On Thursday night, millions of Americans watched as Joe Biden appeared, hesitant, faltering, dazed, seemingly bearing the weight of his 81 years of life. Democrats were stunned.
Fourteen hours later, a small television audience saw a different Joe Biden: powerful, confident, and ready to throw political punches at former President Donald J. Trump with ease. Democrats in the room cheered.
Biden and his supporters must have wished the order had been reversed. Joe Biden One’s tepid and weak performance immediately sent panic waves through those who had been determined that Trump would lose the November debates. Some even publicly floated the unthinkable: a new candidate.
His afternoon appearance at a warehouse at the North Carolina fairgrounds was attended by far fewer witnesses and is unlikely to immediately quell the fears of Washington consultants, media pundits and ordinary voters.
But in the midst of the panic, Joe Biden II showed that even after 50 years in public office, he could still pump his fist in the air, whip up the crowd and inspire a perhaps unruly coalition to vote for him once more.
But the question remains: Could Biden manage the strict debate rules of 90 minutes with no notes, no teleprompters and no audience, and even if he showed up on Thursday night, could he show up every day for the remaining four months of the campaign?
The Republican answer was already no even before Thursday’s debate. This part of Trump’s attacks on Biden is sure to intensify in the coming days. And some Democrats who have long privately worried that the answer is no have signaled that they are willing to say so publicly, at least for now.
Speaking to reporters early Friday after the debate, Biden offered little inspiring remarks, telling them “I think we did a good job.”On Friday afternoon, he acknowledged his age and its impact on his ability to perform on the biggest political stage.
“I know I’m not young anymore,” he told supporters, adding that he “can’t speak as smoothly as I used to.”
But the difference between the two looks couldn’t be more striking.
On Thursday night, Joe Biden One struggled to deliver a sharp and cogent criticism of Trump, despite having been holed up at Camp David for more than a week, surrounded by a rotating entourage and given ample time to rest.
He conflated trillionaires with billionaires when answering a question about the debt, then bragged about “what I’ve accomplished with COVID, with everything that’s had to be done,” before pausing to breathe and concluding bluntly: “We finally beat Medicare.”
It was one of many comments from Trump: “Yes, he’s right. He defeated Medicare. He defeated it big time.”
Joe Biden II was the opposite: For roughly 20 minutes, with the help of a teleprompter and an enthusiastic audience, he barely missed a beat.
“He really set a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” Biden said of Trump.
“That’s why I call him Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump,” Biden said, accusing Trump of being one of only two presidents to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office.
After listing the cases filed against his rival, Biden said, “I believe Donald Trump is not just a convicted felon. Donald Trump is a wave of one criminal.”
These three comments were the kind of cynical remarks that would have carried enormous political gains had they been delivered with the same fervor Thursday night.
Joe Biden 2 clearly and concisely explained his positions on abortion, immigration, taxes and race relations, while Joe Biden 1 conflated these issues, sometimes conflating them in the same sentence. Joe Biden 2 was clear that Trump threatens democracy, while Joe Biden 1 left viewers perplexed about the issues the president has long cited as his motivation for running for president in 2020.
It remains to be seen whether Biden’s comments on Friday will spark social media buzz or be repeated by the media and bring about change.
But either way, the president’s supporters were faced with a difficult reality: The only way a candidate named Joe Biden could beat Trump to hold onto the White House for the next four years was to ensure that it was Joe Biden 2 who showed up every day.
Reid Hoffman, one of the Democratic Party’s leading donors, appeared to harbor such hopes when he emailed his network on Friday to try to tamp down discussion of Biden’s transition.
“I watched Biden’s rally in North Carolina this afternoon. He was energetic and relentlessly demolished Trump’s hateful rhetoric and lies,” he wrote, adding: “I wish Biden had been there last night, but that’s the nature of Joe Biden. He tends to bounce back and win even when he performs poorly.”
