Welcome to Byron York’s Daily Memo newsletter.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to receive the newsletter.
THE FIRST DEBATE: THE REVENANT BEAR AND THE ‘SHIT SHOW’ DIVIDE. During the 2016 Republican debates, former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich turned to the movies to explain candidate Donald Trump when he said, “Trump is a lot like the grizzly bear in ‘The Revenant,’ you know, when you get his attention, he devours you.”
President Trump was in full ‘Revenant’ mode at Tuesday night’s first debate with Joe Biden. Trump started the interruptions for a night that would be full of interruptions. Trump appeared to want to throw Biden off his stride. After all, there had been a lot of talk coming from some Trump supporters, and from the president himself, that the 77 year-old Biden was decrepit and out of it and would not be able to handle the debate. Some Trump supporters had convinced themselves that Biden — who participated in 11 debates in the Democratic presidential primaries — could not stand on stage for an hour and a half. “Trump should ask Biden to state what year he was born. Give him 5 seconds,” tweeted former Trump aide Darren J. Beattie.
But Biden wasn’t out of it. No, he didn’t do particularly well. And yes, he had several bad moments, like when he again refused to disavow Democratic plans to pack the Supreme Court. And when he flip-flopped within seconds on the Green New Deal. And when he stumbled to address allegations about his son’s Hunter’s suspicious payments from Ukraine, Russia, and China. And when he could not name a law enforcement group that supported him. And when he argued that, “Antifa is an idea, not an organization.” And when he threw the entire Democratic Party under the bus by proclaiming, “I am the Democratic Party now.”
Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
But Biden was up and swinging, and Trump’s attacks never knocked him out of the game. In response to Trump, Biden uttered phrases never heard in presidential debates: “Will you shut up, man?” “It’s hard to get any word in with this clown.” “Folks, do you have any idea what this clown is doing?”
One broad area where Biden struggled was in his relationship with the left wing of the Democratic Party. Moderator Chris Wallace asked him to reveal his position on calls to pack the Court. Biden has previously refused to do so, and again on Tuesday he would not disavow those in his party who want to add judges to the Court to ensure a liberal majority. He simply refuses to distance himself from the most radical voices in his party. In addition, Trump pushed Biden on his relations with the left on health care, on the Green New Deal, on violent protests. Biden essentially said that it does not matter what those on the left say now because, “I am the Democratic Party now.”
At this early point, it is impossible to know how voters reacted to the debate. It takes a few days for things to sink in. People talk to each other and figure out what they think, and that takes a little time. But it is not too early to know that many in the media were horrified by the debate. Not actually by the debate, but specifically by the president’s performance. On CNN, Jake Tapper said, “The American people lost tonight, because that was horrific.” The network’s Anderson Cooper pronounced the president “immoral…there is not a moral fiber in this man.” And colleague Dana Bash not only agreed but took things a bit further: “That was a shit show. We’re on cable. We can say that.”
In the first moments after the debate, a “shit show” divide emerged in the commentary. There were those on the anti-Trump side who quickly embraced the term. “Imagine being a world leader and watching this shit show and wondering what is happening to the U.S.,” tweeted the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser. “This debate is already a shit show,” said former network newscaster Elizabeth Vargas.
And then there were those who put aside their emotions and tried to envision what voters saw. “A messy, unpleasant event that nevertheless gave voters a pretty clear idea of who these candidates are,” tweeted the writer Mickey Kaus. “High-energy, no discipline vs. wan, dreary throwback to Obama (‘green jobs’) with a little left craziness (eg antifa doesn’t exists).”
Who won? We’ll know more in a few days. But it seems clear that Trump will be advised to dial it back for the next debate. He’ll probably take a close look at public reaction to decide whether to follow that advice. But he now knows that while Biden won’t magically collapse, he is also not terribly good at debating on this level. Next stop October 15, in Miami.
