Mary Trump: Donald Trump's Debate Was 'Apocalyptically Disastrous'

Donald Trump waves to the crowd at a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday. His niece has accused him of lying during his debate with Joe Biden.

Donald Trump's niece has called her uncle's performance in his debate with President Joe Biden "apocalyptically disastrous."

On June 27, the Democratic incumbent and his Republican opponent went head-to-head in Atlanta for the first 2024 presidential debate. Since then, Biden has faced criticism for his debate performance, in which he stumbled over his words, lost his train of thought and was often difficult to hear.

In the aftermath of the debate, Mary Trump, a longtime critic of her uncle, has written a Substack post explaining her continued support of Biden. Though she said that "it would be absurd to pretend that President Joe Biden had a good debate," she added that Donald Trump should be facing calls to drop out of the race, too.

"Let's be honest about the performance of the other person on the stage who, if the metrics by which we're measuring success are honesty, policy, a vision for America, and the defense of democracy, had a debate so apocalyptically disastrous that I can't believe that not one pundit, not one Republican official (at least none I'm aware of) has called on Donald Trump to drop out of the race," Mary Trump wrote.

"If we're only going to count style over substance, I'll take hoarse and halting over hate-filled and unhinged every day of the week," Mary Trump continued.

The author went on to criticize CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who moderated the debate, saying they allowed "Donald to steamroll the truth with an incessant stream of increasingly bizarre and dangerous lies."

She said Donald Trump lied when he said that he, not Biden, had issued a cap on the price of insulin; that some Democratic states allow "abortion until after birth" and that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for January 6.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Donald Trump for comment via email.

During the debate, while answering a question about the economy, Biden cited his administration's move to make it "$15 for an insulin shot, as opposed to $400."

But Donald Trump said later on: "I heard him say before insulin, I'm the one that got the insulin down for the seniors. I took care of the seniors."

Both presidents took steps to reduce the price of insulin. In July 2020, Donald Trump signed executive orders that sought to lower drug prices, and another order capped the price of insulin for seniors on Medicare.

Biden went further, signing the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped the price of insulin for all beneficiaries on Medicare. He has also generally advocated for policies that push lower prices of insulin.

While the two candidates discussed abortion, Donald Trump said there should be exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. He said overturning Roe v. Wade was returning the power to the states as a "vote of the people."

"The problem they have is they're radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month and even after birth—after birth," Donald Trump added.

Biden pushed back on this claim, saying it was "simply not true," and that Roe v. Wade "does not provide for that."

"We are not for late-term abortion, period, period, period," Biden added.

While some states allow for late-term abortions, these are rare and are usually carried out when the pregnancy has serious complications. In 2021, less than 1 percent of abortions were performed after 21 weeks of gestation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Infanticide, the killing of a baby after its birth, is illegal in every state.

After the moderators questioned Donald Trump about the January 6 riots, he said he had offered Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, "10,000 soldiers or National Guard," which he said she turned down.

He went on to cite a clip in which Pelosi can be heard discussing Capitol security officials' guidance to congressional members.

In it, she said, "They clearly didn't know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more."

Pelosi rejected Donald Trump's interpretation her statement—that she was responsible for the January 6 attack—and told MSNBC earlier in June that the former president and "his toadies do not want to face the facts. They're trying to do revisionist history."

In her post, Mary Trump wrote: "My uncle is a cruel and fundamentally dishonest man, a criminal and a traitor.

"He deserves no praise for lying forcefully or denigrating America with vigor or laying out a dystopian vision of America in which basic human rights are stripped from millions of women just because he did so with crystal clearly.

"President Biden had a cold and stumbled badly. Donald Trump is a traitor. The former should not in any way negate the latter."

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial