Joe Biden on the Back Foot Roger Franklin Editor, Quadrant Online
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/america/2024/07/joe-biden-on-the-back-foot/
Within minutes of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, Joe Biden’s handlers suspended all campaign advertising. They had no choice. As demonstrated in the weeks leading up to the shooting, the Democrats’ ads had assailed him as a threat to everything that is good and decent about America. Incendiary rhetoric, as the President intoned on Sunday night in his address to the nation, must be condemned.
Below, excerpts of that Oval Office (in italic) message and, below each, some links and background to what might well be the biggest example of hypocrisy since Captain Renault evinced shock at finding a roulette wheel in Rick’s gin joint.
My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.
Translation: We must stand together, especially those amongst my fellow Democrats who have been calling on me to stand down.
Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here.
How indeed! The day before Thomas Matthew Crooks’ bullet took the tip off Donald Trump’s right ear, the man demanding “a step back” from fighting words variously described Trump as “a rapist”*, “a convicted criminal”, “a business fraud”, “a threat to this nation” who is “unhinged” and, inevitably, an enemy of “our democracy” who would force the public servants he doesn’t sack to pledge their loyalty to him personally.
For good measure he also painted his opponent as advocating “injecting bleach in your arm” to cure Covid (he didn’t) , that he has promised “to seek revenge and retribution” on his critics (he didn’t, telling a rally “I will be your retribution“, not that he would orchestrate such revenge.)
In a hat-tip to honesty, Biden also conceded “I make a lot of mistakes”.
Thankfully, former [President] Trump is not seriously linjured [injured]. I spoke with him last night. I’m grateful he’s doing well. And Jill and I keep him and his family in our prayers.
Fixit squad: The words in square brackets are White House staffers’ corrections of Biden’s numerous and standard verbal gaffes
We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. Corey was a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, a hero, sheltering his family from those bullets. We should all hold his family and all those injured in our prayers.
That was then: Days before the assassination attempt, Biden thundered, as he so often has, that “MAGA Republicans”, such as the man he now hails as a hero, “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
A dead Trump supporter is a good Trump supporter.
Earlier today, I spoke about an ongoing investigation. We do not know the motive of the shooter yet. We don’t know his opinions or affiliations. We don’t know whether he had help or support or if he communicated with anyone else. Law enforcement professionals, as I speak, are investigating those questions.
Make a guess, Joe: A kid takes his father’s AR-15 to a roof and squeezes off a volley of shots at a politician Biden et al. have spent eight years villifying. Biden is hoping, perhaps even praying, that Crooks was an apolitical nutjob seeking fame or, like fellow failed assassin John Hinckley jr, aiming to impress the likes of Jodie Foster.
Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know: A former president was shot. An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing.
We cannot — we must not go down this road in America. We’ve traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer, whether it’s with members of Congress in both parties being targeted in the shot (sic), or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump.
Pickin’ and choosin’: Some violence is worth mentioning, apparently, and then there are leftoids’ attacks on Republicans, which are to be overlooked. So Biden limited his ledger of lawlessness to January 6, the hammer-wielding, drug-addled, standard-issue San Francisco fruit loop who bashed Pelosi’s husband,plus a ‘kidnapping plot’ against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer a jury found was organised and encouraged by undercover FBI agents.
Biden steered well clear of mentioning the attack on Republicans training for 2017’s annual congressional baseball game that severely wounded GOP Whip Steve Scalise. No mention, too, of the beating inflicted on Rep Rand Paul or any of these incidents.
… the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that …
Exceptions can be made: Given his desire to “tone things down”, Biden might want to have stern word with celebrity supporter Jack Black (above with his idols), who enjoyed a good giggle when a member of his hobby band, Tenacious D, was cheered after expressing the hope that a future gunman won’t “miss Trump next time.”
…I believe politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate, to pursue justice, to make decisions guided by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We stand for an America not of extremism and fury but of decency and grace…
… I’ll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box, no violence on our streets. That’s how democracy should work.
The rule of law, er, lawfare: No nod to the only-in-New York civil and criminal actions against Trump nor mention of the legal contortions needed to get them before juries.
Take Biden at his word and he’ll soon issue a statement endorsing Florida Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling which today scuttled the Mar-a-Lago documents case on the grounds that the now not-so-special prosecutor Jack Smith’s appointment violated the Constitution.
And after dealing with Democrats who lamented Crooks’ ear-clipping near miss and since he is opposed to violence in the streets, he might like to admonish the tribes of furious leftoids vowing to blitz the GOP Convention in Milwaukee …
.. in America, we resolve our differences at the battol [ballot] box. You know, that’s how we do it, at the battol [ballot] box, not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.
Freudian slip: battol, battle, ballot box.
You know, the path forward through competing visions of the campaign should always be resolved peacefully, not through acts of violence…
…So, God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.
Angels weep: Not to tell God his business, but feeding such whoppers to a TV audience of millions will likely strike many as a grossly inappropriate preamble to any request for a blessing.
Comments are closed.
