Until Thursday night, I didn’t actually know what people looked like when they saw a ghost. Then, I saw the folks at CNN realize they’d been propping one up as the leader of the free world for three-and-a-half years.
In case you missed the presidential debate on CNN under the misapprehension that nothing of substance would happen, well, where do I begin? President Joe Biden took a nationally televised mental fitness test — which, let’s face it, was what this was — and failed badly. It started badly, it ended badly, and there were no high points in between.
On substance — well, it’s difficult to get to substance when one of the candidates, who just happens to be the incumbent, is incoherently mumbling. Democratic sources told CNN that Biden’s performance was a “disaster” and a “trainwreck.” CNN watchers could have discovered that just by, well, watching CNN.
By the end of the evening, pundits on the network were actively talking about replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. That’s how bad things were:
BREAKING: CNN panics immediately after the presidential debate, says Democrats are now figuring out how to replace Biden before the election.
Holy s**t.
“Right now, it involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers, and they’re having… pic.twitter.com/pfbsfzyHIF
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 28, 2024
Trending:
As if the evening somehow had to get worse, the administration sent Vice President Kamala Harris, of all people, on CNN to do damage control. Read that sentence again, then realize just how bad things are when the administration’s hope is in the hands of Kamala Harris.
Not even Anderson Cooper — whom no one sane suspects of harboring MAGA sympathies — held back on the veep during the interview, particularly when Harris tried to claim the president won on “substance.”
At the open of the interview, Cooper laid out to Harris exactly what the viewers saw and what Democrats were apparently talking about behind the scenes.
Is Kamala Harris the worst VP?
“CNN’s John King has described ‘panic’ inside of the Democratic Party right now because of President Biden’s performance in tonight’s debate. He’s been hearing from Democratic lawmakers and others across the country — some within your own party are even wondering whether President Biden should step aside,” Cooper began. “What do you say to that?”
Harris shook her head. “Listen — first of all, what we saw tonight is the president making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people.
“Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people, on substance, on policy, on performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong.”
Even Anderson Cooper — on Trump-bashing CNN, let me again remind you — couldn’t let that one go by without fact-checking her about what her own party was saying.
“But I’m sorry — on substance and policy and performance tonight, I mean, the president’s performance tonight clearly was disappointing for his supporters,” he said.
“CNN is reporting Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried, worried about the president’s performance. One said it was a ‘disaster.’ Another called it a ‘trainwreck.’ Those are Democrats especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump’s lies.”
CNN Fact-Checks Kamala Harris to Her Face Live on Air
KAMALA HARRIS: “On substance, on policy, on performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong.”
ANDERSON COOPER: “But I’m sorry, on substance and policy and performance tonight, I mean, the president’s performance tonight… pic.twitter.com/51Lp1o7nSn
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) June 28, 2024
Harris, meanwhile, continued to insist that this was all about substance and that Joe Biden was nothing if not strong on substance during the debate. She then spent eight minutes trying to impart a little bit of substance that was utterly lacking from Biden’s performance on stage:
Look, all I have to say is this: When Kamala Harris can give this kind of performance and Joe Biden is giving this kind of performance, there’s an issue:
Trump: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence; I don’t think he knows what he said either.” pic.twitter.com/afW9TkIuUV
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 28, 2024
Even Kamala’s defense of the performance was lukewarm — sure, slow start, but he ramped up! Not really, but the fact she was even forced to admit that was indicative of how bad the president looked. He was non compos mentis. He did not appear to have his mind on stage or anywhere else. He was the walking dead. A ghost. And even CNN was admitting it.
By Friday morning, perhaps the media and the Democratic Party (but I repeat myself) rearranges and composes itself, and admits that yeah, Biden could have looked more energetic, but the other choice is Donald Trump, Threat to Democracy™! Perhaps they seize upon one thing Trump said that they’ll denude of all context and fact-check to oblivion, as if it were all that mattered.
Or perhaps they don’t. The media and the rest of the Democratic Party that isn’t Joe Biden or Kamala Harris couldn’t fake it. They saw what we saw and were beyond pretending. There was no spin to be spun. This was a trainwreck, a disaster, any other synonym of those words you want to throw at it, that’s what Joe Biden’s performance was.
Kamala can try to pretend all she wants, but there was little other substance and that substance didn’t matter when the style it was delivered in strongly suggests the leader of the free world should be boarded in an assisted living facility. Joe Biden got his wish list for this debate: The network, the moderators, the format, the rules, even the lack of an audience.
He still bombed so badly that I don’t think even the president’s most venomous detractor could have predicted it.
It’s time to start dealing with those facts and doing actual damage control, not with some imaginary “substance” that Joe Biden didn’t bring to the table. If the White House refuses to accept that reality — and Kamala’s performance with Anderson Cooper suggests they hadn’t come to terms with it by the end of the debate — this will quickly get exponentially worse than it already is.
