The first presidential debate provided something rare in American politics these days: relative agreement.
It was a bad night for President Joe Biden, who often struggled to make his points and appeared worryingly old.
Former President Donald Trump’s performance was better by comparison but did little to bolster his standing with his many critics.
Here are five things that stand out from the debate.
Biden falters
Biden’s performance on the debate stage worried many in his own party. The 81-year-old president spoke softly, walked slowly to the podium and often mixed up his words, failing to assuage fears that he is too old to govern the country for four more years.
The president defended his age by comparing himself to the 78-year-old Trump. “This guy is three years younger and a lot less competent,” he said.
But Democrats did little Thursday to echo Biden’s view of the age concerns.
After the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris conceded that Biden had a “slow start” during a CNN appearance. She said she was more interested in paying attention to the last three-and-a-half years of Biden’s presidential term versus the 90 minutes of debate against Trump.
“Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” Harris said. “I understand why everyone wants to talk about it, but I think it is also important to recognize that the choice in November between these two people that were on the debate stage involves extraordinary stakes.”
In contrast, the debate format seemed to work in Trump’s favor on Thursday night. The former president was more restrained than he was during the 2020 presidential debates in the absence of an audience. Trump interrupted Biden so many times four years ago that Biden asked him to “shut up.”
Trump noncommittal on accepting election results
The debate’s CNN moderators asked Trump whether he would commit to accepting the outcome of the race. He did not directly answer the question the first two times it was posed.
Asked a third time, Trump gave a noncommittal answer, even as he doubled down on the discredited claim that widespread fraud contributed to his 2020 presidential election loss.
“If it’s a fair, and legal, and good election, absolutely. I would have much rather accepted these. But the fraud and everything else was ridiculous.”
Dozens of lawsuits across the country have failed to surface evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. That hasn’t quelled a steady flow of Republican-led conspiracy theories about U.S. elections security, including in Arizona.
Biden attacks overturning of Roe, as Trump doubles down
Both candidates offered forceful if meandering statements of their positions on abortion rights — a top issue in Arizona that is widely expected to drive Democratic turnout in the upcoming election cycle.
Biden vowed to return America to the standards outlined in the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case and blamed Trump for the evolving rules on abortion rights.
His campaign has emphasized that Trump’s presidency set the stage for state-level abortion restrictions, like the one on the books in Arizona.
“The idea … that the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making decisions about women’s health is ridiculous,” Biden said.
Trump said the overturning of Roe vs. Wade was “something that everybody wanted” and “right now, the states control it. That’s the vote of the people.”
Trump said Biden and Democrats are willing to rip babies out of the womb in the final days of pregnancy. Abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy comprise less than 1% of all abortions, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump continued: “We think the Democrats are the radicals, not the Republicans.”
Distance from Biden may grow for other Democrats
The political aftershocks are only beginning, but it’s notable that Arizona’s most prominent Democrats offered no defense of the president shortly after the pundits piled on after the debate.
U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego is also running statewide. His campaign has long maintained a distance from the Biden campaign.
Biden has consistently trailed Trump in Arizona-specific polls while Gallego has generally led his leading Republican challenger, Kari Lake, since Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., said in March that she wouldn’t seek reelection.
Lake has long cast Gallego as a “rubber stamp” for Biden while pitching herself as “Trump in heels.”
Thursday’s debate seems likely to reinforce the strategy for both Gallego and Lake.
Those running for the U.S. House of Representatives seem likely to fall into a similar pattern.
Democrats haven’t really run as parts of a Biden-centered team anyway, and probably aren’t eager to do so now.
Republicans, meanwhile, have generally embraced Trump as the leader of their party and will welcome tying Democrats to Biden.
Candidates look backward, not forward
Biden and Trump offered little in terms of a vision for the future on Thursday night. Instead, the pair looked backward. They argued about the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Asked how they would prevent Social Security from running out of funds over the next decade, neither Trump nor Biden had much to say.
“Make the very wealthy begin to pay their fair share,” Biden said, offering a vague call for higher taxes. When moderators pressed him for more specifics, Biden said, “That one enough will keep it solvent.” Trump provided even less, claiming that Biden is allowing undocumented immigrants to come into the country, and that is what is putting pressure on Social Security.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 5 debate takeaways: Biden falters, Trump noncommittal on elections
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