Photograph by Sean Keenan
A disorienting array of demonstrators scattered across Midtown Thursday to protest, celebrate, and, for the most part, boisterously ignore the biggest show in town—the first debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in this tumultuous election cycle.
The corner of Spring Street and 10th, just a few blocks from the CNN studio where the presidential debate would be held, hosted most of the fracas: A hundreds-strong crowd of pro-Palestine activists rallied to decry the Biden administration’s material support for the Israeli army waging war in Gaza; a few dozen Biden supporters pressed up against police barricades to cheer on the commander in chief’s motorcade as it sped toward the cable news giant’s Techwood campus; and a miscellany of other demonstrators seized the opportunity to glean a sliver of the spotlight to champion their various causes.
By all accounts, Thursday offered a dizzying cross section of Atlanta’s many conflicting (and, in some cases, complementary) ideologies—and perhaps a look at the pessimism proliferating across an America at a political crossroads.
The pro-Palestine contingent, by far the largest and loudest congregation within walking distance of the debate hall, denounced Biden in chants and speeches, accusing him of kowtowing to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggression in Gaza.
Many rally-goers said in interviews that they planned to refrain from voting for either Biden or Trump. Some voiced support for third-party candidates like Cornel West or Jill Stein, and a half-dozen or so convened on one street corner waved Robert F. Kennedy signs in front of a crudely painted Robert F. Kennedy RV.
The crowd roared its disapproval as billboard buses cruised by with Biden campaign signage glowing in LEDs.
Marisa Pyle, an organizer with the nonprofit Jewish Voice for Peace, said Biden won’t earn her vote unless the White House abruptly and unexpectedly retracts its support for Israel, because the administration has been “extraordinarily supportive” of “genocide” in Palestine.
Pyle, however, understands that either Trump or Biden will almost certainly win the election, and says she’s “terrified of a Trump term that would irreparably harm my access to healthcare, my basic human rights, etc.”
When Trump supporter Chris Bien, in town from Michigan for work, scootered up to the corner of 10th and Spring to observe the hoopla, he found it “shocking” that the vast majority of demonstrators couldn’t stomach either leading candidate.
“When did we see that last?” he wondered aloud, before buzzing down toward the North Avenue bridge hunched over the interstate, where dozens of other Trump backers had gathered to wave as Trump’s motorcade made its way to the debate. Bien noted he would watch the debate from the airport before jetting back north.
Paul Thomas, who joined a group there to observe Biden’s parade of armored cars traveling to the debate, said he found the president’s turn onto the 10th Street overpass “exhilarating,” albeit short-lived.
“It was exhilarating seeing people from all races, nationalities, everyone all cheering and chanting for the same thing—the anticipation of even a glimpse,” he said. “You know you’re not going to see the actual president, but the glimpse of knowing that he may be in that vehicle was exciting.”
When asked what he thought about the fact that the largest assembly in the neighborhood was there to voice their distaste for both Biden and Trump, Thomas said, “That’s America. You have the ability to speak and express how you feel right now. And I think the thing going on with Gaza—it’s going to impact both candidates regardless, so it’s important for them to have a voice here.”
The pro-Palestine, pro-Biden, and pro-Trump crowds decidedly eclipsed the peppering of single-issue activists who’d come to take advantage of the media attention.
A handful of campaigners from the animal rights organization PETA—including someone in a (surely scorching) rat costume replete with faux surgery scars and stitches—argued the next presidential administration must reform animal testing policies and funding.
The anti-abortion group Pro-Life Atlanta, also sparsely represented in Midtown yesterday, insisted most Americans demand abortion restrictions—and said Trump was probably the best pick to advance their policy goals.
Trail of Truth, a national group that creates performance art to draw awareness to substance abuse-related deaths and honor lost loved ones, painted mock children’s headstones on the outskirts of the area.
As Biden and Trump wrapped up their 90-minute showdown, the hundreds of activists of all walks of life and all manner of political ideologies and personal philosophies streamed away from the rally to head home—or to a nearby watering hole to wash down their angst alongside U.S. soccer fans lamenting the team’s crushing defeat to Panama just three miles down the road.
