In a short, choppy, mean-spirited video, Joe Biden has challenged Donald Trump to two debates. Having watched Biden recently, whether hopped up on drugs or barely sentient, my money’s on Trump, who accepted the challenge with a “Let’s get ready to rumble” clarion call. Trump knew that phrase would trigger only one thought: “Let’s get ready to mumble.”
Biden’s announcement is only 13 seconds long but you can see that it has five quick cuts. Arguably, those cuts are there to keep the 13-second video vibrant and energetic. More realistically, they reflect the number of takes required to get 13 usable seconds from Joe “Pause” Biden:
Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hadn’t [sic] shown up for debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice. Let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.
Aside from the glaring cuts, there is so much wrong with what Biden said. Let me count the ways:
- “Since then, he hadn’t [sic] shown up for debate.” What does this even mean? When would Trump have “shown up” for a debate with Joe Biden? Since 1976, televised debates happen when two presidential candidates are squaring off against each other in the months before the election. This is meaningless trash talk.
- “Now, he’s acting like he wants to debate me again.” As before, what does this even mean? Trump’s been demanding a debate, which is entirely consistent with election norms since 1976. There’s no pretense here. That’s normal.
- “Well, make my day, pal.” So now Joe Biden, he of the no-fall shoes and the entourage to hide his shuffle, is suddenly Clint Eastwood? Does he actually believe at this point that Donald Trump is old Corn Pop, the bad dude whom Joe Biden will take down in some scary parking lot action?
- “I’ll even do it twice.” Wow! Joe Biden will do “it” twice—which is also what invariably happens during presidential debates. Biden is making normal seem like a brave and heroic act.
- “I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.” This refers to the fact that Judge Merchan has made Wednesday the day off from the Alvin Bragg trial against Donald Trump. That was an interesting day to pick. By making Friday a court day when judges usually go for three-day weekends for long trials, Judge Merchan ensured that no Orthodox Jews could be on the jury...and Orthodox Jews are the most conservative voters in New York City. Biden’s nasty little crack is a reminder, as if we needed one, that Alvin Bragg’s baseless charges against Biden are election interference, not justice.
Trump, of course, struck back hard in a two-party Truth:
Since that Truth is truncated, here's the entire text for your convenience:
Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced - He can’t put two sentences together! Crooked is also the WORST President in the history of the United States, by far. It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to “Catch on Fire.” I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September. I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds - That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there. “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”
I especially love that Trump ended his first Truth with the phrase, “Let’s get ready to Rumble.” Trump, who uses words in weird but powerful ways, fully understands that the word “Rumble” will inevitably lead to the association “mumble” when thinking of Joe Biden—and Biden is the master of mumble:
Given Biden’s infirmities and fear of crowds, you won’t be surprised at Biden’s conditions for the debate, which are completely outside of the norm. They reflect someone in mortal fear of anything outside of a controlled, hermetically sealed chamber:
Mr. Biden and his top aides want the debates to start much sooner than the dates proposed by the organization, the Commission on Presidential Debates, so voters can see the two candidates side by side well before early voting begins in September. They want the debate to occur inside a TV studio, with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker’s time limit elapses.
And they want it to be just the two candidates and the moderator — without the raucous in-person audiences that Mr. Trump feeds on and without the participation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or other independent or third-party candidates.
Biden will also allow only certain networks to carry the debate: CBS, ABC, CNN, and Telemundo.
However, at Ace of Spades, they see a trap:
I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Chris Wallace did a lot to hurt Trump. The leftwing media is salivating to do that again, even harder this time.
Trump doesn’t even need these debates -- Biden needs them. So Trump had all the leverage to set terms.
Instead, he let Biden set the terms. Trump will be debating CNN, CBS, and Telemundo more than Biden. They won’t let Trump engage with Biden and will answer on behalf of Biden at every turn.
As for me, now that Trump has said yes, a point from which there is no return, I think Donald Trump should have one condition: Drug testing. No debate participant can test positive for any substance that artificially enhances his cognitive function.
Image: X screen grab (cropped).