FILE – President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, participate in the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 22, 2020. (Photo by The Associated Press/Patrick Semansky)
Will Weissert, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — It could be a well-rehearsed witty remark or a casual, too-big-a-sigh.
Notable moments from past presidential debates show how the candidates' words and body language can make them seem particularly approachable or completely unrealistic — and can also suggest whether they have a policy advantage or are misguided.
When President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump debate in Atlanta on Thursday, will what was once become prologue?
“Debates are live television, they're unscripted and you don't know how they're going to go. Anything can happen,” said Alan Schroeder, author of “The Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Stakes TV.”
Here are some of the biggest highlights, low points and surprising developments from past presidential debates.
Questions about old age (again)
It's a good debate when everyone knows the sensitive questions are coming and the answers sound natural. Republican President Ronald Reagan uttered this historic line during the second presidential debate in 1984 after a disappointing first round:
Reagan was 73 and seeking a second term against Democratic candidate Walter Mondale, who was 56. During the first debate, Reagan struggled to remember facts and seemed stumped at times.
One of Trump's top advisers, Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, later suggested that aides had “loaded Mr. Trump's head with so many facts and figures that he lost his initiative.”
So Mr. Reagan's team took a more hands-off approach in his second showdown with Mr. Mondale, and when Mr. Reagan faced the questions about mental and physical stamina he knew he would be facing, he was prepared enough to make his answers seem unexpected.
“You're already the oldest president in history,” said host Henry Trewitt, asking whether Reagan would be able to handle a challenge like the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“Not at all,” Reagan replied, defending his crisis-management acumen. He continued smoothly, “I also want you to know that age is not an issue in this campaign. I have no intention of exploiting my opponent's youth and inexperience for political purposes.”
Then, drawing on years of comedic training honed in Hollywood, the president took a sip of water, giving the audience and even Mondale, who had his own share of laughs, time to laugh some more. Finally, the president broke into a grin and added, no doubt rehearsed, his response: “It was Seneca or Cicero, I don't know which, who said, 'States cannot stand unless the elders correct the younger.'”
Years later, Mondale said that when television viewers saw him laughing, “if you looked closely, you would see the tears rolling down, because I knew that he had brought me to that point. That night really ended my campaign.”
Reagan thus proved that candidates can grow with time, even at the same age, and with Biden, 81, facing off against Trump, 78, in this year's election, 73 doesn't seem so old anymore.
Reagan is also remembered for his light-hearted approach in neutralizing criticism from Democratic President Jimmy Carter during a 1980 debate.
When President Carter accused him of wanting to cut Medicare, President Reagan chided him, “Here we go again.” The phrase was so successful that Reagan would turn it into his trademark retort.
Full of gaffes
In 1976, Republican President Gerald Ford had a notable moment during his second debate with Carter, and not in a good way, when the president declared that “Soviet domination of Eastern Europe does not exist, and never will exist under a Ford administration.”
Because Moscow controlled much of that part of the world, host Max Frankel responded, “Excuse me, what?”, asking if he understood correctly. Ford stuck to his answer and spent days on the campaign trail trying to excuse himself. He was defeated in November of that year.
“The closer we get to the election, the more pointed comments and key debate points are likely to matter,” said Aaron Cole, director of the debate program at the University of Michigan. “It's not just about who wins and who loses, but how that affects fundraising, how that affects the media cycle in the coming days and weeks.”
A slip of the tongue doesn't always have to have devastating effects.
During a 2008 Democratic presidential primary debate, then-Senator Barack Obama belittled Hillary Clinton, saying, “Hillary, you're likable enough.” The arrogant response drew backlash, but Obama bounced back.
The same could not be said for then-Texas Governor Rick Perry, who briefly ran for president as a Republican in 2012. After multiple tries and an excruciatingly long silence, Perry could not remember the third of three federal agencies he promised to close if elected.
“Damn it,” he finally muttered in embarrassment.
The Department of Energy had slipped his mind.
A personal story
Another damaging incident occurred at the start of the second presidential debate in 1988, when CNN host Bernard Shaw questioned Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, a Democrat, about his opposition to the death penalty with a question alluding to the candidate's wife.
“If Kitty Dukakis was raped and murdered, would you support giving the murderer an irrevocable death sentence?” Shaw asked. Dukakis, with little emotion, replied, “I don't see any evidence that that would be a deterrent.”
Dukakis later said he wished he'd said that his wife “is the most important person in the world to me, her and my family.”
That year's vice presidential debate featured one of the most memorable prepared one-liners.
When Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, the Republican vice presidential nominee, likened himself to John F. Kennedy during a debate with Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Democrat, was prepared: He had studied Quayle's campaign and seen him make comparisons to Kennedy in the past.
“Senator, I worked with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy,” Bentsen began slowly and carefully, drawing out the moment. “Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are not Jack Kennedy.”
The audience erupted in applause and laughter. Quayle could only stare straight ahead.
An unspeakable blunder
Quayle and George H. W. Bush won the 1988 election handily, but lost the 1992 election after Democrat Bill Clinton was caught on camera looking at his watch while speaking to the audience at a town hall debate, making some think Bush looked bored and aloof.
In another example of a nonverbal debate blunder, then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore was criticized for a disappointing performance at the start of a 2000 debate with Republican George W. Bush after he sighed repeatedly and audibly.
In the second town hall debate, Gore got so close to Republican candidate Bush while he was answering a question that Bush finally looked up and nodded confidently, drawing laughter from the audience.
A similar moment occurred in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was answering a question to the crowd during the second debate with Trump, and the Republican candidate came up behind her, narrowing his eyes and glaring at her.
Clinton didn't react significantly at the time, but later wrote about the incident, “He was literally breathing down my neck. It was horrifying.”
Biden vs. Trump revisited
Thursday's showdown will mark the first time a sitting president and a former president will debate each other.
Historically, incumbents have struggled in the first debate because they are used to being surrounded by White House advisers who rarely push back. In 2012, then-President Obama's seeming disinterest in the first debate against Mitt Romney gave Republican candidates a boost.
But Romney had an awkward moment during the second debate.
The former Massachusetts governor was answering a question about gender pay equality when he spoke about reaching out to women's groups for help in finding qualified female applicants for the state's top post.
“They brought binders full of women,” he declared. Obama later turned this into an attack line at a rally, gleefully saying, “You don't need a pile of binders to find qualified, talented, motivated young women.”
If Biden's debate skills are slacking this time around, his opponents' may be as well: Trump skipped all of the Republican primary debates this year, meaning he hasn't debated since facing off against Biden twice in 2020.
At the first debate four years ago, Trump interrupted so frequently that Biden finally yelled, “Shut up!” – an emotional moment. That night, Trump also memorably told members of the far-right Proud Boys to “stand back” from the stage, something some members of the extremist group took as a sign of encouragement.
During the second Biden-Trump debate in 2020, producers defused the confusion by turning off microphones to discourage interruptions, during which Biden wistfully declared, “I can't wait for this campaign to happen. I can't wait to watch this campaign happen.”
It did, and now it's happening again.
