SAUNDERS: Not debatable that Biden fumbled in faceoff with Trump

WASHINGTON

Over the four years I covered the Trump White House, I kept waiting for Donald Trump to change — to grow, really — and moderate his behavior to meet the awesome responsibilities that awaited him every morning at the Resolute Desk. It turns out, Trump needed to lose an election for that to happen, but as the world saw Thursday night, it has happened. Trump has learned to listen.

As for President Joe Biden, it was clear during CNN’s presidential debate Thursday night that he has declined. Now it is Biden who clearly is not heeding solid advice from people who know that, at age 81, he is not up for the race.

Biden won the 2020 Democratic primary saying he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump. Four years later, he may be the only Democrat who could lose to Trump, 78. The pressure for Biden to announce his withdrawal from the race will be unrelenting.

For months, I’ve been part of the chorus saying that if Biden steps aside, Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, also would have to make way for a replacement because she, too, doesn’t do well in polls.

But, really, Harris looks a lot better today.

Back to Trump. He did a lot of things right on the Atlanta stage. His approach to immigration meshes better with voters than Biden’s open-border bent. (According to the U.S. Border Patrol, there were nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants at the Southwest border in December 2023 alone.)

Trump recognized the grim realities for American families who have to pay more for groceries and housing since he left office. He curbed his name-calling urge and found a softer way to point out Biden’s mental decline, without his infamous mean streak.

After Biden uttered word-salad remarks about the border, Trump responded mildly, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either.”

Biden was his worst self when he defended his immigration record by faulting Republicans in Congress for the recent failure to pass a bipartisan immigration bill after Trump slammed it.

“It’s nonsensical for him to say he can’t do anything without Congress,” Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies reacted. And after millions of migrants have been released into communities: “It is infuriating because he’s had these tools at his disposal but only now in June decided to implement them.”

For me, Biden was best when he hit Trump’s hostility to NATO, a vital partner in a chaotic world. The president’s warnings about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s designs on Ukraine were grounded and chilling.

“Putin is a war criminal,” Biden warned. “He’s killed thousands and thousands of people. And he has made one thing clear: He wants to re-establish what was part of the Soviet empire, not just a piece, he wants all of Ukraine.”

Sure, Trump got NATO countries to spend more on defense — a huge plus, but not because of the money so much as members’ ownership of their own defense.

Trump’s willingness to shake up the foreign-policy establishment also has a huge plus side — most notably in his decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He went bold and the world’s bad actors took notice.

There are times you are right to listen to your inner voice, and times when it is better to heed the advice of people who care about your place in the world.

The fact that he has not bowed out shows that Biden isn’t listening.

I’m 69, an age when a good deal of my thoughts are on how to age well, how to adapt to the changes in my body and how to squeeze the most out of life.

Another big question in my future and yours if we live long enough: When do you surrender the keys to the car?

I’m guessing a lot of Democrats are telling Biden that moment has come. But in this case, the worst that can happen isn’t a fender bender or a serious car accident. It is a steep decline in America’s leadership role on this planet. What were Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping thinking when they watched the debate?

I guarantee you, they weren’t thinking about a golf game.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.