Thursday night’s tense debate between President Biden and former President Trump was the first since 1960 to be held without a live audience.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson He told Axios Trump said earlier this week that he was aiming for a “totally classic debate” like the first ever televised debate between former presidents Kennedy and Nixon in 1960.
It was one of several details that prompted online comparisons between CNN’s presidential debate and the historically significant first debate between Kennedy and Nixon.
Political commentator S.E. Cupp wrote about X: “This may be the most consequential debate since Nixon/Kennedy.”
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President Biden (left) and former President Trump speak during the CNN presidential debate. (Getty Images)
Fresh from nearly a decade as vice president in the Eisenhower administration, Nixon was leading the then-young Senator John F. Kennedy in most national polls leading up to the event. National Constitution Center.
However, Kennedy’s team reportedly took a more media-savvy approach, opting to accept an invitation for a media walk-through before the event and have her makeup done in front of the cameras.
Nixon appeared tired and unwell, feeling the strain of intense campaigning and a recent hospitalization.
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This was the first televised debate to be held without an audience since the first in 1960. (Pictorial Parade/Archive Photo/Getty Images)
It was widely reported that those who watched the debate on television thought Kennedy had won, while those who listened to it on the radio thought Nixon had won. Kennedy ended up winning the election by a narrow margin.
Nathaniel Rakic, an election analyst at RealClearPolitics, drew a comparison to Thursday’s debate on X.
“This is a modern-day version of the Nixon-Kennedy debate. Anyone who only reads the transcripts will believe Biden won, and anyone who only watched/listened to it will believe Trump won,” he wrote.
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From left to right, Senator John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), CBS News’ Don Hewitt, and Vice President Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) during the first televised presidential debate, September 26, 1960. (CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
Some have compared Biden to Nixon, as the 81-year-old president appeared tired and unfocused as he faced off against his rival on screen.
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“What’s interesting is that people who heard the Kennedy-Nixon debate on the radio thought Nixon won because he was a better speaker and argued better, but people who watched it on TV thought Kennedy won because he looked better,” Tim Murtaugh, a former staffer for the Trump 2020 campaign, wrote on X.
“Biden lost with both groups tonight,” he added.
