Here’s How Biden Could Rattle Trump in Their First Debate

Mother Jones; Facebook Donald Trump/ZUMA

The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Our Land here.

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My opponent likes to pose as a tough guy. But where I come from—and it may be old-fashioned—if you lose, you take the hit. You don’t whine and cry about it and blame everybody else. You take responsibility, you move on. That’s what a real man does. And by the way, why does a fellow who tries to be so macho wear as much makeup as a drag queen? Can anyone explain that to me?

President Joe Biden has four main objectives in his upcoming debate with Donald Trump scheduled for Thursday. He needs to champion his performance in office (bipartisan legislation, a trillion dollars in infrastructure investment, the expansion of domestic computer chip manufacturing, climate change policies, a better economy than other Western nations, the Covid vaccination distribution, and more); to share compelling aims for a second term; to defend himself against the expected attacks (age, inflation, incompetence, and supposedly heading a devilish cabal that aims to destroy the United States); and to assail Trump as a threat to democracy and the world. On that last point—a drop-dead serious matter—I am hoping that he and his advisers realize the value of strategic derision.

Like most bullies, Trump cannot bear humiliation. His whole act is an act. He pretends to be strong and the best in everything—with the “best words” that come from a “very, very large brain.” But his malignant narcissism is clearly interlaced with deep insecurity. Real stable geniuses don’t have to brag about being stable geniuses. Trump might best be attacked not with frontal assaults about his lies, shortcomings, and misdeeds but with mockery. One goal Biden ought to have during the debate and afterward is to provoke Trump into the most erratic Trumpish behavior so voters are reminded of the perils of placing this guy in charge again. Ridicule can be quite useful in this regard.

The point of a presidential debate is not to score debate points but to bolster a narrative and message. The most effective debate lines have tended not to be facts-driven. Look at the first face-off between President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980. During that debate, Carter criticized Reagan for having begun his political career by campaigning against Medicare. This was an absolutely true charge. In 1961, Reagan had declared that socialized medicine would lead to an American dictatorship, ominously and absurdly saying if Medicare were implemented, “We are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”

How did Reagan respond to Carter’s jab? He cocked his head and said, “There you go again.” He was implying that Carter was lying. And the media and the political world gobbled this up, thinking it was just the best damn retort ever uttered. It was of no concern that Reagan lied when he said that he hadn’t opposed the principle behind Medicare. His reply was viewed and portrayed as a slam-dunk put-down of Carter. The Democratic incumbent had Reagan dead to rights. That didn’t matter.

Twenty years later, something similar happened when Vice President Al Gore and George W. Bush met for the first time on the debate stage. Gore accused Bush of pushing a tax cut that disproportionately benefited the wealthy and a budget plan that would not secure Medicare funding. He vowed to place Medicare in a “lockbox.” Bush countered: “Look, this is a man who has great numbers. He talks about numbers. I’m beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It’s fuzzy math.”

My memory is that the audience chuckled at this and that Gore, who overall performed poorly in the debate by sighing too much and acting too smug, looked perplexed. The veep clearly knew the policy better than the Texas governor, and his attack was justified by the facts. Yet Bush’s aw-shucks jibe about fuzzy math—which played off the unjustified criticism that Gore had once falsely claimed to have invented the internet—landed better. Bush had made Gore seem like a jerk.

These two retorts were false and—let’s face it—not feats of oration. Yet they were successful pokes aimed at core components of the targets: Carter’s self-righteousness and Gore’s know-it-all superiority. They were derisive. And that’s a good lesson for Biden.

Trump offers many opportunities for derision. I’m not suggesting that Biden use the specific line above about makeup. But he should look for chances to demean the blowhard.

Hey, Mr. Master Builder, how many Infrastructure Weeks did you have in which nothing happened? It was like a fake reality show. I passed $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. How much did you?

Remember all the times you bragged that you only hire the best people? Your former vice president, your former chief of staff, your former defense secretary, your former press secretary, your former White House counsel, your former communications director, your former national security adviser, and members of your Cabinet say they won’t vote for you. Why do so many people who worked with you keep saying, “You’re fired”?

Yeah, I know, some folks say I’m a bit on the old side. But I’ve never fallen asleep in the middle of a criminal trial in which I was found guilty. Can my opponent say that?

You promised Americans a health care plan that would be cheaper and better than the Affordable Care Act. But you never delivered one. Were you too busy writing love letters to the North Korean dictator? Which reminds me: Why did you call Vladimir Putin your BFF? What’s with this thing you have for murderous autocrats? Is it too hard for you to make friends with world leaders who are not tyrants?

Why can’t you take credit for the one big thing you did right during the Covid pandemic: encouraging the quick development of the Covid vaccine? Are you afraid of all the anti-vaxxers out there?

On January 6, while rioters attacked the Capitol, you sat there, did nothing, and watched television. We’re all curious: What did you have for lunch that day? 

You get the picture. You can concoct your own lines. Biden doesn’t need a long list of derisive assaults. Just a few. I bet Trump would take the bait. In the first debate of the 2020 campaign, Biden took a slap at Trump when the former reality TV host wouldn’t stop interrupting: “Would you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential.” He also referred to Trump as a “clown” and a “racist.” Biden was able to be sharp in his parries with Trump. Belittling him could yield the best payback.

David Corn’s American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy, a New York Times bestseller, is available in an expanded paperback edition.