Trump vs Biden Debate: It’s All About the TikTok Clips

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Ahead of the presidential debate tonight, experts said the clashes between President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump will be most keenly felt on TikTok and other social media sites.

The impact presidential debates have on election campaigns is contested, with previous elections showing that polling doesn’t change too much after the broadcasts. But this year could be different in a number of ways.

As the first election in history in which both candidates have already been president, with both facing historically low approval ratings, this year’s competition breaks several conventions of U.S politics, and one of the most significant changes has been the role of social media, which experts say will only play a more significant part in shaping voter opinions once clips of the debate are available and trending.

David H. Dunn, professor of political science and international studies at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., told Newsweek that the 2024 presidential debates would be judged in different ways to debates in the past because of how unprecedented the Trump and Biden rematch is.

Trump vs Biden Debate: It's All About the TikTok Clips

Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020. The candidates face significant personal image problems headed into tonight’s debate.

“It’s the first debate where it’s less about what’s said, and more about how it’s said. In a sense, it’s not going to be about policy questions, it’s more about whether Biden looks out of it and what Trump says about him is true, and if Trump looks too irresponsible to be left in charge of the country. This particular debate will be judged differently to previous ones.”

Dunn highlighted that both Trump and Biden face personal image problems, making them uniquely susceptible to short-form social media content of any potential gaffes.

“What we’ll see from the debate are key clips that are chopped up and reproduced, maybe even manipulated, and used on social media platforms thereafter. Half of Americans get their news from either YouTube or TikTok, so it’s how those soundbites and clips are used afterwards that will be crucial.

“If there are any gaffes in there, the other side will seize on them and use them mercilessly to attack the other candidate, so the stakes are very high for this debate.”

Dunn also pointed to one of the standout moments from the 2020 presidential debates as an example of what to expect this time round, saying: “That line: ‘Will you just shut up, man?’ showed up Trump as being a loose mouth. Trump dropped five points in the polls after the debate, and never really recovered from that.”

TikTok has already emerged as one of the big battlegrounds this election, commanding much of the youth votes’ news feed. Despite pledges to ban the social media site, Both Biden and Trump’s campaigns have been making frequent use of vertical video, often to snipe at the opposition.

Dustin Carnahan, professor of communications at the University of Michigan, also identified the growing role of short, negative clips, most suited to TikTok, YouTube and Twitter, in this election.

“The debates are the single most visible campaign event and command considerable media attention, which has been linked to gains in voters’ knowledge about the candidates and their positions. And evidence does show that a particularly bad performance or significant gaffe can have longer-term effects on voters’ assessments of the candidates.

“Both campaigns have made no secret of their strategy to raise questions about whether the other is fit and capable of carrying out the responsibilities of the presidency for the next four years. Voters will likely be looking for – and campaigns seizing upon – any evidence from the debate that one candidate or the other is incapable of doing the job.

“Any major stumbles, awkward pauses, or moments of confusion could dominate campaign messaging for the next several weeks or longer – and thereby could have an important impact on how voters, especially undecideds, think about the race.”