President Joe Biden has dug himself a hole from which he is now trying to climb out, but many Democrats and some in the media continue to smear him.
There was no way a 20-minute TV interview could have tipped the election in Biden's favor again after Biden's halting debate performance with Donald Trump, whose terrible performance was largely ignored. A legitimate question remains as to whether the 81-year-old Biden or the 78-year-old Trump is better able to handle a tough campaign and four tough years in the Oval Office after all.
Biden has stressed that he will continue to campaign. He must now convince voters that he has the mental toughness and stamina to handle the world's toughest job. The same standard does not seem to exist for Trump. He will not be penalized for incoherence or incompetence.
The country is not choosing its next debate champion. Biden is a respectable man with a respectable record, but he should hold more unscripted events like town hall meetings, press conferences and interviews to make his case.
On every trip, there is no room for error. The media is tracking Biden's every move even more doggedly than they did when Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server drew attention in 2016. The rules have always been different for Trump. Recall that it barely caused a stir when seven members of Trump's team used private email accounts, including his daughter and son-in-law.
A similar imbalance can be seen in coverage of Biden's debate performance. In less than a week, for example, The New York Times ran 70 news articles, 20 opinion columns, four podcasts, and one editorial about Biden's shaky debate performance. Cable TV and social media followed suit, according to Chicago digital news site Heartland Signal.
But little attention has been paid to Trump's disjointed debate performance, because he speaks so incoherently at the debate – he lied more than 30 times in the 90 minutes he spent there, as if he were having a normal office conversation.
While discussing abortion, Trump falsely claimed Democrats want to execute babies as young as nine months old, and claimed immigrants are taking “black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs,” though it's unclear what that means.
During a discussion on the environment, President Trump, who has rolled back over 100 regulations and pulled the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, said, “We had H2O, and we had the best numbers ever.” Huh?
Trump then lied further: “I had the best environmental numbers ever. In fact, my top environmental people gave them to me right before I went onstage.”
Apparently, Trump has no problem spewing endless nonsense, but Biden can never lose his train of thought.
Anyone interested in cognitive decline should pay close attention to Trump's rallies.
In a recent comment about batteries, Trump said, “What if the boat sank under the weight? What if you were on a boat and you had a really powerful battery and it was in the water and there was a shark about 10 yards away? By the way, there's been a lot of shark attacks recently. Have you noticed? A lot of sharks…I saw people justifying it today, saying, 'Well, they weren't that angry. They bit off the young woman's leg because they weren't hungry and they misunderstood who she was.' These people are nuts.”
Apparently, Trump has no problem spewing endless nonsense, but Biden can never lose his train of thought.
At the rally, he referenced the time Clinton called Trump supporters “deplorables.” “Remember when Hillary said 'deplorables?' She said 'deplorable.' That was not a good word to use. The word seems to be slowly picking up, but it's used in a much more positive way than 'deplorable.' That was not a good word. She actually said 'deplorable' and 'hopeless.' Remember? And I heard that and I said, 'Wow, hopeless is a really bad word,' but it didn't catch on. It was 'deplorable.' So what do I know about politics?”
At a recent rally in Wisconsin, Trump Said“If illegal immigrants come into your home, we will deport you.” Thanks for letting me know, covfefe.
He has confused former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Last fall, Trump mixed up the leaders of Hungary and Turkey during a speech in New Hampshire. A month later, he confused the leaders of China and North Korea.
In April, President Trump called into Fox News to comment on the protests on college campuses against the Gaza war, offering these profound thoughts: “If you look back 10 years ago, Israel was protected by Congress. Now Congress is running incredible numbers with the power of a very small number of people in Congress, and this has to stop.”
” read more: Trump Threat | This is an irregular series by the Inquirer editorial board about the risks posed by the reelection of President Donald Trump.
In May, Trump slurred his words at a rally in Wisconsin when he referred to Biden's “fake infrastructure contractor, Elschle Parra,” then referred to an “infrastructure package” before launching into an incoherent rant about Master Lock.
Trump's list of gaffes is long and frequent — of course, everyone in the public arena makes gaffes from time to time — but his strings of words aren't what should worry voters most.
Some experts have suggested it's time to take away Biden's keys. Any fair-minded American should know by now that Trump is dangerous in assuming the presidency at any speed. With four criminal indictments, two impeachments, one conviction, a sexual abuse conviction, and a civil fraud finding, Trump should have been consigned to the ashes of history.
His return plan is even worse, but some voters seem unfazed by the prospect of voting for a deranged, vengeful leader who has evaded taxes, courted dictators, shared classified information with enemies, attacked allies, mismanaged a deadly pandemic, sided with white supremacists, locked children in cages, incited riots, tried to overturn an election, called for the abolition of the Constitution and violated his oath of office.
There is no room for debate.
