Posted on 04/08/2025 2:56:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
President Trump was worried that he was going after then-President Biden too hard and coming across as a bully during their consequential debate last year, according to a new book released Tuesday.
An excerpt from “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House” by The Hill senior political correspondent Amie Parnes and NBC News senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen reveals Trump was taken aback from Biden’s performance on the debate stage and needed time to adjust, realizing he had been right about Biden’s decline.
“Trump couldn’t believe it,” they reported.
“How do I keep hitting him without coming off as an a—hole? Trump thought. And if I do stop hitting him, will viewers lose interest? He suddenly became acutely aware of the optics of bullying a sitting president of the United States.”
Parnes and Allen reported that Trump chose to draw back to avoid coming off as going “off the rails.” He continued to press Biden but not in an overwhelming way.
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” Trump said, almost with sympathy, following a Biden “word salad” answer about border security. “I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
I don’t believe any of this
“The best Biden ever!”
Joe Scarborough
I dunno. When things drifted off into a golf challenge, I got the impression that Trump was being sympathetic to a fading mind.
Joe showed up pretty chippy that night, imagining that Trump was Corn Pop.
I don’t know, at least some of what I read seems plausible.
lol. , I’m sure Trump was worried about that,
No Biden administration ‘tell all’ books yet?
What a crock of manure.
It is completely plausible. Trump has more compassion than most realize. He instinctively knew he needed to avoid shredding someone who was obviously mentally compromised.
I agree.
Even CNN didn’t know what to do they knew Biden was going to lose and be pulled but they didn’t know how steer the debate decline.
Whatever the case may be,
DEMOCRAT Joe Biden deserved
everything he got
(No Biden administration ‘tell all’ books yet?)
He doesn’t remember anything before lunch
Or even lunch
I’d feel sorry for him if he wasn’t such
a complete lying Leftist jerk
I think this is very possible. When you see someone being pummeled repeatedly at some point all you notice is the blood.
I’ve seen boxers hold back for the same reason. While their coaches scream at them to finish the guy off.
IMO, this was the kill-shot of the debate, and SlowJoe's campaign. It was delivered with a straight face, and with a tinge of humor. But it pulled back the curtain on Biden's cognitive decline for all to see; even those who willfully ignored it for years.
Bidens performance was based on what drug cocktail he was given. There was the hopped up version such as at his Phidelphia speech, the somewhat high version of Bidens last SOU, but at this debate we likely saw the unmedicated version of Biden, sleepy, befuddled and forgetful.
That's inaccurate. He adjusted to avoid the optics of bullying an obviously sick old man.
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” Trump said, almost with sympathy ... “I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
No other republican could ever have the stones to say something like that, never mind “You’d be in jail”.
I literally rolled out of my chair in laughter at that line. What a Boss.
Oh I believe it. I knew back then that Trump had to be careful and not be perceived as a grade school bully picking on the retard.
Luckily Trump let Biden be Biden. That’s all it took.
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