It could be a well-rehearsed zinger, a too-loud sigh — or a full performance befuddled enough to shockingly end a sitting president’s reelection bid
.
Notable moments from past presidential debates
demonstrate how the candidates’ words and body language can make them look especially relatable or hopelessly out-of-touch — showcasing if a candidate is at the top of their policy game or out to sea. Will past be prologue when Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday?
“Being live television events, without a script, without any way of knowing how they are going to evolve — anything can happen,” said Alan Schroeder, author of “Presidential Debates: 50 years of High-Risk TV.”
Here’s a look at some highs, lows and curveballs from presidential debates past.
Biden blows it
Though it’s still fresh in the nation’s mind
, the June debate
in Atlanta pitting President Joe Biden
against Trump may go down as the most impactful political faceoff in history.
Biden, 81, shuffled onto the stage, frequently cleared his throat, said $15 when he meant that his administration helped cut the price of insulin to $35 per month on his first answer and inexplicably gave Trump an early chance to pounce on the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. It got even worse for the president 12 minutes in, when Biden appeared lose his train of thought entirely.
“The, uh — excuse me, with the COVID, um, dealing with, everything we had to do with, uh … if … Look …” Biden stammered before concluding ”we finally beat Medicare.” He meant that his administration had successfully taken on “big pharma,” some of the nation’s top prescription drug companies.
Biden at first blamed
having a cold, then suggested he’d overprepared. Later, he pointed to jetlag after pre-debate travel overseas.
In the frantic hours immediately after the debate, a Biden campaign spokesperson said, “ Of course, he’s not dropping out
.” That was correct until 28 days later, when the president did just that, bowing out and endorsing Harris on July 21.
The age question
Biden was asked in Atlanta about his age and got into an argument with Trump over golf. It was the opposite of knowing a sensitive question was coming and still making the answer sound spontaneous — a feat President Ronald Reagan pulled off while landing a line for the ages during 1984’s second presidential debate.
President Ronald Reagan, left, and his Democratic challenger Walter Mondale, shake hands before debating in Kansas City, Missouri, on Oct. 22, 1984.
Reagan was 73 and facing 56-year-old Democratic challenger Walter Mondale. In the first debate, Reagan struggled to remember facts and occasionally looked confused. An adviser suggested afterward that aides “filled his head with so many facts and figures that he lost his spontaneity.”
So Reagan’s team took a more hands-off approach toward the second debate. When Reagan got a question about his mental and physical stamina that he had to know was coming, he was ready enough to make the response feel unplanned.
Asked whether his age might hinder his handling of major challenges, Raegan responded, “Not at all,” before smoothly continuing: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The audience, and even Mondale, cracked up.
Then, capitalizing on years of Hollywood-honed comedic training, the president took a sip of water, giving the crowd more time to laugh. Finally, he grinned and left little doubt that he’d rehearsed, adding, “It was Seneca, or it was Cicero, I don’t know which, that said, ‘If it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state.’”
Years later, Mondale conceded, “That was really the end of my campaign that night.”
Reagan is further remembered for using a light touch to neutralize criticisms from Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a 1980 debate. When Carter accused him of wanting to cut Medicare, Reagan scolded, “There you go again.”
The line worked so well that he turned it into something of a trademark rejoinder going forward.
Gaffes galore
In 1976, Republican President Gerald Ford had a notable moment in a debate against Carter — and not in a good way. The president declared that there is “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”
Jimmy Carter, left, and Gerald Ford, right, shake hands before the third presidential debate, Oct. 22, 1976, in Williamsburg, Virginia.
With Moscow controlling much of that part of the world, the surprised moderator asked if he’d understood correctly. Ford stood by his answer, then spent days on the campaign trail trying to explain it away. He lost that November.
Another awkward moment came in 2012, when Republican nominee Mitt Romney got a debate question about gender pay equality and recalled soliciting women’s groups’ help to find qualified female applicants for state posts: “They brought us whole binders full of women.”
Aaron Kall, director of the University of Michigan’s debate program, said key lines affect not just who a debate’s perceived winner is but also fundraising and media coverage for days, or even weeks, afterward.
“The closer the election, the more zingers and important debate lines can matter,” Kall said.
Not all slips have a devastating impact, though.
Then-Sen. Barack Obama, in a 2008 Democratic presidential primary debate, dismissively told Hillary Clinton, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” That drew backlash, but Obama recovered.
The same couldn’t be said for the short-lived 2012 Republican primary White House bid of then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry
. Despite repeated attempts and excruciatingly long pauses, Perry could not remember the third of the three federal agencies he’d promised to shutter if elected.
Finally, he sheepishly muttered, “Oops.”
The Energy Department, which he later ran during the Trump administration, is what slipped his mind.
Getting personal
Another damaging moment opened a 1988 presidential debate, when Democrat Michael Dukakis was pressed about his opposition to capital punishment in a question that evoked his wife.
“If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?” CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked. Dukakis showed little emotion, responding, “I don’t see any evidence that it’s a deterrent.”
Dukakis later said he wished he’d said that his wife “is the most precious thing, she and my family, that I have in this world.”
That year’s vice presidential debate featured one of the best-remembered, pre-planned one-liners.
When Republican Dan Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy while debating Lloyd Bentsen, the Democrat was ready. He’d studied Quayle’s campaigning and seen him invoke Kennedy in the past.
“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy,” Bentsen began slowly and deliberately, drawing out the moment. “Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
President George H.W. Bush looks at his watch during the 1992 presidential campaign debate with other candidates, Independent Ross Perot, top, and Democrat Bill Clinton, not shown, at the University of Richmond, Virginia, Oct. 15, 1992.
The audience erupted in applause and laughter. Quayle was left to stare straight ahead.
Wordless blunders
Quayle and George H.W. Bush still easily won the 1988 election. But they lost in 1992 after then-President Bush was caught on camera looking at his watch while Democrat Bill Clinton talked to an audience member during a town hall debate. Some thought it made Bush look bored and aloof.
In another instance of a nonverbal debate miscue, then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore was criticized for a subpar opening 2000 debate performance with Republican George W. Bush in which he repeatedly and very audibly sighed.
During their second, town hall-style debate, Gore moved so close to Bush while the Republican answered one question that Bush finally looked over and offered a confident nod, drawing laughter from the audience.
A similar moment occurred in 2016, as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton faced the audience to answer questions during a debate with Trump. Trump moved in close behind her, narrowed his eyes and glowered.
Clinton later wrote of the incident: “He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled.”
That didn’t stop Trump from claiming the presidency a few weeks later.
A coalition of groups issued a warning on Monday about ongoing attempts to target Black voters with disinformation regarding the 2024 election.
“In 2024, an ‘onslaught of disinformation’ has targeted voters of color across the nation, and this may be even more acute for Black voters. Genuine Black voter discontent is creating a fertile environment for distrust and disillusionment to seed and disinformation to spread,” Onyx Impact Coalition, a nonprofit that counters disinformation aimed at Black communities, wrote in its open letter
to Black media organizations.
“While Black voters are likely less susceptible to many disinformation narratives given their deserved higher levels of skepticism in institutions and government overall, when disinformation is targeted and comes from messengers with standing in the community, it can be incredibly effective and dangerous,” it continued.
The group also noted the long history
of disinformation within the United States meant to minimize the impact of Black voters. And the letter was signed by the groups Advancement Project, Black Male Voter Project, Working Families Party, and Higher Heights.
The warning comes after several high-profile incidents using false information to promote Donald Trump’s relationship with the Black community.
In March, Trump supporters, including right-wing radio host Mark Kaye, disseminated
AI-generated images of Trump hugging Black people who purportedly support his campaign. Reporting on the fake photos, the BBC noted some Facebook users believed the images were real.
In April, Trump’s campaign promoted an appearance with a Black audience at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, as evidence that he was broadening his appeal to a demographic that has historically opposed him.
But the event was not organic. It was arranged
by Black conservative activist Michaelah Montgomery, who said she received advance notice that Trump would appear at the restaurant. She told the Associated Press, “Everybody got together at around 9:30 in the morning and walked on over to the Chick-fil-A and then we sat there and waited until the president showed up.” Montgomery also appeared
on stage with Trump at a rally in August.
Trump has a long history of open racism and hostility toward Black people. Before becoming a politician, Trump advocated
for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino young men who were falsely accused of sexual assault and later exonerated.
For years, Trump was also the most prominent supporter
of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory that falsely claimed President Barack Obama was a foreign national and not eligible for the presidency.
In the White House, Trump referred
to countries with large Black populations as “shithole” nations.
After he lost the 2020 election, Trump incited
racist attacks on election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two Black women who were poll workers in Georgia. Trump, along with his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani, spread false conspiracy theories accusing the women of interfering with election results.
Trump’s direct interactions with the Black community have been far more toxic than the AI images and arranged meetings would indicate.
In a July appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago, Trump complained
that the invitation had been made under “false pretenses” when ABC News reporter Rachel Scott, a Black woman, questioned him about his racial track record.
Trump also alleged
in that interview that Vice President Kamala Harris had only recently “happened to turn Black.”
Asked about the exchange in a later CNN interview, Harris dismissed
Trump’s bigotry, noting that he was utilizing the “same old tired playbook.”
Discussing this Tuesday’s presidential debate in an interview
on The Rickey Smiley Show, Harris went into further detail on the Trump “playbook,” saying:
“He plays with this really old and tired playbook, right? Where he, there’s no floor for him in terms of how low he would go. And we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth. And we should be prepared for the fact that he is probably going to speak a lot of untruth. And ultimately, you know, what I intend to point out is what we, as many people know and certainly as I’m traveling the country in this campaign, he, he tends to fight for himself, not for the American people.”
Recent polling
shows high levels of support for Harris’ campaign among Black voters. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Sept. 9 found 82% of Black registered voters backing Harris, compared with 12% for Trump. Harris’ showing in the poll is an increase from the 74% who backed President Joe Biden in an earlier version of the poll, taken in April.
In the 2020 election, Trump was trounced
by Biden among Black voters, losing 13% to 87%, according to exit polls. Trump’s poor performance came despite repeatedly claiming
he had done the most for Black voters since President Abraham Lincoln.
Abortion access is broadly popular
, and whenever the issue has appeared on a ballot since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion rights have prevailed
. The right miscalculated wildly
here, clearly unprepared for the idea that taking bodily autonomy away from half the population would galvanize voters. With abortion on the ballot in 10 states in 2024, conservatives aren’t focusing on turning out their ostensible majority of anti-abortion voters. Rather, they’re engaging in anti-democratic efforts to block people from voting on abortion rights at all. It’s just another component of the right’s strategy to render elections a chaotic, confusing process.
Let’s start with Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis is trying to impose his retrograde hard-right views on his citizens. These days, that means sending law enforcement officers to question voters
who signed a petition to get abortion rights on the ballot. DeSantis is deploying the weight and resources of the state to assert, without evidence, that there was fraud
in obtaining petition signatures, all despite that the deadline to challenge signatures passed months ago
. It’s voter intimidation, pure and simple.
Florida’s ballot measure would enshrine constitutional protections for abortion into the state’s constitution by amending it to prohibit
any laws that ban or restrict abortion before fetal viability. Polls show a majority
of Florida’s voters support
the measure, so conservatives have pulled out all the stops to get it off the ballot. Despite their rhetoric that they wanted abortion “returned to the states,” what conservatives like DeSantis really want is to ban abortion even if their voters don’t.
In a speech about the ballot measure last month, DeSantis admitted
, “If you look at the state of Florida, we do not have a pro-life majority. We’ve got a big chunk, but we don’t have a majority. If only people that are pro-life oppose it, it very well might pass.” In a normal, functional democracy, this would mean that Florida’s pro-abortion-rights majority would prevail and abortion would be constitutionally protected in the state. Instead, DeSantis is trying to make sure this majority doesn’t get to vote on it.
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd recently ordered
elections supervisors in multiple counties to examine at least 36,000 petition forms, even though the state’s elections officials already reviewed and approved those signatures. Byrd, who was appointed by
DeSantis in 2022, is no neutral overseer of the electoral process. He’s an election denier
who oversees the state’s election integrity unit
, where he goes after the nonexistent problem of voter fraud by doing things like fining groups
that register voters. He’s married to
a QAnon-curious insurrection enthusiast and Moms for Liberty member. In other words, Byrd is the perfect DeSantis appointee to helm an attack on democracy.
Besides having police knock on people’s doors
to ask if they really, truly meant to sign a petition, the state is focusing on “circulators”—paid groups that work to obtain signatures. The state department has asked
to pull every verified petition associated with certain circulators, saying they “represent known or suspected fraudsters.”
Presumably, by saying signatures from certain circulators were all obtained by fraud, the state is hoping it can mass invalidate enough signatures to get below the threshold required to get a measure on the ballot. Organizers were required to collect 891,523 petition signatures
, and they got 993,387—a cushion of over 100,000 signatures. It’s not clear how this effort is different from a regular signature challenge or why DeSantis should be allowed to pursue it months after the deadline, but who can stop him?
The state is also spending taxpayer money to attack the measure by having the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration put up a new official web page
saying the abortion measure threatens women’s safety. It’s full of right-wing talking points about how Florida’s anti-abortion laws are there to mitigate health risks to women and children and stop dangerous, unsanitary abortions, and the page warns that Florida would become an “abortion tourism” state if the measure passes. And while Florida law forbids
state employees from using their official authority to influence an election, it seems unlikely any employee of DeSantis’ administration will be slapped with the misdemeanor charge the statute carries.
Over in Missouri, the judiciary is aiding anti-abortion forces. Last Friday, Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh—Rush Limbaugh’s cousin
—ruled that the abortion measure already on the ballot did not comply
with state law regarding signature gathering for petitions. Missouri requires that a petition for signature collection disclose all sections of existing law or the constitution that would be repealed if the ballot measure passes.
As in Florida, the measure has strong support
, with 52% of likely voters saying they’ll vote in favor, including 32% of Republicans. But in suing to invalidate the petition, the plaintiffs raised a host of right-wing culture warrior fears, saying the language could also
overturn the state’s bans on female genital mutilation and cloning and let transgender minors get gender-affirming medical care. Limbaugh sided with anti-abortion activists, including two state lawmakers
, and ruled that the petition was a “blatant violation” of the law since it didn’t include a laundry list of everything that might be affected by a proposed
broad constitutional provision protecting reproductive freedom.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the group backing the ballot measure, has filed a notice of appeal
. Limbaugh did not order the measure removed from the ballot, saying that would be for another court to decide, but since the deadline for ballot printing
is Tuesday, it isn’t clear what will happen if a higher court agrees and strikes the measure, or what happens if the matter is still undecided in the courts when the ballot deadline passes.
What is clear—in both Missouri and Florida—is that conservatives will do anything to make sure that voters don’t have a voice on abortion, so much so that they are willing to throw the ballot process in their state into disarray. Indeed, that disarray is likely viewed as a feature, not a bug. Across battleground states, the GOP is planning to
disrupt and delay election certification and is filing lawsuits
about election processes, with the hope of sowing confusion in the event of a close race. These attempts to thwart a vote on abortion rights by last-minute attacks fit neatly within an overall plan
to create enough electoral bedlam that Trump somehow gets ushered into office even if he doesn’t win.
And that, of course, would be the most anti-democratic result of all.
On Sunday, Donald Trump posted a claim
that 20% of mail-in votes in Pennsylvania are fraudulent. “Here we go again!” Trump wrote as he called for Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI to investigate.
It’s going to be a brief investigation. Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots have not even been sent out yet
. In fact, due to several unresolved court cases
, it’s unlikely that ballots in some counties in the state will be sent to voters before the first week of October.
So, even if Trump was right, 20% of zero is still zero. Case closed.
But of course, Trump isn’t concerned about these nonexistent votes. He’s just preparing for the next round of protests and insurrection, planting the seeds for Big Lie 2.0. So that if he loses, everyone loses. And if he wins … everyone loses.
Trump’s source for the revelation that votes that haven’t happened yet are already fake comes from disgraced former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson. The fact that Carlson has been cavorting with Nazis
to the extent that even conservatives have been running away from him, doesn’t bother Trump. Neither does Carlson being a sycophant of Russian President Vladimir Putin
.
But then, if Trump was to stop quoting right-wing pundits who either defended Nazis
or were in the pocket of Russia
, who would he have left to quote?
Trump’s claim about Pennsylvania doesn’t represent concern over votes in the state. Just as in 2016
and 2020
, Trump is lying about voter fraud or a “rigged election” far in advance of Election Day. He’s preparing to lose and prepping his followers to repeat the kind of actions seen in 2020 to perpetuate the Big Lie.
Even if Trump did recently slip up and admit that he lost in 2020
, that doesn’t mean he intends to be more honest, or more accepting of the outcome, in 2024.
One thing has changed since 2020. After years of making claims that mail-in votes were intrinsically unlawful, Trump did a massive flip-flop
last spring and began to encourage his supporters to use mail-in ballots as well as other forms of early voting. The Republican Party has continued this push
, with a program called “Swamp the Vote.” Swamp is apparently a good thing when it means more votes for Trump.
But don’t expect Trump to stick to any consistent message on either mail-in voting or absentee ballots. They’re a good thing when it’s his people filling out the form. They’re a disaster when he needs an excuse.
The Harris-Walz campaign on Monday released a new ad
highlighting major Republican figures who have worked with Donald Trump that have now shunned him and oppose his presidential campaign.
The ad, titled “The Best People,” is set to run on Fox News Channel and in West Palm Beach, Florida (where Trump’s home/resort Mar-A-Lago is located) ahead of the upcoming presidential debate.
Included in the ad are quotes from many who were part of Trump’s first administration: former Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, national security adviser John Bolton, and General Mark Milley.
“Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence said.
When asked if the nation’s secrets are safe with Trump, Esper answered, “No, I mean, it’s just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk.”
Bolton states that “Trump will cause a lot of damage. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump.”
The ad follows recent announcements
from former Rep. Liz Cheney and former Vice President Dick Cheney—both prominent Republicans—that they would be voting for Harris in the election, citing the threat that Trump represents to democracy.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again,” Cheney said in a statement
.
Trump infamously called on Pence to subvert the U.S. Constitution following their joint loss to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2020 presidential election. On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump posted on X, formerly Twitter
, “States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
Pence declined to follow Trump’s demand and instead followed federal law by voting to certify the election results. Trump then encouraged his supporters to attack the Capitol, for which he was later impeached
(for a second time).
The new ad also highlights the rupture in the relationship between Trump and Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump. Milley and the other heads of America’s military branches (Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, and Coast Guard) sent out a statement
in January 2021 condemning the Jan. 6 attack.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley
In a 2023 speech
excerpted in the commercial, Milley warned of “wannabe dictators” in what was widely seen as a condemnation of Trump.
“We are unique among the world’s militaries. We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or a tyrant or a dictator,” Milley said. “And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America—and we’re willing to die to protect it.”
As part of his campaign, Trump has said he would use
the power of the presidency in a second term to round up and mass deport undocumented immigrants. Trump has also said
he would seek retribution against his political enemies.
Since being sworn into office in 2021, Biden has used the presidency to advocate for freedom and has warned
about the autocratic threat from Trump and the Republican Party. In his July address from the Oval Office announcing his decision to step down from the presidential race, Biden said the move was motivated by his support for democracy.
“The great thing about America is, here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands, the idea of America lies in your hands,” Biden said.
“Freedom” has been the central theme of Harris’ campaign since she took over from Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee. She has taken Trump to task for his decisions that directly led to Roe v. Wade being overturned and abortion rights being upended, as well as his actions to subvert democracy.
Speaking in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in August, at the same site where Trump accepted the Republican nomination a few weeks before, Harris summarized the campaign’s theme.
“We are witnessing across our nation a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won, fundamental freedoms and rights across our nation, like the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride,” Harris said
.
