'Glass houses': Political panel points to Trump's projection of Biden's 'confusion'
Sarah K. Burris
October 30, 2023
President Donald Trump walks from the west wing of the White House to Marine One in 2017. (Shutterstock.com)
Former President Donald Trump has spent the better part of the past few years claiming that President Joe Biden is in some sort of cognitive decline and that he's too old to be president. Trump is just a few years younger than Biden.
But now an MSNBC panel agreed it may have been a projection the whole time.
One of Trump's favorite things to mock Biden for is when he said the wrong state during a rally. While it had happened to Biden as he referred to Nevada when he meant New Hampshire, one video was falsely changed to make it look as if Biden was referring to Minnesota while he was in Florida.
Steve Guest, the former rapid response director for the GOP, posted a clip of Biden during the New Hampshire incident, writing: “Joe Biden confuses states AGAIN. This is a pattern."
Now, it seems Trump is suffering from the same problem. While in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump said hello to Sioux Falls, S.D. A staffer then rushed out to tell him he was in Iowa. He didn't correct himself, that would be admitting he was wrong. Instead, he simply said the correct name of the city and asked how many people actually lived there and were attending the event. In an interview, he seemed to keep mixing up Biden with former President Barack Obama. He had to be corrected.
Meanwhile, mental health experts describe Biden as far exceeding Trump.
"Again, I misspeak," confessed Nicolle Wallace. "I talk on TV for a job. It's not about that. It's about smearing and insulting your opponent with something you do pretty regularly. ... I do not think that Donald Trump should be president again, but I do not take cheap shots from this chair and that wasn't the attempt. The point is what Donald Trump and many of his allies are trying to do to President Joe Biden is to sort of seed concerns about his age by pointing out and amplifying verbal gaffes. And we thought, as a show, that we would try to shine the light on the glass house in which Trump lives and that's what that sound was about."
Conservative commentator and Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes said that there's no way Trump will ever stop, going so far as to say Trump is "addicted to projection."
"How many of the things he accuses his opponents of are actually things that he engages in," said Sykes. "But I have to say that with donald trump — and, by the way, Donald Trump is going to be in a rich environment for gaffes, But the problem is not the gaffes it's the substance. This weekend when he didn't know whether he was in Sioux Falls or Sioux City he's talking about bringing back the Muslim ban. He's praising authoritarians. He's talking about deporting people who engage in speech he doesn't like. And he continues to talk about, you know, bragging about threatening our allies that he would not defend them against Russia."
He noted that back in the day, 20 years ago, such things were disqualifying for a presidential candidate. He urged people not to take their eye off the substance of what Trump says by being distracted by the gaffes "every single day."
"I think that there's a certain level of exhaustion," Sykes said.
Wallace brought up the autocratic piece of the equation, following it with Trump being confused about which country Viktor Orbán leads, accidently saying Turkey. At another moment, Trump claimed that "Hungary fronts on both Ukraine and Russia." It doesn't. Hungary actually borders several countries, one of which is the country where his third wife was born.
Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude began by addressing Trump's "cognitive decline" which Sykes said was a very real concern. While it was discussed early in his term, it has remained largely unaddressed until the recent parade of gaffes. But Glaude sees something else afoot.
"Trump's sole purpose is to deliver red meat to the base and to deliver the policies that will satisfy the base," said the political science scholar. "It's not about his cognitive capabilities, it's about his ability to, in some ways, mobilize grievance and some sense of disaffection on the part of that Republican base in order to get what they think they want, the country that they want. There is a collective shrug because it doesn't really matter whether or not he is smart. It doesn't really matter in the end whether he has the capacity to sit in the Oval Office. It only matters that he opens the way to what we might consider those grabbing hold of the country who believe that it's under existential threat if that makes sense."
See the full discussion in the video below or at the link here.
Sarah K. Burris
October 30, 2023
President Donald Trump walks from the west wing of the White House to Marine One in 2017. (Shutterstock.com)
Former President Donald Trump has spent the better part of the past few years claiming that President Joe Biden is in some sort of cognitive decline and that he's too old to be president. Trump is just a few years younger than Biden.
But now an MSNBC panel agreed it may have been a projection the whole time.
One of Trump's favorite things to mock Biden for is when he said the wrong state during a rally. While it had happened to Biden as he referred to Nevada when he meant New Hampshire, one video was falsely changed to make it look as if Biden was referring to Minnesota while he was in Florida.
Steve Guest, the former rapid response director for the GOP, posted a clip of Biden during the New Hampshire incident, writing: “Joe Biden confuses states AGAIN. This is a pattern."
Now, it seems Trump is suffering from the same problem. While in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump said hello to Sioux Falls, S.D. A staffer then rushed out to tell him he was in Iowa. He didn't correct himself, that would be admitting he was wrong. Instead, he simply said the correct name of the city and asked how many people actually lived there and were attending the event. In an interview, he seemed to keep mixing up Biden with former President Barack Obama. He had to be corrected.
Meanwhile, mental health experts describe Biden as far exceeding Trump.
"Again, I misspeak," confessed Nicolle Wallace. "I talk on TV for a job. It's not about that. It's about smearing and insulting your opponent with something you do pretty regularly. ... I do not think that Donald Trump should be president again, but I do not take cheap shots from this chair and that wasn't the attempt. The point is what Donald Trump and many of his allies are trying to do to President Joe Biden is to sort of seed concerns about his age by pointing out and amplifying verbal gaffes. And we thought, as a show, that we would try to shine the light on the glass house in which Trump lives and that's what that sound was about."
Conservative commentator and Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes said that there's no way Trump will ever stop, going so far as to say Trump is "addicted to projection."
"How many of the things he accuses his opponents of are actually things that he engages in," said Sykes. "But I have to say that with donald trump — and, by the way, Donald Trump is going to be in a rich environment for gaffes, But the problem is not the gaffes it's the substance. This weekend when he didn't know whether he was in Sioux Falls or Sioux City he's talking about bringing back the Muslim ban. He's praising authoritarians. He's talking about deporting people who engage in speech he doesn't like. And he continues to talk about, you know, bragging about threatening our allies that he would not defend them against Russia."
He noted that back in the day, 20 years ago, such things were disqualifying for a presidential candidate. He urged people not to take their eye off the substance of what Trump says by being distracted by the gaffes "every single day."
"I think that there's a certain level of exhaustion," Sykes said.
Wallace brought up the autocratic piece of the equation, following it with Trump being confused about which country Viktor Orbán leads, accidently saying Turkey. At another moment, Trump claimed that "Hungary fronts on both Ukraine and Russia." It doesn't. Hungary actually borders several countries, one of which is the country where his third wife was born.
Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude began by addressing Trump's "cognitive decline" which Sykes said was a very real concern. While it was discussed early in his term, it has remained largely unaddressed until the recent parade of gaffes. But Glaude sees something else afoot.
"Trump's sole purpose is to deliver red meat to the base and to deliver the policies that will satisfy the base," said the political science scholar. "It's not about his cognitive capabilities, it's about his ability to, in some ways, mobilize grievance and some sense of disaffection on the part of that Republican base in order to get what they think they want, the country that they want. There is a collective shrug because it doesn't really matter whether or not he is smart. It doesn't really matter in the end whether he has the capacity to sit in the Oval Office. It only matters that he opens the way to what we might consider those grabbing hold of the country who believe that it's under existential threat if that makes sense."
See the full discussion in the video below or at the link here.
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