ROGER KIMBALL: Donald Trump ran rings around CNN.
[CNN’s Kaitlan] Collins tried to trip up Trump with E. Jean Carroll, the fruitcake who accused him of raping her in a dressing room at a fancy New York emporium thirty years ago. Sure, a New York jury just found Trump guilty of sexual battery and defamation, but he deftly filleted the charge, much to the delight of the live audience.
Collins kept throwing spitballs: was Trump going to apologize to Mike Pence for his behavior on January 6, 2021? No. And speaking of the jamboree at the Capitol on J6, what about the scores of political prisoners rotting in a Washington jail because they had strolled around the grounds that day? He would have to consider each case on its merits, Trump said, but he might well pardon many of those who had been swept up in the deep-state dragnet.
Did he want Ukraine to win in its war with Russia? He just wanted the killing to stop. (“Now why didn’t I think of that?” you could almost hear Collins mutter.) What about the the federal debt and negotiations over the debt ceiling? We had to have spending cuts, Trump said, and if the Biden administration refused to negotiate on that, the US would just have to default. Without serious spending cuts, it would happen sooner or later, he said, and the later, the more painful.
As Jim Geraghty writes, “You can argue this weakens McCarthy, by giving congressional Republicans an incentive to reject any deal and let the country default. Or McCarthy can go to Biden and say, ‘You heard him. I’ve got a maniac who’s arguing that a default wouldn’t be so bad, and that we should go ahead and default if you won’t agree to ‘massive cuts.’ If you don’t throw me a bone on IRS agents or something, there’s no way I can get my caucus to pass a deal, and if we can’t pass a deal, both you and I are out of a job in January 2025.’”
And then there’s Sundown Joe: “What the town hall showed was that Trump is in fighting form. In contrast, Joe Biden is not. When Trump and Biden face-off on a debate stage, if both are their party’s candidates, the current president will look as old and feeble as he is. Joe Biden can’t finish a sentence. Donald Trump refuses to stop talking until his answer is complete. Whether you like his personality and style of speaking or not, there is no doubt that he is in control of his mental acuity. Biden is an old 80 and makes Trump look like an almost youthful 76. If Biden is on stage with Trump, that will be apparent.”