I gotta reopen your eyes with Trump's comments today when asked about COVID testing. Here's the transcript, verbatim: Reporter: President Trump, you've said many times that the number of coronavirus cases is going up because testing is increasing. Trump: That's right. Reporter: Do you acknowledge that it's going up for other reasons too; for example, that it's actually spreading? And what are you going to do to stop the spread? Trump: Well, you know that we have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere. If you know, [former Vice President Joe] Biden and [former President Barack] Obama stopped their testing; they just stopped it. You probably know that. I'm sure you don't want to report it. But they stopped testing. Right in the middle, they just went, "No more testing," and on a much lesser problem than the problem that we have, obviously with respect to -- this is the worst thing that's happened since probably 1917. This is a very bad -- all over the world. It's 188 countries right now. But, no, we are -- we test more than anybody, by far. And when you test, you create cases. So we've created cases. I can tell you some countries, they test when somebody walks into a hospital sick or walks into maybe a doctor's office, but usually a hospital. That's the testing they do, so they don't have cases, whereas we do -- we have all of these cases. So, you know, it's a double-edged sword. Please tell me you can't honestly read the above and say those are the words of a man fully in control of his faculties? That discursive, illogical, rambling statement is what you'd expect of someone in a memory care center, not the President of the United States. And that's before we talk about the fact that the only comprehensible message that you could charitably get out of it, "we have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere", is a flat out lie.
I would have to say that I'm somewhat baffled by this after actually watching these clips. In one he coughs into his hand and Tapper reminds him that it's safer to cough into your arm, at which point Biden points out he's in his own home but then laughingly admits Tapper is correct. How that shows cognitive decline I have no idea, but it does show someone who's both able to laugh at themselves and admit they made a mistake...got any clips of Trump doing that? A bunch of 2 second clips of someone fidgeting with their hands pasted together to make it look as if they're doing it continuously is not only absurd but completely disconnected from anything to do with cognitive ability. I'd certainly shudder to think of what someone could do with a couple hours of video of me in zoom meetings. Arguing that we need to focus on a cure seems to be plenty coherent to me, of course any time you cut a clip off mid-sentence and then claim the sentence wasn't coherent isn't really acting in good faith, is it? The only clip that seems to even approach Trump's level of meandering babbling is the last one, which seems to mistake Biden's long standing stammer/stutter with his cognitive health. A stammer he's had since childhood I believe, but certainly the entire time he was VP. If you read a transcript of that clip you wouldn't give it a second glance. Regardless, my point is that it's pure projection for anyone to support Trump and accuse Biden of cognitive decline. Any number of Biden gaffes don't change that fact.
In the first clip, Biden says "Beef up the number of responders dealing with the crush -- these crushy cases. And uh, and uh, in addition to that, in addition to that, we have to make sure that we uh, we uh are in a position that we are. Well let me go the second thing -- I've spoke enough of it. The president must use the Defense Production Act." Most of that is gibberish. In the third clip, Biden says "We have to take care of the cure. That will make the problem worse no matter what. No matter what." That sounds like he is saying anything done will make the problem worse. And it sounds like he's saying focusing on the cure or not focusing on the cure will make the problem worse. That doesn't make sense. In the fourth clip, he does seem to understand coughing into your hand when on camera is not a good thing to show. And breaking old habits like that is hard. So maybe that's not cognitive decline. In the final clip, Joe says, "the case where we cannot let -- 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 that we can both have democracy and elections and at the same time correct the public health." He doesn't know what he wants to say there. I think both Trump and Biden don't currently have enough mental ability for success at the position of President of the U.S. Trump acts like a dictator at times, but Biden would be a figurehead as President so would be controlled by his handlers. The intolerance, hatred, and violence from those handlers is frightening. On a lighter note, Trump can laugh at himself.