r/politics • u/wsj The Wall Street Journal • 4d ago

I oversee the WSJ’s Washington bureau. Ask me anything about last night’s debate, where things stand with the 2024 election and what could happen next. AMA-Finished

President Biden’s halting performance during last night’s debate with Donald Trump left the Democratic Party in turmoil. You can watch my video report on the debate and read our coverage on how party officials are now trying to sort through the president’s prospects. 

We want to hear from you. What questions do you have coming out of the debate? 

What questions do you have about the election in general? 

I’m Damian Paletta, The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Coverage Chief, overseeing our political reporting. Ask me anything.

All stories linked here are free to read.

proof: https://imgur.com/a/hBBD6vt

Edit, 3:00pm ET: I'm wrapping up now, but wanted to say a big thanks to everyone for jumping in and asking so many great questions. Sorry I couldn't answer them all! We'll continue to write about the fallout from the debate as well as all other aspects of this unprecedented election, and I hope you'll keep up with our reporting. Thanks, again.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

I'm not sure why it's even a question of who to support.

Our choices are between someone who occasionally struggles to answer questions but is well intentioned, or someone who will outright lie about everything and who wants to be a day-1 dictator.

Why are we pretending like Trump is even close to being a moral or better choice?

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u/flsurf7 4d ago

From a very basic perspective, I'd say mostly because this is our country's pinnacle of a leadership position, and the top candidates can't maintain a train of thought or speak clearly. Therefore it is really confusing as to why we're presented with these two choices.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

I agree that it shouldn't have come down to these 2. The fact is though, that it is. Neither party is replacing their nominee.

So why are we pretending like there's even a choice as to who the better candidate is for this country.

One oversaw an insurrection and promised to be a day 1 dictator. The other stutters and is sometimes slow answering questions.

Like, in a normal, civilized society, there's literally no choice as to who is better.

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u/Simmery 4d ago

I am not saying you're wrong. But you are not going to turn apathetic voters around with the message "Sure, we aren't listening to you, but vote for us anyway because the other guy is worse."

This election will come down to margins. And I sure wish it would be a blow-out for anyone who runs against Trump, but people have to face that it's not going to be. Polls aren't everything, but they shouldn't be discarded. And the polling is bad. Biden is not improving the situation with what happened last night.

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u/ChristAboveAllOthers 4d ago edited 4d ago

Biden didn’t just stutter. He literally mumbled and droned on about nothing. Sometimes he literally stopped talking because he couldn’t remember what he was talking about. He looked confused at times and other times like he was asleep. At one point he said something about being ‘raped by your sister’ in the context of abortion rights, in other points he literally couldn’t even finish a sentence.

Trump is deranged and a menace, but putting Biden up there was a terrible look for the Democratic Party and probably just sealed a victory for Trump.

I voted Biden, Hillary and Obama both times, blue up and down the line in every national and local election and was until last night 100,000% voting Biden. This debate made me think if this is the best the Democratic Party can do for us, that I should probably just sit at home on election night.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

So your solution to the issue is to help Trump get elected, and consequently, likely doom future generations once he appoints more SC justices that'll spit all over the constitution for the next generation or 2?

Elect someone who openly expressed admiration for dictators? Someone who incited an insurrection?

Make no mistake, "sitting it out" as a democratic voter is the same as voting for Trump.

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u/ChristAboveAllOthers 4d ago

I’m not making any mistake about anything. I didn’t choose to run a bag of bones as the Democratic nominee. And it’s not “my solution”, it’s just a fact that a senile man who can’t form a sentence has no business running the United States.

It was embarrassing watching that clown show last night. The Dem Party should be ashamed that they think he’s the only person that could beat Trump. The message to the rest of the world is terrible as well. We will either have a man with dementia or a con-man for president. It’s a shame!

I’m not voting for the Orange Turd, but I’m 50/50 on voting Biden or sitting at home. If that makes you feel some type of way I don’t really care. It’s my vote

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

I’m not making any mistake about anything. I didn’t choose to run a bag of bones as the Democratic nominee. And it’s not “my solution”, it’s just a fact that a senile man who can’t form a sentence has no business running the United States.

So instead you believe that a felon and con artist is a much better fit.

It was embarrassing watching that clown show last night. The Dem Party should be ashamed that they think he’s the only person that could beat Trump. The message to the rest of the world is terrible as well. We will either have a man with dementia or a con-man for president. It’s a shame!

Sure, but I'd rather the "man with dementia" get elected and know that he has a reasonable and responsible cabinet that can step in and take over. I'd rather that than a guy who actively works to subvert our democratic process, whose cabinet is made up of his kids and "yes men".

I’m not voting for the Orange Turd, but I’m 50/50 on voting Biden or sitting at home. If that makes you feel some type of way I don’t really care. It’s my vote

It's certainly your vote. If you choose to sit out, understand you're actively choosing to vote for Trump as a result.

If you'd prefer that over Biden, just say so. But don't sit there and pretend like your "protest" in any way helps our country. It's only going to help set it backwards by helping Trump get elected.

That's a choice you'll have to make.

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u/ChristAboveAllOthers 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yes you’re right I definitely prefer Trump to win this 🙄…..

Seriously do you think this was the effective way to get me back into wanting to vote Biden? I can tell you it’s not. I already understand what Trump is capable of, and outside of the justices he appointed he’s capable of NOTHING. He did nothing during his presidency. And he will do next to nothing again besides pardon himself.

If you want Biden to win you’re going to need to convince a lot more people than me to vote for him. And maybe they should keep his old self off of the debate stage for the rest of the time leading up to the election.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

Name any other election in recent history in which the prime candidate for a major party is a felon and who previously incited an insurrection against his own government to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

People really should care. We have right now a full on delusional republican party hell bent on destroying our norms and dragging us as backwards as they can. Worse than ever before.

It's a far more serious and real threat today than it was under bush.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

The situations aren't even comparable. We're literally talking about a guy who attempted a coup and insurrection. It's not hyperbolic or a what-if scenario. It literally happened.

And now he's running on a platform of being a day 1 dictator and promising revenge on his political opponents.

I'm not sure why you're looking at it as a "meh, maybe he's just kidding around." situation.

He's literally telling you what he plans to do.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/flsurf7 4d ago

Again from a simplistic perspective, the question is who's best fit for president for a period of 4 years?

Both options again dont really have a predictable outcome as to which will fair better for us, our families, our community, our country, and the world. Legitimate arguments could be made for each party, which is why you see this being so polarizing.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

Again from a simplistic perspective, the question is who's best fit for president for a period of 4 years?

The guy NOT trying to sell us out?

Both options again dont really have a predictable outcome as to which will fair better for us, our families, our community, our country, and the world. Legitimate arguments could be made for each party, which is why you see this being so polarizing.

Literally no argument can be made for Trump. Not in good faith.

Name one good argument that can be applied to a Trump presidency, given everything he's openly said he wants to do.

There is a VERY predictable outcome as to what's better for our country and people. And it isn't to elect Trump.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

I think Taco Bell has made it pretty clear - America don't care about morals...

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u/willzyx01 4d ago

Because the debate wasn’t to gain your support. It was to gain support of undecided. And it’s very likely last night’s disaster turned undecided into decided.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

Because the debate wasn’t to gain your support. It was to gain support of undecided. And it’s very likely last night’s disaster turned undecided into decided.

If undecided voters can't tell whether they want a felon with credible accusations of sexual assault who incited an insurrection, or an old man who stutters and speaks softly, then they aren't undecided.

They're Trump voters looking for any excuse to justify their vote.

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u/lavransson 4d ago

The way you are framing this, it doesn't matter. We can complain about a double standard, it's unfair, etc. We just have to beat Trump. And at this point, I think Biden lost his already wobbly chances to do so. As risky as it is, and I'm normally cautious, I think we are better off taking our chances with a new candidate. It's too bad this didn't happen earlier, but we can't change history.

My guess is that right now, Biden has about a 30% chance of winning. It was maybe 45% before the debate.

I think a different Democrat might have a 50-50 shot against Trump. Maybe even better than 50%. A new Democrat would (I hope) be 20-30 years younger, and not carry the inflation baggage Biden has. So many voters are upset about the choice between two old candidates. The Democrats putting in an energetic 50-something against doddering Trump would give us a chance to win that we lost last night with Biden's performance.

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u/SewAlone 4d ago

I, too, like to pull made-up percentages out of my ass.

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u/lavransson 4d ago

As I wrote, it’s a “guess” that “I” have. We are all just guessing here. My guess is based on my own take, looking at the results of focus groups, and from the general reaction. People in r/politics are all falling back on “I’ll take competent old Biden over the felon dictator.” Yeah, me too, but there are too many people in the middle who don’t see it that way, unfortunately. And Biden did nothing to help himself with that group who will decide the election.

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u/MrEHam 4d ago

I agree the choices are between:

A convicted felon, with more criminal trials pending, who was found liable for sexual assault, bungled our covid response to be one of the worst hit despite our head start, sent armed angry mob to Congress to overthrow democracy and pushed a plot to have fake votes counted, who will stack the Supreme Court even more conservative and kill so many things we hold dear, and will accelerate climate change.

Versus a guy who had the biggest climate change bill ever, biggest gun reform in over two decades, infrastructure passed, capped price of insulin, billions in student loans forgiven, and oh he’s three years older and stumbled on a dozen words last night.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/Jbugx 4d ago

You are saying they saw this and made a decision that they were voting for Trump based on Biden's performance. You don't take into account Trump just straight lied about everything and didn't answer any questions. Just because Biden looked old doesn't forgive the fact Trump did not answer anything and lied the whole time.

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u/explosivepimples 4d ago

well-meaning old man

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

And I'll take that over an ill-meaning wanna be dictator any day.

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u/explosivepimples 4d ago

Why not just choose a different candidate? Any reason you have been and are continuing to push Biden?

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

Because he's the nominee? Of all the ones that qualified in my state, he was the only remotely qualified person to do the job.

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u/Old-Working3807 4d ago

I'm worried Biden is so far gone he could wake up one day having one of those dementia episodes where people think they're children again. I think it's a realistic possibility that the guy would approve a nationwide ban on abortion if it was on his desk because he's having a dementia moment and thinks he's in the 1980s when Joe was pro-life Joe.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

This is why it's important to have someone in place who has a cabinet that is also functional. Not a bunch of his kids and sycophants.

I'd much rather trust that someone like Harris would step up and take the reigns than trust Trump to do the right thing. He's the reason after all why a nationwide abortion ban is even possible right now.

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u/D1sco_Lemonade 4d ago

At least if he did, it wouldn't be regarding project 2025. Nor would i worry about his team. I worry about the people behind TFG

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u/thekillercook 4d ago

That’s why we have policies and procedures for that. See the 25th amendment

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u/humblepharmer 4d ago

Because this is politics. Rhetoric and aesthetics matter. To pretend otherwise would cost the most worthy of candidates.

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u/Much_4561_ 4d ago

Whatever you think of trump, it won’t get any worse over the next 4.5 years.

Let’s say he’s an asshole. He’ll be the same asshole at the end of 2028.

However, Biden’s mental state is going to continue to dwindle over the next 4.5 years.

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u/TheTaoOfOne 4d ago

He'll be even worse. He's out for revenge, and knows what mistakes he made last time. We also have a Supreme Court that is rewriting settled law based on their own beliefs.

There's absolutely nothing about the last 4 years of Trump's behavior that suggests he won't be the same and worse if re-elected. In fact, he's promised to go after his political rivals and be a dictator on day 1.

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u/emaw63 Kansas 4d ago

At the end of his first time he staged an attack on Congress to try to hold on to power. There's no guarantee his next coup will fail in 2028