A Halting Performance – The New York Times

After last night, many Democrats are panicked.

They hoped that President Biden, 81, could convince voters that his age was nothing to worry about. That he could counter Donald Trump’s wild accusations and relentless falsehoods with confidence. He didn’t.

Biden’s voice was hoarse and halting. His answers were often unclear, and he struggled to finish his thoughts. “Rather than dispel concerns about his age,” wrote my colleague Peter Baker, Biden “made it the central issue.”

Some Democrats are now pushing for him to drop out of the race. “Biden is about to face a crescendo of calls to step aside,” a Democratic strategist told Peter. “Joe had a deep well of affection among Democrats. It has run dry.”

Donald Trump, 78, delivered his false statements with conviction, affirming many voters’ concerns about his character and the threat he poses for democracy.

Trump claimed that immigrants had driven up crime; rates of crime and murder have dropped. He claimed that Iran was “broke” when he was president; it was not. He claimed that Biden would allow abortions even after the birth of a child; Biden doesn’t support that. (Read a fact-check of many more of Trump’s and Biden’s claims.)

The debate at times turned ugly. Trump and Biden questioned each other’s competence. Each suggested that the other would start World War III. They even argued about their golfing skills.

For 90 minutes in Atlanta, Biden and Trump “debated inflation and immigration, abortion and addiction,” wrote my colleague Lisa Lerer, who covers national politics. “Yet the extraordinary rematch between two presidents — two men who are the oldest candidates to ever seek the White House and who did nothing to conceal their hatred for each other — put on stark display the reasons the contest has repelled swaths of Americans.”

The rest of today’s newsletter summarizes The Times’s coverage of the debate, including the biggest moments and the candidates’ policy differences.

More on the debate

• Biden struggled to articulate policy specifics, statistics and rebuttals, often stumbling or misspeaking. (His campaign said he had a cold.) Early in the debate, Biden seemed to lose his train of thought and said, “We finally beat Medicare.”

• The Biden campaign’s demand that each candidate’s mic be muted when it wasn’t their turn to talk seemed to help Trump. He largely waited to speak and seemed to enjoy himself.

• Trump seized on Biden’s halting speech, saying at one point: “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 seemed to get steadier as the debate went on, saying Trump had “the morals of an alley cat” and calling him a convicted felon who “snapped” after losing the 2020 election.

• Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the November election, saying he would do so only “if it’s a fair, and legal, and good election.” Read more takeaways.

More Times coverage

Here are columns by Paul Krugman on crime rates and Pamela Paul on political labels.

MORNING READS

Brutus, not Bruno! The etiquette of remembering pets’ names.

Trauma: People say it’s always better to forgive. Some experts question that.

Social Q’s: “Why do I have to choose between my grandmother’s funeral and a birthday party?”

Lives Lived: Kinky Friedman’s idiosyncratic country music poked provocative fun at Jewish culture, American politics and more. Behind the jokes, Friedman had serious ideas — he once ran for Texas governor — and musical talent. He died at 79.

SPORTS

Soccer: The U.S. men’s national team lost 2-1 to Panama at Copa América, a bitter defeat that jeopardizes its chances of advancing out of the group stage.

N.B.A.: The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Bronny James, LeBron James’s son. Don’t expect him to play significant minutes with his father next season.

N.F.L.: A jury ordered the league to pay billions of dollars in damages for inflating the price of its Sunday Ticket subscription service.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Thirty is a pivotal age. For Pride Month, T Magazine asked L.G.B.T.Q. artists, writers, actors and others — ranging in age from 34 to 93 — to look back on their own lives at that age. Together, their stories offer a history of queer life over the decades.