The 2024 election is only weeks away and both parties are scrambling to find as much time in front of the American people as possible. While Kamala Harris sits down for uncomfortable interviews with opposition-loyal networks like Fox News and raggedly runs through as many swing state rallies as she can, Donald Trump has a more whimsical agenda.
The 45th president won’t sit through the gentlest interviews, has decided a McDonald’s photo op matters more than policy, gushes about dead men’s private parts, thinks senators’ looks matter in the scheme of their jobs, and brags about medical reports that will never see the light of day. His seemingly spiraling mental health has many Americans ill at ease, and his patented “weave” style of speech has yet again failed to assuage those fears.
During a town hall in Pennsylvania, the former president bumbled his way into a trap of his own design. While addressing cognitive issues perceived by his opponent, Trump accidentally outed his fumbling mental state.
“I have no cognitive,” Trump told the crowd at his Sunday event. “She might have a cognitive problem. There’s no cognitive problem.”
You can leave many sentences hanging to make a point, but addressing evident mental decline is not one of them. Trump reiterated how well his brain functions moments later, repeating that he’s “got no cognitive,” without finishing the thought before claiming, “Maybe he’s better than he was 20 years ago.”
Trump doubled down on his “youthful” rhetoric, claiming that at 78, he was “not that close to 80.” I’m all for grandma claiming to be “78 years young” or whatever floats her boat, but I still wouldn’t trust her to drive to the supermarket alone.
Trump has repeatedly faced scrutiny over his age since pressuring Joe Biden to drop out of the race for his age – and apparent cognitive problems – in late July. The change in candidates has done nothing but highlight Trump’s own age-related issues since. Trump has appeared to “Sun Down” in two recent rallies, opting to dance quietly on stage rather than answer constituent questions. His reluctance to participate in the bread and butter of the political campaign trail is being cajoled as “exhaustion” by his detractors, and his campaign is doing little to assuage those claims. During his Pennsylvania appearance, the former president refused to stand and instead opted for a padded cushion.
Harris’ campaign made sure to address the apparent mental decline. Harris-Walz spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said of the moment,
“Today Pennsylvanians got a firsthand look at why Donald Trump’s handlers are canceling events and interviews: in a single town hall, he incoherently rambled that he has ‘no cognitive’ and appeared to forget his own age. The American people deserve a president who will fight tirelessly for them — not one too ‘exhausted’ to focus on anything but himself.”
Trump’s speeches have always been littered with lies, but his recent appearances have been characterized by slips of the tongue and incoherent ramblings that would have — and did — tank any other politician’s career. Every day his failing mental capacity becomes more and more apparent. Even as evidence stacks up, his loyal followers will do anything but acknowledge the “covfefe” of it all.
But average Americans are watching the facts of aging play out in real time, and if they’re anything like this crowd, there’s no way Trump is setting foot in the Oval Office again.
