By Steve BermanIn September, 2022, President Joe Biden stood at the presidential podium, backdropped by Independence Hall in Philadelphia, lit in dragon fire red, flanked by Marines. In his speech, he declared the Republican Party “dominated, driven, intimidated by Donald Trump,” and “a threat to this country.”
On July 13, a 20-year-old gave his life to take a shot at Donald Trump, and nearly assassinated the Republican candidate for president. Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer Evan Vucci caught both presidents at their respective moments. Tell me if you can figure out which one is the threat to democracy.
Donald Trump has been nominated by the Republican Party by winning the most primaries, which were voted on by the public. It was done democratically. There were many rivals who also ran, and just about all of them have endorsed Trump, including Nikki Haley. Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s choice, like it or not. Nobody took a shot at Gov. Ron DeSantis, or Haley, or Chris Christie, or Gov. Doug Burgum.
Trump’s pick for a running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, has a personal story so compelling that Ron Howard directed the movie based on his autobiography, Hillbilly Elegy. Glenn Close starred in the movie. Vance was a U.S. Marine and graduated from Yale Law School before working for Peter Thiel. Vance is just 39 years old, and converted to Catholicism in 2019. Joe Biden has been a Catholic all his life, and probably can’t tell you why.
The Trump-Vance team is a thousand percent better at communications than the Biden-Harris team. The only thing driving the Democratic Party message is hate and fear. The very things liberals have accused Trump of for eight years is the entire bankrupt message Democrats have to offer.
Saying the old trope “Trump isn’t perfect” is completely inadequate. Donald Trump has many, many flaws, but choosing ineffective messages is not one of them. President Biden said he wanted to turn down the heat, and the rhetoric. In his interview with NBC News yesterday, he said it was a “mistake” to use the word “bullseye” regarding Trump in a call with donors. Then he proceeded to call Trump and the Republican Party a “threat to democracy” once again.
“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Biden said. “Do you just not say anything because it might incite somebody? I have not engaged in that rhetoric.”
Mr. President, I think we already have the answer to that question. You have engaged in that rhetoric, and managed to cosplay Adolf Hitler while doing it. If you’re serious about turning down the heat, you’d stop. But you can’t stop because you have nothing else to say.
The election is over. At least the democratic part is over.
It was a good day in Milwaukee. Let’s hope the days keep getting better.
Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.
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