The 2024 presidential election has been fraught with concern about the age of the candidates and whether that would impact their ability to endure the unique burdens of the job. President Biden has demonstrated his competence by presiding over one of the most productive administrations is modern times.
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Donald Trump, on the other hand, cannot point to a single achievement during his occupation of the White House other than tragically mismanaging the COVID pandemic, cutting taxes for the wealthy, losing more jobs than any other president since Hoover, Adding eight trillion dollars to the deficit, and appointing justices who rolled back reproductive rights for women. And since he left office he's been singularly focused on his "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was "rigged and stolen" from him, and avoiding prison for his 88 pending felony charges.
SEE THIS: Trump Says All Presidents Must Have ‘Total Immunity’ from Crimes – Except for President Biden
The question of competence arose again this week while Trump has been in court for his first criminal trial. And among those who doubt Trump's ability to perform is, surprisingly, one of the most prominent Trump-fluffers on Fox News, Jesse Watters. During his primetime program Watters offered what he presumably thought was a defense of Trump's ordeal in court, saying that Democrats are conspiring against him by forcing him to attend the trial like any other defendant...
"They're draining his brain and his body. Now, I don't like to sit. They say sitting is the new smoking. You're going to take a man who is usually golfing or in action, and you're going to sit him in a chair in freezing temperatures and just let people rip you and you can't say anything? Four days a week, eight hours a day -- that takes a toll."
First of all, It isn't Biden or Democrats who are responsible for Trump suffering the indignity of "sitting" in court. It is first and foremost Trump's responsibility for violating the law. And there is no evidence that Democrats were involved in the law catching up with him. His indictments were issued by a panel of citizens on a grand jury.
More to the point, if Watters thinks that sitting quietly in a courtroom for a few hours a day will "drain Trump's brain and body," what would sitting through weeks of negotiations with Congress or foreign leaders do to him? Watters is inadvertently, but effectively, arguing that Trump is unfit to serve as president.
What's more, Watters is trying to invent a version of a vigorous, athletic Trump that doesn't exist in reality. But at the same time he's asserting that Trump is a frail flower that can't tolerate a chilly courtroom. Watters also portrays Trump as being too fragile to withstand the testimony of some of his own former friends and associates. According to Watters, Trump will wither in this scenario because the sitting and the temperature and the exposition of the truth "takes a toll" on the tenderness of Trump. That's not exactly a profile of the presidential strength required of anyone aspiring to the post.
Earlier the same day on his other Fox News show, "The Five," Watters painted a similarly weak picture of Trump saying that...
"Trump needs exercise. He’s usually golfing and you’re going to put a man who’s almost 80 sitting in a room like this on his butt for all that time? It’s not healthy. He needs sunlight. He needs activity. It’s really cruel and unusual punishment."
Watters is actually arguing that it is "cruel and unusual punishment" for criminal defendants like Trump to have to attend their trials rather than play golf in the sunshine. What an atrocity! And he asserts that Trump's health will suffer if he can't do that every day. Never mind that Trump's "exercise" consists of riding around in a golf cart for a couple hours, before lining up at the Mar-a-Lago buffet for some fried chicken and diet soda.
For his part, Trump is echoing Watters' opinions. He frequently holds impromptu press avails when court isn't in session (which the press really needs to stop doing). And on Tuesday Trump complained to reporters that...
"I'm here in a courtroom, sitting here. Sitting up as straight as I can all day long. It’s a very unfair situation."
It's so unfair to make Trump sit up straight at his criminal trial when, according to reports, all he wants to do is nap, or when he can stay awake, to scowl menacingly at others in the courtroom. Why can't people just leave Trump alone so he can hold his cult rallies and hobnob with rich folks who are looking for favors from the government?
Apparently it's just too much ask ask someone who wants to be president to pay attention in the courtroom where he's being tried on serious felonies. Yet Trump and Fox News and the MAGA minions think that such a person is competent to serve as president. Perhaps all of their brains have already been drained.
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