‘He Didn’t Get Out His Points Very Well’: Political Scientist Discusses Biden Debate Performance

last year

On "Forbes Newsroom," political scientist Charles Lipson weighed in on President Biden's debate performance.

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Transcript

00:00I do want to get your take on some of his responses though because when the

00:05economy was brought up and one of his first responses Biden invoked

00:09Afghanistan and Afghanistan is probably one of the most contentious points of

00:14his presidency because of that chaotic withdrawal with 13 US service members

00:18dying Trump pounced on that Biden also had a question about abortion and he

00:24botched that response and abortion should be a layup for Democrats that's

00:29one of the issues where they're stronger on so what do you make of the substance

00:33of his responses as well well what Joe Biden what were his strong points what's

00:42his party's strong points obviously abortion or reproductive rights whatever

00:49you want to call it he a second surprisingly he's actually not ahead

00:57according to polling on defensive democracy but he is ahead on what

01:03people thought of January 6 and Trump not and Trump not conceding the last

01:10election really and Trump managed to squirm out of that Trump never answered

01:15that question but Biden didn't really effectively press it and that was a

01:22consistent theme he didn't get out his points very well and he didn't press

01:27his opponent very well the the third thing is that he's trying to say that

01:36the economy is doing well but according to polling voters don't think so even

01:43though we're in nearly full employment but the real problem is that real wages

01:50went down compared to very high inflation nominal wages didn't keep up

01:59with it so voters don't think they can afford the rent or to buy a house they

02:07they can see what's happening at the grocery store and so forth and Biden had

02:13to reassure voters on that and I don't think he managed to do that but again I

02:19don't think and I think conversely Trump pressed all of his major issues

02:26crime immigration you know control of the border the usual I'm gonna cut taxes

02:33Joe's gonna raise them Joe raised the traditional Democratic point it's just a

02:39tax cut for the rich I don't think that plays anymore very well and the reason I

02:44don't Brittany is that Trump has transformed the party it's no longer

02:48George HW Bush's party it's it's a populist party what's interesting is

02:54this morning as everyone's talking about the debate no one is talking about

02:59policy today they're not talking about what Joe Biden said they're talking

03:03about how he said it and if you turn on any network if you look at any paper the

03:09question of that's being floated is is Biden going to be replaced before the

03:15DNC what do you think well it's just guesswork but let me explain what the

03:22problems are the problems are first he's an incumbent president who has won the

03:31primaries he has the votes secondly there's no coherent party structure it's

03:38not like years ago when you could get the leaders of the party in a smoke-filled

03:44room and they could make some decisions they are the ones in Chicago in 1944 who

03:50picked Harry Truman as the vice president knowing that president

03:56Roosevelt was unlikely to make it through a next term so there's nothing

04:01like that if he doesn't want to move out I think the only person who can tell him

04:07it's just not going to work is Barack Obama but notice that Barack Obama

04:12apparently didn't do that when he could have and should have months and months

04:19ago or if he did Joe just told him buzz off I'm not I'm not moving the next

04:26problem is that the number two person would naturally want to move up Kamala

04:32well the Democrats have played identity politics as their principal card for

04:40years and years identity politics and wealth transfers and a big state that

04:49will do everything for you that's their platform and they're caught now because

04:56if they replace a black woman as the nominee of the party even if they done

05:03that months ago if they replace her and it's not a fair fight election you know

05:09it's not a nomination fight in which voters make that choice they're going to

05:16have a huge problem with the black vote especially black women it's not that

05:21black women are going to vote for Trump they're just going to stay home

‘He Didn’t Get Out His Points Very Well’: Political Scientist Discusses Biden Debate Performance

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