“Black Vote, Black Energy,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Phrase In Black, examines the problems, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America within the 2024 presidential election.
Nicely, that was awkward.
The primary presidential debate of the 2024 marketing campaign has simply resulted in Atlanta, and it felt like a disservice to the general public. Donald Trump lied and rambled nonstop with out correction. And President Joe Biden was merely not in a position to sustain with Trump’s torrent of falsehoods.
It was the primary time in historical past a convicted legal took half in a presidential debate, but it surely was 40 minutes into the dialogue earlier than the topic got here up. It was as if it have been utterly regular for a twice-impeached, quadruple-indicted, convicted felon awaiting sentencing, who additionally incited a lethal rebel, to be thought of a severe candidate for essentially the most highly effective job on this planet.
However the spectacle doubtless did nothing to maneuver the needle: Biden’s shaky efficiency didn’t allay issues about his age, and Trump’s nonsensical tirades didn’t allay issues about his psychological or ethical health to carry workplace.
After the primary half hour, Biden lastly had just a few good moments, attacking Trump as a legal, condemning him for “having intercourse with a porn star whereas your spouse was pregnant,” and accusing him of getting “the morals of an alley cat.”
However Trump is a grasp at denying the reality, dodging questions, inflating his personal document, and mendacity about different folks as he pivoted to his favourite speaking factors.
Requested about Black voters, Trump blamed immigrants for taking what he referred to as “Black jobs.” Initially, that’s not true, however second: what, precisely, are Black jobs?
In the identical spherical, Biden missed a golden alternative to promote his personal document on Black points: decrease Black unemployment, decrease Black poverty, extra Black companies, extra HBCU funding, extra Black judges, much less scholar mortgage debt, and historic appointments to his cupboard.
Trump blithely walked previous his personal historical past of housing discrimination within the Seventies, the lynch mob he led towards the now-exonerated “Central Park 5” within the Eighties, and the birtherism lie he peddled about President Barack Obama for practically six years. Biden did cite just a few examples of what he’s achieved for Black voters, however he let Trump put him on the defensive on a difficulty the place Trump’s personal document is abysmal.
That is very true in Atlanta, the predominantly-Black metropolis that Donald Trump attacked earlier than and after he misplaced the 2020 election, and tried to invalidate the votes of Black residents. Trump even focused Fulton County election employees Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, each Black ladies.
However there was no point out of that within the debate — in Atlanta. Trump was not compelled to reply for his bigoted assaults on the late Rep. John Lewis — a civil rights icon — and present Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis.
It didn’t cease there.
Requested about childcare, Trump prevented the query, rambled off into immigration lies, and spoke about how he fires folks. Not one phrase about youngster care. And nobody held him accountable.
Requested in regards to the opioid disaster, Trump went on and on about irrelevant points and once more failed to supply a single substantive thought, a lot much less give a coherent reply. Requested a second time in regards to the opioid disaster, Trump introduced up Vladimir Putin releasing hostages.
Requested a few Palestinian state, Trump didn’t even faux to reply the query. He simply launched right into a rant about NATO.
And in spite of everything that, Trump nonetheless refused to say he would settle for the election outcomes this November.
President Biden ought to have mopped the ground with Trump tonight, however he didn’t. Then, after the controversy, Biden confirmed up at a rally and seemed like a unique particular person — refreshed and energized in a approach that he was not in the course of the debate.
I don’t know what simply occurred, but it surely’s going to be an extended 4 months, and an excellent longer 4 years if issues maintain going on this route.
Keith Boykin is a New York Instances–bestselling creator, TV and movie producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth School and Harvard Regulation Faculty, Keith served within the White Home, cofounded the Nationwide Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET speak present My Two Cents, and on the Institute for Analysis in African-American Research at Columbia College in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning creator and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.
The put up In First Debate, Trump Overwhelms Biden With Bluster and Lies appeared first on Phrase In Black.
