Everyone Knows Trump Is Less Fit Than Biden

That’s why his debate performance cost him less.

The debate is the topic of the week. I wrote a couple pieces about it already, but why not one more?

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Trump’s debate this week against Kamala Harris was different than the disastrous performance that caused President Joe Biden to drop out of the race in July. Biden mumbled; Trump shouted. Biden had trouble making his talking points and looked old and tired. Trump’s talking points were incoherent mush and he looked old and cranky. Biden failed to forcefully push back against lies and hate. Trump spewed lies and hate. Etc.

So yes, Biden’s performance was different. But it wasn’t really worse. Biden did not, for example, shout “they’re eating the dogs!” in order to push debunked vile racist lies in hopes of causing racist violence. Biden didn’t boast about getting the endorsement of fascist authoritarian Viktor Orban.

So if Trump’s performance was at least as bad as Biden’s, and arguably in many respects worse than Biden’s, why isn’t the news media covering it as an existential threat to the nation, which is how they covered Biden’s debate performance? Why is there not op-ed after op-ed calling for Trump to drop out?

There’s a pretty straightforward answer here. The answer is that everyone knows that Trump is in fact less fit than Biden. And for that reason, the news media does not hold Trump accountable in the same way as they hold Biden accountable.

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Biden can be targeted because Biden can be reasoned with

That seems counterintuitive. But the mechanism is fairly straightforward.

Everyone—Democrats, the media, Republicans, everyone—is aware that Joe Biden, whatever his (many) flaws, is committed to democracy, and cares about the fortunes of his party and his country. Everyone knows, in other words, that Biden can be swayed (at least in some cases) by institutional pressure and by appeals to the good of the country and of the party. Biden is a rational actor invested in what he sees as American ideals, in democratic process, in the good opinion of his peers and of posterity.

Democratic party actors and the media both believed that there was a decent chance that they could convince Biden that if he stayed in the race, he would harm his party and his country. And if they so convinced him, he would take action, because he cares about his party and his country. Following the debate, therefore, Democrats started leaking that they had no confidence in him. The media ran article after article about how he was not fit. The internal dissension and the media attacks drove his polls down.

Biden—again, because he is in fact mentally competent and because he cares about the country— was worried he might not win, and perhaps even more worried he might harm downballot candidates. So he dropped out, and immediately endorsed Harris, his Vice-President.

On the Republican side, things are very different. And they’re different again because everyone knows that Trump hates democracy, hates his party, and is completely unfit to serve as president.

Trump’s debate performance was disgraceful and is of course only the most recent disgraceful thing he has done. He has, as just one example, been held liable for rape, and for defaming the woman he raped.

But precisely because Trump is universally understood to be a principleless, soulless, selfish, evil man, everyone knows that he cannot be shamed into doing anything at all that would put country, or even party, above his own self-interest. You can run a zillion articles about how Trump should step down, but he won’t. Republicans can leak that he has lost their faith. Trump won’t care.

More, Republicans know Trump has no concern for party or country, and that if they do try to force him to step down, he would turn on them instantly like a rabid dog. Trump’s made it clear again and again that he would not back any Republican nominee but Donald Trump—he refused to sign an RNC loyalty pledge, for example. Part of the reason that the GOP has had such trouble getting rid of Trump, even when many would obviously prefer a different nominee, is because GOP leaders know that the alternative to Trump is not DeSantis or Haley. The alternative to Trump is DeSantis or Haley with Trump running third party and getting a quarter to a half of the Republican vote.  

Trump has intimidated his own party by threatening to go rogue if they do not back him. Any better candidate would not in fact be “better” because Trump would do everything he could to destroy them in a general election. Biden wouldn’t do that to the Democrats because he believes that defeating the Republicans is important for the good of the country. Trump only cares about the good of Donald Trump, so would have no compunction in throwing the election to Democrats.

Trump’s selfishness and fundamental disinterest in democracy or in the good of the country means the GOP won’t push him to do…much of anything. This hamstrings the media. Most mainstream outlets treat internal party divisions as a legitimate story for editorializing. But disagreements between parties are considered partisan matters which can’t be adjudicated.

Or, to put it another way, it is acceptable (and fun!) for the media to run a massive campaign to force a politician out of office at the behest of his own party. But to take a clear side in a general election is considered bad form. Thus, by blackmailing his own party, Trump effectively shuts down the kind of media firestorm that helped push Biden out of the race.

Trump is rewarded for being a fascist

Trump refuses to acknowledge or respect democratic norms. Therefore his party and the media have largely given up on trying to hold him to democratic norms. He is so unfit that there’s no point, everyone has decided, in trying to make him fit. You can’t shame a fascist.

Biden, in contrast, can be moved. He is fit, which means that calling him unfit can affect him. Since people know he in fact behaves in a reasonable fashion, you can get him to step down by saying he is unreasonable. He’s not in mental decline, which means saying that he is in mental decline can lead him to act rationally to democratic signals by party and press.

This isn’t to say that Trump pays no price for his bigotry and awfulness. A better candidate probably would have won 2016 outright without the electoral college; a better candidate could have won in 2020. If Trump was a regular candidate, for that matter, Biden might have been willing to risk staying in the race. It’s because Biden, and Democrats, are (rightly) terrified of a Trump presidency that they took the unprecedented step of switching candidates in the middle of the campaign.

Still, the double standards are stark. Biden had a bad debate performance, and the media devoted weeks to insisting that he had to drop out. Trump has proved himself unfit for office over and over and over again for nine years, culminating in a disgraceful debate performance. And while the media largely agrees his performance was disgraceful, they’re not calling for him to drop out. Because they know he won’t drop out. Because he’s unfit for office. Unlike Biden, who everyone knew was fit for office, and therefore could be forced out by calling him unfit.

Trump refuses to play by the rules of democracy because he’s an authoritarian fascist who hates democracy. The Republican party, which has long been a corrupt authoritarian mess, has responded to MAGA by gracelessly collapsing with a wet fart of bigotry and hate. The media, for its part, has still not figured out how to handle Trump after nine years.

The glee with which they went after Joe Biden suggests that journalists are aware of their irrelevancy in the Trump era; they were eager to hold someone, anyone, accountable, and Joe Biden’s bad debate performance was right there. But the media is unable to consistently, day after day, inform readers that Trump is dangerous and evil and unfit. They worry that they’re being biased, they get bored, they feel irrelevant when Trump doesn’t change behavior despite their criticism.

Trump should not be president, but for that very reason, the media can’t say he shouldn’t be president. It’s only when a candidate takes the responsibility of the office seriously that journalists can bring themselves to say that he or she does not. If fascism wins, that will be one reason for its victory.