Instead of having to defend himself from a tsunami of attack ads about his diminishing mental capacity, Biden could bombard the airwaves with a set of arguments that could answer Trump’s lies while reminding voters that the reason they elected him in 2020 was they knew that America can only stay great if it is led by a unifier, not an avenger.
One ad could begin with one of Trump’s most outrageous lies trotted out in the debate last Thursday, about how the American economy has been a disaster since Biden entered the White House. To which Biden could say:
You know, Donald, I read that you have to pay $88.3 million in damages for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. I just did some back-of-the-envelope calculations: If you would have put $88.3 million in an S&P index fund the day I was inaugurated, it would be up roughly 40 percent right now. That’s about 35 million bucks, Donald. Some disaster! Think of the legal bills you could pay!
Another ad could quote Trump’s remarks about how he could work with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in ways Biden never could. To which Biden could say:
Donald, do you know why, if Putin could vote in our election, he’d vote for you? It’s because he knows one thing about you: that you could never organize the kind of alliance that I put together to push him out of Ukraine and contain China. You’d just throw those alliances away because you can only envisage transactional relationships. A lasting alliance, Donald, like a lasting marriage, is not a transactional relationship. It’s cemented by shared values. You treat our allies as if they are all shoe stores in some Trump Tower lobby who are just not paying enough rent. Well, not only have you lied about how much our allies have contributed to Ukraine — massive amounts — you also have no clue about how much they amplify American power and values.
These kinds of rebuttals of Trump would be the best parting gift Biden could give to his party and to all Americans.
Gautam Mukunda, a presidential scholar and the author of “Picking Presidents,” pointed out to me the other day that “in 1783, when George Washington announced that he would surrender his commission, King George III of England — the man whose empire he destroyed — said that if he did this ‘he would be the greatest man in the world.’ Fourteen years later Washington did it again, leaving the presidency willingly when he could easily have made himself president for life. The father of our country sealed his greatness by showing that sometimes the best thing a president can do for his country is give up the presidency. Today, in the face of the worst threat to our democracy since the Civil War, Joe Biden can cement his legacy by following Washington’s example.”
Biden, besides being a good man, has been a truly consequential president. He deserves to be remembered as the leader who saved the country from Trump in 2020, lifted us from the dark days of the Covid pandemic, passed critical legislation to rebuild America’s infrastructure, renewed the dignity of work, promoted the transition to a green economy — and, in the end, knew when and how to say goodbye.
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