(Georgia Recorder) — Most of the reaction to Thursday’s presidential debate has focused on President Joe Biden’s at times incoherent statements.
Democratic leaders gathered in Atlanta Friday morning in an attempt to shift the focus onto former President Donald Trump’s coherent lies.
Stacey Abrams, Georgia’s former state House minority leader and gubernatorial candidate, blasted Trump for untruths uttered on the debate stage.
“What we know now is that the state of Georgia is in play, that the people of Georgia want to see a leader who sees that. Donald Trump only sees himself,” Abrams said at an Atlanta campaign office. “We have a convicted liar who stood on stage and promised to raise taxes on the working class. We have a convicted liar who stood on stage and bragged about stripping women of their bodily autonomy.”
Abrams’ statement on taxes was a reference to Trump’s proposal of a 10% tariff on imported goods, which many economists say would drive up prices for American consumers.
Fact checkers have said Trump’s remarks contained numerous blatant falsehoods, including that Democrats hope to legalize the execution of newborns, that Biden plans to quadruple “everybody’s taxes” and that Biden was responsible for Trump’s numerous criminal indictments and convictions.
“The reason that we keep referring to the fact that he is a convicted felon is because if he is willing to cook the books for his own accounting personally, then what is stopping him from cooking the books and doing fraudulent accounting for the American people and for his record on the economy?” said state Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs Democrat.
Party vibes
Biden’s performance was widely panned as a disaster for Democrats across Georgia and in media outlets across the ideological spectrum.
In one viral moment, Biden inexplicably ended a long and winding statement about the national debt with the phrase “we finally beat Medicare.”
“I did not expect the wheels to totally come off the Joe Biden campaign tonight, but that’s really my read of it,” said Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon at a Republican debate party in a Cobb County shooting range. “I mean, you couldn’t understand him for the first ten minutes … just lots of really significant problems that make you concerned about his ability to lead the country for another four years. Then, by contrast, President Trump was strong, he was clearly on message, reminding people of the successes of his administration.”
At a GOP event Thursday night at a Cobb County shooting range, an increasingly giddy throng of Trump supporters cheered, clapped and whistled in earnest at Trump’s statements. But with every stutter or deemed slip up from Biden, laughter or booing would erupt.
Boos were brought on by a range of topics, from the mentioning of Trump’s felony charges to the discussion of the Jan. 6th insurrection. “You suck,” “Lies!” and “Are we on the same planet?” are just some barbs that rose above the crowd commotion as Biden spoke.
Meanwhile, at the state Democrats’ watch party at the downtown Atlanta Hyatt Regency ballroom packed with several hundred supporters of President Joe Biden, party goers had little appetite to watch CNN analysis after the debate.
A slight hush briefly filled the room, amplifying the CNN analysts’ sharp criticisms of Biden’s performance before the quietness prompted a watch party guest to call for the stream to be turned off in favor of music.
The mood would become more festive as the DJ started a series of songs with DJ Khaled’s popular rap anthem “All I Do is Win.”
A little slow
Taking questions from reporters at Friday morning’s event, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said Biden’s debate performance was not that bad.
“I think the debate started off a little slow for the president, but it ended strong,” he said. “The thing I’ve always learned growing up, my grandfather used to say, it’s not how you start a race, it’s how you end it. And Joe Biden has demonstrated time and time again that the reason why he is in this race is for the American people. It’s not about I. Very rarely said I in that debate. Donald Trump said it constantly, and he constantly lied throughout the debate.”
“One of the things that notoriously Democrats are known for, some of us like to wring our hands,” he added. “It’s not time to wring hands. It’s about rolling up your sleeves to do the work. It is time to do this work.”
At a separate Atlanta event, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock also accused his fellow Democrats of unnecessarily contorting their metacarpals.
“If they weren’t hand-wringing, they wouldn’t be Democrats,” Warnock quipped Friday morning during a visit to Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Look, there’s a lot at stake, and people are rightly engaged. And I think when the people are engaged, we have a path to get to the right answer. I’m concerned when people are disengaged, and so if people are paying a little bit more attention, I think that’s a good thing. Because if they take a closer look, they’ll see who’s fighting for them and who’s not.”
Warnock said he last engaged with Biden during a recent visit to Georgia, and he described him as “clear and vigilant and engaged and very focused on the American people.”
He beat him before
But for years, majorities of Democratic voters have told pollsters they would prefer a different candidate at the top of the ticket. Biden himself reportedly indicated in 2019 that he would likely not seek re-election after a single term.
Democrats with concerns over Biden’s age and low favorability ratings were assuaged by the party’s strong performance in the 2022 midterms.
Alternate Democratic presidential candidates complained about what they said was a primary process designed to favor Biden, but the president won nearly all of the party’s delegates and is set to become the official nominee this August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Backed by signs reading “protect democracy,” Abrams told reporters the nominating process was “absolutely” democratic.
“Joe Biden has been to the state of Georgia again and again and again. And yesterday, when the debate ended, he didn’t pop on a plane and leave. He stayed here to talk to people in the state of Georgia. He is going to do what he has been doing, which is invest in Georgia.”
Abrams concluded the press conference by pointing to some of Biden’s victories, including limited student debt relief, price caps for insulin and efforts to protect abortion rights and protect in-vitro fertilization.
“You have to plant seeds, but you’ve got to tend them and watch them grow,” she said. “And in the next four years, we will grow more jobs. We will grow more opportunities. We will grow a better economy. We will grow a better climate because Joe Biden has put in the work. He’s planted the seeds. And now it’s time to till the field this election season and make certain that in January, we can grow four more years.”
As the Democratic leaders left, reporters shouted out questions, including whether Biden is the candidate Democrats want and whether he is the best person to beat Trump.
“He beat him before,” Harrison said as he walked out the door.
Georgia Recorder Deputy Editor Jill Nolin, Senior Reporter Stanley Dunlap and intern Kate Verity contributed to this report.
