The presidential debates changed television.
“You’re a radical leftist who wants to appoint a bunch of new justices to the Supreme Court!” former President Trump yelled at President Biden during a 2020 debate.
“Will you just shut up?” Biden pleaded.
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And television changed politics.
“It’s easy to say, ‘I have to look good on TV, and if I don’t, I fail,’ but it’s not that easy,” says Walter Podrazik, curator of television at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. “You have to learn how to speak directly to people through a medium that most people can understand. People watch TV all the time, so they know it as well as politicians do.”
That was the question President Biden faced in his debate with former President Trump on Thursday night.
It worked because Trump looked enthusiastic and in good spirits, while President Biden looked pale and groggy.
It doesn’t matter what Biden represents or what his policies are.
When it comes to debate, you have to be good on TV.
The debate imprinted the importance of live performance on the debate genre.
This show mixes reality TV with politics, and it was around long before reality TV became popular.
“I’m not going to exploit my opponent’s youth and inexperience for political purposes,” President Ronald Reagan, then 73, joked during a 1984 debate with former Vice President Walter Mondale, who was just 56 years old at the time.
President Biden and former President Trump debated on Thursday night. (Getty Images)
“They brought binders full of women,” 2012 Republican candidate and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said during a debate with former President Barack Obama that year.
Hillary Clinton (D-New York), the 2016 Democratic candidate and former senator, made the remark repeatedly while speaking about the Social Security trust fund during a debate with Trump.
“What a nasty woman,” the former president sneered.
During the debate, gaffes on screen are also amplified.
“There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe,” President Gerald Ford said in a 1976 debate with future President Jimmy Carter.
The statement shocked the press.
and Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
But debates can also produce unexpected humor.
“I’m listening!” 1992 independent presidential candidate Ross Perot boasted during a debate between future President Bill Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush.
Perrott drew attention to his own features, including his crew-cut hair and the way they stuck out like two taxi doors.
Under the Dome and Above the Diamond
Sometimes what was said doesn’t line up with what most people remember: Footage of former President Trump lurking behind Hillary Clinton in 2016 and then stalking the screen later is easily recalled.
The viewers are the candidates do During the discussion.
Former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore is remembered for his theatrical sighs of exasperation in response to various speeches by future President George W. Bush.
And in 1992, Bush 41 faced off against Bill Clinton and Perot. All three candidates leaned back in their chairs and paused as ABC News anchor and debate moderator Carol Simpson addressed the audience.
Mr. Bush glanced at his watch.
Viewers interpreted the president’s remark as a subliminal signal that Bush’s term in office was over after one term.
The debate between President Biden and former President Trump marked a major change in the way American voters experience debates. Both campaigns worked directly with CNN to organize the debate, the first major change to the debate since 1988. Both campaigns removed the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) from the debate.
Otherwise, all 33 presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988 have been sponsored by the commission. The CPD devised a town hall format that allows members of the public to ask questions of the candidates directly.
So Illinois power plant worker Ken Bone and his red sweater became an instant hit after a 2016 town hall debate.
US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump participate in the first presidential debate at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on June 27, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
CPD also hosted debates at colleges and universities, including the first debate between then-Vice President Bush and then-Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (Democrat) on September 25, 1988, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
How you conduct a debate is just as important as the debate itself.
“We want a free and fair debate. This committee is showing bias,” former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel argued on Fox Business in early 2022.
The RNC has called on Republican presidential candidates to refuse to participate in any debates that are not sanctioned by the Republican Party.
But the Biden campaign also rejected the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates, insisting on holding two debates in June and one in September. The Biden campaign also demanded certain rules, such as the option for moderators to mute the candidates’ microphones.
In other words, both President Biden and former President Trump took the fight outside.
Like outside the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Trump issued a challenge to the president.
“I call out Cheating Joe to a debate anytime, anywhere,” former President Trump said.
President Biden called out his rival’s bluff, even scolding Trump for what day a defamation trial in New York was adjourned.
“Make sure you have a good day, I’ll even do it twice,” President Biden said in a message to X. “I heard you’re free on Wednesday.”
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And the maneuvering involved shutting out the Commission on Presidential Debates.
“What they wanted to do was what they thought was best for the candidate,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, who has led the Chicago Police Department since its inception in 1987. “Both candidates are unique individuals.”
Fahrenkopf is outraged that debates are not held at universities.
“We’ve lost time on campus. We’ve lost time for kids to be involved. We’ve lost time for the emphasis on civic education,” Fahrenkopf said.
Fahrenkopf also lamented the cancellation of the town hall meeting.
“It’s the most popular format,” Fahrenkopf noted. “It’s gone.”
What would Ken Vaughn say?
The first modern presidential debate took place in 1960. The first debate between future president John F. Kennedy and future president Richard Nixon forever fused the presidency with television. The debate established a paradigm for American politics – and television.
“This is one of the few times when neither party nor either candidate is in control of the situation, so if you (voters) are trying to make up your mind or you’re looking for confirmation, now is the time to see it,” said Podrazik of the Museum of Broadcasting and Communications.
There were no debates until 1976. The League of Women Voters ran the debates until 1988, when the Commission on Presidential Debates stepped in.
“The role of politics was to provide a basic reality that television could and would accept,” Podrazik said.
Former President Donald Trump attends the first presidential debate at CNN Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The debate between President Biden and former President Trump was the first to be held without a studio audience since the first forum in 1960. It was unclear whether future President John F. Kennedy or future President Richard Nixon won the debate.
Nixon was sweaty and bearded and in pain after banging his knee as he got out of the limousine upon arriving at the debate.
Kennedy, on the other hand, appeared calm and confident.
It is said that people who listened to the radio believed that Nixon had won, but people who watched TV thought that Kennedy had won.
But that’s the legend of the debate, even though publishers have been putting this hackneyed story in every American political science textbook for decades.
I challenge you to find any studies or research that proves the Nixon/Radio vs. Kennedy/TV theory.
But this old adage shows the importance of understanding the complexities of television compared to the raw debates of, say, radio.
And that’s another thing that comes from the intersection of television and politics.
“It’s all about the satisfaction of the crowd,” Podrazik said.
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And that is a universal interest among the media and politicians.
