Donald Trump lied about the economy on his watch, about veterans care, about crime and even about the violent participants in his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt ― and was able to go largely unchallenged by President Joe Biden, who managed a weak and unfocused performance from the start.
As he did during his four years in office, Trump claimed that he created “the best economy in history.” In fact, the economy during his administration was essentially the same as that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and actually created fewer new jobs in his first three years than Obama’s did in his final three years.
Trump claimed he had passed the Veterans Choice act, allowing veterans to go to private doctors if wait times got too long. In reality, that measure also passed under Obama.
Trump claimed crime was skyrocketing. In fact, crime peaked in Trump’s final year in the White House and has been falling every year under Biden.
Trump then claimed he had done nothing wrong in his handling of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not stopping the violence.
He further claimed he had nothing to do with the planning for the pre-insurrection rally near the White House that morning ― “They asked me to go make a speech” ― when, in fact, it was Trump himself who called on his supporters to converge on Washington that day and that it would “be wild.”
He then claimed prosecutions against him were brought not because of his actions but because he was running for president.
“I did nothing wrong. We’d have a system that was rigged and disgusting,” he said. “He indicted me because I was his political opponent.”
Trump even claimed that Biden was taking money from China. In reality, Trump received more than $5 million from China during his presidency just through his hotel five blocks from the White House.
Through it all, the CNN moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, did not fact-check Trump, and Biden appeared unable to counter him ― frequently mangling the syntax in his responses and trailing off.
“How many billions of dollars in fines for molesting a woman in public? Of having sex with a porn star? While your wife was pregnant?” Biden said to Trump at one point about his various court cases.
And after Trump defended Jan. 6 mob, which beat and pepper-sprayed police officers, injuring 140 of them, with one dying hours later, Biden’s response never mentioned the police assaults, making it seem as if Trump’s followers had merely engaged in vandalism.
“The idea that they didn’t kill somebody, just broke down doors, broke the windows, occupied offices, turned over desks, turned over statues. The idea that those people are patriots?” Biden said.
Thursday night’s encounter is almost certain to reignite many Democrats’ fears that Biden, at 81, is simply unable to defeat a man whom they see as a genuine threat to American democracy. The performance will also add to speculation that party leaders may try to persuade Biden to step aside and let a different candidate emerge at the party convention in August.
Biden’s staff reported that the president was suffering from a cold, but that explanation is unlikely to quell worries that he lacks the stamina to beat Trump, let alone complete a second four-year term.
Biden and Trump debated twice during the 2020 campaign, when Trump was president and Biden was the Democratic nominee challenging his reelection.
Heading into their first encounter on Sept. 29, Trump had days earlier tested positive for COVID but did not reveal this. Instead, he continued with his public schedule, including a White House ceremony for newly nominated Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. He then came to the debate venue but failed to take a COVID test, as he had agreed to.
Three days later, he announced he had contracted COVID and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center the following afternoon.
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Biden and Trump met again in Nashville for a more subdued debate on Oct. 22, 2020, when many voters had already cast mail-in ballots.
In this campaign, Biden and Trump are scheduled to have a second debate on Sept. 10, sponsored by ABC News.
Between now and then, both candidates are expected to be formally nominated by their parties at their party conventions. Trump also faces sentencing on July 11 for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to prevent a porn actor’s story about an affair from coming out ahead of the 2016 election.
In addition, Trump this summer may have to undergo a court hearing in his Jan. 6, 2021, election interference case, depending on the nature of the decision expected from the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming days on his claim that he is immune from prosecution for his coup attempt because he was president at the time.
Trump also has outstanding indictments in federal court in South Florida for his refusal to turn over secret documents and in Georgia for his attempt to overturn his election loss in that state, but neither of those cases is expected to move forward this year.