I attended the Trump-Biden presidential debate, and it quickly became clear what went wrong

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SecondBehind the Scenes First debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trumpthe lively atmosphere of the spinning room Frightened silence In the first few minutes The President opens his mouthAs Trump told us tall lies, Biden struggled to recall responses that were clearly prepared.

At one point, a former prominent TV commentator rose from his seat and began pacing anxiously. One by one, Biden’s aides and surrogates, who had been in touch all day, fell silent.

When the cameras stopped rolling and the debate ended, a full contingent of Trump surrogates swarmed the press room. They included multiple Republicans — Ben Carson and Lindsey Graham — who had been courting the former president as he searches for a new vice presidential pick.

All those Republican operators and Make America Great Again operatives were eager to tell our reporters how Biden’s performance had revealed him to be weak on the world stage. They confidently declared Trump the winner.

Biden’s surrogates, by contrast, were nowhere to be seen.

While some media outlets are interested in what Republicans have to say, the vast majority want Biden’s supporters to defend his performance.

Finally, they emerged together, grim-faced, to face a wave of reporters, producers and cameramen at the other end of the briefing room. Their sudden appearance led to a hilarious huddle, with your reporter wedged between NBC reporters, Biden spokespeople and Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California — everyone had already started whispering that Newsom would replace the president.

As they breathlessly recited talking points, I held up my recorder to capture their words.

Michael Taylor, the Biden campaign’s communications director, told CNN that viewers thought the president’s performance was “a stark contrast” to Trump and “a very clear choice in this election.” He also said Trump “came on stage, lied all night, became more and more unhinged throughout the night, and at the end of the debate reminded the American people why they fired him four years ago.”

But we all know the real facts. And most of us also know why.

Earlier this week, I spoke with multiple Biden campaign strategists and former Democratic staffers about how the president is preparing for the Camp David debate. They all described a punishing and rigorous process during which Biden will practice countering every criticism and insult Trump might throw that night.

Their strategy has a major flaw: It relies on memory — not the 81-year-old president’s strong suit — and the delivery of facts. Facts are all well and good during a political campaign, and they are essential to policy. But debates are about who you are. Trump knows this all too well.

Indeed, when my colleague Eric Garcia asked Democratic congressional representatives what they thought Biden should remember when he took the stage ahead of Thursday night, they kept repeating one phrase: “Be himself.”

Yet in those prepared lines, Biden had little time to shine. He was at his best when he improvised in the debate (because the president has good moments, even if they are few and far between) rather than recalling details. He could have shown personality, but instead he revealed worrying shortcomings.

Trump, by contrast, has fared just fine by being himself. The facts he often spouts may be questionable, but they don’t matter when the lights come on and the cameras start rolling.

A close friend of the president who helped him prepare for the debate this past week answered a question from independent As for Biden’s early missteps, he noted that Biden was beginning to push back against Trump harder than he had in the past. Biden certainly tried. Fifteen minutes in, he finally began to push back, at one point slamming Trump as a “stupid” and a “loser” for claiming he had done more to help injured veterans than Biden, who earlier this year signed the largest veterans aid bill Congress had passed in decades. He also took aim at Trump’s felony status, his anti-NATO isolationism and the former president’s frequent and blatant lies in the legal cases he faces in three other state and federal courts.

But that’s not enough.

Gavin Newsom, who allegedly had been preparing for months to wait out Biden’s race, repeated other surrogate talking points to reporters after the debate.

“I’m kind of old-school. I care about policy. I care about facts,” he said.

As campaign aides shouted down reporters who tried to ask if he would be willing to take over for Biden if necessary, Newsom said he was “very proud” of the president’s performance.

He also adamantly denied that he would even consider intervening if Biden were removed from office or stepped down.

“I will never turn my back on President Biden,” he said.

Whether he would take over and help him if needed, however, might be another matter entirely.