It was a big night for lies, big lies, and little lies, and every size in between.
The first and likely last meeting between Donald Trump and President Biden wasn't a debate. It was a 90-minute hoax commercial promoting the former president, who spouted one outrageous fabrication after another with barely a moment to breathe. There was no room for the truth.
CNN, the debate's moderator, seemed to dictate that the moderator could not correct a single word or check a single fact, instead acknowledging each outrageous lie with a simple “thank you.” But the ultimate failure was Biden. He looked weak and lost, his mouth agape, muttering, rambling, losing his train of thought. Even when he had a good line or a spot-on rebuttal to Trump's attacks, he delivered it so poorly that it lost its effectiveness.
The stage in Atlanta needed a standard-bearer for truth on Thursday night, and Biden clearly wasn't up to the task.
Trump's claims were so far-fetched even for him that a worthy opponent would have had no trouble exposing the nonsense and setting the record straight. But the sitting president was woefully inept. This was a disaster not just for Biden and the Democratic Party, but also for the endangered idea that the truth still matters.
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Trump did not ask any questions, which he viewed as a means of deception. Regarding Biden, Trump fabricated the following:
“He's paid by China. He's a Manchurian candidate.”
“He wants to raise everyone's taxes fourfold.”
“He destroyed our country by allowing millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails and psychiatric hospitals.”
“He killed so many people on our border.”
“He has the largest budget deficit in the history of our country.”
Trump lied about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying, “She said, 'I take full responsibility for what happened on January 6th.'”
He lied about Democrats, saying, “They would take the lives of children at eight months, nine months, and even just after birth.”
Trump lied about his former chief of staff calling fallen soldiers “stupid and losers,” a story that Trump said Biden “made up.”
He lied about illegal immigrants receiving social security and staying in “luxury hotels.”
And he told big lies about his record: that the economy was “perfect” when he left office, that he was the one who lowered insulin prices, that he should be credited with “getting us out of that COVID disaster,” that the government was “ready to start paying down its debts” during his presidency, that he boasted of “the best environmental numbers in history,” and that there was “no terrorism under my administration.”
These were all obvious gaffes, but the hosts didn't correct any of them, and the embattled president barely corrected them. To conclude the performance, somewhere in the midst of this string of lies, Trump had the audacity to say about his opponent, “I've never heard anybody lie like this guy.”
The few things the former president said that weren't outright lies were perhaps even more damning. Trump absolved himself of any responsibility for the January 6 attack on the Capitol, claiming that “we were respected around the world” that day. He also made it clear that he would not accept the results of the election. He called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “salesman” and said “we shouldn't spend money” to protect Ukraine from Russia.
The comments were so outlandish, and the outlandish claims so easily refuted, that Biden should have simply written him off. Instead, he appeared startled, spoke with a staggered voice (his campaign belatedly explained that he had a cold) and struggled to form coherent responses, like, “What could I, um, have done with the coronavirus? Excuse me, um, um, deal with all the things that we have to do, um, if, um, (pause), we finally win Medicare.”
Biden explained the three-term clause of Roe v. Wade, saying, “The first is between the woman and the doctor, the second is between the doctor and the extreme circumstances, and the third is between the doctor, which is between the woman and the state.”Regarding the Ukraine issue, he boldly stated, “If you look at what Trump did in Ukraine, he — this man told Ukraine — Trump, do what you want, do what you want.”
Seeking to discuss the border issue, Biden said he would “continue to act until we get a full commitment on increasing Border Patrol and asylum officers — a full ban.”
Asked to respond, Trump said: “I have no idea what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said.”
Biden recovered a little from his early disasters in the debate, but the rest of the debate was only slightly better. He protested the lies (“I've never heard such bullshit”) and delivered some harsh words (“You're a moron, you loser,” “You have the morals of a stray cat”). Later in the evening, he delivered a strong rebuttal to Trump's insistence that the United States is a “failed state.” Biden said, “I've never heard a president talk like this. We are the envy of the world… We are the strongest country in the world.” But seconds later, he was embroiled in a ridiculous spat with Trump about his golfing skills. “I got my handicap down to six when I was vice president,” the president said.
If the country is “failing,” it is because it is undergoing a relentless, disciplined, and systematic assault on all that is true, and because the only person our reality-oriented community was counting on to save us has proven unfit for the job.
