Remember cocky Joe Biden? The one who goaded Donald Trump into debating him last month in a video posted to social media, crowing that former president Donald Trump lost two debates to him in 2020?
“Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again!” an energetic and fully awake version of the President of the United States said. “Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice.”
“Let’s pick the dates, Donald,” Biden said in closing, throwing in, “I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” as a rimshot reference to the hush-money trial filling his dance card at that time.
More than a month later — the morning after the first of those debates hosted and produced CNN — it’s worth recalling that Biden asked for this.
If you’re going to pick a fight, you should know your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and prepare accordingly. Reports from Biden’s campaign hinted he was prepping to confront Trump on policy, his track record, and his propensity to lie —Trump’s weak spots.
Based on Biden’s performance, his coaches insufficiently considered the former president and current felon’s understanding of optics. Trump is notoriously vain, always aware of the camera, and understands that what the audience sees is more convincing than the substance of what he says.
That meant that the presidential debate held Thursday at CNN’s Techwood campus studio was effectively over the moment the two candidates walked on stage.
While Biden’s campaign shared reports of his vigorous debate preparation at Camp David, once the cameras were live Trump demonstrated he better understood the assignment. The 81-year-old Biden was tasked to prove he’s still mentally sharp and capable of fulfilling the presidency’s obligations for another four years.
The 78-year-old Trump simply had to refrain from looking like the same lumbering lunatic who stalked Hillary Clinton around a town hall stage in 2016 and shouted down Biden at every turn in 2020.
That Trump would not be deterred by dead mics, knowing his followers would lip-read what insults he’s spewed and post it to Truth Social on his behalf. Social media would determine who won this debate regardless, and if it had gone as planned both camps would have declared victory.
This time Biden’s supporters can’t say that.
Trump entered after Biden, slightly hunched and looking sour, but striding confidently to his podium. Rather, that’s how he looked after Biden shuffled forth from the wings smiling weakly and waving at . . . nobody, I guess, since CNN stipulated there would be no audience.
In addition to forgoing live spectators, likely having learned from its Trump town hall debacle, producers turned off each candidate’s microphones by default when moderators Dana Bash or Jake Tapper did not designate them to speak.
Once the cameras were live Trump demonstrated he better understood the assignment.
This move was widely viewed as an effort to curb Trump’s tactic of shouting down his opponents which,