Donald Trump’s allies in the right-wing media have a problem ahead of the US presidential debate CNN this Thursday (27): they set a very low standard for President Joe Biden.
For years, and particularly in recent months, the Trumpist media has portrayed Biden as a senile, mentally incapacitated elderly man who cannot remember what he ate for breakfast, much less run the federal government.
This may seem like an exaggeration to those who don’t tune into Fox News or listen to talk radio, but it has been a real and constant theme in the right-wing media universe.
To support the narrative, these media outlets and personalities seized on Biden’s verbal gaffes (ignoring Trump’s) and presented out-of-context video snippets to their large audiences — a deceptive but effective strategy that the Biden campaign has fought against. to meaningfully refute.
The debate, which will be one of the most watched moments of the 2024 American presidential campaign cycle, will allow audiences across the country the opportunity to watch an unfiltered Biden face Trump for around 90 minutes.
While the two will undoubtedly clash over a range of issues, the stage will also provide Biden with a unique opportunity to puncture the narrative that he lacks the mental fitness to be commander in chief.
That’s a concern for right-wing media moguls, who risk seeing their false narrative about Biden ripped apart in real time.
As right-wing personality Megyn Kelly said on Monday, Biden will do well if he can simply “not die” during the confrontation with Trump.
“The risks could not be lower for Joe Biden’s performance,” Kelly noted.
To account for the imminent reality that Biden has no difficulty getting on stage without someone’s help (some right-wing media outlets have suggested that Biden needed help from former President Barack Obama to complete such a task), the media Trump’s allies are already looking for excuses. And they are becoming visibly desperate.
One such claim, supported by Trump’s media allies, is the conspiracy theory – which lacks any proof – that the president will take supplements or performance-enhancing drugs during the debate.
This narrative, which was also spread after Biden’s forceful State of the Union address earlier this year, was promoted by none other than Trump himself.
“He’s sleeping right now, because they want to make him good and strong,” Trump said at a campaign rally over the weekend. “Then, right before the debate, he gets a shot in the ass.”
This narrative was, predictably, amplified by Trump’s social media supporters, who ignored the fact that Trump repeatedly fell asleep at noon during his own trial earlier this year.
Fox News host Jesse Watters, for example, appeared on Monday’s episode of “The Five,” claiming that Biden “is going to take shots of ‘jungle juice.’ [bebida alcoólica feita em casa]” before the debate so that it can appear energetic.
The Trumpist media also chose a scapegoat to protect Trump if he performed poorly: the CNN.
Rogue pro-Trump forces, particularly propagandist Sean Hannity, have launched a series of attacks aimed at Jake Tapper, who will moderate the debate alongside Dana Bash.
Tapper, the hard-hitting anchor and chief correspondent for CNN in Washington, he was portrayed as a Democratic invader. While it’s an absurd accusation, it’s one that the Trumpist media is happily pushing, even trying to do it on air in their own country. CNN.
On Monday morning, the news anchor CNN Kasie Hunt abruptly ended an interview with Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who repeatedly attacked Tapper and Bash as “biased” news anchors.
After kicking Leavitt off his show, Hunt noted that “if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing.”
Hunt is, of course, right. The problem, however, for the Trumpist media is that they have painted themselves into a corner. Now, they’re trying to find a way to free themselves – and they’re getting desperate.
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