Trump's campaign is making up fake debate excuses in advance. Sound familiar? [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

The president’s team reuses its campaign playbook for the debate.

By
Philip Bump
September 29, 2020 at 1:28 p.m. CDT

Shortly after former vice president Joe Biden clinched the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2020 presidential race, President Trump and his allies invested heavily in a particular line of argument. Biden was old and enfeebled, they asserted, and could barely function physically or intellectually.

Over and over, they made this argument, even releasing ads compiling snippets of Biden stumbling over words. There was no small irony to attacking Biden as old or prone to misstatements, of course, but it was the strategy they dropped like a blanket over the political conversation.

. . .

Over and over yet again, this was the mantra. Biden was using performance-enhancing drugs of some sort, Trump claimed, demanding a drug test. It’s an extremely weird claim, presuming that Olympics-style rules should apply to every day situations, and one without any evidence. (At a news conference on Sunday, Trump insisted that the claim could be proven if one were to “check out the Internet.”)

As Tuesday's debate neared, the claim got more specific: Biden would be using an earpiece during the debate to take instruction from aides and allies. As of writing, it's the top story on Fox News's website; its on-air staff explored the subject early in the day. Trump's campaign demanded that Biden reject the use of drugs and earpieces, a request that Biden laughed off. ("Biden campaign rejects Trump's call for inspector to check candidates for listening devices at debate," the main Fox headline currently reads.)

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/29/trumps-campaign-is-making-up-fake-debate-excuses-advance-sound-familiar/