Biden – Trump fallout. Multiple echoes from Thursday’s presidential debate continue to thunder loudly across the country, and across the entire world for that matter. No surprise there. The debate fanned sparks having international consequences. Because of my impression that most European leaders much prefer Biden over Trump, I took time to see what politicians in those countries thought of the debate. Here’s a representative sampling:
From Politico: Europe’s press was stunned by Joe Biden’s “near-catastrophic” performance. . . . Finland’s Yle called his performance a “disaster.” Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra said Biden acted “confused” with a “hoarse voice,” and Poland’s Onet declared that Trump “put [Biden] on his back,” calling it “sad to watch.” . . France’s Le Monde called Biden’s stumbling over his words a “shipwreck,” adding that Trump “was able to roll out lies without contradiction,” while Britain’s Economist said Biden’s “horrific debate performance casts his entire candidacy into doubt.”
From CNN: “Hard to watch” is how multiple foreign diplomats described Thursday night’s debate between Biden and Trump to CNN. “It is a sad reality that Biden is old, and he is getting older. We saw it. I had difficulties understanding what he was saying, and I understand English pretty well,” said a second European diplomat. It was “a bad night for Biden,” said another.
From Financial Times: Concern over Biden’s age, mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump in November’s election has been steadily rising in European capitals this year. . . That rose further on Friday morning as European officials watched Biden’s disastrous debate performance in horror, with many taking the rare step of openly criticizing a sitting US president.
U. S. Reaction
I’ll start the responses on our side of the pond with a bit of whimsy. Business mogul Mark Cuban reported on X that he had asked ChatGPT to select the best candidate based on “communication skills, clarity, problem-solving abilities, and overall professionalism.” How did that turn out? Here are parts of the “artificially intelligent” Bot’s response.
“It would be challenging to decisively hire either candidate without further evaluation of their professional capabilities and specific job fit.” (Not many would disagree!) Regarding Biden, the AI Bot gave pros to Biden for “extensive experience in public service,” “empathy” and “social awareness.” It gave cons for the 81-year-old’s lack of “coherence and clarity” and “focus and consistency.”
Regarding the former president, ChatGPT liked Trump’s “assertiveness and confidence” and “economic focus,” while citing the 78-year-old’s emphasis on “financial performance and business acumen.” However, ChatGPT downgraded the former president for using “hyperbole and exaggeration,” and for his “grandiose claims” that might “raise concerns about his reliability.”
More focus on Biden
From my perspective, and as I hinted in an earlier post (see that here) the debate has triggered more talk, and more written comments, about Biden than it has about Trump, especially questions regarding whether Biden might withdraw from the race. A select number of Democrats, and even newspapers such as the New York Times, have recommended that he drop out. That said, I see no sign that Biden’s camp is planning to throw in the towel. I’ve sifted through members of Biden’s inner circle, and I’ve detected mainly clenched jaws and stony, resistant expressions.
And here is even fresher evidence from just a few hours ago. The President reportedly joined a Zoom call today (July 3) with campaign and Democratic National Committee staff. A published report (see here) quotes Biden as follows: “Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can — as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running … no one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”
Trusted reporting
Remember Carl Bernstein, one of the duo who exploded with the Watergate story? Well, the veteran journalist is still at it. He recently said that White House insiders have been aware of Biden’s limited cognitive abilities, and that over the past year several have taken their concerns to Ron Klain, the former White House chief of staff (and still one of Biden’s top advisors although he is now chief legal officer at Airbnb). According to Bernstein’s report, Klain dismissed those concerns. I wondered why but I recently found what I consider to be a reliable source, and one that provided an encyclopedia of information. Please keep reading.
You may know the source: Politico: I checked out the reliability of Politico on MediaBias/FactCheck, which is summarized in the illustration below. Credibility looks good!
The Politico article I found rings with the sound of old-time journalism, the kind practiced by Carl Bernstein and at one time by thousands of others. This particular article reveals inside information pulled from multiple sources and details are reported in clear, declarative sentences. Those in the White House may (or may not) explode when they read it. Below is a sampling, and at the end I’ll provide the URL to the site so you can read the entire sizzling article. Some excerpts:
Over the course of his presidency, Joe Biden’s small clutch of advisers have built an increasingly protective circle around him, limiting his exposure to the media and outside advice. . . . inside the White House, Biden’s growing limitations were becoming apparent long before his meltdown in last week’s debate. During meetings with aides who are putting together formal briefings they’ll deliver to Biden, some senior officials have at times gone to great lengths to curate the information being presented in an effort to avoid provoking a negative reaction.
“It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’” said one senior administration official. “It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared shitless of him.”
The official said, “He doesn’t take advice from anyone other than those few top aides, and it becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it.”
Shredding Biden’s inner circle
The article also shreds Biden’s inner circle, as shown in a few representative passages below.
Following the debate, the pervasive view throughout much of the party is of Biden’s inner circle as an impenetrable group of enablers who deluded themselves about his ability to run again even as they’ve assiduously worked to accommodate his limitations and shield them from view.
“The fact is, there wasn’t an open dialogue about whether he should run except for the people who would benefit from him running,” said a Democratic operative close to the campaign. They described the inner circle (as being) convinced “that this was going to be about Trump, not about Biden, and at the end of the day, people just wouldn’t vote for Trump. But here we are, we’re sitting in July, and the race is about Biden, and it’s about a trait you can’t fix.”
“I think the Biden team is pretty insular and doesn’t really care what anybody says,” said one senior House Democrat, who described a palpable and growing fear among vulnerable Democrats that they may lose because of Biden.
Group-think abounds
“There’s definitely groupthink,” one Democratic donor-adviser said about Biden’s inner circle. “They’ve known each other a long time. They’re kind of a team of rivals. But they’re not going to challenge him.”
Another operative painted a similar picture: “They don’t take dissent,” they said. “If you try, then you don’t get invited to the next call, the next meeting.”
Click here to read the entire detailed Politico article
