Joe Biden was able to get a word in edgewise in his second and final debate against President Trump. But even with the help of changed debate rules that muted each candidate’s microphone during the debate, the former vice president often found himself on defense.
Thursday’s debate had far fewer interruptions from Trump — a dynamic that dominated the first debate. And in what was an apparent attempt to get ahead of expected attacks from Trump on the topic of emails found on the laptop purportedly belonging to his son Hunter Biden and given to media outlets by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Joe Biden raised the topic himself.
“His buddy, Rudy Giuliani, he’s being used as a Russian pawn. He’s being fed information that is Russian, that is not true,” Joe Biden said. (One of the people on some of the emails, Tony Bobulinski, has confirmed the authenticity of some of the communications and provided additional communications about Hunter Biden’s business dealings.)
Trump hit back with his own jabs on the topic of Hunter Biden, but the exchange may not have been enough to move any voter opinions.
“From my perspective, a lot of that was a back-and-forth about both of them being corrupt,” John Koch, director of debate at Vanderbilt University, told the Washington Examiner. “To me that kind of played out as a wash.”
Pointed questions from debate moderator Kristen Welker of NBC also kept Joe Biden on his toes. She noted that deportations surged under Obama. “So why should voters trust you with an immigration overhaul?” she asked.
And Welker also touched on the 1994 crime bill, which Joe Biden supported and helped craft. She mentioned those who went to prison for non-violent drug offenses. “Speak to those families. Why should they vote for you?” she asked.
Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan, told the Washington Examiner that the debate was about even between the candidates and that Joe Biden accomplished what he came to do: maintain a lead in the polls and not allow Trump to shake up the debate.
“As long as he didn’t commit a major error, then the campaign would be in a good place, but he delivered,” Kall said.
Kall mentioned that Joe Biden did not campaign around the country this week, instead he stayed in Delaware to prepare for the debate. That “showed,” Kall said.
“He was even better prepared for the attacks about his family,” Kall said. “But he never did lose his composure, didn’t come close to breaking.”
In the last debate, despite obvious efforts to try to calm himself, Joe Biden called Trump a “clown” and told him to “shut up.”
Joe Biden, though, did land enough punches and lines in order to make his closing argument clear, according to Koch.
“I thought both of them were probably an appropriate amount on offense and defense for the night,” Koch said.
Koch mentioned Joe Biden’s unusual tactic of “breaking the fourth wall” and speaking to the camera rather than the moderator or his opponent.
“I think Biden’s most effective moment is when he looks into the camera and talks directly to the American people, which he did about health care and COVID,” Koch said. “That has a real kind of emotive energy, right, that might connect with an audience, and you know President Ronald Reagan was really good about listening, looking into the camera, and connecting with the American people.”
The former vice president is likely to be attacked for some falsehoods he spread during the debate.
At one point, he claimed that no one lost their health insurance due to Obamacare — a statement that Politifact dubbed the “Lie of the year” in 2013. He also claimed that he has never opposed fracking, despite saying in a primary debate that he would “work it out.”
