Will tonight's debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump be as dramatic as the June 27 debate between Trump and President Biden? That debate confirmed what everyone already suspected: Biden's year and Mental decline He cannot serve another four years. Repeated and public denials By Harris, administration officials and congressional Democrats.
Biden has insisted on remaining in power, despite promising in 2020 that he would only serve as president.Bridge PresidentBiden's refusal to accept the reality of politics and old age has left Democrats desperate to find an alternative to him. before the national championships.
Biden and party leaders compounded the mistake by eliminating any competition or debate on Harris' behalf. Press Conference Or a one-on-one interview Questions are being raised about the sincerity of her candidacy and her ability to be commander in chief.
The debate will be the first opportunity for the press to seriously question her one-on-one, and what the former senator says there could have a major impact on her election prospects.
The stakes are even higher for Trump. Biden's weakness was so obvious in the June debate that observers didn't notice the weakness of Trump's own incoherent, nonsensical performance. Here are some unedited excerpts from the debate on abortion, illegal immigration and the fentanyl epidemic.
abortion:
“When it comes to abortion, it now goes back to the states. The states are voting and in many cases, frankly, it's a very liberal decision. In many cases, it's the other way around.”
But they voted, they're putting it back on the people's vote, which is what everybody wanted, including the Founding Fathers. If they knew about this issue, and frankly they didn't, they should have known. Everybody wants it put back.”
Immigration:
“And he didn't need legislation, because I didn't have legislation. I said close the border. We had the most secure border in history. In the last few months of my presidency, according to the Border Patrol, they're great people, and by the way, they supported me as a presidential candidate. But I'm not gonna say that. But they supported me as a presidential candidate. Brandon, tell him that.”
Fentanyl:
“Jake, we were doing a great job with drug addiction until COVID-19 came along. Two and a half years, almost three years, it was a situation that no country had ever seen before in every respect. And we had to get tough. And we started to see an increase in drugs coming across the border. We got great equipment. We bought specific dogs. The way they found drugs was better than I'd ever seen before. We did a lot of things. And we got very low numbers. Very low numbers.”
While Biden's worst-case cognitive decline is no longer relevant to the campaign except as a Democratic cover-up, Trump's own decline It's becoming more and more noticeable. As The oldest presidential candidate in American history He is now being compared to Harris, who is nearly 20 years younger.
Trump is Mentally failing And politically too. but, Some people Biden's childhood stutter contributed to his limited public speaking, but Trump blamed his increasingly bizarre public statements. A “masterfully” deliberate rhetorical strategy.
“I do weaving. Do you know what weaving is? I talk about nine different things and they all come together in a beautiful way,” Trump said late last month. “And people like my friend, an English professor, say, 'That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.'”
His biographer, Timothy O'Brien, A less favorable view On the former president's declining mental capacity: “The reason he's now giving convoluted explanations for the way he speaks in public is because he's very conscious that people are noticing that he's saying even more nonsense than he was before. What we're seeing now is the reflection of a very distressed, very desperate person.”
This year's debate served its purpose by highlighting where the country stands on which of two older, cognitively challenged candidates to choose. The mainstream factions of both parties should have quickly seized the opportunity to rethink, swap out their candidates, and start fresh with younger, more capable candidates. Democrats acted first because Biden's decline was more pronounced. If Trump performs as badly now as he did in June and during the campaign, spewing vitriolic tirades and personal insults without providing coherent, substantive answers to questions and attacks on Harris, he will again demonstrate his unfitness to be president. Voters will notice.
Of course, Trump tonight Standing there staring with his mouth open and muttering things he doesn't understandHe may simply be showing his age by combining confused thinking with childish behavior and not acting his age. But Trump's failure may give the Republican Party one last chance to salvage its chances in this election and begin to restore the party's long-term political health. And if Trump refuses to leave politics, For refusing to step down from his presidency in 2021Just as Democrats have finally put pressure on Biden, party elders will have to muster the courage to urge him to back down.
Joseph Bosco served as Director for China Affairs for the Secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and Director for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief for Asia and the Pacific from 2009 to 2010. He is an adjunct fellow at the Korea-U.S. Institute and a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Taiwan Institute.
