Amy & T.J.Amy and T.J. have a debate watch party that immediately becomes hard to watch. Hear their take on Biden versus Trump and the political spin that's only complicating the real issue with this years' presidential candidates.
Hey there, folks, what do we do with Joe Biden? And that's where we start in this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. I'm almost a little I'm rethinking and a little embarrassed about how we went into watching the presidential debate between Trump and Biden tonight. We're of course recording this episode right after watching, but we went into it almost thinking there was going to be a lot of entertainment value, and I'm almost now, after what we saw, I'm almost a little embarrassed that we went into.
It that way.
Yeah, well, we went into it looking at it as political sport. I don't think that's unfair. I think that's how we've looked at lots of debates. So we brought our daughters into it. We kind of had a watch party, so to speak, just bringing our kids into the political forum. But what ended up happening was something that you and I have never seen, and I think most people who watch tonight's debate have never seen and those of us who have covered debates. I mean, I felt like my jaw was dropped. I actually you saw me multiple times. I actually covered my face and went into almost fetal position because you couldn't believe what you were hearing and watching.
Yeah, I think every message I got from anybody during the debate included the word cringe in it somewhere. But to your point, and I think you said, we've made this kind of a communal event. It was a watch party. We were going to watch party, like, everybody, come over, this is gonna be crazy, right, Trump versus Biden. Finally we're going to see these two on the stage together. And USA was playing Panama in the Copa America Cup ahead of time at six o'clock. So we actually had a really fun evening of television watching plant and the tone really changed in it had to be. On the very first answer that President Biden gave, you became concerned and it kind of went in line with a lot of the concerns people have had about him for a while. And now we all got to watch him live. This isn't about politics and policy and where you fall on whatever side of the aisle and trying to spend Sometimes we all have to agree on just what we all witness.
So I was going to say something very similar. I watched my twenty one year old daughter put her hands over her eyes and it wasn't about your political beliefs. It wasn't about what side of the aisle you're on. It was about watching someone struggle as a human being and actually feeling compassion and I don't want to use the word pity, but there was there were a few moments where you actually felt that what if that was my dad, but if that was my grandfather? And you kind of looked at Joe Biden in that way, or at least I did, versus do I agree with him?
Do I support what he's saying?
It became less about who ideologically you supported, and it became more about, oh my god, what am I witnessing?
And and help.
We almost wanted to give him a lifeline. We've all been in that play and it's tough to talk about. I have no idea that I hadn't seen Joe Biden in years, right, So I don't know. I can't speak to him personally what he's like behind the scenes. But we've all been somewhere with somebody who is frankly elderly and your family and you're like, hey, come on, we're going this way. Hey, hey, come on over here. No, no, no, remember they said that thing to you oh, right over here, Grandma, that you where you have to guide them a little bit. There, they're there, They're still all there, but you got to just kind of guide them or show them the way just a little. He feels like, you're all right, come on, Joe, come on, like you're almost rooting trying to direct him as you're seeing it. And we've all been there, and I don't know what we're doing, what we're supposed to make of it. When you're watching the president of the United States struggle in a way, in such a.
Way, I had so many confusing thoughts in my head. First of all, I will say this, I feel like former President Trump actually took the opportunity to not pounce on what we all saw. And I will give him credit for that on the debate stage, because I was actually impressed by his restraint. There was one point he pointed out, I don't know what he said, and I don't even think he knows what he said, but he said but it was valid, But it was valid.
It was what we were all thinking.
And I have to say my mind went to like we are obviously in and a very tumultuous world, and I kept thinking, God, what are our enemies thinking what are the people who wish us harm thinking as they watched this debate.
It made me nervous. It did in a way that I've never felt before. This was.
This was a debate I have never witnessed or could have imagined I would have seen.
In my lifetime.
And it speaks to so many issues within our country, like why we have the system we have in place to incentivize or at least encourage people to run for office. I think we have a broken system if these are our choices. And I'm not even talking about politics. I'm just talking about the people willing to put themselves on the line, people who maybe have been career politicians or someone who's obviously fairly recently jumped into the foray but has a business resume. But I just like so many people have said this, but tonight it was on full display. It's just discouraging, disappointing, and frankly for me and even for the younger generations, we were watching with.
Frightening. That's where I was left after tonight.
There will be some who will discuss incumbents losing the debate their first debate. There is a long history of incumbent presidents not doing well in their first debate. A lot of that has to do with style, A lot of that has to do with strategy, how they went about it, and sometimes it can be about substance and them how they made their points. This is not what this debate was about at all. I have no idea what substance was about in this debate. Style was not an issue how he answered, how he chose to attack, and the strategy. It wasn't that. This was strictly about us all watching a guy who seemed to struggle putting his thoughts together and at times being incoherent. You're really not understanding what he's saying. So this debate, we are not debating at all about who won on style or substance. We have to talk about President Biden, and we will be talking about President Biden. Do you do you see any way that this he's had an off night? Is there any chance of that? And I want to hold off and maybe there's something else going on.
You know, it's a hard thing.
To see what somebody was even four years ago and then to see where they are now. But I think the thing we all have to think about is where he will be four years from now, and what he would be like during those four years, And those are all real valid concerns. And you know, just as much as we have an age requirement, you know, presidents to run for resident you have to be thirty five, correct, that is.
The age requirement.
I think this will beg the question whether or not there should be an age requirement or an age limitation. My father will point out he was forced in his industry to retire at sixty five for maybe it's a lot of financial reasons, but for many reasons. And so if you can have an age requirement, can you not have an age limitation? And this might be one of these moments where we have to think about that as a country, because this is about you know, this isn't about this is above politics.
This is about so much more than that.
And you know, whatever you think about where each candidate stands, competency has to be something that we can talk about and not make it look as though it's political. But competency is that has to be one of the stipulations of being president.
And cognitive ability aren't necessarily always directly tied to somebody's age. And I know you agree with this because we have talked to so really impressive, very recently, seventy plus late seventies, eighty year old folks who are as sharp as anything you will ever see.
We even talked about whether you like him or don't. We were just actually making this comparison because we were watching doctor Anthony Fauci talking about stepping aside.
How old is he? Eighty eight? He's even realized he years older.
So yes, I don't think you can put a necessary number on any of this, just as we can't determine whether or not somebody.
Can drive at a certain age.
But it is and there has to be some measure I would argue of mental cognitive ability in order to do something as significant. I would just say, if lives are on the line, whether you're a physician or is someone who has lives in your hands, based on decisions you can make that only you can make. I think that it is only fair there is some sort of I don't know, cognitive test or some sort of measure that we can put into place when you have positions that are of this significance, and what we saw tonight I believe makes many people question whether or not Joe Biden would be able to pass those sorts of tests.
I yes, we have to wait and see. I mean, you know how I am. I'll give it a beat. Let me see, right, let me see in that. I think that came out a come out sense that he had a cold. Not to say that. I don't know what that.
But I think that makes it worse when the White House comes out after they see his performance and say he had a cold. Because yes, his voice was raspy. That was the least of my concerns. Yes, fine, if he had a cold, I can I'm fine with that. That was not what made me nervous or made me concerned watching tonight.
What does any American who watched that tonight and waking up the next morning these discussions taking place, how are we supposed to feel when you didn't maybe feel great about your choices before, right do you? How are you supposed to feel about them? Because there's going to be so much on TV and the politics and the inns and outs and the convention and who's going to step in it's going to be jocking. Oh that's politics. But how am I supposed to feel about the leadership of this country and where we are? And the choices that are already maybe didn't like.
It's concerning, and here's something that you and I can speak to directly.
So we watched.
Obviously we watched the debate, but we watched the coverage after the debate, and I think you and I know in a way that we can speak very confidently about. When you see broadcasters defending or at least trying to massage something that's obvious to everyone who watched, that's concerning to me. I would appreciate in these moments for people who are journalists, whatever network you work for, to be honest about what you witnessed and then to have a real conversation, because that is our job. That is our role as journalist to seek the truth right or at least to point out the obvious, and not to say, oh, well, look back in history, and every incumbent president who goes onto their first debate falters slightly. That is not, as you pointed out, what we're talking about what we saw tonight.
So let's all just be honest.
And I think I would appreciate that from people whose job it is to call and put our politicians in the spotlight, to say, hey, this is what we're seeing, this is what we want to have answers about, and to really just look at it from the perspective of what is best for the voters to have a clear, honest, have clear, honest answers about what we're dealing with and who we're voting for.
I think it just in the way.
The way we cover politics and how we cover politics unfortunately doesn't give many voters that honest, true questions, like where you're actually asking what did we see?
Look, this is a rarity, right, We've been jumping around watching everybody's coverage afterwards, but this is a rarity after a debate that to your point, we have seen that and not a lot of it from what were not a lot of defense of President Biden's performance. But this is a rare occasion where every Democrat in every Republican on a set seemed to be agreeing about what we all saw. And there's not a lot of Democrats. There's just no denying. So it's rare to see that that kind of agreement on both sides about the performance of one candidate. Everybody saw the same thing tonight, and it's remarkable. Robes. You remember the guy he's on the stage with just a few weeks ago was found guilty of what thirty four felonies.
I know, and that wasn't really even a non issue. It was a non issue.
A felon, a convicted felon is debating President Biden. But we're afterwards talking about President Biden's performance and what he did to night on stage.
That is remarkable, it really was.
And you know what, we did have this It seems weird to even call it a watch party now, but to have the younger We had several young women, one, two, three, four, five young women with us.
This is our life now is just right.
From twenty one to eleven.
But it was quiet because I think everyone was not only shocked by what they were seeing, but didn't really even know what to say.
It wasn't this spirited debate where you're like, I.
Can't believe he said that I disagree with this, or there was some sort of any conversation about the topics or the issues. That was all lost in what we were witnessing. And I think I just feel sad, and I'm really curious to see what the next steps are, like do Democrats and does the Biden administration actually fully admit.
What's happening.
What we saw that it wasn't just a bad night, because this isn't the first time, obviously that we've seen signs that perhaps Joe Biden isn't isn't the person who can handle the next four years in office physically mentally.
Eighty six maybe eighty six. I mean, I know how many eighty plus year olds you No, no excuse me, I Am not going to get into his age's. Let's actually not do that at all. It's we don't want to just put it on the eighty year olds in your life. No, no, no, that's not what we're talking about at all. And to your point, the White House have a coupled in the past few weeks came out and called these fake videos and what were they saying? Deep fakes and all these things. They say, oh it a certain way and this and that. But the videos spoke for themselves where President Obama had to kind of guy presented by an off of stage somewhere. He seemed to be looking off in the distance. I know. They said that one was altered when the parachute guys were coming down and all that, and then him at the concert at the White House as well, where he wouldn't seem to be moving to the music and seemed to be stuck. All those things are.
Just and clearly tonight.
You know, even in the cutaways, just there was a vacant, absent look to his face that was undeniable, that wasn't edited, that wasn't manufactured in any way. And I think you know, anyone who watched that debate tonight, it's it would be hard to have seen what we all saw and come to any other conclusion.
So but if we for now, if we suspend some judgment in some way and wait and wait and hear from him, or wait for the next debate that's months away. But now the talk is there's no way that debate is taking place, no way. So I don't know what to wait for. Do we replacing him? And there's this new set of chaos, new jockeying, and we got to go through more cable news debate and fighting and arguing, And I this was a tough tough night if.
You took the politics out of it.
I think so many I think about my mom and I think about my dad, even who've recently lost their parents and they're young and had older parents, but the debates that so many Americans go through who have moms and dads who are aging. You know, at what point do you say, mom, dad, you know, we have to make this decision for you, and it's a hard thing to do. But I feel like that's almost what's happening right now in the country. Looking at Joe Biden, so many people can look to their own families and say, wow, I had to make the same decision. But it wasn't a matter of national security. It wasn't a matter of presidential politics. This was about my parents' personal safety or the safety of other people if they were to get behind the wheel. I mean, this is, to me, wow, one of those issues. That's what I saw tonight.
To what you just said just made a light bulb go off for me in that he didn't just have a bad night tonight, meaning this didn't just happened to him this evening. No, it means yesterday and the day before. People that are around him are seeing and witnessing him, and they put him out there tonight.
Yeah.
So I to what you're saying that you're seeing a decline like we are just seeing this with a No, this wasn't just sprung on us this evening, and it wasn't just sprung on the country, wasn't just sprung on the administration. If in fact, this is where he is and we saw who Joe Biden is on a daily twenty four to seven basis. If that's who he is, then who's responsible and responsible? To your point, You're right, you have to speak to your grandparent or whatever sometimes say hey, we had to make this decision for you.
I don't know, and then I just yes, I think about who's responsible? Who would be responsible for speaking up number one and number two? What message does that send to the world? It is this to me, this was a very sad night, a very sobering night, and a night that I think is going to require our government and the people who you know, we choose to elect, we need to really think about what we want to require of them in terms of transparency and national security, and do we need to make changes in who we elect and what the rules are around that. Do we need to make some amendments. Do we need to acknowledge that we have to make hard decisions and have hard conversations that people have to make privately.
In their own families. But now I think we're facing that as a country.
Well maybe that's a and again, only I'm only seeing him, We're only seeing him robes from a distance through that treaty screen and seeing what seemed like an off night and a bad night. And maybe the people who see him every day will look at that and say, like, that is not Joe Biden. He had a rough night for whatever reason. He's going to come back and be strong. Maybe that'll be the case, and I hope it is. But it was just it was difficult to watch. But however we go about, like you said, the conversations we might need to have, just please y'all be kind, I mean, just be kind to each other. No matter where you are on politics. You might agree with this guy on nothing, but he's a human being, I mean, and just he's got a family and everybody's going through something. He's just going through it in front of the world.
I feel like this was a moment where I hope maybe we can all at this point transcend politics and really talk about things in a real, honest, authentic way. And if we all really do want what's best for our country, we have those honest conversations, and that's what I hope can come out of tonight because I just don't think there was any other way to look at it. This didn't feel political, This didn't feel ideological, This didn't feel topical, This didn't feel I don't.
Even know that I got anything.
Out of tonight in terms of where folks stand on things. Were I felt about them from a where you stand on things. It was really just about something incredibly sad and something I felt actually angered about as an American that I didn't know more about before tonight because it was undeniable, it was not edited, and we have to as a country, I think, address it.
Well.
Folks.
We just wanted to hop on tonight and after the debates and chime in about what we saw. And please, as a reminder, as you go about your discussions with I know which we know you will about this and everybody we talking about it for the next several days, we just be mindful, be kind,
