Trump soon realized that his foreign bashing of Biden — not to mention his customary cosseting of dictator Kim Jong-un — was a political blunder, born of reptilian spontaneity. But since an apology was out of the question for a self-proclaimed übermensch who can do no wrong, he had to come up with something — and this, pathetically, was it:
I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong Un called him a “low IQ idiot,” and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer “low IQ individual.” Who could possibly be upset with that?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2019
North Korea's state-run media is more honest, in that unlike Trump, it's sticking by its original protest: "Biden has gone reckless and senseless, seized by ambition for power. [He had] reeled off rhetoric slandering the supreme leadership of the DPRK. What he uttered is just sophism of an imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being, let alone a politician." Concluded North Korea's commentary: "[Biden] is a fool of low IQ."
If only our "very smart" POTUS could be as pure of heart and consistently direct as Kim's editorialists.
And if only Trump's party and state-run media could be as honest and openly critical of the president as were two — count 'em, two — Republican congressmen. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois tweeted this to Trump: "It’s Memorial Day Weekend and you’re taking a shot at Biden while praising a dictator. This is just plain wrong." Added New York's occasionally independent Peter King: "Wrong for @POTUS Trump to criticize @JoeBiden in Japan and to agree with Kim Jong-un…. Never right to side with murderous dictator vs. fellow American."
As far as I know, the other 248 Republican congressfolk have been silent on Trump's utterly unAmerican partisan blather while in Japan.
Joe Biden's campaign, by the way, waited until Trump had returned to the White House before returning fire, which is the old-school, more genteel way of American politics. However with less gentility, his deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said, among other things, that Trump‘s partisan comments while overseas were "part of a pattern of embracing autocrats at the expense of our institutions — whether taking Putin’s word at face value in Helsinki or exchanging 'love letters' with Kim Jong Un."
True enough. Yet if Trump didn't embrace autocrats and take Putin’s word at face value and exchange love letters with Kim, he'd have no foreign policy agenda at all.
I'm wondering if dear leader of North Korea said that just to bait dear leader of the U.S.A.
Posted by: AnneJ | May 29, 2019 at 11:32 AM
"Idiot" no doubt is an overstatement, but the pushback against the charge as quoted here is fairly muted and indirect, probably because his academic record indicates that it's fair to say that Joe is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
The response from the Biden camp, and elsewhere, does not directly refute the charge, it is hard not to notice.
Posted by: Ed Doerr | May 30, 2019 at 08:59 AM