Trump's trial drama is salacious, but don't overlook Biden's blunders and bizarre stories
President Joe Biden owes a big thank you to Donald Trump. As one of my colleagues put it, the former president is the best thing Biden has going for him.
In the past week, Biden skated past glaring stumbles and negative headlines because much of the media was laser focused on what was happening in New York, as Trump’s criminal hush money trial related to porn star Stormy Daniels got underway.
Important? Yes. Trump is the likely Republican presidential nominee, so his legal troubles are more than just clickbait.
That, however, doesn’t mean journalists should ignore what’s going on with the current president.
Consider for a moment Biden’s blunders and whoppers in recent days.
Earth to Democrats: Biden presidency is a dumpster fire. How many warning signs do you need?
'Four more years. Pause.'
Perhaps the most personally embarrassing incident happened when Biden last week addressed a trade union conference. Voters are already rightly concerned about Biden’s age and mental fitness for another term. His slip-up in reading speech cues on the teleprompter underscores those fears.
“I see an economy that grows a lot in the bottom up where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have child care, paid leave and so much more, and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic growth,” Biden said.
“Imagine what we could do next. Four more years. Pause.”
It took him a second to figure out his error, and then he laughed a little, but it was extremely awkward.
Speaking of awkward, Biden also has repeated a bizarre story dealing with his uncle getting eaten by cannibals. That’s right.
Talking about his Uncle “Bosie,” Biden said the following: “He flew those single-engine planes as reconnaissance over war zones, and he got shot down in New Guinea. They never found the body because there used to be, there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea.”
The problem – in addition to being a weird story – is that it didn’t happen. It’s a lie, according to military records that show Biden’s uncle died in a plane crash over the ocean (no mention of cannibals).
Biden's age is a concern: Special counsel says Biden is 'elderly man with a poor memory.' And he's the Democrats' guy?
Stagflation worries, FAFSA failures are Biden's fault
Apart from his wild stories and gaffes, Biden and his administration have faced other bad news.
While Biden wants us to believe that his “Bidenomics” has cured the economy, reality is proving quite different.
Inflation remains stubbornly high, and now that is coinciding with slowing economic growth. The combination is raising fears of stagflation, which shook the U.S. economy in the 1970s.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is among those who say that's a possibility.
“I think there’s a chance that can happen again," Dimon told the Economic Club of New York. “I worry it looks more like the '70s than we’ve seen before.”
In fact, the financial news is so discouraging that the president has now dumped the term "Bidenomics," a word his own camp created less than a year ago to tout what they hoped would be a soaring economy as the nation drew near to Election Day. It's not so, Joe.
And then there was the news that Biden’s top guy overseeing college financial aid, Richard Cordray, is resigning after the mess the U.S. Education Department made in rolling out a new “simplified” Free Application for Federal Student Aid. FAFSA delays and other mishandling have frustrated families and college administrators.
FAFSA failure: Biden's so worried about 'canceling' debt he's ignored families who need to pay for college
The form is integral so colleges can make aid offers to families. Without it, students can’t make an informed decision about what they can afford.
Maybe Biden was too distracted by illegally “forgiving” student debt.
More voters see Biden as a failure than Trump
All this less than stellar news was capped off over the weekend with a new CNN poll showing Trump holding a six-point lead over Biden, 49% to 43%.
I think Biden and Democrats smugly believed that once voters realized a Biden-Trump rematch was actually happening, they’d move to Biden’s camp.
That doesn’t appear to be happening as we get closer to the election.
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More people – 55% – now say Trump’s presidency was a success. Compare that with a poll from January 2021 (post-Jan. 6) when 55% thought his presidency was a failure.
Biden’s numbers are worse, with 61% saying his presidency has been a failure. Only 39% say it’s been a success.
Trump certainly has his problems. But it seems Democrats haven’t properly taken into account just how terrible a candidate they have in Biden.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How bad is Biden doing? Even the president has given up on Bidenomics
