Donald Trump’s success was not to be completely Donald Trump during the 90 minutes that his face to face in Atlanta with Joe Biden lasted, for whom, between lapses and constant signs of being lost, especially at the beginning of the debate, that hour and a half must have seemed like an eternity.
The Republican candidate thoroughly employed his usual recipe of exaggerations, half-truths and complete lies while the fact-checking teams of the major American media (fact checkers) They ran with their tongues hanging out after his words. But at least he did it with the lesson of the past learned: he did not lose his temper among interruptions and insults, and, something unusual for him, he heeded the advice of his advisors, who, privately and publicly, had recommended him in recent years. days when it would be best to look in the mirror of Ronald Reagan, whom he quoted a couple of times, and stay calm.
It was less a story about his strengths than about the weaknesses of his rival, who was hoarse, sometimes lost the thread and did not display the energy he had shown in his last major public appearance at length: the State of the Union address last February. The staging of the television broadcast did not help the president: an unflattering split screen focused on him all the time and his gestures deepened an image of helplessness as Trump spoke. When the reverse came, the Republican looked calm, or alternating his familiar repertoire of mocking grimaces.
Trump attacked Biden, saying he would not pass a test on his physical and cognitive abilities, calling him a “Palestinian,” which is understood as an insult, calling him “the most lying man in history,” and taking potshots at his son, Hunter Biden. He called them both “criminals,” even though he himself had just been convicted of 34 felonies in a case related to paying porn actress Stormy Daniels under the table to buy her silence about a relationship between the two that he denies. And he continues to do so. When Biden criticized him during the debate for the fact that the sexual encounter took place while the tycoon’s wife, Ivanka Trump, “was pregnant,” Trump said that Biden was lying, an accusation he launched at him when the president brought up a statement in which his rival called veterans “losers and suckers.”
Not very dynamic format
The format of the debate (thematic blocks, tight time frames, timed counter-replies) sought what it was looking for: that both parties had their space to develop their arguments. But the price paid was high in terms of television dynamism. The moderators were so respectful that they did not refute any of the messages, even though, especially in the case of Trump, they were riddled with falsehoods.
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The most they did was ask him again and again to answer what they had asked him. Most of the time, without success. The Republican candidate ducked the issue when talking about abortion pills, aware that the issue of women’s freedom and reproductive health could work against him at the polls in November. The question about whether he will accept the result that comes out of them he heard three times. “Absolutely, if the elections are fair,” he said at the end. And time and again he skipped the thematic design of the debate to return to the topics that suited him best, and to launch his usual messages, which on Thursday night could be summarized in a phrase that he repeated incessantly: “Biden is destroying United States.” Joined”. Though perhaps his most damaging blow came when the president messed up during a response on immigration, and his rival said, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I think that not even he knows what he says.”
Located at the lectern on the left, the one he was given by lot, a little less than three meters from the man with whom perhaps he had only had a stainless hate relationship for years, he was seen to be less angry and impatient than usual. Against all odds, the fact of not having the help of a teleprompter, Not even from some notes, he did not launch him into a fast slalom without brakes due to his rhetoric, a track, it is well known, full of turns and dark twists and turns.
The first question about the terms of the meeting between the two was quickly resolved on a historic night: never before had two presidents with a past to defend in the White House met face to face in an electoral debate (with the added bonus that one of them also came with another kind of record: a criminal one). Nor had they done so so soon, just over four months before the date with the ballot box, and not, as was usually the custom when there were only a few weeks left. And no, they did not shake hands.
The week had gone by in the cable television talk shows, teasing out whether they would do it or not. For Trump, the analysts said, perhaps it would have suited him, to make clear the physical contrast between a corpulent 78-year-old man and the deteriorated appearance of an 81-year-old president. But not even to maintain his manners in front of hundreds of millions of people did they give in to a brief demonstration of courtesy.
Within minutes, he seemed to have the situation better under control than Biden, and analysts launched their first blows at the president: “It’s unbearable to watch.” Meanwhile, Donald Trump continued with his own thing: not being Donald Trump at all.
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