Welcome to political discourse in 2018
Two politicians in their 70s take verbal swings at each other. Is this foreshadowing?
IF WE WERE IN HIGH SCHOOL, I’D TAKE HIM BEHIND THE GYM AND BEAT THE HELL OUT OF HIM. FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN CRAZY JOE BIDEN IS TRYING TO ACT LIKE A TOUGH GUY ... BUT HE WOULD GO DOWN FAST AND HARD, CRYING ALL THE WAY. President Donald Trump
Well he started it!
America got a foretaste of how the 2020 presidential election race could shape up as Donald Trump and Joe Biden, both septuagenarians, threatened to physically attack each other.
Biden, 75, 6- feet- tall and weighing about 180 pounds, started the fight talk on Tuesday at an anti- sexual assault rally at the University of Miami.
“A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘ I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it.’ If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him,” said the Democrat.
“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms my whole life,” Biden continued.” I’m a pretty (darn) good athlete. Any guy that talked that way was usually the fattest, ugliest S.O.B. in the room.”
Trump, 71, 6- foot- 3, and 239 pounds, kept his powder dry on Wednesday but hit back with a tweet on Thursday morning.
“Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!” said the Republican president.
Vice President Mike Pence appeared to show his bias for Trump when asked who would win. “You know who I’d be betting on,” Pence said, laughing during a radio interview. “It’s just a little bit of trash talk going on, just got to make your chuckle in American politics today,” he added.
Pundits, however, were quick to point out Biden played f ootball in high school, lifted weights and jogged with Barack Obama in their time in the White House. Trump is known for playing golf — a lot.
Biden has not said whether he wants to take on Trump in 2020, although some polls have pencilled him in as a front-runner.
CNN analyst Harry Enten said we were probably seeing the first signs of a matchup that could go all the way to 2020. “This all feels like a pre- view of a Biden and Trump faceoff come 2020. And, in fact, Biden versus Trump is probably the highest probability matchup compared to all the others at this moment in time, though it’s still a relative long-shot,” he wrote.
“My guess is that the tat we’re seeing between Biden and Trump today is just the first of many to come.”
Dan Balz, writing in The Washington Post, was disgusted. “That is what passes for political discourse these days, two grown men acting like macho little boys.”
He added, “There are any number of unsavoury aspects to the exchange. One obviously is the sheer idiocy of this kind of talk between politicians at the level of Trump and Biden. People do expect more of their leaders. Another is the apparent glorification of violence, revelling in the equivalent of a political Fight Club.”
Biden made similar statements during the 2016 election. At a campaign stop, Biden said he would “take Trump behind the gym.” He said the things Trump said in a 2005 Access Hollywood tape about kissing women without their consent or “grabbing them by the p---y” should be considered assault.
“What he said he did and does is the textbook definition of sexual assault,” Biden said at the campaign stop. “Think about this. It’s more than wrong, he said ‘ because I’m famous, because I’m a star, because I’m a billionaire I can do things other people can’t.’ What a disgusting assertion for anyone to make.”
If Biden takes on Trump in 2020 the race is unlikely to include physical combat.