Republican presidential candidate former president Donald Trump (left) and US President Joe Biden during the debate hosted by CNN.Credit:AP
Trump then packaged immigration,and a country being overrun by illegal and dangerous migrants,into a one-size-fits-all solution to the stresses Americans are facing. Trump made it all too easy for voters:immigrants are taking jobs from Hispanics and blacks and our schools and hospitals and social security and Medicaid. And Biden is doing nothing about it,and you know I will.
Trump redefined chutzpah. Looking at Biden,he said,“I’ve never seen anybody lie like this … Joe,our country is being destroyed … He is the worst president in history.”
The closing remarks sealed Biden’s fate in Atlanta. He cited taxes and tariffs,stumbled over drug prices,and mentioned lead pipes,and then inflation.
Trump did not miss. “This man is just a complainer but doesn’t do anything.” He took down Biden’s policies on Afghanistan,Israel,Iran,and Ukraine. “The whole country is exploding because of you … We are in a failing nation. We will make America great again.”
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In past months,Democrats have freaked out on where this race was headed,and whether Biden was up to it. What will likely surface in the coming days is an uprising of voices expressing no confidence in Biden to win the election and asking him to step aside at the convention in August and let the party choose another candidate. How serious this will be can be measured by the immediate post-debate polling and how much sentiment is shifted over the next week,and whether leaders of the party – senators,members of the House,governors,perhaps even members of the cabinet – stand up to insist that President Biden’s campaign cannot continue.
The debate betrayed little if any confidence that Biden can or will defeat Trump.
If Biden remains in the race,only Trump can defeat Trump.
Bruce Wolpe is a senior fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre. He has served on the Democratic staff in the US Congress and as chief of staff to former prime minister Julia Gillard.
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