Former President Donald Trump recently surprised podcast hosts when he complimented Joe Biden ahead of their highly anticipated debate next week. Trump appeared on the “All In” podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg, a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with a combined net worth larger than the GDP of a small nation.
“I assume he’s gonna be somebody that will be a worthy debater. … I don’t want to underestimate him,” Trump said. The Republican frontrunner added that Biden “destroyed” former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan during debates ahead of the 2012 election.
“All I can say is this: I watched him with Paul Ryan, and he destroyed Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan with the water, he was chugging water left and right … and he beat Paul Ryan. So, I’m not underestimating him. I’m not underestimating him. It is what it is,” he said.
However, Trump has not always been so complimentary of Biden, where he previously wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, “Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together!” He further stated, “I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds – That’s only because he doesn’t get them.”
Some have speculated that the change in sentiment from former President Trump could reflect Biden’s increasingly diminished mental and physical capacities. CNN contributor Van Jones, who previously worked for the Obama administration, illustrated how if President Biden made a mistake, it could mark the end of his presidency.
He told CNN’s Jim Acosta, “This is the entire election, as far as I’m concerned. The entire world will be watching. If you are a carbon-based life form, you’re going to be watching. If you’ve got a functioning brain stem, you’re going to be watching.”
The political commentator continued, “Because if Biden goes out there and messes up, it’s game over. If he walks out there, and a week later he’s lower in the polls, it’s panic in the party.” However, he noted if Biden can compose himself in the debate, it will be rewarding for the Bide-Harris campaign. “But if he goes in there and he can handle himself against Donald Trump — a runaway train, a locomotive, a raging bull — then this guy deserves another shot to be president, because that is tough,” he said.
Jones noted that Trump is a formidable candidate to debate against, explaining how the average person is not fit for the task. “You couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it,” he said. “If you can stand toe-to-toe with a runaway train like Donald Trump for an hour and a half, you are fit to be president, period, point-blank,” he said. “This is the whole presidency in a bottle in a week.”
Ahead of the highly anticipated debate between the two prospective candidates, there as been substantial speculation as to whether Biden is physically and mentally fit for the task. There have been a slew of recent viral incidents suggesting the president’s faculties are becoming increasingly diminished.
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