ATLANTA, Georgia — Former President Donald Trump resisted his worst impulses during his opening 2024 debate against President Joe Biden.
In a prior interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump appeared to be retrospective about his opening debate against Biden four years ago, after which he was criticized for being too aggressive and pugilistic. Trump was a different candidate on CNN on Thursday in Atlanta.
During a gaggle in the debate spin room at Georgia Tech, possible Trump vice presidential pick Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) described Trump and Biden’s head-to-head matchup as “an incredible study in contrast between a guy who has the energy to be president and a guy who clearly doesn’t.”
“I’ve certainly seen the Democratic freakout,” Vance told the Washington Examiner. “We’re obviously in the, like, literal spin room here, and I don’t envy my Democratic friends here who have had to stand here and try to defend Joe Biden’s debate performance, which was disastrous.”
“People who watched the debate, my hope is, certainly what I saw, obviously, I’m a little bit biased, but what I think what they saw is a guy who’s in command of the facts, who has a good sense of humor, who’s not nearly the sort of threat to democracy the Democrats say that he is, and importantly, shows compassion,” he said.
Moments earlier, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley contended the Trump-Biden debate redux underscored how this election is being defined by “strength versus weakness.”
“It was the first time that we’ve had an opportunity with two candidates, with very real records, that they would have to stand up, and defend, and talk about the future of America,” Whatley told the Washington Examiner. “Joe Biden utterly failed to defend his legacy, his tenure in office, and President Trump put new solutions on the table at every single turn about how he’s going to help get America out of the issues that we’re facing today.”
In a separate interview, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who was backstage with Trump in the TV studio, cited the former president’s debate against Biden as an example of a “focused” candidate and campaign.
“Joe Biden just does a terrible job of explaining what they’re doing,” Donalds told the Washington Examiner. “But the agenda is the same. The outcome is the same. They’re not going to reverse course on their agenda. We have to win back the White House in order to get the agenda of the American people back on track.”
But although Trump was demonstrably more restrained during the debate, one of his campaign managers, Chris LaCivita, downplayed the idea that it was a “strategic decision.”
“This is the third campaign he’s run in a row. He’s been the president for four years. Of course, with those things, you’re going to observe a lot,” LaCivita told reporters in the crowded hall. “The president came in determined to make a case to fire Joe Biden, and he did. He did that.”
“You prepare for the worst, but, you know, President Trump is completely capable of stepping up in the moment,” he said. “In terms of pulling punches, I don’t know how you could.”
On Thursday, Trump did provide snippets of the candidate who upended the concept of circumspect debates during the 2016 Republican primary. During that election cycle, he dismissed contenders like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as “low energy” and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), another possible vice presidential pick, as “little.”
“Making sure we make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with COVID, excuse me, with, umm, dealing with everything we had to deal with,” Biden said Thursday. “Look, we finally beat Medicare.”
“He’s right, he did beat Medicare. He beat it to death,” Trump replied.
“I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I’m not sure he did, either,” the former president added later.
For Ed Lee, director of Emory University’s Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue, Biden’s debate was “monumentally disastrous,” regardless of Trump’s appearance.
“The quiet, raspy voice left him sounding unprepared and lacking confidence,” Lee told the Washington Examiner. “The awkward staring into the camera made him look uncomfortable and out of place.”
“The Democrat Party requested a much earlier debate than usual,” he said. “They set the terms of engagement to prevent an audience and allow the moderators to turn off the microphones. The result is a performance by Biden that confirmed for many that he is just too old and aloof to serve a second term. Additionally, the rules disciplined Trump enough that they made him look like a semi-normal candidate. Alanis Morissette would consider it all just a bit ironic.”
Meanwhile, Biden and his campaign have ardently defended the president’s debate against Trump, blasting the former president for his “lies.”
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“On the other side of the stage was Donald Trump, who offered a dark and backwards window into what America will look like if he steps foot back in the White House: a country where women are forced to beg for the healthcare they need to stay alive,” Biden campaign co-chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a statement. “A country that puts the interests of billionaires over working people. And a former president who not once, not twice, but three times, failed to promise he would accept the results of a free and fair election this November.”
“Trump’s performance tonight reminded the American people why they fired him four years ago and reinforced just how high the stakes are this November for the future of our country,” she said.
