MAGA world attacks Jake Tapper ahead of debate – and tries course correction on Biden expectations
MAGA world has been busy as a bee today. A frantic, scared and angry bee.
With a historic – perhaps pivotal – debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump days away, MAGA world has seized upon an incident on CNN to continue an attack on CNN as a network and on debate moderator Jake Tapper in particular.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has done a major about face: after painting Joe Biden as a senile, stiff, sleepy, candidate apparently their internal polling is saying it’s time for a change. Now rather than lowering expections for Biden, Biden is being painted a a good debater. And if Biden wins the debate? They’re saying it would have to be that he’s pumped up on drugs.
And Rep. Ronny Jackson, who some say was the Trump administrations serial-drug-prescriber “Dr. Feelgood,” is demanding Joe Biden take a drug test ahead of the debates.
After all, who could not yield to a demand by Jackson, Trump’s physician who generated so many belly laughs when he said Donald Trump weighed 239 lbs. and was six foot three?
He had a higher laugh-per-minute ratio than Jimmy Kimmel with that one.
The situation is best summed up by Oliver Darcy in his (must-read) CNN Reliable Sources newsletter.
Donald Trump’s allies in right-wing media have a problem ahead of CNN’s presidential debate: They’ve set the bar too low for President Joe Biden.
For years, and particularly over the last few months, MAGA Media has portrayed Biden as a senile, mentally incapacitated elderly man who cannot remember what he had for breakfast, let alone run the federal government. That might sound like an exaggeration to those who don’t tune in to Fox News or listen to talk radio, but it has been a real and constant theme in the right-wing media universe.
To support the narrative, these outlets and personalities have seized on Biden’s verbal gaffes (while ignoring Trump’s) and presented out-of-context video clips to their large audiences — a deceptive, but effective strategy that the Biden campaign has struggled to meaningfully rebut.
Enter Thursday’s high-stakes political showdown. The debate, which will be one of the most-watched moments of the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, will allow audiences from coast-to-coast the opportunity to watch an unfiltered Biden go head-to-head with Trump for some 90 minutes. While the two will undoubtedly tangle over a host of issues, the stage also will afford Biden a unique opportunity to puncture the narrative he lacks the mental fitness to be commander-in-chief.
That’s a worry for right-wing media figures, which risk seeing their bogus narrative about Biden being ripped up in real time. As right-wing personality Megyn Kelly even put it Monday, Biden will come out great if he manages to simply “not die” during the face-off with Trump.
“The stakes could not be lower for a Joe Biden performance,” Kelly observed.
To account for the looming reality in which Biden has no trouble walking on stage without the help of a handler (some in right-wing media had suggested Biden required President Barack Obama’s help to complete such a task), Trump’s media allies are already searching for excuses. And they’re getting noticeably desperate.
One such claim boosted by Trump’s media allies is the conspiracy theory — which lacks any evidence — that the president will be on performance-enhancing supplements or drugs during the debate. That narrative, which was also floated after Biden’s forceful State of the Union speech earlier this year, has been promoted by none other than Trump himself.
“He’s sleeping now, because they want to get him good and strong,” Trump said at a campaign rally over the weekend. “So a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass.”
That narrative has been, predictably, amplified by Trump’s media supporters, who all overlooked the fact that Trump repeatedly fell asleep mid-day at his own trial earlier this year in court. Fox News host Jesse Watters, for instance, played into it on Monday’s episode of “The Five,” claiming Biden “is going to be taking shots at the jungle juice” ahead of the debate so that he can appear energetic.
MAGA Media has also settled around a scapegoat to protect Trump if he should perform poorly: CNN. The dishonest pro-Trump forces, particularly the overt propagandist Sean Hannity, have leveled a barrage of attacks aimed at Jake Tapper, who will be co-moderating the debate alongside Dana Bash. Tapper, the hard-hitting anchor and CNN’s chief Washington correspondent, has been portrayed as a Democratic hack. While it is an absurd accusation, it is one MAGA Media is gleefully pushing, even attempting to do so on CNN’s own air.
On Monday morning, CNN anchor Kasie Hunt abruptly ended an interview with Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who repeatedly assailed Tapper and Bash as “biased” news anchors. After booting Leavitt from her program, Hunt noted that “if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing.”
Hunt is, of course, spot on. The hang-up, however, for MAGA Media is that they’ve forced themselves into a corner. Now, they’re trying to find a way to break free — and they’re getting desperate.
Good move, Kasie. https://t.co/B9NHTVt0Y0
— Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) June 24, 2024
You come on my show, you respect my colleagues. Period. I don’t care what side of the aisle you stand on, as my track record clearly shows.
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) June 24, 2024
They’re looking for an exit https://t.co/hShPkYHXFr
— Josh Mankiewicz (@JoshMankiewicz) June 25, 2024
Do drug tests test for Adderall? Just asking.
— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) June 24, 2024
MAGA Republicans are doing everything they can to give Trump an out from participating in the debate. https://t.co/A3lMHcl92A
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) June 24, 2024
I've always thought it was 60/40 that Trump would find an excuse to cancel at the last moment.
(Hey, I see why pollsters like using these percentages for predictions. You can't ever be wrong!) https://t.co/b94XhLD0Dc
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) June 24, 2024
Republicans now on a rampage to intimidate @jaketapper so he bends over backwards to favor Trump in the debate. They are just such tiresome, aggressive, hostile maniacs. When is it going to end?
— Jon “Bowzer” Bauman (@JonBowzerBauman) June 24, 2024
Trump’s drug dealer is calling for Biden to take a drug test ??? pic.twitter.com/qgYb9Xy9jd
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) June 24, 2024
One of the great disappointments of my life was the discovery that no one really cares about hypocrisy. It seems like it ought to be a damning indictment when someone lies or flip-flops, but the truth is that it just doesn't penetrate anyone's consciousness.
— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) June 24, 2024
Since the Trump surrogates are out whining about the debate network and moderator again, just a reminder that Trump does this before EVERY debate, regardless of who the network or moderator is. Because he’s a whiny, excuse-making crybaby. https://t.co/6kpljLOnji
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 24, 2024
I do not think Jake Tapper should be hanged, nor do I think he's raging Trump hater conspiring with Biden. I guess that's what passes for centrism these days.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 24, 2024
CNN's Jim Acosta Slams Fox For Parroting Claims About 'Jacked Up' Biden, Compares It to Birtherism https://t.co/pXwyPutNsV
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 24, 2024
CNN Anchor Kasie Hunt cut off Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt after she unfairly attacked debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Every interviewer should do the same! pic.twitter.com/OfoRknApYZ
— Luke Beasley (@lukepbeasley) June 24, 2024
Jake Tapper is so mean!
Biden needs a drug test!
CNN isn’t fair!Sounds like a lot of pre-emptive framing, poisoning the well, and "politics is war and the enemy cheats." Cognitively irresponsible, like I said he'd do. https://t.co/7C0WRsG9BA
— Jennifer Mercieca (@jenmercieca) June 25, 2024
BREAKING: The Trump campaign is panicking about Thursday’s debate because they know Donald Trump is cognitively impaired. This is the only reason they are attacking Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. They know Trump won’t hold up to any scrutiny in his debate with President Biden.
— Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) June 24, 2024
1) Trump AGREED to having Jake Tapper moderate.
2) Tapper has never said anything about either candidate that wasn’t true.
3) Respect to Kasey Hunt
4) Trump’s team is pre- manufacturing excuses for losing the debate- because he has no policy positions:pic.twitter.com/KDgUihdrV7— BigBlueWaveUSA® ????? (@BigBlueWaveUSA) June 24, 2024
Photo 301604608 | 2024 Debates © Petr Goskov | Dreamstime.com
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