With the conclusion of the first debate leading up to the 2024 presidential election, party leaders in both the Democratic and Republican factions are frantically analyzing the performances of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the respective nominees. Biden’s performance in particular has received scrutiny for appearing to some to reflect a declining sharpness as he ages. Though Trump is less than three years younger than Biden, pundits largely agreed Biden was the less succinct of the two.
One party leader tasked with navigating the aftermath of a less-than-stellar debate performance by the incumbent Biden is Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried. In comments reported by FloridaPolitics, Fried maintained that Biden is the clear choice in his general election rematch versus Trump.
“The more people hear from Donald Trump, the more they remember how much they dislike him,” Fried said in a pre-written statement. “He spent the entire debate lying about his record, bragging about overturning Roe v Wade, and refusing to answer questions about accepting election results — and a Univision focus group of undecided Latino voters left the debate almost 100% behind President Biden.”
As Fried mentioned, the decision of Latino voters will likely be key in Florida’s allegiance this election. Florida’s Cuban-American voters in particular supported Trump with a 56-41 majority over Biden in 2020, triggering Florida’s reddest showing in a presidential election since 2004.
“The choice this November is clear: giving the nuclear codes to an unhinged felon like Donald Trump, or re-electing President Biden and his clear vision to move America forward,” Fried continued. “Florida Democrats will do everything possible to make that choice clear between now and November.”
In a state that’s seen notable shifts to the right ever since Trump’s statistically-improbable 2016 election win, Fried remains one of the few Democratic politicians in the state with major victories under her belt. Elected Agriculture Commissioner in 2018, Fried still holds the most recent victory for a Florida Democrat in a statewide election. She was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief sparring partner in Tallahassee, before running to take his job in 2022. She was bested in the Democratic primary by Charlie Crist, before being elected party chair the following February.
“My mother always told me that she can handle anything besides a liar,” Fried said on her X profile following the debate. “Trump spent the entire evening lying and not answering questions. One thing continues to be true, Trump is an existential threat to democracy.”
Fried’s avoidance of directly praising Biden’s debate performance is representative of the broader messaging strategy of prominent Democrats. A YouGov poll after the debate showed three in ten Democrats thinking a different nominee would boost their chances. Even some of Biden’s closest allies are instead drawing attention away from the importance of debates, and onto the candidates’ comparative track records. “Bad debate nights happen,” said former President Barack Obama on X. “But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
Still, some metrics indicate the debate wasn’t unsalvageable. CNN, who hosted the telecast of the debate, posted mixed polling numbers afterward with some categories showing their viewers favored Biden.
BK
July 1, 2024 at 8:13 am
The left keeps talking about Trump lying; give me one example, please. Meanwhile in the 2020 debate Biden was asked directly if he had any involvement with his son’s business or business partners. He said he “never” had any knowledge of his son’s business dealings. Well, as it turns out he appeared in a number of photographs with Hunter’s business partners and was mentioned as a 10 percent partner in at least one of them. Hunter complained that he had spent half of his life giving his father half of his income. E-mails verified Joe Biden was involved in the businesses that produced nothing but raked in millions of dollars from companies in places like China and Russia, not to mention Hunter made a million dollars a year as a board member of Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine despite having no experience in the energy business and being heavily addicted to crack and alcohol at the time. In fact, it was Burisma that was being investigated by Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin while Hunter was on the board. Joe Biden demanded, (on video no less) that Shokin be fired or Ukraine would not receive one billion dollars in U.S. aid; son-of-a-bitch, they fired him in six hours and Ukraine got the money. When Trump became president and asked Zelensky to investigate this corrupt act, Trump was impeached for a “quid-pro-quo.” Wait, Biden got the quid-pro-quo, but never mind. Also, there were 170 suspicious activity reports filed with the Treasury Department regarding overseas transactions to Hunter’s companies, ALL of which were ignored, for some reason. How did we discover all of this and much more? From Hunter’s laptop; yes, the one that 51 former intelligence officer of OUR country declared Russian disinformation right before the 2020 election (it has been determined that the laptop is real and belonged to Hunter.) That means our intelligence apparatus, not Russia’s meddled in the 2020 election in favor of Biden. “Russia, Russia, Russia” should have been appropriately called “CIA, CIA, CIA.” This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we actually know about ol’ honest Joe Biden yet the gullible keep saying Trump is the liar. Wise up CNN watchers.