Wikimedia / Flickr
The first presidential debate is set for September 29th, and, of course, Team Trump is focused on an important issue — how to get Joe Biden to stutter. Undoubtedly they’ve already exhausted hundreds of staff-hours coming up with derogatory nicknames like Hiden Biden and Sleepy Joe.
Naturally, stutter-baiting is the next step for the worst president in American history.
Wikimedia Commons / AFGE
13-year-old Brayden Harrington, trying to overcome his stuttering, met Joe Biden on the campaign trail. The teenager’s story so inspired Biden that he asked him to speak during the Democratic National Convention.
You can see Brayden — who has more courage than then entire GOP Senate — give his moving speech here:
Screenshot / YouTube
Remember this: back in the glory days of 2015?
Screenshot / YouTube
Team Trump has been studying (or likely paying others to study for them) Biden’s past debates and looking for any idiosyncrasies. Some have noticed that he says “C’mon, man” WHENEVER HE’S FRUSTRATED. (Wow, that’s a genius observation! I thought he only said “C’mon, man” when he was waiting for his tennis partner to serve.)
They’re also trying to find specific phrases or words that “trigger” Biden to “reboot”…my personal trigger words are “President Trump.”
It’s hilarious that they act like he can absorb and remember that.
Coaching him must be like bailing water with a colander.— StubbyLibrarian (@IiStubby) September 4, 2020
Screenshot / YouTube
And that’s not up for debate.
PickPik
“Debates are all about practice, practice, practice, and Trump does not like to do that,” said Ed Rollins, chair of the pro-Trump Great America PAC. “You need to have something precise to say.”
Trump can’t debate. He has to look for bullying alternatives. He is a con and bully. He is not a president. Think about that. It is how he has ran around his whole life and now as the republican misfit in the oval office.
— File It! (@TheCItizenist) September 4, 2020
This could be another unmitigated disaster for Trump if it looks like he’s deliberately trying to exploit Biden’s stuttering past. Because, y’know… overcoming challenges and expressing empathy are still admired by some Americans.
Flickr/Phil Roeder
The Trump team has already lowered the bar so much for Biden claiming he’s senile, he’s old, he’s dementia-adjacent — anything less than a total disaster will elevate him.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz agrees. “Joe Biden has had mixed results of speaking off the cuff in the last few months, but he has been elevated by such low expectations. I don’t understand why the Trump people and Trump himself make fun of Biden’s inability to complete a sentence. That makes it easier for him to claim victory.”
Philippe Reines, a longtime top aide to Hillary Clinton who played Trump in her 2016 debate prep and watched hours of Trump tape in preparation, explains:
The challenge for Joe Biden and the moderator is to even understand what Trump is saying, when he is not using proper nouns and when the digressions are really serious. You end up not knowing what he is talking about, not that he knows what he is talking about. It really makes it a mess.
But yes, by all means, stuttering is an issue.
