It shouldn’t surprise anyone that team Trump can’t come up with a coherent pre-debate spin plan. In debates, “spin” is at least as important as what’s actually said.
On the one hand, the Trump team wants it to sound like Biden is a candidate rooted in potting soil that they put out in the sunshine for a couple of hours every day and water him. They present him as the ultimate dementia patient. On the other, they’re so sure that Biden is going to look sharp and prepared (what a concept) that they want Biden tested for “drugs” prior – like a prize fight or a horse race.
Now ABC reports [1] that Trump is again going after the totally unproven and nonsensical “dementia” thing:
Trump has carried out conflicting and confounding strategies both repeatedly targeting Biden’s mental acuity, claiming at a recent rally he doesn’t know he’s alive, while also making passing attempts to boost the former vice president as a seasoned debater who could outshine him.
“This guy doesn’t have a clue. He doesn’t know where the hell he is,” Trump told his supporters in Pittsburgh a week to the day before the first debate. “This guy doesn’t know he’s alive.”
This is the point in the column where we remind everyone that the Russians may well have been the ones that came up with the idea for this line of attack. At the very least, the Russians promised to be pushing it, as reported by our intelligence communities in July, only to have the report blocked from Congress and the press until it was leaked a few weeks ago
But Trump also has the ability to go totally crazy and say the polar opposite the next day, or the next sentence:
“We have a debate coming up and who knows … He’s a dumb guy. Always known as a dumb guy. But we look forward to seeing him in the debate. You know what, he’s been doing it for 47 years. I have been doing it for 3 1/2 years so he should be able to beat me, I would think. He’s much more experienced. He’s great,” Trump said at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio, on Monday.
Minutes later at that same Ohio event, the president said of Biden: “The guy can’t speak without the teleprompter.“
You know what else Biden’s been doing for 47 years? Learning about government and how to get problems solved, it helps.
The entire argument ignores the fact that Biden could speak through a combination of a Native American shaman and interpretive dance and make more sense than the butchered sentence-like word strings that come out of Trump’s mouth.
Most of us couldn’t care less if Biden began the debate by twisting a pretend wire in his teeth and saying “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” Biden is still of sound judgment and real empathy. He has morals and will surround himself with the best people. Plus, he’s not demented, he’s quite sharp.
Trump could channel Thomas Jefferson and we’d still vote against him.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak