How a Weekend of Media and Memes Shaped Six Voters’ Thoughts About the Debate
The first presidential debate served as a flashpoint for an election season that was hurtling toward a showdown between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. Many were excited for the bout, others dreaded it and some were not sure it would even happen.
We wanted to understand voters’ reflections on the debate through the lens of their weekend news consumption. To do this, we asked six voters around the country to log all the debate-related media they saw or heard in the days after the event.
| Name | Age | Party | Residence |
|---|---|---|---|
Aaron Hernandez | 26 | Democrat | California |
Lauren Waits | 56 | Democrat | Georgia |
Arina Trotter | 20 | Independent | Indiana |
Jonathon Ballard | 35 | Independent | Wisconsin |
Jim Hauersberger | 71 | Independent | Iowa |
David Carlson | 21 | Republican | Georgia |
During the weekend, they noted news articles, social media posts on X, Instagram and Reddit, podcasts on YouTube, newsletters, clips from broadcast TV, and even texts with friends. They didn’t report seeing vastly different sentiments across these platforms and outlets — instead, there was somewhat remarkable unity over just how bad it all felt.
Here are the themes that emerged after a weekend of scrolling.
Biden’s Poor Performance
All six voters said they felt confronted with the reality of the president’s age in the content they saw.
Lauren Waits, a member of the state committee for the Democratic Party of Georgia, realized through her weekend reading how broadly her concerns about Mr. Biden’s performance were shared among fellow Democrats.
Most of her media consumption centers around reading articles from local and national news outlets on her phone. She also reads three or four politics-focused newsletters almost every day.
What stood out most to David Carlson, the treasurer of the Georgia Young Republicans, was the mainstream media’s reaction to Mr. Biden’s performance.
“Their shock comes as a surprise,” he said. “It’s not like they weren’t aware of the alleged health problems for President Biden.” What he saw after the debate only deepened his belief that the mainstream media is a “deeply unserious enterprise.”
Most of Mr. Carlson’s news comes from X, not from official news outlets, but from individuals whose analysis and commentary he trusts. He regularly watches podcast shows from Breaking Point and The People’s Pundit on Youtube.
Distaste for Both Choices, and Despair
Social media posts that expressed distaste for both candidates resonated especially with the younger voters in our group who plan to vote Biden.
Aaron Hernandez, a California voter, said that even though Trump performed better, he would not change his mind.
“I feel like I have a good grasp of his true character and dark agenda if he got a second term,” he said. “Both parties made poor choices with their nominees.”
“I would describe the Democratic establishment as frantic, in frenzy, in panic,” he added, after a weekend of seeing dozens of memes about the debate. “This is really bad because it seems like they don’t know what they’re doing. And they’re scrambling to come up with Plan B since they didn’t have one in place. I think they’ll be trying to convince Biden to step out but if he doesn’t, then what?”
Arina Trotter, a 20-year-old student from Bloomington, Ind., who is registered as an independent, tuned into the debate feeling fairly sure she would vote for Mr. Biden, but with little enthusiasm. She was surprised that she ended up feeling even more disappointed with the choices than she had been previously.
“I haven’t seen anything positive really,” she said. Instead, there were many posts about “a lack of faith in our democracy” and the “two-party system altogether, specifically because of the age of the two candidates and the repeat lineup, and a lot of disappointment with Biden's performance.”
Jim Hauersperger, 71, of Unionville, Iowa, voted for Mr. Trump in 2016, but quickly soured on him, and was appalled by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Now, he said, “I don’t want to join the Democratic Party, but I left the Republican Party.”
A retired auto-manufacturing plant employee, Mr. Hauersperger gets nearly all of his news from network television. He doesn’t have cable T.V. or a smartphone. He has had only an internet connection at his house since December, and he does not read news online. “I don’t use it for anything other than if I need to go on and figure out how to fix my mower — stuff like that,” he said.
Over the three days immediately following the debate, he watched several network news segments. The coverage had left him more or less where he started. “I’m wishy-washy either way,” he said. “I’m not going to vote for Trump. But I don’t think I can vote for Biden either” — unless the race was close, in which case he thought he would vote for Biden. “What can you do?”
Few Issues, Many Memes
With focus on Biden’s poor performance, few issues or policies that came up during the debate surfaced in our voters’ media diets. The younger voters in our group saw many memes and jokes that entertained them.
Jonathon Ballard, 35, an assisted living facility staff coordinator from Green Bay, Wis., voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, but has since turned against him, mostly on account of inflation and, later, immigration. Mr. Ballard said he plans to vote for Mr. Trump this year. He went to a Trump rally for the first time this spring. Still, he said, “I’m not that much into politics.”
Mr. Ballard saw only the last half-hour of the debate, and missed the next-day coverage on the evening news because he got home late from his job on Friday. What he saw about the debate over the weekend consisted of a handful of pro-Trump memes and videos he came across while scrolling through his mostly apolitical Facebook and Instagram feeds, or in texts from friends.
The videos — from a conservative religious account, a right-wing meme maker with a large online following, and a Republican congressman from Alabama — all focused on Mr. Biden’s visible struggles in the debate, with only one touching briefly on a policy issue, immigration.
“I already had my mind set on Trump” before the debate, Mr. Ballard said. “But coming out of it, I was like, ‘Biden’s done.’”