Like so many people this evening, I find myself trying not to panic after the debate on CNN. It was folly for President Biden to even suggest it: he would have been far better off if he had said, simply, "I will not share the stage with rapists or criminals. I will not elevate the status of a man who lies more easily than some people breathe, who subverts our democracy, who sat by and watched television while our national legislature was attacked. I will not dignify him."
The President chose not to do that; he believed, apparently, that this would be an opportunity. And now Democrats, as well as Republican never-Trumpers, are wondering: how do we deal with this? How do we recover? How do we shut down this existential threat, once and for all.
The list of contributors to this debacle -- the people who brought this country to this crisis -- is a long one. Pride of place must go to Mitch McConnell, whose cynicism ensured that Trump could -- and would -- run again, when he torpedoed the second impeachment. He (correctly) blamed Trump for the violence, but deferred the Senate trial until after Biden's inauguration. And then voted not to convict, on the convenient grounds that Trump was no longer president. So thank you, Senator. May you rot.
Of course McConnell is not the only Republican profile in cowardice; and we can, if we want, trace the trouble all the way back to the original Baron of Blowhard, the Prince of Putrescence, the Duke of Disingenuousness. I refer, of course, to Newt Gingrich, who thirty years ago convinced his party that politics was not the art of the possible, after all: compromise be damned, if you are not with us you are un-American. I should not have to point out how undemocratic this idea is. So, Newt: you can rot, too.
None of this is actually what I came to say. Or, rather, it is a necessary preface. For the last ninety minutes I have been thinking about what I wish the moderators had done -- for example, been more forceful about saying, "You still haven't answered the question or even gone near it." We were an hour in before that started to happen. I'm not alone.
I have been thinking, too, about what I wish Biden had said. What I wish his opening statement had been. He was at his best tonight when he got angry and called Trump a liar, and a felon. When he reminded people that Trump is a whiner, a perpetual victim, a cheat. He should have gone further.
It is axiomatic that any presentation has three parts: Tell them what you're going to say; say it; tell them what you said. In that spirit, I submit the following opening statement: the one I wish Biden had delivered.
My fellow Americans: this is not simply an historic election, it is the most consequential one any of us has ever seen, or likely will see. The man standing across the stage from me is a liar, a conman, an adjudicated sex offender and a convicted felon. I do not say these things lightly -- indeed, I believe that it is beneath the dignity of my office to be on the stage with such a man at all; it is beneath the dignity of my office to even have to say these things. But here we are, and these things must be said.
It must be said: this man lies. You will hear him lie countless times in the next ninety minutes, because everything he says is a lie. You can -- if you pay close attention -- catch him in it, because he will contradict himself many times tonight. He will answer a question one way, and state as fact things that are not true; and in his next answer, or the next, state as fact things that are neither true nor consistent with his previous statements.
This man has no morals, no scruples, no conscience. No code of honor, no sense of decency, and no idea what America is really about. To him this is all about self-preservation, and about preserving the carefully curated foundational lie that he is a successful businessman and some kind of genius. He is not: he has declared bankruptcy six times; he has mismanaged casinos out of business. A genius? Forrest Gump could make money managing a casino; Donald Trump put himself out of business.
This man will insist that he is a victim, that he is the most persecuted individual who has ever walked the earth, that nobody has ever been treated worse. He said on one occasion that he has been treated worse than Jesus; on another, that Lincoln was treated better than Trump. These statements are obviously false. But he said them. And one minute and fifteen seconds from now he will deny that he ever said any such thing. And that, too, will be a lie.
This man lied to you over 30,000 times while he was in office. These lies are documented. He will deny it; he will claim he is a victim: that the newspapers hate him, and falsely report that he lied. He told you, in 2016, that his administration would be "only the best people." The best people he hired have all left him, and to a man (and woman) say that he should never be near the Oval Office again. He will deny that they said that, or he will insist that he fired them because they were not the best people after all. Or both.
I stand before you a man of 81; the man across from me is himself 78. He will tell you that I am too old and frail for this job; and if that is so, so is he. He will project confidence, he will bluster. It is easy to project confidence when you don't care about the truth, when your only concern is staying out of prison. He will tell you that his legal problems are all "put up jobs" by his political opponents. Another lie: his legal problems have but one sole cause, and that is the reprehensible and immoral conduct of the man himself. He falsified his books to hide facts that could have helped voters understand the truth about him. To hear him tell it, he has never, ever, in his life, been responsible for anything. That is an enviable thing: which of you can say the same? He is an endless, perpetual victim. So he says.
Do not believe him. For he is not the victim: you are. Of his lies, of his moral rot, of his disdain for truth, of his lifelong belief that he alone should be above the law, and above any reckoning.
Yes, I am old; and I have spent my entire life in public service, trying to improve the lives of the people of Delaware and of the United States. My opponent has spent his life in self-service. It has been a life of fraud and deception. It's easy to say the words you want people to believe; but leadership is about speaking truth, and telling people what they need to know.
Beware: every word he says is a lie. Do not become his next victims.
Having delivered this message, President Biden could more easily have turned all of Trump's answers against him: "The question was about income inequality and how you would address it, not about how smart you think you are."
He might even have delivered the opening statement, again, as his closing argument.