Biden's debate disaster overshadowed a stellar performance by Trump. And, court makes clear: Presidents control the DOJ.

By Gary Abernathy

Trump was admirably calm, restrained and disciplined

President Biden’s disastrous debate performance was actually worse than Republicans should have hoped for. Ideally, for the GOP’s benefit, Biden would perform only badly enough to drive enough voters to Donald Trump to tip the election. But the worst nightmare for the GOP was that Biden would be so bad that it might lead to him being replaced on the ticket by someone with a much better chance of winning in November. Time will tell, but that may actually have happened.

Lost in all the focus on Biden’s historically horrible showing was just how well Trump performed. The far-left (formerly mainstream) media naturally dismissed Trump’s utterances as a series of blatant lies. That is simply not true. Yes, Trump stretched the facts here and there, but no more than Biden or most politicians.

Throughout the debate, Trump exhibited a discipline and control seldom if ever seen from him. Part of the reason, ironically, were the rules insisted on by the Biden campaign. By cutting off Trump’s microphone when it wasn’t his turn to speak, and having no studio audience to play to, Trump was notably restrained – which was entirely to Trump’s benefit. As a result, Trump came off as calm and rational.

Trump had a strategy and stuck to it. That strategy was to bring everything back to the topic of illegal immigration, Trump’s strongest issue and Biden’s weakest. Whether the topic was immigration itself, Medicare, national security, the economy, crime, etc., Trump masterfully equated all problems to the border crisis, as is even more obvious when reading the CNN debate transcript.

When Biden suffered his worst meltdown shortly into the debate – ending with the astounding statement that he “beat Medicare” – Trump calmly smiled and responded, “Well, he’s right: He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death. And he’s destroying Medicare, because all of these people are coming in, they’re putting them on Medicare, they’re putting them on Social Security. They’re going to destroy Social Security.”

When Biden made a confusing statement in which he apparently attempted to complain about women having to cross state lines for an abortion but ended up confusingly talking about women being victims of violence, Trump was ready again.

“There have been many young women murdered by the same people he allows to come across our border,” said Trump. “We have a border that’s the most dangerous place anywhere in the world – considered the most dangerous place anywhere in the world. And he opened it up, and these killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women. And it’s a terrible thing.”

Even when asked about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Trump brought it back to the border.

“And let me tell you about January 6th, on January 6th, we had a great border, nobody coming through, very few. On January 6th, we were energy independent. On January 6th, we had the lowest taxes ever, we had the lowest regulations ever. On January 6th, we were respected all over the world,” said Trump.

On the subject of which candidate would be better for black Americans, Trump’s response included this: “As sure as you’re sitting there, the fact is that his big kill on the black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border. They’re taking black jobs now and it could be 18. It could be 19 and even 20 million people. They’re taking black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.”

Trump had a message and he was sticking to it. Even when both candidates were asked about their plans for childcare, Trump just ignored it entirely to go into a monologue about Biden’s refusal to hold people accountable for failures – especially on the border.

“Did you fire anybody? Did you fire anybody that’s on the border, that’s allowed us to have the worst border in the history of the world? Did anybody get fired for allowing 18 million people, many from prisons, many from mental institutions? Did you fire anybody that allowed our country to be destroyed? Joe, our country is being destroyed as you and I sit up here and waste a lot of time on this debate. This shouldn’t be a debate.

“He is the worst president. He just said it about me because I said it. But look, he’s the worst president in the history of our country. He’s destroyed our country. Now, all of a sudden, he’s trying to get a little tough on the border. He come out – came out with a nothing deal, and it reduced it a little bit. A little bit, like this much. It’s insignificant.

“He wants open borders. He wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters. And I don’t think – we just can’t let it happen. If he wins this election, our country doesn’t have a chance. Not even a chance of coming out of this rut. We probably won’t have a country left anymore. That’s how bad it is. He is the worst in history by far.”

On and on it went. It was a master class in having one message, and doing everything possible to leave that message permanently embedded in viewers’ minds.

Unfortunately for Trump, Biden’s showing was so utterly embarrassing – and concerning – as to dominate the post-debate analysis and send the Democratic Party into panic mode. When commentators outside of Fox News did weigh in on Trump’s performance, they grudgingly said he was calmer than usual, but dismissed his substance as an endless series of lies. That in itself is a lie.

For instance, here’s a selection of “fact checks” from various news organizations.

·        The New York Times said that Trump’s claim that many illegal immigrants were being put on Social Security was “false” -- but then quoted the Congressional Budget Office as saying that “most unauthorized immigrants are prohibited from receiving many of the benefits that the federal government provides through Social Security…” Most? Most is not all, so how can Trump’s claim be labeled false? Maybe it “needs context” (as organizations generously label Biden’s lies as opposed to Trump’s lies) but if even some illegal immigrants receive some Social Security benefits, it’s not a lie to say they do. And this article from GOBankingRates (and carried on Yahoo Finance) asks (and answers), “For the purposes of Social Security, are non-citizens and immigrants considered ‘qualifying individuals?’ The short answer is yes, in many cases,” followed by an explanation of a number of ways that can happen.

·         The Associated Press claimed that Trump was “inaccurate” when he said, on abortion, “The problem they have is they’re radical because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth.” The AP said Trump “inaccurately referred to abortions after birth. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.” Nowhere does the AP mention the instance to which Trump actually referred, and which is absolutely documented: Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s support in 2019 for a bill to loosen restrictions on “late-term abortions” for children with deformities that would in fact, as Northam described it, allow an “abortion” even after delivery. Here’s how CNN quoted Northam at the time: “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” The purpose of such a “discussion” was clear. Again, nothing inaccurate about Trump’s claim. Maybe it needed “context,” the grace allowed for Biden’s lies.

·         PBS claimed that Trump lied when he said that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken “full responsibility" for Jan. 6. Again, it may be fair to say that Trump’s claim needed “context” or was “incomplete,” or an “exaggeration,” but in fact, in recently released footage, Pelosi for the first time is shown saying, ““I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” an obvious reference to security in general on Jan. 6. It was the first time Pelosi has ever been seen acknowledging that security of the Capitol was essentially her responsibility, as Trump and many others have long claimed. It was a blockbuster revelation that has, naturally, received little attention from the far-left (formerly mainstream) media.

Examples abound of Trump’s debate statements being labeled “lies” while similar lies from Biden are labeled “lacking context” or “misleading.” It’s a double-standard all too common.

Trump had an excellent debate. Unfortunately for him, it was overshadowed by Biden’s complete collapse.

A note on the CNN moderators. I’m thrilled to say that my fears were unfounded that they would engage in debating Trump. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash admirably refrained from real-time fact-checking and instead stuck to posing questions – questions which were relevant and fair. It was a good night for old-fashioned debate-style journalism, with a focus on the candidates, not the moderators.

If only that attitude carried over to the rest of the campaign, where, instead of refusing to air Trump or his statements or his rallies, CNN, MSNBC and other leftwing outlets would simply cover the campaigns and trust the voters to decide. We don’t need them to protect us.

Supreme Court makes clear that presidents run the DOJ

In its long-awaited ruling on presidential immunity, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday decided as expected, allowing immunity for official presidential acts but not for non-official ones. That leads to the tricky responsibility for lower courts to decide which is which – all of which will likely to end up back at the Supreme Court.

It’s gratifying that the court ordered that Trump’s actions and words before, during and after Jan. 6 should be examined in full context, not snipped and edited to make a stronger case.

And this was interesting. The Washington Post reported as follows about the ruling from the immunity decision: “Donald Trump’s efforts after the 2020 election to get the Justice Department to investigate and promote false claims of large-scale vote tampering may have been improper, but that does not ‘divest the President of exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials,’ the majority wrote.”

Looked at another way, the fact that the president has “exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials” makes it more difficult for President Biden and others to claim that Biden has nothing to do with the DOJ’s prosecutions of Trump.

To be clear, the Justice Department, in prosecuting Trump, is under the “exclusive authority” of President Biden. Trump has another Supreme Court-stamped reason to claim he is the victim of a “lawfare” witch hunt directed by his political opponent.

In regard to the Supreme Court, thank goodness we have a court that is correcting some egregious precedents and rulings – especially reining in government bureaucratic overreach in the EPA and other agencies, and calling out overzealous prosecution of Jan. 6 rally-goers who, in some cases, waltzed into the Capitol just because they were following the crowd.

To be clear, anyone who committed violence or actively attempted to stop the legal counting of presidential electors as the ceremony was in progress should be prosecuted. But hundreds of others did nothing but wander around because access was easy, and they don’t deserve some of the charges and convictions with which they’ve been targeted.

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