With coronavirus casting a shadow over his campaign, Joe Biden has been relegated to giving maundering interviews from his basement.
The presumptive Democratic frontrunner went on another confused ramble about the deadly virus, as a supercut from Fox News host Sean Hannity shows. Biden warned that democracy “cannot sakes second fiddle” to public health as Democrats figure out how to navigate the presidential primary during the pandemic.
We cannot let this, we’ve never allowed any crisis from the Civil War straight through to the pandemic of 17, all the way around, 16, we have never, never let our democracy sakes second fiddle, way they, we can both have a democracy and…correct the public health.
Biden suffers confusing meltdown
Biden’s Super Tuesday comeback on March 3 shocked the world, but the Democrat has struggled to stay in the spotlight as coronavirus saturates American life and politics. As Trump battles the virus, Biden has been criticizing the president on Twitter and telling voters what he would do if he were in the Oval Office.
And yet Biden hasn’t exactly inspired voters with the clarity of his thoughts, as he has continued to suffer a series of gaffes in television interviews from his home, Fox notes. Remarkably, Biden’s obvious senility has mostly escaped notice in the media, as various painful on-air appearances can attest.
Biden had yet another episode of confusion in an interview on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. The Democrat urged Trump to “listen to the experts” and “follow the science,” claiming that Trump has been too slow to respond to the pandemic. But when Stephanopoulos asked him about how Democrats should manage their primary contests during the pandemic, Biden floated a “virtual convention” before collapsing into a confusing stream of consciousness, remarking that democracy “cannot sakes second fiddle.”
“But I think it’s time we start thinking about how we’re going to hold elections, whether we’re going to have to spend a lot of time figuring whether we do — is it going to mostly be by mail, which is not the preferred route for everyone — how are we going to do that? How are we going to make it available to everybody?” Biden continued.
Stephanopoulos ultimately cut Biden off and moved on to discussing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Joe struggles on
Ironically, Biden has launched a podcast called Here’s the Deal, which purports to provide a “voice of clarity during uncertain times.” But there’s more sublime irony where that came from, as Biden sharply pivots from calling Trump’s travel restrictions on China “xenophobic” to supporting them, Fox reports — even as Biden bashes Trump for failing to act in the early days of the outbreak.
With attention focused on President Trump’s coronavirus response and that of various state governors, Biden’s campaign has come to an awkward pause, and a number of states have postpone their primary elections. Wisconsin held its primary on Tuesday, over the objections of the state’s Democratic governor, who tried to postpone the election. Biden has said that he supports voting by mail this November, an idea that Trump has said will likely lead to cheating.
Biden’s continued shakiness comes as President Trump’s approval numbers have been on an upswing, and one recent poll showed Trump closing in on Biden in a head-to-head presidential matchup. The former vice president has also struggled to close an enthusiasm gap with Trump. Despite their rivalry, Trump said that he and Biden had a “wonderful” phone call about the coronavirus this week.
Elsewhere, Trump hasn’t hesitated to make light of Biden’s apparent cognitive struggles. The president suggested that there is more to Biden’s interest in having a virtual nominating convention this year than concerns about contagion.
“Joe Biden wanted the date for the Democrat National Convention moved to a later time period. Now he wants a ‘Virtual’ Convention, one where he doesn’t have to show up. Gee, I wonder why?” Trump tweeted Monday.
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