Trump Won—and Biden Lost More Than the Debate | Opinion

The debate between Presidents Trump and Biden was a true watershed moment: astonishing in its clarity and staggering in its impact.

Trump walked away with the debate—and likely the election. Biden's deer-in-the-headlights performance was catastrophic, a near total collapse which is sending Democrats into a tailspin of panic. At the same time, Trump was clearly dominant, recounting his policy successes, carefully crafting his responses, and demonstrating a steady hand.

From the start, Trump was focused tightly on his successful first-term record. He spoke of delivering a robust economy through a pro-growth agenda of tax cuts and regulatory relief, with a plan of unleashing the U.S. energy sector and striking fairer trade deals to support American workers and restore American manufacturing. He reminded voters that he fully enforced the border and essentially solved the illegal immigration problem through effective policies such as Remain in Mexico, border wall construction, asylum reform and Title 42. He discussed his unwavering support for law enforcement. And he spoke passionately about bringing global peace through American strength, recalling how he started to end the war in Afghanistan, brought U.S. troops home, rebuilt the military, and deterred new wars through projecting American strength.

It's a powerhouse record on which Trump stood proudly during the debate, and which stood in stark contrast to the historic cataclysm of the Biden presidency, which even Biden himself could not effectively defend.

Biden was often incomprehensible, as when he falsely claimed that he inherited high inflation from Trump (inflation was at a low of 1.4 percent when Biden entered office), only to later falsely claim that "there was no inflation when I took office because there were no jobs." His statement made no sense—and it wasn't the only one.

After the debate, stunned Democrats tried to take the harsh glare off Biden by using his feebleness as a cover for his untruths—while simultaneously claiming that Trump was dishonest. That in itself is a desperate lie.

Biden offered up multiple falsehoods on just about every subject. On the criminal illegal alien invasion he created, Biden denied that tens of millions of illegals have come into the country on his watch and that known terrorists have entered, even though his own Department of Homeland Security reported the day before the debate that 400 illegals have been smuggled in by an ISIS-affiliated human trafficking network. He also laughably claimed that the Border Patrol endorsed him, forcing them to publicly call out his lie.

Biden also falsely claimed that he's "the only president ... this decade that doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the world." During his first year as president, thirteen American troops were killed during his chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. And several months ago, three U.S. soldiers were killed during an attack committed by an Iranian-sponsored militia.

Biden also went on to spin falsehoods about Trump's stance on abortion, saying that he wants a national abortion ban when Trump explicitly says he opposes such a measure. And Biden falsely claimed that Trump wants to destroy Social Security and Medicare, when Trump repeatedly says he will always defend those programs.

It was also abundantly clear that it wasn't a fair fight. In a high-profile, high-stakes forum like this, style and temperament matter. Trump was at the top of his game: strong, focused, clear, calm and in command as he offered proven solutions.

Biden set the rules for the debate and spent a week out of sight to prepare and still fell apart. His obvious confusion, rehearsed faux anger, meandering delivery, vacant, unblinking eyes, mouth agape, unrelenting podium-staring and rigid bearing all signaled the advanced mental and physical decline we see every day.

His inability to speak coherently about anything, including his record, and his failure to offer voters a compelling reason for his re-election were so fatal that many Democrat leaders are now openly discussing replacing him on the ticket with Michelle Obama, Governors Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer or someone else.

So disastrous was Biden's performance—and so stellar was Trump's—that Democrats know they are headed for certain defeat and will be willing to do whatever it takes to prevent it, even if it means being the Chaos Party.

But if the Democrats toss Biden overboard, they still face the Kamala problem. Kamala Harris is the most unpopular vice president in modern American history and polls show her trailing Trump even more dramatically than her boss.

If the Democrats decide to break glass in the case of this emergency, they may have to get rid of both people on their ticket. A tall order, but not impossible—and they may have already set some of these forces in motion in a controlled demolition.

Trump knocked it out of the park while Biden imploded, becoming the incredibly shrinking president before our eyes.

We have back-to-back presidencies and side-by-side leaders to compare. The contrast is staggering—and the choice obvious. But after 2016, the Left vowed to never lose to Trump again so buckle up. The race may be effectively over, but perhaps it's just really begun.

Monica Crowley is the host of the Monica Crowley Podcast and served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 2019-2021.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.