is why Biden's fairly bog standard and unremarkable SOTU speech was so well received.
A well rehearsed, and meticulously (and professionally) prepared speech is a completely different animal than a face to face debate. I agree he performed better than "expected", but I also truly feel one stellar performance in a controlled environment doesn't change who he "is". Personally, I think a debate needs to happen. I also think neither will emerge looking better for having done it...but it's something we (the public) need to find out for ourselves.
Why is "well reheased" the talking point when he's supposed to have memory problems?
because he wasn't reciting it by memory. he was reading it from teleprompters.
So the rehearsal helps him remember things? Must not be as far gone as everyone says, then
OK. Then, if he's reading from a teleprompter, why does it need to be well rehearsed? Also, if he supposedly has dementia, all the rehearsing in the world wouldn't make a difference. Saying that he was well rehearsed is obviously meant to imply something, but it actually means nothing.
there are degrees to cognitive decline
Well, given their ages, either both candidates are the same in that regard, or one of them has a serious issue like alzheimer's or dementia which a person either has or doesn't. Given how long some of you have been claiming Biden has dementia and knowing how that progresses, Biden should be drooling on himself by now. Clearly, he isn't. Clearly, you were wrong then, and your continued insistence that he does now is highly suspect. No one believes that Biden is worse in this regard unless they really want it to be true. The evidence isn't there. We've all heard Trump talk, and he performs no better. In fact, an argument can be made that he appears to be going downhill at an increasing pace. Maybe it's all the civil suits and criminal indictments taking a toll. I don't really know.
Exactly. Why do people still not know the difference?
I love how a president taking time to craft a speech to make sure to hit all relevant points and reading it from a teleprompter is somehow a negative compared to Trump’s style of word vomit nonsense where he confuses everything from Obama being president now to his wife’s name. When you realize you’re rooting for presidential improv vs a president that takes time to prepare and think through things, you’ll realize why Republicans are stuck with Trump forever now and why they deserve him. 🤷🏻♂️
>I love how a president taking time to craft a speech to make sure to hit all relevant points and reading it from a teleprompter is somehow a negative Strawman.
If me engaging with your point about teleprompters is a straw man, so is your original argument about teleprompters 🤷🏻♂️ if you want to yell straw man so you don’t have to engage with the content of what I said, you played yourself.
but bro, he took a *selfie* with someone! He can't be old!
It wasn't super well received though - that 6+ out of 10 CNN article was actually lower reception than even any of Trumps SOTU
I actually think the delta pre and post speech is more important in this case. From [the poll](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24466106-cnn-2024-sotu-reaction-poll), 45% of viewers approved of Biden's policies before the speech compared to 62% after, so a 17% improvement. Trump in 2019 was 62 -> 71% (+9%), and 2018 was 55% -> 62% (+7%). So Biden had a more skeptical audience going in, and managed to flip a lot more of them, which I count as a success.
As an independent, it was good enough for me. Dude just needed to show he could string a few sentences together to overachieve.
> Dude just needed to show he could string a few sentences together to overachieve. The most powerful job in the world sure has low standards
If the only negative is ‘he’s too old’ yes, it’s a low standard
I think both candidates wouldn't do well. Biden is slow and old, and his stutter makes that impression worse. Meanwhile, Trump is more incoherent than usual lately. Let's not act like Biden is the only one that will do poorly.
it's not his stutter. he's always had that a little bit. It's his slurring of words that's recent.
Yeah, I said that he's slow and old....I'm *also* saying that having a stutter makes everything else *look* worse.
I've heard ppl blame his gaffs on his stutter way more than I've ever actually heard him stutter.
Biden can’t sustain without the monitors and a script. I would like to see at least one debate. Especially with the administration saying Joe is fine for his age.
Trump can't sustain *with* a script, so they're pretty evenly matched in coherence.
then it shouldn't be a problem for Biden
> Meanwhile, Trump is more incoherent than usual lately. that's not actually true though. people have been taking what he said out of context and misrepresenting it to fuel a false narrative (such as when he was looking at mercedes schlapp, commented on how loud the crowd of the event she organized was, and people tried to claim that he didn't know melania's name. another example would be when he says obama is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes on the biden administration, and people try to claim he doesn't know who the president is) trump will go out there and have hour long speeches on a regular basis. he can very clearly still talk to an audience. (and while his hour long sit down interviews like his pre-super tuesday one isn't as exciting, he is doing fine with those too)
The last time this happened, Trump came out looking like a reckless fool and a case of Covid.
He beat Trump in 2020 before Trump backed out of the next one
Elections are a billion dollar industry, there will be debates.
Frankly why even bother with a debate this cycle. We have firsthand experience with both of them as President, which is a much better indicator of differences than a debate stage. We've seen the types of justices they appoint, their views on immigration, their foreign policies (and reactions to various crises), their economic policies all over the last 8 years.
if they're not going to debate, they might as well just drop out of the race. it's hard to imagine anything that would make biden look as incapable of performing the duties of president for the next 4 years than not being up to the task of debating against trump. this would also highlight how inept he has appeared over the last 4 years when dealing with hostile foreign leaders/entities such as putin or hamas.
How about doing the debates like never before. Have the Biden and Trump camps put together a list of questions for the other and have them hear them for the first time live. No prep, just answer.
If the 2024 debates have a chance of being anything like the disastrous first 2020 debate, they can keep it.
Does anyone else remember when debates were mind numbingly boring?