Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Debate contrasted Trump successes with Biden failures
Trump knows Americans want to get back to work and get their kids back to school
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The second and final presidential debate Thursday night between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden took a smoother tack than the candidates’ previous confrontation, but the takeaway was much clearer.
If you’re looking for a fighter and a political outsider, Donald Trump is your man. If you want an insider who is prepped and poised to go with the same old Beltway flow, Joe Biden is your man.
Right away, President Trump went on offense. He took control of the first round of questioning on his coronavirus response, invoking the specter of the Obama-Biden administration’s disastrous H1N1 flu response in 2009 to illustrate how a Biden administration might respond to future COVID-19 waves.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It took the Obama-Biden administration seven months to classify the H1N1 outbreak as a national health emergency. Even Biden’s former chief of staff admits that they dodged a bullet.
Biden’s response to Trump’s reference to the H1N1 failure was a jumbled disaster, followed by a quick pivot to mask mandates and more shutdowns.
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Trump, on the other hand, scored points as he talked about the human impact of shutdowns and quarantines. He made it clear he understands that the American people want to get back to work and get their kids back to school.
The president kept up his support for small businesses and workers throughout the debate, toward the end hitting back against Biden’s destructive stance on raising the minimum wage. Biden’s message for small businesses, on the other hand, was disconnected from reality.
If you want to know who won the most points debating the future of the Affordable Care Act, just ask the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance. They didn’t even have to watch to know who took that round.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden doubled down on already-debunked claims that no one lost their private health insurance post-Affordable Care Act, which is just as false a claim as President Obama’s assertion that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” under his health plan.
The former vice president appeared to not even understand the implications of his own health care plan and, to the likely chagrin of his team of advisers, sloppily voiced his support for a public option — another way of saying government-run health care.
All President Trump had to do was point out that Biden’s plan would strip health insurance from 153 million Americans who get health insurance from their employers and the private market, along with 57 million people insured under Medicare.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It only got worse for the former vice president when he pledges to transition away from oil to renewable energy. Voters in states producing oil and natural gas need to listen-up: Biden said will shut down your industries and wipe out the jobs they provide.
This was a stunning exchange that had liberals buzzing and should have anyone earning a living from fossil fuels worried. Biden doubled down on his job-killing policies. He could not have been more precise in signaling his support for the Green New Deal. And believe me, rural and suburban America took notice.
And on and on it went. Rather than offering a heartfelt defense of his son Hunter against allegations of collusion with foreign interests and unethical behavior, Biden panicked and insisted the evidence against his son was yet another Russian hoax.
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Biden took credit for America’s 2009 economic “recovery” — which was the slowest in U.S. history, and one plagued by government interference in the private sector. He got lost in his own defense of the Obama administration’s approach to crime, blaming congressional Republicans for his own failures.
Of course, both candidates missed opportunities to hit on hot dinner table topics. The American people wanted to hear more from both of them on foreign policy, taxes, school choice and the economy.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden should have gotten specific about his flip-flops on criminal justice reform, rather than just apologizing for his past positions.
Trump should have clarified his attacks on the faulty Iran nuclear deal, and the cost of the Paris Climate Accords — and then taken credit for reversing those policies. Those misses, however, didn’t take the shine off of President Trump’s decisive victory.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Was it the moderator? The mute button? Or just a rebound in confidence that helped Trump perform so ... presidentially?
The world may never know; but one thing is clear: in the final days of this election cycle, all Donald Trump needs to do to earn four more years in the White House is keep Joe Biden talking into a hot mic.