“Oh, God …”
That was my spontaneous gasp mere seconds into the now-infamous Trump-Biden CNN debate, which took place one year ago this Friday. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, had come out mumbling, raspy, and in a fog thicker than anything seen in London.
I confess, after four years of being called a domestic terrorist by the man, I had been looking forward to seeing him get taken to the mats by Donald Trump. The thought of Biden embarrassing himself had filled me with giddy anticipation in the run-up to the debate. I had agreed with the speculation that the debate had been scheduled so early in the season so that if the Big Guy failed Big Time there’d be time for the Democrats to make a change.
But that’s politics. Not life and death. And America’s president, my president, was acting like his mental faculties had been left on the beach in Delaware and the Grim Reaper was waiting in the Spin Room. I feared for the country. And for him.
What unfolding on stage was stunning, like watching the Hindenburg slowly engulfing in flames, and sinking to the ground. Even Trump, the brawler from Queens squaring off against the rival responsible for his home being raided and dozens of criminal charges across four jurisdictions, held back. At one point, Trump was asked, “What is your response to what President Biden just said?”
“I honestly don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” he replied sadly. “I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
It was not a punch line.
Oh, that debate was sad. When Biden wasn’t offering half-answers and incoherent ramblings so bad even the moderators could not save him, he would stare ahead, mouth open, frozen like an ancient corpse from Pompeii. A CNN commentator asked a question that hung in the minds of millions: “If you love the guy how do you put him in a situation like that?”
True enough, and one hopes we will someday get answers from Jill Biden, their kids, grandkids, and friends. I suspect they’ll also have to answer to God. However, that’s not the crucial question, especially given the events of the past 48 hours.
That question is: “If you love American how could you put our nation in a situation like that?”
On Saturday, Trump made an incredibly difficult call, the momentous decision to attack Iran. Was attacking Iran’s nuclear sites worth the risk of potential counterattacks, unintended consequences, and greater instability in the Middle East? The U.S. drawn into another quagmire? Could he trust the intelligence, given the failed intelligence on Iraq, to say nothing of an intelligence community that had worked against him for eight years? Within that crucial decision came countless other decisions, questions, and concerns. The moment required mental gymnastics on the level of Simone Biles.
Hundreds of millions of lives were at stake, as they are every day in a fallen world filled with ruthless enemies and unyielding ambitions. Yet a year ago, the same people that let Biden onto that stage had left those live-or-die decisions in the hands of a man who we now know routinely got lost in his own closet. Who needed cue cards to say hello. Whose most coherent conversations were with the long dead.
Then again, were the profound presidential decisions even in Biden’s shaky hands? Who would have really been the one … or ones … making the call? What unelected, unaccountable—and for all we know unequipped—handlers were deciding America’s fate on a daily basis?
Democrats are whining about the House and Senate holding hearings to discover the truth about who was really running the government and when staff knew Biden’s brain was a muddle; hearings that this week will feature four Biden staffers. With this weekend’s events, we can truly understand the gravity of getting answers and appreciate the danger we were all put in for four years.
A year ago, thanks to their cover-up, an incapacitated Biden took to the debate stage.
Thanks to their cover-up, those same people exposed us to potential catastrophe.
Thank God we survived. And can we say, thank God for that debate.
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