2024 Trump-Biden Debate Recap

2024 Presidential Debate

For those that want to read a quick recap, I will try to touch on some of the key points here. I want to first highlight the absurdity of this format. We are talking about who gets to lead the United States of America as our empire declines & the world teeters on the precipice of World War 3. To determine who is the ‘right choice’ these two candidates, from the 2 corrupt and in-control parties, are given 2 minutes to answer and 1 minute for rebuttals. Their mics are muted after there time so they cannot speak out of turn. This is what voters are encouraged to base their choice of President on.

Initial Impressions

I would definitely give ‘home field advantage’ to Biden here. The 2 ‘moderators’ are definitely left leaning and we have seen the CNN bias for the past 8 years. The short answer format (this is unfortunately relatively standard though), mic muting, no audience etc all seem to benefit Biden more than Trump. Right from the start, things looked bad for Biden, he came shuffling out, pointing to … maybe a cameraman(?) and mumbling. Trump walked out relatively normal, I didn’t get much from his entrance.

Inflation, Jobs & Debt

Biden mentioned the COVID unemployment number but he did NOT inherit those numbers like he claims. In March of 2020 unemployment DID reach about 15% (14.8%), this is back when some jobs were deemed ‘essential’ and others were not. The unemployment rate quickly recovered, when Biden took over in January of 2021, the unemployment rate was 6.4% and rapidly declining.

Trump stated “we got hit with COVID… we spent the money necessary so we wouldn’t end up in a Great Depression”. He is probably right! COVID caused everything to crash and under Trump we printed money and took on debt to buy our way out of a crash. In my article Trump & Biden: Money supply, inflation & debt I cover this in more detail. My conclusion there is that Trump caused much of the inflation we see today by increasing the M2 money supply (printing money) in response to COVID. Now, you can argue that is justified (i am always against inflation and its follow on consequences) but that is a different argument.

Both Trump & Biden were bad on debt, as were almost all the Presidents since the Federal Reserve was created. Biden flat out lied about his tax policy. He stated that ‘billionaires pay 8.2% in taxes’ and if they paid ‘24 or 25%’ we could ‘wipe out the debt’ by raising $500 billion in the next 10 years. None of this is true. The wealthiest 1% paid an average tax rate of 25.99% in 2020. The current budget deficit is $1.9 TRILLION PER YEAR. $500 billion over 10 years is a drop in the bucket.

Roe v Wade

Any time something is handled at a lower level of government it is more representative of the people. Ideally, most things would be handled at the local level and the state and especially federal leadership wouldn’t matter much.

I agree with Trump on this topic, he stated that ‘now the states are working it out’, and they are. He also stated he believes in exceptions for “rape, incest and the life of the mother” (high-level) I agree here as well.

Biden claimed that “Fifty-one years, Constitutional Scholarship said it was the right way to go”. In reality, even the extreme left Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg acknowledged Roe was on shaky legal footing.

Terrorist attack?

So this took a little digging. I think Biden mixed up the numbers with the 3 soldiers recently killed (while he was president) in Jordan and the truck attack in NYC while Trump was president. That truck ramming attack resulted in EIGHT people being killed, not 3.

I think it is notable that Biden couldn’t keep his facts straight here, he had a point to make, but mixed up recent events and previous events.

Immigration

Biden claims that “Border Patrol men endorsed me, endorsed my position”, maybe some ones and twos but the union certainly did not (see below).

The union sure didn’t

Biden mentions babies taken away from mothers and put in cages under trump and states that he has 40% fewer people coming across the border. Importantly, at this point Biden loses the ability to put together a coherent sentence and the anchors quickly jump to Trump.

Looking at the ‘national encounter’ information from Customs & Border Patrol, we can see a huge uptick under the Biden Presidency. The ‘40% fewer’ claim, might be based on the year-to-date number for 2024, but that is merely because we have half a year to go. Biden is measurably MUCH worse on immigration than Trump based on this metric.

*note: Southwest encounters accounted for ~82% of all encounters each year. In 2019 I only had Southwest encounter data & used the 82% figure to estimate the total.

CBP.gov

Veterans

Biden mentioned the Pact act and all he has done for veterans. Biden quickly got angry and brought up his son’s service and death and called Trump a sucker and loser.

There isn’t a solid source that can put the ‘suckers and losers’ quote on Trump. Given the dishonest nature of those in government & in media, I think Trumps defense of ‘who would say that in front of generals’ makes sense.

The PACT act is good for veterans, it adds a list of illnesses that can be ‘presumed to be’ from exposure to toxic chemicals (like those from burn pits etc.). This is a W for Biden (even if just because it came to his desk during his term).

Bottom line, the VA sucks. It was created to track veteran health issues, we can do that with a database. Make all elected politicians be on the same plan as veterans and veterans will finally (magically) get the level of care they deserve.

Foreign Policy & Wars

I want to add in this quote from George Washington again because it is SO relevant today. I cover this in detail in American Victory.

“A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils…And it gives ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without Odium, sometimes even with popularity…” — George Washington, Farewell Address 1796

Gaza & Israel

Trump points out that America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan encouraged ‘our enemies’, I think there is truth to this. I cover our waning power here, there are many aspects of it, but the Afghanistan withdrawal was embarrassing.

The CNN anchors posed the questions in the most pro-israel framing possible. Trump seemed to want to skirt around the topic, it is politically a lose-lose for him. Biden is losing the Arab & Muslim vote for supporting Genocide, all Trump has to do is be quiet. His assertion that he made Iran broke is irrelevant, the weapons that Hezbollah & Hamas has were not accumulated in the past 2-4 years, they have been accumulated over a decade. In reality, Trump’s Abraham accords that sought to cut Palestinians out of ANY regional peace deals is what led to 10/7. It was a last ditch effort to ensure Palestinians wouldn’t be ‘wiped from the board’. An act of desperation from people whose natural rights have been denied to them for over 75 years. I cover it in detail here.

Trump correctly points out that Israel is the one that wants the war to continue, this is 100% true, Netanyahu repeatedly refuses peace. He then tries to insult (?) Biden by calling him a Palestinian, but then calls him a ‘weak one’. If I am being blindly generous, ill take the compliment that Palestinians are strong (76 years of resistance proves that to be true). When asked if Trump would support an independent Palestinian state he said quickly ‘I’d have to see’ before changing the subject.

Biden went on to plead , literally plead, his case for why he is Israel’s ‘number one guy’. He is right about the 2,000lb bombs but it is too little to late. I encourage you to read this section of American Victory if you don’t read the whole article.

NATO & Ukraine

Trump asserts that he will ‘have the war settled’ as President elect. I think that is a bit of a stretch, but I do think we can push for peace relatively easily (same in Gaza, if we so choose).

NATO is not in America’s best interest, Europe is taking advantage of us, mocks us for our lack of infrastructure and healthcare while benefiting wholly from our over-expenditure on military, in part to protect Europe. Again, read American Victory for more details. Trump, in my opinion is one step away from the ‘right answer’ here. He thinks there is a price where it makes sense to risk American lives, liberty & property on behalf of Europe and I argue that there is no monetary value worth the risk.

Biden starts waving the fear flag of Russia invading all of Europe. This is unlikely, one because it would be incredibly difficult. Support through arms and munitions isn’t the same as getting all of Europe to actually fight against a nation. Two, the war was triggered by NATO expansionism, 4 days after Harris affirmed Ukraine’s ‘right’ to join NATO, Russia invaded. This has ALWAYS been a red-line for Russia for many reasons. I think most importantly, it is a huge border and NATO in Ukraine would jeopardize Russian access to the Black Sea.

Trump later spoke about how Ukraine is losing (near the end of the debate). We need to accept this fact and negotiate from this stance. Ukraine will not get the territory back that Russia has claimed, not most of it at least. Russia is effectively in a defensive position there now and will not be easily dislodged.

January 6th & other nonsense

January 6th was primarily a group of protesters trespassing in the federal building. I’m sure some had nefarious goals and those few should be charged with the relevant crimes. While politicians of both parties sat by and did nothing to prevent rioting, pillaging and destruction in OUR communities, they came together to protect what they see as the holy institution of the state. ‘Attack each other fine, but don’t you dare come at the state’ , that is what they want us to get from January 6. It should enrage all Americans.

The prosecution of Trump was a farce, the resulting swell of donations that flooded in after his guilty verdict shows that many Americans agree with this assessment. The neo-nazi coming from the woods? Charlottesville is a city, the protests were in a city, I think the ‘woods’ imagery is just more Biden dementia. Please just read Trump’s actual words here (snopes highlighted in bold the most relevant parts).

Snopes

Black Americans

I oppose any race-based laws, be they beneficial or harmful. A poor black family doesn’t deserve a tax credit over a poor white family when buying a home. Fix the root cause and make homes more affordable to all. The student loan ‘crisis’ emerges from the government guaranteeing the loans and people taking on loans in excess of what they can reasonably afford (thanks to government guarantees). The loan forgiveness that Biden mentioned has been around a long time and isn’t restricted to specific races. The Nurse corps loan repayment programs was been around since the 1980s. Public service loan forgiveness started in 2007.

Both Trump and Biden both then lie regarding inflation (see above). Trump is trying to fault Biden for inflation while taking credit for the jobs growth, Biden is trying to pretend he saved the jobs. Reality, Trump printed money and took on debt to preserve the economy (stock market, jobs numbers etc). The post COVID recovery was thanks to printing money which then leads to inflation. Read the article I cited above.

Environment

I don’t take any proposal seriously if they are not utilizing nuclear power. It is the best way to get to ‘green’ in the short term. Perhaps long-term we can transition to other forms of energy but they are not a ‘short-term’ viable solution.

More nonsense

Biden claims we are the fastest growing economy in the world. We are not, not by far. It’s absurd claim on its face because we are one of the largest economies. Biden paints a delusional picture of American exceptionalism. We are unable to get our ally israel to stop killing children, Netanyahu mocks Biden openly. We are unable to stop Yemen, one of the worlds poorest countries, from shutting down the Red Sea. We were unable to stop Iran from striking Israel, despite getting multiple allies to join in their defense.

America is weak and getting weaker as I wrote in America’s Waning Power. That is not a ‘Biden’ or a ‘Trump’ thing, that is a fact of world geopolitical changes and the misguided decisions of over 100 years of Republicans and Democrats.

Woodrow Wilson is America’s worst president. Anyone that claims anything else does not know what they are talking about. Wilson ignored the King-Crane commission, which led to the creation of israel and our 76+ years of conflict in the middle east. He created the Federal Reserve which is responsible for inflation and the devaluation of our currency. He created the income tax that robs Americans of huge portions of their income. These actions also allowed for the military industrial complex to engage in constant wars that would be impossible without these aforementioned monetary & theft schemes.

Tariffs increase the price to the end user, this is a simple fact.

Opioid crisis

Neither politician had a solution here. My solution is legalization and regulation. Kids aren’t going out and trying fentanyl and dying, they are trying party drugs laced with fentanyl. Our war on drugs is also responsible for a large portion of the illegal immigration into the country.

Closing

If Biden’s frailty and mental decline is a surprise to you, I encourage you to abandon whatever news agencies you have been using up to this point. I re-listened to the debate while writing this and his frail failing voice was legitimately hard to listen to. He looked surprised for much of the debate. He can be seen forcibly trying to open his eyes wide throughout the debate in an effort to look ‘alert’. Even left wing news agencies agree (now finally) that he is not capable of running, they can no longer hide what many of us have known for years.

The challenges we face are far more severe than abortion or child care. No one proposed a plan to balance our budget. Biden is, undoubtedly, pushing us towards World War 3. When challenged on this, Biden cites article 5 of NATO, assuring the world we would enter WW3 if Europe is attacked. The frailty, both mentally and physically, that Biden displays is a sign of weakness to the world. Seeking peace is the right move in Ukraine, it is the only logical option at this stage. I wish Trump would say the same for Gaza, that conflict too has the potential to spiral out of control and further damage America.

America is facing the decline of our empire, that is true regardless of who is in office. For us to navigate that we need someone who is strong & intelligent. I don’t think that is Trump or Biden, but if forced to choose between the two, no one that cares about America should choose Biden.

Personally, I know I will not, under any circumstance, vote for Biden. I encourage you to vote for someone else as well. Trump has not yet earned my vote. His actions as President, from the money printing, to lockdowns to ‘take the guns first’ all are big marks against him in my book. If he picks the right person for VP I will consider him, I am looking for Vivek as his VP candidate. Anyone else that I saw on his ‘short list’ will result in me definitely voting 3rd party.

For 3rd party candidates, RFK is obviously the one with most momentum at this point. I will look into him more, though his ongoing support of israel and his weakness on the 2A are big concerns for me. Chase Oliver from the Libertarian party might be an option but I don’t know him much and the reaction from those I do ‘know’ makes me doubt he can earn my vote. There is also Jill Stein, who is great on war but not great to terrible on pretty much everything else.

At the end of the day, the only vote you ‘throw away’ is a vote for a candidate who does not actually represent you.