Chris Honoré: A Debate Narrative – Ashland News

Unknowns after the 2024 presidential debate lead to questioning of all candidates

By Chris Honoré

The prologue:

At campaign rallies, in interviews, during an unexpected four-year term marked by a deadly “should we try injecting bleach?” pandemic, two impeachments, a penchant for dictators followed by a mendacious response to his loss of the White House in 2020 expressed in “The Big Lie/Stop the Steal,” and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, stunningly revealed on January 6, when he incited an armed, violent mob to invade the Capitol while simultaneously plotting to prevent the peaceful democratic transfer of power, we have come to know Donald Trump and his frightening MAGA base (which now includes the Republican Party).

And let’s not forget, two courts have ruled against him – one (in a civil case) for sexual assault, followed by a conviction on 34 counts of paying so-called “hush money” to a porn star.

In other words, when we hear commentators, columnists and elected officials say that Trump poses an existential threat to our democracy, they are not exaggerating; they are reminding us that the stakes in the 2024 election are staggering. That is the context for the future.

The debate:

And so, along with some 50 million Americans, I watched the first of two scheduled presidential debates not with trepidation but with anticipation. I fully expected that the Joe Biden who took his place on the CNN podium would be the same man who stood before Congress and delivered a forceful, challenging State of the Union address. I paid little attention to Donald Trump when he appeared stage left, wearing his trademark red tie. After the moderators had made their introductory remarks, the questioning began. I don’t remember if Biden answered the first question, but I will never forget his first answer. His voice was soft, scratchy, his words clashed, his tone hesitant, lacking strength and conviction.

I remember silently urging him to clear his throat, reach under the podium, and take a sip of water while Trump spoke. Every question Trump was asked was an opportunity for rebuttal, every lie Trump told (the New York Times counted 41 false or misleading statements) was begging to be addressed and challenged.

Trump was repeatedly asked a direct question that was ignored, with no comment from the moderators. Has he not advocated mass roundups of illegal immigrants, some of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades, to hold them in camps while they await deportation? Never answered. Would he accept the final result of the 2024 election, regardless of the outcome? His answer: only if it is fair. In this ambiguity lies the fact that he will be the final arbiter.

The debate continued, and at times the president seemed disoriented, and my concern grew. Was it Joe’s job to challenge Trump’s statements and point out that Trump’s answers revealed a grim, dystopian picture of America reminiscent of his inaugural speech, “American Carnage”? I waited. Biden’s time in office was extraordinary, his accomplishments a striking contrast to Trump’s four years of chaos and mendacity. “Come on, Joe. You can do this. This is your moment,” I told myself. “The guy is an empty suit.” And I was still waiting. “Maybe in his closing argument,” I thought, suddenly feeling helpless.

The country needed a hard-hit fly ball into the cheap seats. OK, a triple would work. Then steal home. But that wasn’t going to happen.

The epilogue:

Of course, soon after the president and candidate left the stage, another painful debate erupted among Democrats. Imagine a stone dropped in the middle of a calm pond, sending out concentric ripples in all directions, each growing larger and faster. And so this new debate grew increasingly heated, ending in a throat-cloggling staccato of questions or statements: Is Joe too old? Was his performance a one-off? Did he just have a bad night? Can he hold his own as president for another four years? The level of concern has reached seismic potential.

Donald Trump simply cannot win the presidency. He must not return to the White House. Maybe he can last another four years, but our democracy will not. As I write this, two weeks have passed, and this unprecedented stress test for Democrats continues. With a mixture of regret and urgency, the number of elected Democrats calling for President Biden’s resignation is growing.

Time is of the essence, we are told. And then there is this: The media ignores Trump and his disturbing tirades on “Truth Social” but continues to microscopically report Joe Biden’s every word spoken while pointing out his reliance on the teleprompter. It is a major failure of the media to mention, either in print or on screen, that the president has struggled with a pronounced stutter since childhood. I wonder if he prefers the teleprompter because it allows him to avoid hesitating when searching for an elusive word. And isn’t it possible that childhood stuttering affects adult speech in such a way that hasty or seemingly uncertain syntax can be misinterpreted as some kind of cognitive decline?

Admittedly, with Trump, it is not the volume or the language, but his reckless, terrifying content, his jumbled word salads followed by paragraphs of authoritarian non sequiturs. Isn’t his blatant, reflexive lying, his relentless desire for feverish retribution, pathological? Isn’t that a question Republicans should be asking themselves? How this breathtaking, unprecedented moment will end is still unknown. What is known is that Donald Trump must not win the 2024 election.

Yet I continue to believe that on his worst day (e.g. during the recent debate), Joe Biden was far superior to Donald Trump, who, after joining NATO, could not have stood at the podium and answered questions from the press that required an extraordinary level of understanding, experience and knowledge. And I hope voters know that while President Biden was meeting with NATO leaders, he was hosting an authoritarian ally.
by Putin.

Email Ashland resident Chris Honoré at [email protected].