'Snap Judgments' Of Biden's Debate Performance Are 'Horribly Misleading': Presidential Historian

3 months ago

Historian and Professor Allan Lichtman joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss his legendary "Keys to the White House," why he says President Biden should not leave the 2024 race, and what the pundits and media are getting wrong.

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Transcript

00:00All the focus has been on Biden.

00:03As I said, you've fallen into,

00:05oh, we've already covered his lies, we know about them.

00:07I'm talking about covering the debate

00:11and focusing on how Donald Trump lied one lie

00:16for every one minute to 20 to 30 seconds of speaking time,

00:21how Donald Trump said he would not accept

00:23the results of a fair election,

00:25how Donald Trump said he would

00:27use his presidency as personal revenge.

00:30Look, the vast majority of the American people

00:33didn't see the debate.

00:35So they're taking their take on the debate from the media,

00:40which overwhelmingly focuses on Biden

00:44with almost no focus on Trump's performance in the debate

00:48because the media has fallen into the Trump trap.

00:52Oh, we know about Trump.

00:54These things are baked in.

00:56We don't have to worry about them.

01:00What did you think of President Biden's performance, though?

01:03Because you did compare it to Obama's performance in 2012.

01:07And I have seen that comparison,

01:10except President Obama, he could have had a dusty,

01:13a bad performance.

01:15Do you think that President Biden did better?

01:22The polls say yes.

01:24It's not just for me to judge.

01:2633% thought Biden won the debate.

01:28And you'd never know that from following the media coverage.

01:32You would think everyone thought, you know,

01:34Biden lost the debate.

01:36Only 20% thought Obama won the debate.

01:39And the swing of the polls was much bigger.

01:41My point is not to compare who is better or worse.

01:45You know, it's different times, different.

01:47But to make the point that these snap judgments,

01:50based on one debate, you know, can be so horribly misleading.

01:55What is the real Biden?

01:57The Biden who stumbled in the debate,

01:59or the Biden who was excellent in the State of the Union?

02:02You know, who not just on the teleprompter,

02:05but in dealing with the hecklers,

02:07and ad libbing, and, you know, being off the cuff.

02:10You know, it was very, very strong performance,

02:13or the strong Biden in the rallies.

02:15Now, think about this.

02:17What would happen if Biden, and this could be very possible,

02:21achieves a ceasefire and a hostage release in the Middle East?

02:27That would, again, shake things up fundamentally,

02:30and all of these snap judgments from these people

02:33who have no track record in predicting elections

02:36are going to be standing on their head.

'Snap Judgments' Of Biden's Debate Performance Are 'Horribly Misleading': Presidential Historian

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