Those were the remarkable words of CNN’s judicious Jake Tapper; much of what Trump said was “completely made up;” his whole campaign the sleaziest ever. Fact checker Daniel Dale, while saying Biden made a few misstatements, called Trump’s entire performance “a bombardment, an avalanche of lies.” Dale likened himself to Lucy in the famous scene with the conveyor belt of chocolates outracing her ability to keep up.
Again I watched the debate with Hajira, 18, from Somaliland. I’m so immersed in this stuff; she provided a welcome fresh perspective, very insightful. Seeing right through Trump’s bullshit storm and weird mentality, literally whooping at it.
Trump thought his best shot was calling Biden a “corrupt politician.” Deploying the words like some magical incantation. This from the man who’s exploited the presidency for personal profit, extracted rent payments from Secret Service agents protecting him in his hotels, paid millions to settle his “Trump University” fraud case, millions to settle his charitable foundation fraud case, perverted security clearance procedures for family members, issued pardons to cronies, went through multiple bankruptcies walking away with millions leaving others holding the bag, literally thousands of lawsuits because he consistently refuses to pay his bills, tried to use U.S. military aid to bribe/extort Ukraine’s president into smearing a political opponent, and has told at least 22,000 documented lies.
Including his accusations against Biden. Damaging e-mails discovered on a laptop left for repair — and never picked up? Are you kidding me? That could actually happen? How gullible can one be? The story has Russia’s fingerprints all over it.
Hearing Trump discuss the pandemic was surreal. He painted a grim scene in New York. As if he were running against the president on whose watch that happened. Forgetting he’s that president. Accusing Biden of wanting to shut down the economy. Forgetting he shut down the economy. Except so incompetently we got no benefit.
Here’s what’s true. We’re not turning a corner. The virus is resurging. We can’t get the economy, the schools, our lives, back to normal without first beating the virus. And Trump still has no plan. After eight months, his only plan is happy talk, still touting a vaccine we don’t have, and insisting covid will just go away. Still refusing to tell anti-maskers they’re wrong. Still even falsely quoting Fauci as anti-mask. And saying we should learn to live with covid. Biden’s best line: we’re learning to die with it.
But Trump even portrays a quarter million deaths (so far) as some kind of triumph. By comparing it to 2.2 million that might have happened. That was the death estimate had nothing at all been done by anybody. As if that might have happened. Fortunately most Americans had more sense than Trump about masking. Those who did not are the main cause of the quarter million deaths.
More surrealism on health care. Trump swore to protect people with pre-existing conditions. While his administration is in court, right now, trying to end it. He’s said he does hope the Supreme Court will end Obamacare — taking away health insurance from over 20 million people — in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Promising he’ll replace it with something wonderful. After four years of such lies, it’s a source of wonder that there are still people who don’t laugh in his face.
Meantime, Trump said Biden would take health care away from 180 million people. Uh huh.
“Nobody’s been tougher on Russia.” Uh huh. “The least racist person in the room.” Uh huh. Saying he’s done more for Blacks than Abraham Lincoln — and he wasn’t too sure about Lincoln. CNN panelist Van Jones generously acknowledged that Trump has indeed done some good things benefiting Blacks. But the problem is that, at the same time, he’s also empowered white supremacists. And when asked to address Black families fearful of police violence, etc., he (unlike Biden) didn’t respond at all.
This exemplified Trump showing, with almost every answer, that it’s all about him. Incapable of seeing anything from a perspective other than his own and his deranged ego. Indeed, when Biden spoke about the problems of ordinary people, Trump actually mocked that as talking like a “politician.” Hello, that’s what “politicians” are supposed to do: understand, represent, and serve the people who elect them. If they’re any good. Right — you’re no politician, Donald.
Biden was restrained and calm, but did exhibit moral fervor about the children taken from parents at the border; for over 500 this administration has no way to even find the parents. An atrocity staining America forever. (That’s what I’d personally asked Biden about last week.) His “empathy and humanity came through” (quoting journalist Rosemary Armao).
The final question — what will you say to those who voted against you? — handed Trump one last golden opportunity to at least feign decency. Any candidate not totally insane would have seized that opportunity. Of course Trump did not.
