On the same evening this week, the two major parties’ presidential candidates each gave a speech that revealed the fundamental nature of the man.
In Washington, President Biden assembled world leaders to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, which Biden has rebuilt and expanded over the last 3½ years. “The American people know that all the progress we’ve made in the past 75 years has happened behind the shield of NATO,”. . . “And the American people understand what would happen if there was no NATO: another war in Europe, American troops fighting and dying, dictators spreading chaos, economic collapse, catastrophe.” . . . Biden rallied his counterparts to accept nothing short of victory in Ukraine.
In Miami a few hours later, former president Donald Trump assembled supporters at his Doral golf club — another transfer of wealth from his campaign to his personal accounts — and ridiculed NATO partners. . . . He repeated his boast and said he told NATO partners that if they were “delinquent” (there is no such thing in NATO, which does not collect dues), “I will not protect you from Russia.”
Thus did Trump celebrate his willingness to squander the deterrence that has kept the peace for decades, and instead to abandon allies to the tender mercies of Vladimir Putin, who just bombed a children’s hospital in Ukraine. Trump says he’ll make Ukraine “settle” with the invading Russians, a surrender that Biden would never allow.
This is exactly what the presidential campaign should be about at this perilous moment: the choice between strong American leadership and appeasement, between democracy and dictatorship.
But this is no longer what the campaign is about. The heavy-handed attempt to force Biden to quit the race after his disastrous debate has, predictably, backfired. . . . And Republicans can hardly believe their good fortune, as they portray Biden as a zombie — with no good answer to their attacks.
Trump’s Doral rally was full of endless variations on the “Weekend at Bernie’s” theme. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), now in the final round of auditions to become Trump’s running mate, warmed up the crowd by identifying a “conspiracy” to hide Biden’s mental condition.
Then came Donald Trump Jr. “We’re running against a party that wants to take away your AR-15, but they gave a vegetable the nuclear codes,” he began. . . As for Biden’s (accurate) argument that Trump threatens democracy, Trump said Biden “doesn’t even know what the hell the term is.”
Alas, this is what the rest of the campaign is likely to be about if Biden remains in the race. Some of this is the fault of congenitally anxious Democrats and their allies rushing to force him from the race, which has understandably caused Biden to resist. Some is the fault of my colleagues in the news media, breathlessly keeping a deathwatch . . .
But this much is clear: As president, Biden has invariably acted in the best interest of the country. I suspect that, if he sees more data coming in showing that he no longer can beat Trump, he will graciously bow out. If he does so, he will be remembered for the most substantial record of accomplishment of any president in decades.
At the moment, it’s difficult to see the national discussion shifting back to where it should be: on Trump’s fitness for office.
This week, the MAGA-occupied Republican National Committee forced through a “platform” that looks more like one of Trump’s social media posts, in all caps and with curious punctuation. . . . It abolished any mention of the national debt and tiptoed around abortion.
Also this week, longtime Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka told Newsmax that Vice President Harris is “a DEI hire, right? She’s a woman. She’s colored.”
And this was the week in which Trump issued his comical denial that “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.” The project, essentially an outsourcing of Trump’s policy operation, calls for banning abortion pills, eliminating the Education Department, deporting the “dreamers,” reversing support for renewable energy, dismantling independent agencies and firing vast numbers of nonpartisan federal workers to replace them with political operatives.
Were the nation’s focus not on what is going on between Biden’s ears, voters would be hearing more about the truly batty things coming out of Trump’s mouth, and those of his top allies. “It’s really a pretty simple question,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said to the crowd at Trump’s Doral rally. “Was America better off four years ago under Donald Trump?” Four years ago, the economy had collapsed, hospitals were overflowing and hundreds of thousands of people were needlessly dying because of Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
The former president’s remarks could be charitably described as bizarre. He remarked on the looks of a “beautiful waitress” and again referred to Chris Christie as a “fat pig.” Gangster Al Capone was a “very nice gentleman, very fine man,” and fictitious serial killer Hannibal Lecter “was a lovely man.” His son Don Jr., who is engaged but not married, “has a great wife.” Tourists who go to see the Jefferson Memorial or the Washington Monument “end up getting shot, mugged, raped.”
He was as erratic as usual, at one point stopping in his speech for a full 10 seconds without explanation. He spoke of himself in the third person, asking if the United States can be “energy dominant” (it already is): “‘Yes, oh, yes, and quickly,’ says President Trump,” he said. . . . He garbled words, saying, “Our econo — we — er — our economy will be at a level that will equal and even surpass what it was four years ago.” Four years ago at this time, gross domestic product had plunged 31.4 percent and unemployment was 13 percent.
With eerie music in the background, Trump called the United States “a Third World nation” and “a joke.” Though the stock market has set repeated records amid 42 months of consecutive job growth, Trump declared that the “economy is collapsing into a cesspool of ruin.”
Less amusingly, he said those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “hostages, unfairly imprisoned,” who “should be out soon” because of the Supreme Court. And he announced that “we have nuclear submarines and five warships in Cuba.” Was Trump publicly divulging the location of U.S. nuclear assets? Or when he said “we,” did he mean Russia? Neither one was a good look.
From beginning to end, it was disqualifying. But apparently this is not what the voters are going to be hearing about for the next four months. Will Biden, the Democrats and the commentariat really allow this to happen? As a shrewd political observer once said: C’mon, man.
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