Biden/Trump debate was notable for the astounding slew of misstatements and outright lies told by Donald Trump.
Now CNN’s champion fact checker Daniel Dale follows Trump’s accuracy, and has done since 2016. Even he was amazed at the avalanche of balderdash from Trump.
We are left to wonder how to disqualify Trump on the basis of his failed performance. Is Trump genuinely unaware of the lies he tells? Then he is not well enough informed to hold high office. Is he aware of the lies, but tells them anyway? Then he is too corrupt and malicious to hold office.
Or has Trump’s already-evident cognitive difficulties advanced so far in 363 months that he is unable to tell fact from fiction? In that case he lacks the cognitive chops to replace Biden, who has done a good job as president fixing the problems Trump created and leading America to genuine greatness?
BREAKING: CNN just released their fact check of Donald Trump throughout the debate. It turns out Donald Trump lied on just about every answer. Retweet so all Americans see this vital fact check on Trump’s BS. pic.twitter.com/cf6CMKOtIM
Trump cannot be a serious candidate, can he? If he believes his own falsehoods, he’s not capable of making good policy. If he knows he’s lying, he’s too corrupt.
Sec. of State Antony Blinken giving updates to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in March 2023.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked some leading questions by Democrats on the House Foreign Relations Committee, especially Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia.
Watch. The answers are good. Biden inherited a foreign affairs mess from Trump. Biden, and Blincken, have been cleaning up the messes. Connolly and Blinken take down Republican arguments against President Biden’s foreign policies.
If you listened to Republicans this morning, you'd think they slept through the Trump years.
Secretary Blinken was before @HouseForeign today. I took the chance to correct the record. Turns out the Trump Administration left quite a mess for him to clean up.
Joe Biden’s campaign is sharing personal stories about Biden — this one was shared originally in September 2019. It’s a way to get to know him, and to show his character (or lack of it).
This one, you should read. It’s the Joe Biden I met first in 1974, and the Biden I know him to be. But I hadn’t heard this story before.
I Know Joe Biden: Rabbi Michael Beals
The story I’m about to share with you about Joe Biden is special — in fact, I’m fairly certain I’m the only living person left who actually witnessed it firsthand.
It was about 16 years ago, and I was a young rabbi, brand-new to Delaware, on my way to lead a shiva minyan — a worship service following a death of a Jewish person. I was from California. Back then, I didn’t know Claymont, Delaware from Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Rabbi Michael Beals and Vice President Joe Biden
A quick bit of background: When someone passes away in the Jewish faith, we observe seven days of mourning, called shiva. We gather a group of ten Jewish adults together — a minyan — to say the Mourners’ Kaddish. It usually happens in a person’s home — somewhere intimate.
In this case, the deceased individual — her name was Mrs. Greenhouse, of blessed memory — had not been a person of means. She had lived in rent-controlled senior housing in a tall high-rise building off of Namaans Road. Her apartment had been too small to fit everyone into, so we conducted our worship service in the building’s communal laundry room, in the basement of the high-rise.
We assembled the ten elders together, and it was in this most humble of places that I began to lead the kaddish. Toward the end of the service, a door at the back of the laundry room opened, and who walks in but Senator Joe Biden, his head lowered, all by himself.
I nearly dropped my prayer book in shock.
Senator Biden stood quietly in the back of the room for the duration of the service.
At the close of the kaddish, I walked over to him and asked the same question that must have been on everyone else’s mind: “Senator Biden — what are you doing here?”
And he said to me: “Listen, back in 1972, when I first ran for Senate, Mrs. Greenhouse gave $18 to my first campaign. Because that’s what she could afford. And every six years, when I’d run for reelection, she’d give another $18. She did it her whole life. I’m here to show my respect and gratitude.”
Now, the number 18 is significant in the Jewish faith — its numbers spell out the Hebrew word chai, as in “to life, to life, l’chayim!” But it’s also a humble amount. Joe Biden knew that. And he respected that.
There were no news outlets at our service that day — no Jewish reporters or important dignitaries. Just a few elderly mourners in a basement laundry room.
Joe Biden didn’t come to that service for political gain. He came to that service because he has character. He came to that service because he’s a mensch.
And if we need anything right now when it comes to the leadership of our country — we need a mensch.
I know this is such a simple, small story. But I tell it to as many people as will listen to me.
Because I think that, in their heart of hearts, when people are trying to think about the decision they’ll make next year — this is the kind of story that matters.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 