Cartoon of Donald Trump clashing with Megyn Kelly at August 2015 debate
Republicans, as expected, are attacking the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Given that Joe Biden has been the Democratic front-runner essentially since the day he announced his candidacy, and indeed, beats Donald Trump in head-to-head match-up polls, Biden naturally is a target for many of these Republican assaults. The current line of GOP attack against Biden is that he makes “gaffes,” i.e. honest statements that politicians don’t always make, or misstatements using a wrong word, phrase or information. However, there are two big problems with this Republican attack on Biden: first, Biden has had the reputation of making gaffes for many years, and to a lot of voters, it adds to his likeability and authenticity. Second, and even more problematic for Republicans, Donald Trump has so lowered the bar with his own horrible history of misstatements, shocking statements, and outright lies, that he has negated any “gaffe” issue for Biden.
Let’s start with some of Donald Trump’s verbal blunders, equivalent to the “gaffes” for which the Republicans are trying to attack Biden:
—August 2015, trying to explain on NBC’s Meet the Press which foreign policy advisors he follows:
Well I really watch the shows. You really see a lot of great, you know, when you watch your show and all of the other shows, and you have the generals and you have certain people that you like.
—December 2015, speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition, using age-old tropes involving Jews and money:
Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t renegotiate deals? Probably 99 percent of you. Probably more than any room I’ve ever spoken in….
I’m a negotiator like you folks were negotiators….
You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money.
—July 2016, interview with ABC News regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had already annexed Crimea, which is in Ukraine:
He’s not going into Ukraine, OK? Just so you understand. He’s not going to go into Ukraine, alright? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.
There are so many more examples of these kinds of statements from Trump, we had to leave most of them out due to space considerations. And then there are all the hateful, racist, misogynistic statements from Trump that aren’t even necessarily “gaffes,” because he meant to say them this way. Here are some well-known examples:
—September 2005 (released October 2016), the infamous Access Hollywood tape, where Trump is heard saying, about pursuing women:
[Regarding Access Hollywood‘s co-host, Nancy O’Dell] I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fu*k her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily…. I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married….
[Regarding TV actress Arianne Zucker, whom Trump was about to meet] I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait…. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.
—June 2015: Trump’s initial presidential campaign announcement, where he said about immigrants from Mexico: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
—August 2015, talking about Fox News Republican presidential debate moderator Megyn Kelly: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever.”
—November 2015, physically mocking New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a crippling congenital condition that affects his joints: “Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy. ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!’”
—August 2017, after a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, VA resulted in the killing of one anti-Nazi protester, Heather Heyer, and the injuring of 20 others, Trump said, “You also had some very fine people on both sides.”
In contrast, listen to a statement by Joe Biden that was considered a “gaffe”: in March 2010, when President Barack Obama signed the historic Affordable Care Act, helping get more affordable healthcare insurance to tens of millions more Americans, Vice President Biden was caught on mic whispering to Obama, “this is a big fuc*ing deal.” It was a true expression of Biden’s pride and enthusiasm about doing something decent for many Americans.
Compare that to Trump’s statements. As Joe Biden might say: folks, this isn’t even a contest.
Photo by DonkeyHotey, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/5lzE15
