The mainstream press went ballistic, focusing on President Biden's age at every turn and often parroting right-wing memes to do so. Every word stumble Biden made was analyzed to declare that 'his mental acuity was on the decline.' They even ignored President Biden's speech impediment like it never existed.
On the flipside, we have Trump, who sometimes still thinks he is running against Biden and can't answer a simple policy question without veering into wild tangents of tariffs and dead birds. Instead of focusing on his obvious decline, the mainstream press does its best to smooth out his mental slip-ups to keep the horse-race politics in place against Kamala Harris.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes rips the band-aids off.
HAYES: We've got some breaking news tonight, an exclusive, all-in scoop.
It's this: Donald Trump is 78 years old.
Did you know that?
If elected, he will be the oldest person to ever be sworn in as president of the United States.
He is a man that is suffering from, I think, pretty obvious mental decline.
But in contrast to the breathless coverage of Joe Biden's age and fitness, which again made a certain amount of sense prior to his dropping out of the presidential race, we are not seeing nearly as much discussion about Trump's diminished mental acuity.
When was the last time you read an article wondering if Trump was mentally fit to be president of the United States?
It is simply not leading the coverage of this race as it was with Biden two months ago.
Seems like everyone's grading Trump on a curve.
He has always been rambling and coherent, true, so he gets a pass.
But I gotta say, if you spend any amount of time listening to him these days, and for our sins, we do here at All In, he does not sound like a person who should be anywhere near the nuclear codes.
Hayes played video clips that we've featured here on C&L to show how demented Trump is. Hayes then discussed the competent responses Kamala Harris offers when asked to discuss policy.
It's frustrating to see so little coverage of media bias for Trump. Is it just that corporate owners are desperate to keep their Trump Tax Scam tax cuts?
And then Axios writes a headline like this: How Harris dodges scrutiny. Really.
PS. The word of the year for 2024 is "sane-washing."
