Donald Trump is one of the most robust people I have ever met. At 74, he is healthier and more energetic than most people half his age. I am not worried about his health. As we all wish him and the first lady a speedy and full recovery from the Chinese virus, it is imperative to not let the latest COVID-19 news distract us from the task at hand: his reelection and stopping the radical Left.
I worked for the president in the White House, and now I’m an appointee on one of his Defense Department boards but I cannot let that affect my analysis of his first presidential debate with Joe Biden. On the contrary, I feel duty-bound to tell him and his team what I truly thought about it.
It was a shambolic disaster. And both the president and his team must learn from it, now.
First things first, so I offer praise where praise is due.
For the life of me, I cannot fathom the level of grace and self-control demonstrated by President Trump. Biden, who has been presented to us as the aw-shucks affable “Uncle Joe” called the president a “racist,” a “clown” and told him to “shut up” in front of an audience of some 73 million people. And he took it in his stride and refused to take the bait. I wouldn’t have and neither would millions of lesser politicians.
What is worse, “moderator” Chris Wallace did nothing, didn’t censure Biden for this outrageous behavior, or in any meaningful way maintain any pretense of impartiality.
In addition to consistently interrupting the president as he was answering the questions set, Wallace, a registered Democrat, decided to repeat a three-year-old libel about the president’s Charlottesville comments, despite it being debunked conclusively, again and again. That is why Wallace was lambasted by even his Fox News colleagues the day after the “debate.” And rightly so.
But forget the insults and blown decorum. Disgracefully, Wallace did absolutely nothing when Biden repeatedly denied the established fact that his son has received millions and billions of dollars from Ukrainian, Russian, and Communist Chinese state interests. Biden called these stories “discredited,” despite them being a matter of record in the U.S. Senate. Wallace let him get away with it.
Nevertheless, and despite the president’s self-control in the face of attacks that would have triggered most other men, he did not win any new voters that night because his prep team did not serve him well. His talking points were mostly well-worn retreads, with only one real zinger of a riposte being “I’ve done more in 47 months than you did in 47 years Joe!” Given his incredible record domestically and internationally, this was a wasted opportunity in front of a vast audience, including millions of likely independent voters.
Politically, the only significant consequence of the 90-minute brawl was the president successfully forcing Biden to disown Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her extremist “Green New Deal,” a stunning turn that will cause internal issues for a Biden who declared himself “the Democratic Party” in a manner guaranteed to alienate not only AOC’s cultic Gaia-worshipping groupies but also all the anti-establishment “Bernie Bros.”
And for the record, Biden was lying or suffering from senility when the president forced him to disown the disastrous plan, given that his own website states: “Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face.” It seems Biden doesn’t understand that anyone can check his claims against his own website.
Yet, in the big scheme of things, last Tuesday’s hot mess was not strategically important. The president’s first debate with Hillary Clinton likewise did not go well for Team MAGA. But we are a month away from an election that could bring an extremist, socialist party to power, and as a result we need a plan for Round Two.
So, God-willing, if the president is cleared after his 10-day period of isolation, he must debate Biden in front of former Biden intern/moderator Steve Scully, and he must be prepared and keep it simple. If he does, he will win with ease. All President Trump has to do is stick to three objectives:
- He must link Biden and the Democrats—whom Biden insists he now leads—inextricably to the violence, looting, arson, and deaths we have witnessed across Democrat cities since George Floyd was killed.
- He must simply inform those who haven’t been told by the legacy media about all the incredible successes of his first term. From crushing ISIS, to the historic pre-COVID economy, to slashing prescription drug pricing, to taking on China and revitalizing America’s industrial base.
- Simply through a recitation of documented facts, he must expose Biden for what he truly is: one of the most corrupt machine politicians still active today—a man who has enriched himself and his family with money from our sworn enemies, and who systematically has betrayed the working-class Americans he has professed to represent for 47 years.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Then it won’t be a brawl—it will be a righteous and elegant victory for the president.