President Trump’s strategy was clear from the get-go: Throw Democratic nominee Joe Biden off his stride with a withering broadside of interruptions, personal put-downs, and, when all else failed, a constant stream of decibels to drown out his opponent.
At times, it left Biden floundering and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News reduced to the role of bystander while Trump used his bulldozer assault to take control of the stage.
Aides believed his challenger would either wilt under the barrage or snap under the pressure, but viewers had to endure moments of unintelligible cross-talk and an air of chaos.
The ceaseless offense forced Biden to come clean on his tax plans, environmental policies, and his overall shift to the left, according to veteran Republican strategist Brett O’Donnell, who prepared George W. Bush for presidential debates.
“I think that it went over the line at times, but you have to be on offense to put pressure on Biden to make choices,” he said. “The president made Biden make choices about the economy, about the Green New Deal, about taxes — I mean, he got Biden to admit he was raising taxes tonight.”
One moment he was saying the Green New Deal would pay for itself, pointed out O’Donnell; the next he was saying his environmental plan was different than the Green New Deal.
Each of the two candidates had a similar objective: Energize their base of supporters, keep the donations rolling in, and win over some of the wavering voters who could yet decide the election.
For Trump, it marked perhaps his last, best chance to wrest the conversation back from COVID-19. The 90-minute confrontation was a chance to offer viewers a choice between two different futures and an opportunity to prevent the election from being a simple referendum on his leadership.
The combative tone was set early, as the two traded personal barbs about who was smart enough to hold office.
“There’s nothing smart about you,” Trump said of Biden. “Forty-seven years, you’ve done nothing,” he said of Biden’s total time in office.
It did not take long for Biden to slap back.
“Will you shut up, man?” he said, before sarcastically expressing his frustration. “That was really a productive segment.”
In between, Trump defended his record on COVID-19, claiming that under Biden, some 2 million people would have died, attacked the former vice president’s family, and repeated his familiar claims that November’s election was in danger of being manipulated.
He stayed in attack mode except for moments when Wallace was able to wrest back control, asking whether he paid $750 in federal income taxes for the year he was elected — Trump said he paid millions — or when called on to condemn white supremacists in general and one group, the Proud Boys, in particular.
“Stand back, stand by, but I’ll tell you what: Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the Left because this is not a right-wing problem,” he said. “This is a left-wing problem.”
To opponents, it was a bullying performance.
Mitchell McKinney, professor of political communication at Missouri University, called it the most chaotic debate in America’s history.
“Perhaps the biggest loser tonight is the American public, who experienced little more than consistent bickering and interruptions for 90 minutes,” he said.
To the Republican National Committee, it was “confident, commanding.”
Michael Johns, co-founder of the Tea Party movement, said the president’s aggressive strategy had exposed Biden’s weakness on law and order and his lack of a COVID-19 plan.
“I think it was very clear, looking at the two candidates, that Donald Trump was assertive, has a fighting spirit, and is confident in his message, both on his policy position and his fervent opposition to Biden’s positions,” he said. “He wanted to get points across that he was worried wouldn’t come up, particularly on the Hunter Biden issue.”
At one point, Trump said Biden’s son had reaped millions of dollars in ill-gotten profits from China and from Moscow, claims that have been denied by his lawyers.
Biden shot back, “None of that is true,” before turning the table on his opponent: “His family, we could talk all night.”
While Biden spent hours in mock debates to rehearse his attack lines and rebuttals, multiple insiders said Trump took a more relaxed approach. He sparred with staff during downtime aboard Air Force One or between meetings in the Oval Office.
On Sunday, he explained the rationale. “Sometimes, you can go too much in that stuff,” he said.
But as he flew in to Cleveland, a senior Trump campaign official told reporters on Air Force One that the president knew his message and wanted to show his differences with Biden on trade, “endless wars,” America’s “haves and have nots,” and the Democratic nominee’s decades in Washington.
During the event, he may have lacked Biden’s crafted zingers, but he knew exactly what he wanted to say.
