This is one, the first of their two debates.

Next one will be in September.

We know what the big questions were.

Was Joe Biden all there?

Was he able to make a case to the American people?

And was Donald Trump something different than all the people who don't want to vote for him believe?

And I guess you're going to talk about the format as well.

So let me bring my colleagues, Elizabeth Vargas, Dan Abrams.

We've got the whole team in full effect tonight.

But Elizabeth, I'll start with you.

What was your takeaway from tonight?

Do you think it met the billing in terms of tonight will make a difference?

I think it could make a difference.

I'm not sure it's the difference that the Biden campaign wants it to make.

I think the format that the Biden campaign insisted on, which was mics to be and no audience, you know, didn't suit Biden very well tonight.

To be honest, he looked there are reports he had a cold.

I don't know.

Somebody I saw was saying maybe he should have canceled or postponed.

Listen, he did not look surefooted.

He did not sound surefooted.

He did pick up a little bit of steam and a little bit of energy later, and especially sort of when sparring with former President Trump.

But the format, as it was, the CNN had announced that the debate moderators would not be fact checking any of the answers as they went.

And there were a whole host of falsehoods and exaggerations littered throughout that 90 minute debate, all of which went unchecked, uncorrected.

And and sort of it was up to to President Biden to correct something that former President Trump might have said that wasn't true.

And I've made a list of many of the things President Biden also made a couple of fact errors.

He said the Border Patrol endorsed him.

They didn't.

They endorsed the bill that he wanted passed in Congress, but they did not endorse Biden.

And they really didn't even endorse that.

Their union liked it until they didn't.

But I hear you.

They did endorse the bill.

They did endorse that.

They put out a statement endorsing the bill.

They did early on.

And then they read it and they rejected it.

But go ahead.

Look, I don't think it was the format.

Right.

That became the issue here.

There is no way to say that Joe Biden had a good night.

I think if anyone comes on after this debate and they say Joe Biden had a great night, that's not a credible assessment of what just happened.

How bad a night is, it becomes a question and a subject for debate.

You asked the question at the beginning, and I think you laid it out the right way, which is there were a lot of issues here that came up, substantive issues.

If you were focused on the issues, if you were focused on the fact checks, you're going to be in one side or the other.

You're going to say Trump was lying.

Biden made this stuff up.

Those people are going to be in their corners.

This was a battle for the other folks.

This was a battle for the folks who haven't been paying that close attention.

This was a battle for the folks who are the independents who might have been leaning one way or leaning the other way.

And you laid out the two issues, right?

Number one, is Joe Biden going to show that he's got what it takes to lead?

Number two, is Donald Trump going to interrupt and be rude and mean in a way that's actually going to hurt him?

Donald Trump didn't do it.

Donald Trump and maybe that the format helped in that way.

But you even saw when Biden was insulting him right before the last break about whether he would accept the election results.

Trump didn't go crazy.

He didn't start yelling.

Biden did not seem strong.

His voice seemed weak.

There were times when he literally seemed to lose his train of thought.

And he meandered.

It was it was.

Yeah.

I mean, look, I think we have, which was probably the worst moment of the night for Biden, which will definitely be replayed.

And they're going to be people are going to say it doesn't reflect the entirety of the debate.

And that's fair.

But when you're talking about someone who's running for president, who is the current president, and they have a moment like this in a 90 minute debate, it's tough to overcome.

Child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the covid, excuse me, with dealing with President Biden.

And they're going to be people who are going to say, OK, particularly Biden supporters, they're going to say, OK, he had a bad moment.

He had a rough time.

His voice, they're going to say at a cold, which seems an odd thing to have not shared.

But look, on the whole, not a good night for Joe Biden.

So I'll look at it a different way, OK?

If either of you performed the way either of them performed tonight, you'd be out of a job. to find News Nation on your television provider.

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