Thanks for posting this....although I was very late for bed because of it! Great article.‘Too little, too late’
The first presidential debate, at the end of September, was Trump’s opportunity to reframe and recharge his floundering campaign.
To prepare, the president ensconced himself in the White House Map Room, where advisers wandered in and out of the ad hoc sessions, offering advice and barking questions at him. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, urged the president to be aggressive with Biden — to push him off his talking points and trip him up. Advisers eschewed a traditional briefing book for notecard reminders, with bullet points outlining his key achievements so far and his goals for a second term.
And Fox News host Sean Hannity — who all summer had warned Kushner, Stepien and McDaniel that the campaign was faltering — texted suggestions, urging Trump to prepare rigorously, and raising additional concerns about the president’s standing and campaign strategy.
But shortly after taking the stage in Cleveland, it became clear that Trump was not going to turn in the performance his team was hoping for. He was confrontational and combative, brooding and belligerent. He failed to forcefully denounce white supremacy, at one point calling on the Proud Boys, a far-right, all-male group known for its violent tactics, to “stand back and stand by.” He interrupted Biden and the moderator a total of 145 times.
“The average American will choose a doddering old fool who is past his prime over a jerky bully every day of the week and twice on Sunday,” said one Trump ally close to the campaign. “That first debate was the worst of Trump without any of the good of Trump.”
The debate was one in a series of bruising missteps for Trump ending with the final debate in Nashville, about three weeks later. Between late September and mid-October, Trump announced Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett at a Rose Garden event that became a “superspreader” gathering; weathered several devastating news cycles, including the revelation in the New York Times that he paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2017; contracted the coronavirus himself as the West Wing became its own virus hot spot; refused to participate in the second presidential debate; and failed to denounce QAnon conspiracy theorists during a nationally televised town hall.
By the time Trump delivered a more measured debate performance Oct. 22, and Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court four days later, aides believed the president had finally begun to stabilize his sinking operation. But they also worried, in the words of one close confidant, that it was “too little, too late.”
Biden and his team approached the first debate differently, with the former vice president curtailing his already sparse schedule to hold rigorous preparation sessions.
Biden’s entourage was tested the night before the debate, so they could all fly to Cleveland together. Some flew out early that morning so they could get tested again. All of them wore masks. They kept a social distance. They washed their hands frequently.
“We’re in this hermetically sealed bubble,” said Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), who was in the small group of longtime Biden confidants who attended the debate. “We were all still distanced and still wearing masks.”
“Then they all come in, striding in not wearing masks,” Coons continued, referring to Trump’s family and advisers. “This isn’t just an attitude. This is dangerous.”
Then the debate itself began.
“That was just an unbelievable dump truck full of bile. It was a hate tornado,” said Coons, who found himself sitting within 10 feet of both Jill Biden and Donald Trump Jr. “If you had any doubt about the balance and the capabilities of our president, that one should have made that clear. This is not a balanced man. I mean, it was a wrestling match. It was a WWE throw-down. And that’s not what this moment calls for.”
Just over two days later, Trump announced he had tested positive for coronavirus.
Aides had hoped the president might use his diagnosis as an opportunity, emerging from his bout with the virus a more sympathetic figure — someone capable of showing compassion and empathy to a scarred nation. But Trump did not evolve.
During his stint at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, while still contagious, he took a spin outside the hospital in a Secret Service SUV to greet his supporters — a joyride that unnecessarily endangered the health of his security detail. And upon arriving back at the White House, still possibly infected with the virus, he triumphantly took off his mask before entering the residence.
“Trump’s own covid diagnosis made him a metaphor for the problem,” Law said. “In addition, the president’s persona and communications style were just the opposite of what the occasion required, in terms of buttoned-down messaging and expressing sympathy.”
Biden’s campaign advisers expressed public concern for Trump and his health, but they also decided to begin announcing more information about their candidate’s coronavirus testing, announcing every test result as a deliberate contrast from the White House.
Trump’s team felt the final debate could be pivotal. Trump had called Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the wake of the first debate, and Carlson offered blunt advice that many in Trump’s orbit were afraid to give: that the debate had gone poorly, in part because it was a mistake for Trump to assume that he could rely on a faltering Biden to simply deliver him a victory.
Trump’s advisers stressed that he needed to let Biden speak. Conway told Trump that the former vice president was easily flummoxed and didn’t have strong answers for many of his past positions.
By most accounts, Trump did better in the final debate. But by then, nearly 50 million Americans — a historically high number — had already voted.
“I was watching and I remember thinking that if this was what we were talking about, we would be winning,” said a former senior administration official. “But what does it matter now that 50 million people have now voted?”
Josh Holmes, a longtime McConnell adviser, said that for Trump, “the pandemic is the difference between him winning and losing.
“The better question is: Could he have still won during the pandemic?” Holmes continued. “I think we’ve seen a number of times when America has had great challenges, when you have leadership that’s rewarded. That just didn’t happen here.”