Joe Biden lashed out at Donald Trump’s mental stability at a dinner in Washington on Saturday — just as the former president made verbal gaffe after gaffe at a campaign rally in Ohio during comments about the economy and the auto industry, predicting “bloodshed” for the country if he loses elections in November.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, baffled the crowd at an appearance in Vandalia by insisting that Biden defeated “Barack Hussein Obama” in a national election that never took place.
Speaking about everything after his teleprompter was disabled by the wind, Trump – a frequent critic of 81-year-old Biden’s age and mental health – struggled to pronounce the words “bite” and “largest”, leaving the audience confused. for mentioning Obama, who Biden served as vice president from 2009 to 2017 before taking over the Oval Office from Trump in 2020. “You know what’s interesting? Joe Biden defeated Barack Hussein Obama. Has anyone ever heard of him? In every swing state, Biden beat Obama, but in every other state, he died,” Trump said.
Biden joked about Trump’s mental prowess at Saturday night’s Gridiron Club dinner, a traditional “roast” attended by politicians and journalists since the 1880s.
“One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The second is me,” said the president. “Don’t tell him. He thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said,” Biden added, referring to several previous occasions when the 77-year-old Trump confused the current and possible 2024 opponent with his Democratic predecessor.
Trump’s address in Ohio, ostensibly in support of Bernie Moreno, his favorite candidate in Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary, also returned the former president to darker, more apocalyptic themes. The US, Trump insisted during comments about auto workers and the auto industry, was headed for “bloodshed” if he lost to Biden again.
“Now, if I’m not elected, it will be a bloodbath. To say the least. It will be a bloodbath for the country,” he said, without clarifying what he meant. He later added: “I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country if we don’t win this one…certainly not the ones that make sense.”
His comments prompted a statement from the Biden campaign calling him “Donald Trump.” Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said: “He wants another January 6th, but the American people will hand him another election defeat this November.” because he still rejects his extremism, his penchant for violence and his thirst for revenge.”
Two Republicans who have criticized Trump, however, came to his defense. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, “You could look at the definition of a bloodbath and it could be an economic disaster. And so if he’s talking about the auto industry, especially in Ohio, then you can take that statement with a little more context.”
Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president who this week refused to endorse his candidacy, made a similar argument. “He spoke clearly about the impact of imports that are destroying the American auto industry,” Pence said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Also during his speech, repeating unsubstantiated claims that foreign countries are “emptying” their prisons and mental institutions in the US, Trump again “slammed” immigrants, calling some of them “animals”. “I don’t know if you call them people. They are not human, in my opinion,” he said. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says it’s a terrible thing to say.” Moreno, a Colombian immigrant who made a fortune from his car dealerships, joined the nationalist rhetoric, demanding that anyone coming to the US learn to speak English.
“We don’t need to vote in five different languages. Let’s learn the language,” he said. “It means you assimilate. You become a part of America – America does not become a part of you.”
At other times during the often wild 90-minute address, Trump hurled personal insults at political opponents. He called Biden “stupid” several times; made a vulgar reference to Fanny Willis, the Georgia prosecutor in his criminal case for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss; he called Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom “the new scumbag”; and insulted the appearance of JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois, the New York Times reported.
He also tried to blame Biden for installing the problematic teleprompters and called on event organizers not to pay the performers.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former speaker of the US House of Representatives, condemned Trump’s comments during Sunday’s State of the Union appearance on CNN. “You wouldn’t even let him in your house, much less the White House,” she said.
“We just have to win this election, because he even predicts bloodshed. What does that mean, they will seek bloodshed
huh? Something is wrong here. As much as I respect the American people and their goodness, I realize that they have to look past him to realize that this is not what our country is about?”
Biden repeated the warnings during the non-comedic section of his address on the gridiron evening, attended by more than 650 guests, still refusing to use Trump’s name and referring to him only as “my predecessor.”
“We live in an unprecedented moment in democracy,” Biden said. “An unprecedented moment in history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the march through Europe. My predecessor bows to him and tells him ‘do whatever you want’. Freedom is under attack. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose and much more. The lies about the 2020 elections, the conspiracy to subvert them, to embrace the January 6 rebellion, represent the greatest threat to our democracy since the civil war.
“We live in an unprecedented moment of democracy, an unprecedented moment in history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack.”, The Guardian writes.
