Debate Debacle: Aging, stutter or cognitive decline?

Shrinking Trump

Co-hosts Drs. John Gartner and Harry Segal discuss the presidential debate with famed psychologist David Dunning, co-author of the “Dunning-Krueger Effect. The nation must deal with the shock, panic, and trauma created by Biden’s poor performance. But what caused it? Age, stuttering, illness, cognitive decline, poor debate preparation and strategy, or some combination? How concerned should we be?

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We started this show to call out the media for failing to recognize Trump’s early signs of dementia and to contrast that with Biden’s normal aging. “It’s what John referred to as, ‘the aging brain versus the dementing brain’,” Dr. Segal said. “And our goal is really to raise clinical awareness and sophistication on the part of you, our viewers, but also of the media.”

Week after week we have offered a series of progressive hypotheses to explain Trump’s behavior, his language, and even his physical bearing. And now, after the debate sent shockwaves through the media and the public, we thought it important to look at what actually happened that night.

“As far as a performance and as far as the political impact, I would say it couldn't have been worse,” Dr. Gartner said. “In terms of understanding what happened, however, I think we are actually going to have a very interesting discussion today because it's actually quite complex.

You’ll hear our hosts share their very relatable personal reactions to the debate and help us all understand the trauma Americans suffered that evening. “I felt like the walls were closing in,” John said. “I felt the floor actually fall beneath me like I was falling into the void.”

“I felt that I had just experienced a trauma - like my whole world had changed,” Dr. Segal said. “This was not normal functioning. This was terrifying and traumatizing.”

We’ll run through some of the clips to analyze how the candidates’ body language made Trump’s answers sound better than they were - and Biden’s WAY worse than they actually were.

While Trump had a more commanding performance, our hosts argue that he had a clever way of hiding his cognitive decline. “Trump is stringing together his slogans - he gums them together,” Harry said. “We've been watching him do this in rallies. But through the forcefulness of his tone and his ability to create rhythm in his speech, it seems to make sense in a cohesive, coherent way. This is a way that Trump is managing his own decline, which is not being expressed through a weakness in his voice, but in other ways.”

We’ll also analyze the physical signs of advanced aging Biden displayed, and discuss what role the debate prep likely played in his delivery. And we weigh the impact of Biden’s traditional stutter on his performance and how that can often be confused with actual signs of aging.

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