This week, the world witnessed a frail, incompetent, and incoherent President Biden go up against a mentally sharp and focused former President Trump. Biden's performance was so unremarkable that some Democrats began tweeting about finding a replacement candidate twenty minutes into the debate.
One line that President Trump mentioned—towards the end of the debate when responding to Dana Bash's question about accepting the election verdict—didn't get as much press. Still, it was one of the most critical lines of the evening.
Bash: To you, a specific concern that voters have about you. Will you pledge tonight that once all legal challenges have been exhausted, you will accept the results of this election regardless of who wins? You will say right now that political violence in any form is unacceptable?
Trump: Well, I shouldn't have to say that, but, of course, I believe that. It's totally unacceptable.....But the answer is if the election is fair and free, and I want that more than anybody.
And I'll tell you something – I wish he were a great president because I wouldn't be here right now. I'd be at one of my many places enjoying myself. I wouldn't be under indictment because I wouldn't have been his political appoint – you know, opponent. Because he indicted me because I was his opponent.
I wish he were a great president. I would rather have that ...but the only reason I'm here is he's so bad as a president that I'm going to make America great again. We're going to make America great again.
We're a failing nation right now. We're a seriously failing nation. And we're a failing nation because of him. His policies are so bad. His military policies are insane. They're insane.
In under one minute, Trump brilliantly summarized what has transpired in America since election night 2020.
Former presidents rarely get a chance to return to the national stage and win reelection. Grover Cleveland is the only former president who achieved this feat - in 1892. Cleveland won in 1884 (like Trump did in 2016), lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888 (like Trump did to Biden in 2020), and decisively beat Harrison in a rematch in 1892. Both Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 and Herbert Hoover in 1940 failed in their respective re-attempts.
After January 6, the odds of Trump returning to the national stage were extraordinarily remote. The world reacted with extreme anger at how a few enthusiastic Trump supporters attacked the Capitol - the most sacred shrine of democracy in America. Trump's opponents saw a fabulous opening to link Trump to the events on the Capitol complex, although Trump was a mile away and had urged his supporters not to engage in violence. Recent evidence shows that Trump had indeed offered 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol, but former Speaker Pelosi had turned it down.
After the 2020 elections, the House impeached Trump again. Pelosi promptly appointed a partisan J6 Committee, which operated for 18 months under federal funding and even conducted primetime TV proceedings to nail Trump. Mysteriously, the Committee lost all the records of its investigation after it was disbanded following a Republican takeover of the House.
The Democratic lawfare campaign against Trump started in November 2022, when President Biden, glowing under the lights of White House press cameras as he celebrated the Democrats' better-than-expected mid-term election results, let the secret slip in his biggest gaffe to date.
Biden: "We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power if he does run, making sure he — under legitimate efforts of our Constitution — does not become the next president again."
Exactly nine days later, on November 18, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel to investigate Trump's role in J6 and his handling of the classified documents. Fulton County prosecutors brought racketeering charges against Trump, but before they did, they met with the Biden White House twice, in May and November 2022. The second meeting happened on November 18, the day that Garland announced Smith as his Special Counsel.
The E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump New York City case was civil, but that was also carefully planned to constrain Trump at every turn. Three states - Colorado, Maine, and Illinois - ruled through their courts or executives that Trump could not be on their state ballots for the primary or general elections. The Supreme Court intervened and ruled 9-0 to end to that nonsense.
As Smith's federal charges began to slow down in higher courts, and as the Fulton County prosecutors got caught up in their self-inflicted ethical scandals, the Biden team's last ray of hope was the Manhattan case brought about by DA Alvin Bragg. No court in the world, not even a kangaroo court, would have brought 8-year-old charges against the former leader of the Free World four years after he left office, far less convict him of all 34 counts of clerical violations such as invoicing, checks, and ledger entries when no one was harmed. America's 45th President is now a convicted felon.
Despite all these remarkable odds against him, Trump managed to win the Republican nomination easily. He refused to debate any of his opponents, and when pundits claimed this was risky, Trump pooh-poohed their concerns with stellar electoral performances. He won Iowa and New Hampshire with such lopsided margins that nearly all of his opponents dropped out, with the exception of Nicki Haley, who stayed alive with Democratic and TDS funds. When Trump won the nomination, Haley went into the sunset. Despite the heavy odds against him, Trump has consistently beaten Biden in national polls. In the swing states, Trump's lead is even more substantial. Trump is gaining ground with Hispanics and Black Americans.
What the world saw in Atlanta was a nearly indestructible Trump, a leader extraordinaire comparable to any political opponent in the world. Most politicians are forgotten after one scandal. Trump is weathering two House impeachments, 94 court cases, numerous challenges from Deep State, state, and local officials, and a hostile media environment, and is still going strong. There has never been a leader like him in history.
Never having debated anyone since October 2020, Trump ran Biden down like a freight train. Biden had been practicing for seven days and his campaign had engineered the mostfavorable debate conditions to boot.
Trump looked immensely more presidential than Biden but also appeared to be a metaphor for America, whose global standing has suffered because of Biden's disastrous policies. The optics were clear: If America has to come back, it needs a Trump at the helm.
The world can ill afford a kangaroo court to imprison or incapacitate such a political rock star. If Trump were indeed incapacitated, America's standing would be permanently damaged and placed below that of Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, or Syria. Only in such countries is a popular leader is dispatched to secret gallows misusing government power when he is clearly a better alternative to the incumbent.
