Did the Debate Hurt Biden in the Polls?
So far, maybe not.
The news media landscape is still littered with articles, essays, and long opinion pieces about President Joe Biden’s disappointing Thursday performance in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle.
Many Democrats were less than impressed with President Biden’s showing against former President Donald Trump.
CNN broadcast and mediated the debate, eventually getting both sides to agree to two televised debates—one in June and another to be held in September. Two of CNN’s top media personalities agreed to moderate.
The Biden campaign had two conditions: That the first debate be held in June, long before debates usually occur in the election cycle; and no studio audience.
CNN introduced a third condition — that both candidates’ microphones be automatically silenced at the end of their turn to speak.
Under those three conditions, Donald Trump’s campaign team accepted.
Silencing microphones kept rude interruptions and incomprehensible cross-talk at a minimum. But contrary to what CNN moderators and executives might have hoped, the rule seemed to benefit Trump far more than Biden.
Unfortunately, the conditions set forth by the Biden Administration also appear to have…