What voters need to hear from Biden at the debate

[homersapien 12,172]

President Biden needs to explain these seven facts to undecided and uneducated voters.

The vast gap between what engaged voters know and what disengaged voters know will shock you. Millions of voters either do not know basic facts about the Biden presidency (e.g., he expanded NATO, crime is way down) or what they think they know is wrong (e.g., falsely believing we are in a recession). It is noteworthy that Biden does much better with voters who actually know what is going on. Biden, it stands to reason, can make strides by engaging voters just as they are beginning to pay attention.

The debate, in addition to the convention, provides Biden with his largest audience this election cycle, where he can expose voters to reality and remind them of the consequential choice they face. If he can convey seven discrete facts during the debate, he can make headway with voters while reminding Democrats that turnout is essential to prevent our descent into authoritarianism.

Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist and liar: You may know all too well that civil juries found felon and former president Donald Trump had sexually abused E. Jean Carroll and lied about it, but you would be surprised how many voters never focused on this astonishing case. Trump might well wig out if Biden reminds voters that ordinary people, a jury of Trump’s peers, found him liable for this vile conduct. Because there will be no live audience, Biden cannot invite Carroll to the debate. However, he can certainly conjure her up for those watching while forcing Republicans to grapple with their party’s nomination of an adjudicated rapist.

Multiple judges and juries in civil and criminal cases found Trump committed fraud: Again, informed voters remember that Trump was fined $2 million for fraudulently misusing charitable funds on himself and, separately, was found liable for $355 million for fraudulently inflating the value of his properties. The criminal trial in which ordinary New Yorkers found he falsified business records to pull the wool over voters’ eyes is just the most recent case in which Trump’s deceit caught up with him. Biden, both to puncture the aura of Trump’s business prowess and to infuriate him, should emphasize that fellow Americans repeatedly found Trump to be a con man. Now, he is trying to con the voters.

Biden’s economy is much better than Trump’s: Trump’s voters believe his economy was the greatest of all time. The media, meanwhile, seem disinclined to credit Biden for substantial economic accomplishments. Biden needs to tick through the facts. He can run through the numbers on the stock market, jobs, inflation, manufacturing and wage growth. Voters should hear a stark contrast between the mess he inherited and the current American economy, the envy of the world. For good measure, Biden might also explain that one reason Trump’s economy was so terrible was his refusal to take covid-19 — and coronavirus inoculation plans — seriously, leading to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

Let Trump holler that it is “All lies!” Biden has the numbers — which his campaign can put up on a website to verify each data point.

Trump wants to become a dictator: Here, Biden should draw purely from Trump’s statements and his 2025 plan, which envision deporting protesters; deporting “15 million” migrants by building dentention camps; using the military to quell protests; pardoning violent criminals from the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021; targeting media companies and journalists that won’t regurgitate MAGA talking points; instituting a nationwide abortion ban and ominous surveillance of the mail through the Comstock Act; banning mifepristone; and installing cronies in government to do his bidding. Biden’s website should provide links to Trump comments and items in the 2025 plan so voters can check for themselves.

Trump will make the Supreme Court even worse and America, therefore, unlivable: At a fundraising event, Biden reminded the audience that “if he’s reelected, he’s going to appoint two more [justices] flying flags upside down,” a dig at Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Biden added, “The Supreme Court has never been as out of kilter as it is today. I mean never.” Biden should explain that, with more partisan reinforcements, the right-wing justices can follow Justice Clarence Thomas’s road map to attack a slew of other rights (e.g., access to contraception, same-sex marriage).

Trump sides with authoritarians and will make the world less free and stable: Biden expanded NATO; Trump says Russian President Vladimir Putin is welcome to invade NATO countries that don’t spend enough on defense. Biden has secured international aid for Ukraine; Trump wants to force Ukraine to capitulate. Biden defends democracy; Trump has idolized and flattered authoritarians in Hungary, China and North Korea. And Trump has even taken to quoting Adolf Hitler (whom former chief of staff John F. Kelly said Trump praised behind closed doors).

People who know Trump best won’t support him: Trump’s own former vice president, dozens of former cabinet officials, former press secretaries, a former chief of staff and top military figures have all warned that Trump is dangerous and unfit. Never in American history have so many people who served with a president repudiated him. People who he chose and who saw Trump up close tell us he is incapable of doing the job or understanding his oath.

By Jennifer Rubin

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/21/newsletter-biden-debate-todo/

Edited June 25 by homersapien

[SaltyTiger 8,526]

3 hours ago, homersapien said:

People who he chose and who saw Trump up close tell us he is incapable of doing the job or understanding his oath.

Go figure.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/13/us/politics/biden-trump-battleground-poll.html

It is a debate and won’t be set up as bash Trump party. Doubt ole Joe will get the opportunity to grant the list and probably not savvy enough to squeeze them in.

Hardest sell right now will the economy bit. Fine for us old men more interested in the market than the cost of eggs. Not an easy sell for anyone that has just visited Home Depot or Publix’s and struggling with a mortgage. 

 

[AU9377 5,922]

Things Biden needs to work into the discussion....

1.  Why is Mike Pence not your running mate?  Why do you not have his support?

2. Explain why your Attorney General quit and why he says you are unfit to be President?

3. Do you still believe that you won the state of Georgia, the state we are standing in tonight,  in the 2020 election?

4. When foreign policy is discussed, immediately remind people that he lost the support of General James Mattis and General John Kelly and that both resigned in disgust. Bring up NATO.

5. Remind everyone that his last administration ended in mass resignations after Jan 6th.

We will see if Biden has the fire inside to go after him on the seemingly endless list of past screw ups.  I would much rather see him debate someone like Obama, who would tear him to shreds, but it is what it is.

Edited June 25 by AU9377

[TexasTiger 14,069]

They don’t seem too old to me 

 

[homersapien 12,172]

18 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Go figure.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/13/us/politics/biden-trump-battleground-poll.html

It is a debate and won’t be set up as bash Trump party. Doubt ole Joe will get the opportunity to grant the list and probably not savvy enough to squeeze them in.

Hardest sell right now will the economy bit. Fine for us old men more interested in the market than the cost of eggs. Not an easy sell for anyone that has just visited Home Depot or Publix’s and struggling with a mortgage. 

 

All that tells me is how naive' and/or ignorant Americans are as a whole about economics.

Biden didn't create the inflation and his policies - or more accurately, the Feds policy - is gradually bringing it down.

How is voting for Trump going to change that?

[SaltyTiger 8,526]

6 minutes ago, homersapien said:

All that tells me is how naive' and/or ignorant Americans are as a whole about economics.

Biden didn't create the inflation and his policies - or more accurately, the Feds policy - is gradually bringing it down.

How is voting for Trump going to change that?

Voting for Trump will not change it imo. Pointing out that is a hard sell. Granted most Americans are not schooled in economics. It can be boring and complicated. Those of us that have been educated in the basics are dealing something that is fluid or ever changing. Easy target to blame is POTUS. 

[auburnatl1 6,020]

My 2 cents: for Biden, stay away from the dictator, felon, trumps a bad guy stuff. People already heard all that and either they care or they don’t. Move on.

This is much more about Biden than Trump. Can he really do the job? Does he understand the voters issues? 3 things: 1) strength - coffee up and be  forceful, succinct, and have convictions - be the adult in the room and just let trump crazy implode by himself 2) soften perception of activist agenda - address narrative head on that he has radical  policies- open borders, extreme DEI, ect. Moderate his brand. 3) it’s the economy stupid - the economy had a tough post-covid transition, it sucked, stay the course, it’s improving.

https://www.epi.org/blog/average-wages-have-surpassed-inflation-for-12-straight-months/

Trump has looked like the victim with all the legal stuff.  Now non maga people actually get to hear him again (first time in years for many)  - which isn’t pretty and will remind/repulse many people. He shouldn’t have agreed to do debates imo.