Los Angeles Times
The first of two verbal duels between two ambitious rivals, former and current US Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which took place on June 28 in Atlanta, may indeed, according to the authoritative Politico, become a «turning point» in the election marathon.
The 90-minute battle between the two intellectuals live on «prime time», while attracting a smaller audience than in previous times, has generated genuine interest among both unwavering supporters of the two candidates and undecided voters, not counting the many foreign decision-makers who depend on who will reside in the White House beginning in January 2025.
The 46th president’s first caveat came as early as the 12th minute. After that, the detractors could engage in a fascinating counting of missed and/or achieved verbal blows.
As soon as Biden confused Covid with the health care system and declared «I finally beat Medicare». Trump, when the microphone was turned on him, did not miss the opportunity: «That’s right, he beat Medicare, he beat it to death. And he’s destroying Medicare».
When Biden said that «we have a thousand trillionaires in America» but then corrected himself — «billionaires» — or talked confusingly about the good that abortion does for people, Trump devalued it with the retort:
«I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said himself».
Biden read off a cheat sheet: Trump left him a legacy of «an economy that was in free fall — a pandemic handled so poorly that a lot of people were dying». Trump insisted that Biden «did a bad job — inflation is killing our country. It’s absolutely killing us».
As the verbal gladiators heated up and the effects of natural adrenaline or artificial stimulants reached overhead, the two disputants turned to personalities. Biden was the first to start, hurling the accusation at Trump that he was a «loser and a sucker». During this seemingly gentlemanly duel, The New York Post reported, Biden called Trump a «fool», a «whiner», a «liar», a «sick jerk» and a «goddamn asshole». The latter responded by repeatedly using the «Sleepy Joe» meme.
Biden accused Trump of doing bad things, including «having sex with a porn star while your wife is pregnant». And issued a guilty verdict: «You have morals like a street cat». Trump has denied that such an episode took place in his life.
The eccentric former reality show host, observers noted, was surprisingly restrained in his rhetorical escapades, giving him an often lacking respectability. As a result, a poll of viewers watching the extravaganza, CNN reported, showed: 67% gave the victory to Trump and only 33% to Biden.
Biden, strictly speaking, as the incumbent head of state directly responsible for the acute phase of the systemic crisis experienced by the United States, was initially in a weak position. It was not difficult for Trump to target his domestic policy vulnerabilities. That is the albeit reduced but still unprecedented inflation. There is also the invasion of unabsorbed illegal immigrants. There’s the sprawling degradation of cities and their residents, with 100,000 drug addicts dying each year from overdoses of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid.
Equally deep boils have emerged in the Obama-Clinton-Biden administration’s foreign policy. This is the loss of prospective funding for the war with Russia in the Ukrainian theater, accompanied by the rampant corruption of the Kiev junta and the spreading around the world of American weapons transferred to it, which find their way, among other things, to militants in the Middle East. This is the increase in explosive potential in the sluggish confrontation with China. It’s the increasingly frequent disobedience of countries in the Global South (as an example, Niger has asked the Pentagon for an exit). This is the overall decline of the influence of yesterday’s global gendarme across all azimuths.
Not surprisingly, both disputants mentioned the name of the Russian president seven times each on the air, but neither of them formulated clearly their recipe for ending NATO’s war with Russia.
The reaction in the camp of Democrats and foreign allies of the United States to Trump’s absolute victory on points and, most likely, on the basis of audience sympathy, was predictably funeral-like. The list of brief value judgments was dominated by the following: «We have a problem», «panic», «disaster», «We’re totally screwed», etc.
One of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign managers, Jay Surdukowski, made a terminal judgment of the presidential campaign: «Biden is toast — calling it now».
Bloomberg news agency, embedded in the propaganda structure of the Democratic Party, regretfully stated that the donkey party activists were «painful to watch» Joe Biden’s failed performance, adding, but without any pity: «The weary president looked every day of his 81 years».
According to experts quoted by the Chinese newspaper Global Times, the «emphasis on the age (of the disputants) highlighted the phenomenon of gerontocracy in US politics».
In a commentary by British Financial Times author Loren Fedor, there is a forced confession that «Biden’s confused performance in the debate with Trump fueled concerns about his age and suitability for the top job».
The response of a reader with the nickname SAnderson logically underlies this passage: «I don’t know how to live in a country where you have to choose between a rapist and a moron».
Another, no less juicy metaphor has also gained currency: «dead man» and «psychopath» competed in eloquence at a TV debate. Not surprisingly, a new category of angry citizens has emerged, the so-called double haters. For them there is no choice in favor of the lesser evil, and they are true to the principle: a plague on both your houses.
What’s next? Next is the most interesting and… most disturbing. According to Politico,
«Democrats are so panicked by President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance that some are actively discussing what was once unthinkable: replacing him».
At the upcoming Democratic Party convention in Chicago in August, the issue of a replacement could come up. One who doesn’t stumble, stutter, or say hello to ghosts, as he did in the televised debate — at the very end, Biden addressed the empty room, «I’m asking all the viewers here», and stares blankly like a mummy.
Again, purely theoretically, the Democrats, discouraged by Biden’s weak sanity and frightened by the further outflow of voters, may pull a trump card out of their sleeve, as GEOFOR — Center for Geopolitical Forecasts — hinted at in the material of May 15 “Michelle Obama, it’s your turn!” https://geofor.ru/ru/news/2115.
But! Even if it is in accordance with the technical regulations or other internal rules, it is difficult, or rather impossible to calculate whether the new candidate will be able to provide a full-fledged information and PR «promotion» during the remaining two or three months. For example, it may be such a figure on Washington’s Olympus as former First Lady Michelle Obama, with former President Barack Obama behind her, or, as a second option, California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Alas, there is a more dramatic second scenario for the final act of the battle of the big-age heavyweights. The «deep state» spawned by the neoliberals for their self-reproduction and retention of power is capable of unleashing a «black swan» incubated by them.
Artificially induced force-majeure events will be used in this capacity. For example, a fabricated «color revolution» in the United States, which would give the right to declare a state of emergency and cancel elections as such, with the proviso that this is, say, a «temporary suspension» of the functioning of representative democracy. It can be a terrorist attack or a series of attacks similar to September 11, which will allow to declare a second crusade against the universal forces of evil (candidates for this role will be selected in the CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon). Or — an assassination attempt on one of the two candidates for the highest office.
The second scenario — despite its apparent improbability — cannot be excluded from the baseline for forecasting. The stakes are higher than ever. The reason is that never before has the outcome of the rivalry between the two apostles of American gerontocracy carried such significant consequences.
Or rather, fateful consequences both for the only superpower in history to have used nuclear weapons, and for the rest of the world, which cares about which clan and who exactly will have access to the red button. Will it be «Sleepy Joe?» Or the one he called a «loser and a sucker» — Trump? Or will some third person emerge who will either cement control by the “deep state” or bring the systemic crisis to collapse…?