Biden’s malarkey; CBS News’s farcical fact-check; the New York Times goes to bat for Biden
Cynicism
Related highlights:
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Democratic nominee Joe Biden had plenty of low points Thursday evening during the final 2020 presidential debate.
But none were so low as when he made it clear that his I-will-be-a-leader-for-all-America routine is just a cynical play for weary voters.
The worst example of Biden undercutting his own campaign message came about mid-way through the debate when President Trump mocked the former vice president's promise to tackle criminal justice reform.
“I just ask one question,” said President Trump, “why didn't you do it in the eight years, a short time ago? Why didn't you do it? You just said, ‘I'm going to do that. I'm going to do this.’ You put tens of thousands of mostly black young men in prison.”
Trump added, “Now you're saying you're going to get — you're going to undo that. Why didn't you get it done? You had eight years with Obama? You know why, Joe, because you're all talk and no action.”
The 40-plus-year veteran of Washington, D.C., responded flatly, “We had a Republican Congress. That’s the answer.”
There was an awkward pause, which broke only after debate moderator Kristen Welker said, “OK.”
“Well,” Trump laughed, “you got to talk — you got to talk them into it, Joe. Sometimes, you got to talk them into it.”
What a dud of a moment for Biden.
First, Republicans did not even control Congress for all the years Obama and Biden were in the White House. Democrats had control of the House from 2007 to 2011. They likewise had control of the Senate from 2007 until the start of 2015. Democrats controlled the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate in 2009 and 2010 — and still no criminal justice reform.
But that is not even the point. The point is that Biden suggests here that he will not get anything done as president so long as one of the two major parties in the United States is anywhere near Congress. So much for bridging that divide.
Biden’s response also suggests he believes that unless his party holds complete control of both the legislative and the executive branches, no meaningful reform can be achieved, including criminal justice reform. That should come as news to Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, whose police reform bill was killed this year by Senate Democrats. This is all doubly stupid when one remembers that, during the Obama years, Biden was actually the go-to guy on cutting deals with Republicans. Yet, on Thursday, he claimed incorrectly that a Republican-controlled Congress stymied the Obama administration for all eight years on its efforts to push through criminal justice reform?
As Biden would say: Come on, man.
Whatever happened to Biden’s great unifier rhetoric? Whatever happened to his folksy, reach-across-the-aisle shtick? It seemed to disappear the moment someone challenged his relatively weak and long record as a public servant, replaced entirely by partisan finger-pointing premised on a lie.
Speaking of Biden’s heal-the-nation nonsense, the former vice president had a second moment Thursday evening where he let slip his partisan leanings.
Trump at one point during the debate trotted out his stupid talking point about blue states and their Godawful handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden took the president’s criticisms as an opportunity to dust off one of Obama’s greatest hits. The funny part is that, in classic Biden fashion, the former vice president badly botched the moment, jumping headfirst into politicizing the issue exactly as Trump had done.
“I don't look at this in terms of what he does, blue states and red states. They’re all the United States,” said Biden. But in the very next breath, he added, “And look at the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus. They’re the red states. They are the states in the Midwest, they are the states in the upper Midwest, that's where the spike is occurring significantly, but they're all Americans.”
It is as Biden said: Look, there are no red states or blue states. But if we’re talking about the virus, the red states are really mucking this up right now.
How inspirational. Can you feel the healing?
Like his old boss, Biden talks a big game about coming together as a country and acting as some grand, bipartisan savior. And like Obama, if you give the former vice president enough time to talk, you’ll see that his uniter-in-chief rhetoric is exactly that: talk.