The Morning: A halting performance

Plus, the Supreme Court, Iranians voting and climate change on islands.

View in browser|nytimes.com June 28, 2024 By German Lopez Good morning. We're covering the debate, as well as the Supreme Court, Iranians voting and the N.B.A. draft. Donald Trump and President Biden Kenny Holston/The New York Times Affirming fears After last night, many Democrats are panicked. They hoped that President Biden, 81, could convince voters that his age was nothing to worry about. That he could counter Donald Trump's wild accusations and relentless falsehoods with confidence. He didn't. Biden's voice was hoarse and halting. His answers were often unclear, and he struggled to finish his thoughts. "Rather than dispel concerns about his age," wrote my colleague Peter Baker, Biden "made it the central issue." Some Democrats are now pushing for him to drop out of the race. "Biden is about to face a crescendo of calls to step aside," a Democratic strategist told Peter. "Joe had a deep well of affection among Democrats. It has run dry." Donald Trump, 78, delivered his false statements with conviction, affirming many voters' concerns about his character and the threat he poses for democracy. Trump claimed that immigrants had driven up crime; rates of crime and murder have dropped. He claimed that Iran was "broke" when he was president; it was not. He claimed that Biden would allow abortions even after the birth of a child; Biden doesn't support that. (Read a fact-check of many more of Trump's and Biden's claims.) The debate at times turned ugly. Trump and Biden questioned each other's competence. Each suggested that the other would start World War III. They even argued about their golfing skills. For 90 minutes in Atlanta, Biden and Trump "debated inflation and immigration, abortion and addiction," wrote my colleague Lisa Lerer, who covers national politics. "Yet the extraordinary rematch between two presidents — two men who are the oldest candidates to ever seek the White House and who did nothing to conceal their hatred for each other — put on stark display the reasons the contest has repelled swaths of Americans." The rest of today's newsletter summarizes The Times's coverage of the debate, including the biggest moments and the candidates' policy differences. More on the debate Biden struggled to articulate policy specifics, statistics and rebuttals, often stumbling or misspeaking. (His campaign said he had a cold.) Early in the debate, Biden seemed to lose his train of thought and said, "We finally beat Medicare." The Biden campaign's demand that each candidate's mic be muted when it wasn't their turn to talk seemed to help Trump. He largely waited to speak and seemed to enjoy himself. Trump seized on Biden's halting speech, saying at one point: "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said, either." Biden seemed to get steadier as the debate went on, saying Trump had "the morals of an alley cat" and calling him a convicted felon who "snapped" after losing the 2020 election. Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the November election, saying he would do so only "if it's a fair, and legal, and good election." Read more takeaways. More Times coverage By The New York Times The candidates clashed over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, climate change, Ukraine and more. See how long they spent on each topic. Asked to address voters' concerns about their age, Biden called Trump "three years younger, and a lot less competent," while Trump claimed to have aced cognitive tests. "It's going to be a very scary November": The debate left Democratic voters, including staunch Biden supporters, stunned and dispirited. Republicans were jubilant. Commentary Trump "won it by forfeit," the Times Opinion columnist Carlos Lozada wrote. "The Biden of 2020, even the Biden of this year's State of the Union, did not show up." Dan McCarthy argued that "Trump won as the more commanding presence, with a tighter focus on his themes, particularly immigration." Read other Opinion writers' reactions. The Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who calls Biden a friend, argues that he should drop out. Biden "had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight," former senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said on MSNBC. "Almost every president loses the first debate of his re-election campaign," the historian Brian Rosenwald wrote. "They're used to being in a bubble where few people question them." "Biden won the debate on policy but lost it on presentation," 538's G. Elliott Morris and Kaleigh Rogers wrote. "Trump was increasing incoherent and deranged as the debate went on, and Trump's extremism was on full display," the Democratic strategist Geoff Garin wrote. In a post-debate CNN poll, two-thirds of voters who watched said Trump had won, but few said it had changed their minds about which candidate to vote for. On late night, Jon Stewart was stressed about the debate. He said he needed "to call a real estate agent in New Zealand." THE LATEST NEWS Supreme Court The Supreme Court ruled that a bankruptcy settlement with the Sackler family, makers of OxyContin, could not shield family members from opioid-related lawsuits. The decision upends a deal that would have given billions of dollars to the families of opioid victims. Separately, the court temporarily blocked a Biden administration plan to reduce air pollution while a lower court considers it, effectively suspending the policy for months or years. The court also weakened the Securities and Exchange Commission, ruling that a common way it enforces laws against fraud violated the right to a jury trial. The justices temporarily let women in Idaho get emergency abortions when their health is at risk, despite the state's near-total ban. The court works largely in private. See behind the curtain. More on Politics Oklahoma's state superintendent directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments. The judge overseeing Trump's classified-documents case said she would revisit a previous ruling that was important to the prosecutors' case. The development will likely further delay a trial. Israel-Hamas War Israel ordered people in part of eastern Gaza City to evacuate as part of an operation against Hamas fighters who have returned there, Israeli media reported. Israel and Egypt agreed to let sick children, many of them cancer patients, leave Gaza for medical treatment. Iran In Tehran. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Iranians will pick a new president today to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month. Many plan to boycott the vote. Iran has expanded a major nuclear production site, and some of its leaders have publicly embraced building a bomb, citing recent missile exchanges with Israel. Other Big Stories An uninhabited island in the southern Maldives. Jason Gulley for The New York Times Scientists expected low-lying tropical islands to be among the first victims of rising seas. Instead, many are growing, as these maps show. Lightning near Fresno started wildfires that are spreading in California. Americans ages 6 months and older should get a Covid shot when a new one becomes available this fall, the C.D.C. said. Sudan's civil war has left at least 750,000 people on the brink of starvation and millions more chronically hungry. The former school district police chief in Uvalde, Texas, was indicted and arrested over his actions during the school shooting there in 2022. The attack killed 19 children. Opinions For migrant children, public schools can be a lifeline, Bliss Broyard writes. You can't stop people from using different pronouns, John McWhorter writes. Here are columns by Paul Krugman on crime rates and Pamela Paul on political labels. The Games Sale. Offer won't last. Games for relaxation. Games for concentration. We have them all. For a limited time, save 50% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription and enjoy new puzzles every day. MORNING READS Brutus, not Bruno! The etiquette of remembering pets' names. Trauma: People say it's always better to forgive. Some experts question that. Social Q's: "Why do I have to choose between my grandmother's funeral and a birthday party?" Lives Lived: Kinky Friedman's idiosyncratic country music poked provocative fun at Jewish culture, American politics and more. Behind the jokes, Friedman had serious ideas — he once ran for Texas governor — and musical talent. He died at 79. SPORTS Soccer: The U.S. men's national team lost 2-1 to Panama at Copa América, a bitter defeat that jeopardizes its chances of advancing out of the group stage. N.B.A.: The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Bronny James, LeBron James's son. Don't expect him to play significant minutes with his father next season. N.F.L.: A jury ordered the league to pay billions of dollars in damages for inflating the price of its Sunday Ticket subscription service. ARTS AND IDEAS André De Shields and Juliana Huxtable shared their stories. Justin French Thirty is a pivotal age. For Pride Month, T Magazine asked L.G.B.T.Q. artists, writers, actors and others — ranging in age from 34 to 93 — to look back on their own lives at that age. Together, their stories offer a history of queer life over the decades. More on culture Jeremy O. Harris discussed his artistic influences in "Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play." — a documentary about his acclaimed "Slave Play." The original cover art for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," painted in 1996 by a recent art-school graduate working at a bookshop, sold at auction for nearly $2 million. Vogue Germany's latest cover star, Margot Friedländer, is a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Constantine Poulos for The New York Times. Combine fresh, seasonal ingredients and let them shine in this simple pasta. Test your fitness in three simple ways. Listen to new music from Cardi B and Soccer Mommy. Use a great citrus juicer. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangrams were workman and workwoman. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —German P.S. Strands, our new word search game, makes its debut in The Times's Games app today. Click the image below to play. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. 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