By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — President Biden accused former President Trump of being an admirer of Adolf Hitler, and Trump accused Biden of favoring Palestinians over Israelis in a wild, hard-swinging debate Thursday night moderated by CNN reporters/ anchors Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, who are both members of the Jewish community.
About a half hour into the 90-minute debate, Bash asked Biden what leverage he will use “to get Hamas and Israel to end the war?” The current President responded that he has put forward a three-phased proposal which has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, the leaders of the G-7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States), Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu himself.”
“The first stage is to trade the hostages for a ceasefire,” Biden said. “Second phase is a ceasefire with additional conditions. The third phase is no –the end of the war. The only one who wants the war to continue is Hamas, number one. They are the only ones standing out. We are still pushing hard to get them to accept.”
When Biden got to the third phase of his proposal, he corrected himself, mid-sentence, starting to say “no” but then completing his thought with “the end of the war.” He sabotaged himself with such verbal stumbling throughout the debate, which drew attention away from the policies he was enunciating. Trump also mangled his syntax at times, but Biden appeared less coherent while he was doing it.
When former President Trump addressed the Israel-Hamas question, he utilized most of his allotted two-minute time to augment his previous comments about his insistence that NATO countries pay their fair share for their defense. “As far as Israel and Hamas, Israel is the one that wants — He [Biden] said the only who wants to keep going is Hamas. Actually Israel is the one that wants, and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He [Biden] doesn’t want to do it; he has become like a Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one.”
Bash asked Trump if he would “support the creation of an independent Palestinian state in order to achieve peace in the region?”
“I would have to see,” Trump said evading that question, then turned the conversation back to his differences with Biden over NATO.
A few minutes after that exchange, Tapper noted that Biden had charged that Trump and MAGA Republicans want “to destroy American democracy.” Does Biden believe that people who eventually will vote for Trump will be voting against American democracy?
Biden responded that if they are informed about Trump’s beliefs and still want to vote for him, they will be voting against democracy.
“Did you ever hear any President say I [Trump] thought Hitler had some good ideas? What got me [Biden] involved to run in the first place after my son [Beau] died because of Iraq — I had said I wasn’t going to run again, until I saw what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia: people coming out of the woods, carrying swastikas on torches, and singing the same antisemitic bile that they sang … back in Germany. …”
Biden said Trump was asked what he thought of the Nazis and counter-protesters at the 2018 “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville, and “he said there are fine people on both sides. What American President would ever say Nazis coming out of fields, carrying torches, singing the same antisemitic bile, carrying swastikas, are fine people? And this is the guy who has said Hitler has done some good things. I’d like to know what they are, the good things Hitler had done? That is what he said. This guy has no sense of American democracy.”
Trump responded that Biden made up the Charlottesville story and “you’ll see it is debunked all over the place. Every anchor, every reasonable anchor, has debunked it. … It is a nonsense story. He knows that. And he didn’t run because of Charlottesville. He used that as an excuse to run.”
Biden countered: “Debunked? It happened… If he thought they were good people coming out of that forest, those woods, carrying those torches, then he didn’t deserve to be President. He didn’t deserve to be President at all. And the idea that he is talking about, all this being fabricated, we saw it with our own eyes.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
A bad Palestinian? I guess we speculate as to what he is talking about, but I would like to hear it from him.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America on Friday issued this response to the debate:
“We’re not going to sugarcoat it – the President had a bad debate. We wish it had gone differently, especially given the incredibly high stakes of this election. But one night doesn’t minimize the remarkable accomplishments of President Biden’s first term and public service, and his deep commitment to our values and priorities.
“Our commitment to this work has only deepened in the past day because we understand the absolute imperative of defeating Donald Trump, who lied to the American people for 90 minutes straight at the debate.
“In a sharp contrast to last night, this afternoon in North Carolina, President Biden delivered an inspiring speech demonstrating his vision, resilience, and forward-looking agenda. He also spoke candidly about his debate performance.
“‘I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.’
“Lost in the conversation over President Biden’s debate performance is the fact Donald Trump lied more than 50 times from the debate stage. He lied about his position on abortion. He lied about his record. He lied about what he did on January 6th. He had the audacity to claim he “has the biggest heart on the stage,” something that even his supporters know is a blatant lie. He repeatedly denigrated our great country and painted a dark picture of America that has no bearing in reality.
“Through Trump’s lies, a clear truth emerges – Donald Trump is an affront to everything of importance to Jewish Americans.
“We are more committed than ever before to reelecting President Biden, keeping the Senate, and flipping the House.”
Interesting take on the debate. The rest of us saw a confused old man way past his prime being abused by his wife for continually exposing him to situations he is no longer mentally or physically capable of handling.
And a former President who continues to lie consistently and is only running to pardon himself.