While presidential hopefuls routinely try to raise expectations for their rivals ahead of debates, Donald Trump has done largely the opposite, telling the public that President Joe Biden “can’t put two sentences together” and is “the WORST debater“ the former president has seen.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Republican and his allies have pushed similar messages throughout Biden’s term, eagerly trying to convince the electorate that the Democratic incumbent is borderline comatose. In May 2022, for example, Sen. Rick Scott declared, “Let’s be honest here: Joe Biden is unwell.” The right-wing Floridian went on to say at the time, “He’s unfit for office. He’s incoherent, incapacitated, and confused. He doesn’t know where he is half the time.”
The problem for Republicans isn’t just that such rhetoric is ugly and offensive. What’s more, the problem isn’t just that the attacks are wrong and contradicted by officials — from both parties — who’ve interacted with the incumbent president. The politically salient problem is that the GOP has lowered expectations so low for Biden that he’s likely to pleasantly surprise viewers of tonight’s debate if the Democrat manages to stay awake for the entire event.
With this in mind, some Republicans, just over the last few days, have decided to start pushing back in the opposite direction — claiming that the president might not be in such bad shape after all.
Take former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example. Media Matters noted:
On the eve of the first presidential debate, McCarthy took to Fox News to urge the pro-Trump network not to lower expectations for Biden, highlighting instances where he previously found the president “really engaging.” … McCarthy also told Watters he was “concerned” about how “serious” Biden was treating his rigorous debate prep and recounted an anecdote in which he said the president was “fully engaged” after attending the 2023 G7 summit.
Hmm.
When then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched a debt ceiling crisis last year, the California Republican offered to bring “soft food” to the White House, suggesting that Biden was too old to eat anything else.
Politico reported, however, that McCarthy made entirely different comments in private, “telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations.”
Earlier this month, the former House speaker nevertheless served as a key source to The Wall Street Journal for a report about Biden showing “signs of slipping.”
Last night on Fox News, McCarthy went in the opposite direction once more, talking up instances in which he was impressed with the incumbent president’s acuity.
Stepping back, it appears McCarthy — who’s eyeing a job on Trump’s team in a possible second term — will apparently say that Biden is sharp as a tack or falling apart, depending on what suits the former speaker’s interests at the moment.
But McCarthy’s contradictions are also emblematic of a larger truth: As the president and his immediate predecessor prepare to share a stage, Biden’s GOP detractors are struggling mightily to keep their stories straight.
