Tom Minear: The contradiction in Donald Trump’s key campaign claims
Donald Trump is trying to convince Americans of two things so they will be willing to elect him as a convicted felon. The problem, as Tom Minear argues, is they cannot both be true.
Donald Trump is trying to convince Americans of two things so they will return him to the Oval Office as a convicted felon.
Both cannot be true. He has little evidence they are. And yet, in what should spark alarm bells for President Joe Biden, plenty of voters still believe him.
The former president’s first proposition is that the case against him was orchestrated by Biden himself. Almost every day at the Manhattan Criminal Court, Trump declared it was the “Biden trial”, a claim he and his allies have tried to back up in multiple ways.
Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial, donated $US15 to Biden’s 2020 presidential run. The judge’s daughter is a political consultant who has worked on Democratic campaigns. And Matthew Colangelo, one of the prosecutors, was part of Biden’s Department of Justice before joining Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team.
Trump has successfully used these facts to undermine the case, at least in the minds of his supporters who are now furious he has been convicted.
These facts have been seeded in fertile ground – the business of public prosecutions is inherently political in the US, given people like Bragg are party members who are elected.
But they do not offer any proof that Biden had anything to do with the hush money trial.
This leads to Trump’s second proposition, that his 81-year-old opponent is the “dumbest” and “most incompetent” president in history. Trump, who is 77, is careful not to say Biden is too old, although he regularly claims he is cognitively impaired.
Again, there are facts that appear relevant. Biden’s verbal and physical slips and stumbles are increasingly common and undoubtedly an issue for his re-election bid.
As for his record as president, that is squarely up for debate – immigration and inflation are weaknesses, while he has struggled to communicate his equally significant achievements.
Is Biden dumb and incompetent? I would argue not, although many Americans disagree. But this is the essential point: how could someone so dumb and incompetent also be capable of arranging a plot to put his opponent in jail in a jurisdiction where he has no control?
As Trump raged about his conviction, even he seemed to concede this stretched credulity.
“This is all done by Biden and his people,” he said, before adding: “Maybe his people more importantly. I don’t know if Biden knows too much about it, because I don’t know if he knows about anything.”
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Originally published as Tom Minear: The contradiction in Donald Trump’s key campaign claims
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