Two on one is Democrat fun, and that’s what the president was up against last night.
He even said so in the early going, telling Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, “I guess I’m debating you, not him. But that’s okay.”
Wallace was reading right off the DNC talking points — climate change, the Charlottesville canard, election “integrity” — even right down to The New York Times’ latest rehash of the president’s tax returns.
President Trump came out fighting everybody, including the moderator. A crowd would have helped. It’s easy to sound compassionate when you’re talking about shutting everything down, but who’s really in favor of keeping the schools closed?
“People need help,” Joe Biden said.
“Then why didn’t you do it for 25 years?” Trump responded.
But Biden came in with the nastier insults — Trump is a clown, he’s a racist, etc.
Sometimes, Trump might have been better served by not interrupting, by letting Joe Biden keep talking. Time and again Biden seemed on the verge of losing it, such as when Joe said of his son Hunter’s drug addiction: “He’s overtaken it.”
Biden claimed he’d saved the auto industry. He saved the economy, period. He’s from the suburbs. (Scranton is now a suburb?) He’s not for the Green New Deal. His running mate is … .
Trump seemed irritated by the two-on-one format, which he had to know was coming. He’s used to dealing with hostile questioners every day, but not so much to having someone come in from the side and heckle him and basically get a free pass from any kind of pushback.
Biden used the old discredited Atlantic story about Trump slurring the World War I servicemen buried in France. (Tuesday the Atlantic put out a new anonymous hit piece, with POTUS allegedly slurring evangelicals. I guess the Times tax story didn’t really have the legs on its third go-around.)
Of course Trump responded to the Atlantic piece by pointing out that during a speech Biden had actually called his military audience “stupid bastards.” On videotape.
But that was maybe an hour later.
Biden kept addressing, however incoherently, the audience at home. Trump on the other hand was talking to Chris Wallace. Trump got in the shots the hard core wanted to get in — calling Biden stupid, basically, working Hunter Biden in whenever he could, needling him about refusing to support “law and order,” pointing out his lies about going to Delaware State … .
In the early going, Joe got less mixed up than he does most days. He called Amy Coney Barrett a “justice,” when in fact she’s a judge. He mixed up 200 million and 200,000 once. In another context, he said 19 companies, then shifted to 91.
Finally, 50 minutes in, the name Hunter Biden was mentioned. Billions from China, and then the $3.5 million from the wife of the corrupt mayor of Moscow.
“Totally discredited,” Biden kept saying. “Totally discredited.”
No, it isn’t.
“He got $3.5 million from Moscow,” he said. “Why did he deserve $3.5 million from Moscow?”
“Here’s the deal … .”
Now we were finally getting somewhere.
Biden looked into the camera and says, “It’s about you.”
That’s what his handlers told Biden to do. Call Trump a clown, call him “man,” but don’t ever talk about the vice president’s coke-addled, alcoholic son.
“He didn’t get a dishonorable discharge,” Biden said.
Of course he didn’t. He was the vice president’s son.
Then Wallace dusted off the old canard about the “very fine people” at Charlottesville. Toss Biden another softball underhanded, Chuck, I mean Chris.
Biden recites all the lines from his handlers. The peaceful protests. Dog whistles. Coming out of the bunker. One in five African Americans killed by COVID-19? Then he corrects himself.
Trump comes back hard, reminding Biden how he called criminals, mostly Blacks, “super predators.”
“I don’t think you have any law-enforcement support. Because if you did you’d lose all of your hard-left support … . They’ve got you wrapped around their finger.”
I don’t think this debate changed too many minds. You saw what the mainstream media said last night. Biden was the winner. Just like Hillary was in 2016, right?
Is it too late to get Joe Rogan as the moderator for the next debate?