Biden might be old, but Trump is an existential menace

The thoughts of many Americans who tuned in to Thursday night's first 2024 presidential debate were perhaps best summed up by an Arizona voter and self-identified Republican named Jeff.

"The feeling I had inside was, Trump, hell no—he lied through the whole thing,” Jeff told MSNBC, “and Biden is like, oh no—he is really in bad shape."

Jeff is exactly the type of swing voter President Joe Biden needs to win over in November and who the Biden campaign clearly hoped to assuage at the very least. Stylistically, however, Biden routinely stuttered and stumbled and generally reminded voters of one of their biggest hesitations about him: that he's old.

But while Biden may have fallen short of expectations on that count, the live primetime face-off did appear to have the desired effect of reminding persuadable voters what a menace Donald Trump is. Trump lied liberally throughout the debate, but his most disqualifying moments came on questions related to the rule of law and the preservation of democracy.