Despite the anti-Trump reputation of both moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, at last night’s CNN hosted presidential debate, the network acted in a way that allowed viewers to form their own opinions of the candidates. The questions generally matched those of the voters in most publicly reported polling. The following are my take-aways from the debate

1.  The hoaxes

Within minutes of opening his mouth, Biden accused Trump of encouraging Americans to inject bleach into their arms. He also referenced the “fine people” hoax wherein Trump is accused of saying neo-Nazis and white supremacists are fine people. Biden further accused Trump of calling dead servicemen “suckers and losers.” Much of the debate time was consumed by Trump denying or explaining the context of these statements, while Biden continued to taunt and besmirch Trump. While Trump did not provide any elegant responses to these charges, he did succeed at making it clear that the accusations ought to be considered hoaxes.

2.  Abortion

Trump responded to questions about the abortion issue with relatively neutral responses. He argued against a federal ban on abortions and responded clearly and directly that he would not support a national ban on the “abortion pill.” He emphasized that the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe did not ban abortions but, rather, sent the issue back to the states. When Biden nevertheless accused Trump of supporting a nationwide ban, Trump confronted Biden with the story of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam who, in 2019, was asked what should happen to babies who survived abortion procedures. Northam indicated that if the mother had intended to abort the baby, she should be permitted to direct doctors to withhold care so that the baby would die as originally intended. Biden responded that he would support Roe which, in his understanding, only permitted aborting a late term fetus to save the life of the mother. Trump retorted that under Roe, a state could permit the baby to be aborted all the way up to birth. Trump clearly got the better of that exchange.

3.  Immigration

Trump swooped in to exploit a Biden gaffe (Biden said “we beat Medicare”) by tying it to immigration. Yes, Biden beat Medicare and social security, Trump suggested, by letting in millions of immigrants and signing them up for the services. He also referenced the practice of temporarily housing new immigrants in luxury hotels while veterans slept on the streets. When asked whether he would engage in a mass deportation of immigrants, Trump deflected. Biden, in contrast, gave a confusing answer about a compromise agreement that was supposed to fix the immigration problem. The end of Biden’s answer was completely nonsensical leading Trump to say, he didn’t understand the last part and he didn’t think Biden did either. That was devastating. Trump added that he had addressed immigration without new legislation. Trump won this issue as well.

4.  Israel/Gaza

Biden said he had a proposal to address the war in Gaza, but he did not explain it clearly. Further, it seems the plan was aspirational and had already been rejected by Hamas. He also confessed to withholding 2000-pound bombs from Israel. Trump mostly avoided talking about Israel except to claim the Oct. 7 attacks never would have happened if he had been president. In another memorable moment, Trump suggested Biden was pro-Palestinian but that the Palestinians hated him because he was a bad Palestinian.

5.  Biden’s age and mental state

It’s hard to understand how Biden could have been so unprepared for addressing this question. Throughout the night, his breathing sounded labored, and his voice was raspy as he struggled to complete sentences. He froze on at least one occasion. Yet when he was asked directly about his age, he gave a long and convoluted answer having something to do with microchips. Trump, in contrast, seemed like his old self. He certainly had a few lapses and I noticed him groping for words on several occasions. But the contrast was unmistakable. Biden clearly showed a gaping cognitive deficit. At the end of the debate, CNN gave each candidate time for a closing statement. This should have been a polished stump speech. Instead, Biden struggled to be coherent. In contrast, Trump reiterated his key themes: that Biden is a weak leader, and his open immigration threatens the stability of the country.

6.  CNN’s performance

Overall, CNN’s moderators refrained from arguing or interfering with the candidates. This was a welcome contrast to 2020’s debates, wherein moderator Chris Wallace famously consumed a large portion of the event by arguing with Trump as though he were a candidate.

Despite CNN’s generally polished and professional presentation, there was one interesting moment about halfway through the debate that should be explained by Biden’s camp. During one of Trump’s answers, Biden made eye contact with someone offscreen and said something (his mic was muted). His eyes then follow someone across the room until a shadow crossed in front of the camera on Biden’s side. Then, the camera cut to a single shot of Trump. When it cut back to the side-by-side shot, the camera was shaking as if it had been moved. The cause of this disruption is unknown, but it was unusual.

Most of the debate was presented with a side-by-side of Trump on the left and Biden on the right, with an occasional cut to the moderators and segments being introduced with an overhead establishing shot of the whole room. While there were several moments where only Trump was onscreen and Biden was, for whatever reason, offscreen, the only time that only Biden was onscreen alone was during his closing remarks.

While one cannot know exactly what Tapper and Bash were thinking, I thought I detected looks of resignation as they watched Biden struggle to connect with the American people. While they may have a history of participating in the get-Trump hysteria, they showed no signs of it during the debate.

Trump, like always, showed some rough edges and had some inarticulate moments. But compared to Biden’s performance, he clearly did the better job of making his case to be the next president.