It’s unclear whether there’s a way out of what happened to Joseph Robinette Biden on a debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday night. What is clear is that if there is a way to a second term for the 46th president, Biden will not be the one to find that way out, at least not with his words.
Historians will likely spend quite some time trying to find an appropriate way to describe, in words, what happened during the first presidential debate between the two presumptive major-party nominees earlier this week.
I’m no historian, so the best I can come up with is this: You know that scene in any dark comedy where a character gets their comeuppance in a particularly cringeworthy way? Think of any bad Michael Scott moment from “The Office,” or the TV interview scene from “What About Bob?“
That scene usually lasts two or three minutes, tops — and even as much as you don’t like the character, it’s hard to watch. Now: Think of that scene, only as part of the national political conversation and with the president of the United States as the subject of the cringe, and then stretch it out for 90 minutes. That’s basically the only way I can properly describe the visceral impact of what we all watched, having digested what we all witnessed over the past day and a half.
Almost immediately after the debate was over, pundits were talking about replacing Biden on the ticket. The New York Times made the call for him to cede the nomination on Friday, with the editorial board taking the position that he must step aside “to serve his country” and that Thursday proved he was “the shadow of a great public servant.”
Axios reported that even before the debate, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer had been open to replacing him at the top of the ticket if he bombed on Thursday — which, of course, he did.
The floodgates were opening, and all the president’s men (and women, and presumably nonbinaries, given this White House) were trying to stop them. But the only person who could really stem the flood of calls for him to step aside was President Biden himself. And, in remarks delivered at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, he did, by trying to acknowledge that yes, maybe he’d lost a step, but he had one advantage over his opponent.
He lied about that advantage. That advantage was that he could tell the truth. In other words, he lied about not lying, which he said was what the election came down to. The cringe continues unabated, in other words.
“Folks, let me close with this. I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden told the crowd, which laughed, cheered, and began chanting his name.
Is Joe Biden a liar?
Yes: 99% (66 Votes)
No: 1% (1 Votes)
“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he continued.
“But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.”
Folks, I might not walk as easily or talk as smoothly as I used to.
I might not debate as well as I used to.
But what I do know is how to tell the truth.pic.twitter.com/ep5D0EhT5P
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 28, 2024
In case you’ve forgotten given the avalanche of “Joe Biden is senile” stories that have come out in the wake of the debate, there’s also a whole plethora of “Joe Biden is a notorious and habitual liar” stories that nobody has even really touched on over the past 48 hours.
In fact, when there were coherent facts coming out of Joe Biden’s mouth on Thursday, there were plenty of lies in them:
You know it’s bad when even CNN is fact checking Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/4IP14nr7xx
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 28, 2024
Biden: “The Border Patrol endorsed me, endorsed my position.” The National Border Patrol Council on X: “To be clear, we will never endorse Joe Biden.”
Here’s the clip of Joe Biden claiming he was endorsed by the Border Patrol.
Another lie. https://t.co/zuhka6RW5V pic.twitter.com/sVLhbpRFit
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 28, 2024
Biden: “The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any – this – this decade – doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like he did.” Reality: 13 American troops died in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan alone.
Biden says that he’s the “only president of the 20th century” who has had no American troops dead since he’s been president.
13 American service members killed during his horrible Afghanistan withdrawal were unavailable were comment. pic.twitter.com/zaFMvgetCO
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 28, 2024
But hey, he doesn’t debate the same way he used to, he admits. So let’s look at Biden’s history of telling the truth, shall we?
During the 1988 presidential campaign, in which he was forced to drop out after a series of scandals that began with a plagiarized speech, Biden said that he went “to law school on a full academic scholarship,” “ended up in the top half my class,” was the “outstanding student” in his school’s political science department, and graduated with three degrees. All lies: He got one degree, went to school on a half-scholarship and finished near the bottom of his class.
Biden claimed he was part of the civil rights movement. Then he admitted he wasn’t. Then he claimed he was again. Really, what he says about that one depends on the week.
Biden has repeatedly claimed that the truck driver who was involved in a crash that killed his first wife and infant daughter was drunk. The prosecutor in the case said that was a lie and implied the tragic accident was actually the fault of Biden’s wife, who had a stop sign while the truck driver didn’t.
While we’re on the subject, Biden also claimed he was a truck driver. No evidence exists to support that claim, which is almost certainly false.
Biden said he was arrested trying as a senator visiting South Africa when he tried to visit Nelson Mandela in prison while in the Soweto township of Johannesburg. Mandela was imprisoned several hundred miles away in a facility near Cape Town. Biden later admitted the story was a lie.
During a speech in 2023, Biden claimed that “I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years, and I used to teach political theory.” He has never taught a solitary class at the university.
Biden claimed that he took office with 9 percent inflation during an interview with CNN in May. Inflation was 1.4 percent when he took office in January of 2021. (It certainly didn’t stay that low for long, however.)
Perhaps most odiously, Biden has claimed, over and over again, that his son Beau died serving his country in Iraq. He did not. He died of brain cancer in the United States shortly after he stopped serving as the attorney general of the state of Delaware.
Yes, President Biden is telling you, the debate Thursday looked bad. Very bad. But, what he wants you to know is what’s really important about this election: The fact that he knows how to tell the truth.
When he debates, he can barely finish a sentence. He makes us all cringe for 90 minutes on end. Then he tells you that’s not important, and that the important issue is who knows how to tell the truth. And he lied about that.
The question practically asks itself: How much worse of a case can Joe Biden make for his presidency? Because if Thursday was bad, Friday wasn’t any better, and there are still 128 days left until the presidential election.
