Jake Tapper has co-written a book about Joe Biden and how Biden was and is old. According to Tapper, Biden’s age was a huge secret AND everyone in the Biden White House went to extreme lengths to keep the American public in the dark about Biden’s age. If you think it’s extremely stupid to spend all of this energy on a man whose biggest crime was some verbal gaffes and a sore body, please join me in hoping that Jake Tapper goes straight to hell. Two big stories from Tapper’s book have come out this week, and both are offensively stupid. First up, Biden’s staff thought he might need a wheelchair:
Joe Biden’s close circle floated the idea of getting the ageing politician a wheelchair if he was re-elected as president, according to a bombshell new book.
Original Sin by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson said the 82-year-old’s aides were so concerned by his perceived decline that they started scrambling for ideas. His spine was in particular decline, Axios reported, citing the book, which will be released on May 20.
“Biden’s physical deterioration—most apparent in his halting walk—had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn’t do so until after the election,” one damning section of the book reads, per Axios.
Aides, however, conceded that it was politically untenable to have the U.S. president in a wheelchair.
What kind of ableism and ageism is this? Biden stumbled a few times and you could tell that he was feeling arthritic in his legs and feet. And? I feel arthritis in my legs and feet too, and I’m almost four decades younger than Biden. “It was politically untenable to have the U.S. president in a wheelchair.” Franklin D. Roosevelt would like a word, my god. If Biden’s physical condition was so poor, why has he been jogging, biking, strutting and walking unaided in the past year? These people really have no respect for their elders.
In addition to that messiness, Tapper also uncovered the root of George Clooney’s ratf–king NYT op-ed. Clooney went on and on about how Biden was clearly debilitated and out of it at a fundraiser last year. Well, Tapper’s book gets to the heart of it:
Apparently President Biden committed the mortal sin of saying “Thank you for being here” to George Clooney without saying his name.
Oh, the humanity!
Where are my smelling salts!
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ZgqCWt8RX7
— SayMay (@saymaysmith) May 13, 2025
You mean Clooney wrote that ghastly f–king op-ed because Biden didn’t greet him by name? And Clooney assumed that Biden didn’t recognize him? I genuinely feel like this Tapper book is entirely about a political feint from all of the Biden/Harris ratf–kers – they know they’re to blame for what happened last year, so they’re still insisting that no, they were right, Biden was half-dead, Biden was out of it, we swear! You might believe that it’s a waste of time relitigating all of this, but if Jake F—king Tapper is going to do books about it, then yeah, we’re going to litigate the sh-t out of it. Tapper and Clooney are not profiles in courage – they undermined the sitting president for no other reason than boredom, ageism and ableism. And they’re both too arrogant to change course, and too cowardly to direct any of this anger at the fascist lunatic they enabled, who is sitting in the White House right now!!
Biden while President vs Biden two days ago
There is nothing wrong with this man
Let's pray that this Tapper/Thompson book is going to be a flop 🙏 pic.twitter.com/xXsFTXTBB6— Sibylle (@AHaschi) May 13, 2025
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- Washington, DC – Donald Trump officially begins his second term as the 47th president of the United States, marking his return to the White House after a four-year hiatus. Pictured: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris BACKGRID USA 20 JANUARY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Former President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden attend the “Othello” opening night at the Barrymore Theater in Midtown in New York City. Pictured: Joe Biden, Jill Biden BACKGRID USA 23 MARCH 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: T.JACKSON / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – The highly anticipated Broadway debut of ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ took center stage at the Winter Garden Theatre. Pictured: George Clooney BACKGRID USA 3 APRIL 2025 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- United States President Joe Biden participates in a hurricane briefing in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, DC Featuring: Joe Biden Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 09 Oct 2024 Credit: Ron Sachs/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- United States President Joe Biden is seen in the Oval Office, as he meets with Robert Golob, Prime Minister of Slovenia in the White House Featuring: Joe Biden Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 22 Oct 2024 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- United States President Joe Biden presents actor, producer, and director Denzel Washington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Saturday January 4, 2025. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors Featuring: Joe Biden, Denzel Washington Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 04 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 9: Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attend state funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter at the National Cathedral on January 9, 2025 in Washington, D.C Featuring: Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Jill Biden, Laura Bush Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 09 Jan 2025 Credit: POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- Cast of New York Broadway show ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ during Curtain Call Featuring: George Clooney Where: New York, New York, United States When: 03 Apr 2025 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
As always, Kaiser’s photo choices are aces.
I’ve always thought George was so handsome but I have no problem with posting ONLY those ghastly “Good Night and Good Luck” photos of him from here on out. You reap what you sow George!
And what does he have to show for it? His wife could be barred from the country!!
Trump falls asleep at a Saudi Arabian summit. God, I hate the double standards of American journalists. Who’s the audience for this book? Democrats should stay away, and republicans would never buy a book that wasn’t about their Lord and Savior, His Holiness Trump.
I hope it sells 5 copies, exclusively to family. Read the effing room, Tapper. You suck.
Oh, Republicans will lap it up, because it’s coming from the Democrat side and to them it will be like their conspiracy theories all turned out to be true.
Although if the worst this book has to offer on Biden is that he didn’t recognize Clooney’s medically altered face, then there won’t be much to talk about.
I don’t recognise Clooney either. What has he done to his face?
THIS^^^ LOL
When I first heard about the horror story they were inventing about the possibility he might at some point require a wheelchair, I was pretty gobsmacked that they were actually memory holing the greatest president of the 20th century—who was elected four times!
This book is nothing but warmed over gossip and shouldn’t be taken seriously by supposedly serious people. From what I have seen, most of these impeccable “sources” are completely anonymous which means a lot of political people are free to settle all kinds of scores with no consequences. Hard pass.
My personal take on what happened when Biden was less than sharp in the past couple of years is that the stress of his son’s legal harassment by Republicans combined with the return of his stutter problem sometimes looked like “cognitive decline”. There is currently no evidence that Joe Biden is in cognitive decline. Donald Trump, otoh. The media might want to look into the current president’s physical and mental well being.
The book glosses it, but the direct attacks on Hunter were having an impact on Biden, which of course it would as that is his only living son. Joe actually loves his children unlike that orange monster.
And take a look at the debate and where Biden stumbles is when orange monster starts to directly attack Hunter. Something that a moderator should have shut down especially when the grift of that crime family exponentially broke more laws compared to Hunter Biden. Biden manages to pick it back up by the end of that debate anyway.
Should joe have decided not to run earlier on? Yes. But at the end of the day, Americans had a choice between Kamala, an intelligent competent woman, and the most corrupt American in history and a majority still picked that bastard.
Tapper wants to blame Joe Biden, but at the end of the day it is the American voters who need to eat this horror. You were given a choice and the monster was chosen.
Other countries can run elections in about a month and no one bitches about months of primaries. And those countries aren’t being told that due process is now optional.
What you said. I am over it. If a bunch of media and George Clooney want to use this book as proof of F all of us and Biden over have at it. I saw tons of people heaping scorn on this book. JFC.
Jake Tapper has a career because he lucked up and got a scoop on the Monica Lewinsky story, and parlayed that into people thinking he was this serious and knowledgeable political commentator. Otherwise he’s still be writing for that small local that he started out with in DC. He’s always had bad takes one step above gossip. The problem is too many people over the past decade or so have bought into the memefication of news reporting and are looking for gossip and clap backs. So people like him thrive.
Imagine having the egos of Tapper & Clooney? I’ll never forget how Joe Biden came out of retirement and grieving for his son Beau to save us from that depraved man. I will miss his forever.
So perfectly said. How dare they continue to smear this man who sacrificed so much for this country. It makes me rage.
Thank you for saying this.
Yes, I could not have said it better myself. I hate how this country has such a short-term memory and forgets how he saved us from the ravages of COVID caused in large part by the ineptitude of the felon, and then turned this country into the envy of the world economically. And the strides we made in diversity, too! I hate that the American people are so shortsighted–not to mention misogynistic and racist–and demanded so much perfection from him while letting the incompetent and corrupt felon coast. Ugh Ugh Ugh
Wake me up when they start going in on the current president. And for the record, I’m living for all the photos of Clooney with people saying yeah I wouldn’t recognize him either.
Seriously. Jesus christ these people.
I await the day a tell-all is written about Clooney.
Clooney has not only aged but also had Ozempic Face and a horrible dye job. Trump has dementia and is too feeble to stand, but let’s keep ignoring that, media.
Yes, where is the daily outrage about 47?
Do I think Pres Biden should have stuck to his “one term and pass the torch” promise? Yes
Do I think he and his team should have positioned VP Harris as VP as a strong visible leader and good option for 2024 right out of the gate in 2021? Yes
Do I think Clooney is an ass for that Op-Ed? Absolutely Yes! No one asked you George, F off back to Italy
Do I think Tapper and the rest of the press should have been doing a deep dive into the possible impairment and unfit for office state of an 80 year old party leader, presidential candidate? Yes! The press should absolute have done that, got the facts on Biden .whatever they were .. but also Trump! Where is all this “investigation” and “expose” and drag them through the streets energy when it comes to Trump’s lunacy, confusion and HIS enablers lying to the American public???
I’m waiting …. been waiting since 2015 actually. And instead the press has tried to normalize Trump’s incoherence, inability to hold a train of thought, chaotic nonsensical policy ‘positions’ .
Tapper can go suck on a lemon and see himself out.
Yes, this. I’m not saying Biden was in the right for not remaining firm on his One Term stance, but the way they disrespected and harassed this (effective and successful) POTUS enraged me nonetheless.
I can’t even watch the news any more.
Actually, Biden never promised to only serve one term. He’s too smart a politician to lame duck himself before he even got elected. But he called himself a transitional leader. So, yes, his team should have put VP Harris much more front and center from the beginning. But there are people around him who never wanted her to be VP in the first place. From what I have read, there is still residual sniping at MVP in this book from Biden people. My hot take is that Biden loves her and she loves him, but some of his staff have undermined her from the beginning, apparently afraid that if she was allowed to shine, she would outshine him. It’s sad all around. And it all contributed to where we ended up. Doesn’t change the fact that Tapper and Thompson are a couple of a-holes.
I totally agree. He should have promoted Harris and frankly, other younger Democrats as well, much more heavily. I thought Buttigieg was actually pretty decent at that in his cabinet role, making announcements and getting out to the media fairly regularly. There should have been a real push of young Democrat surrogates talking up how progressive and wonderful the Biden administration was and then 2024 perhaps should have been an open primary on a normal timeline with Harris and other younger Dems fighting it out. But, the media would have had to cooperate with that and maybe they didn’t? And all that said, I still think Biden was a great president and I would have been happy to vote for him in 2024.
I also think in retrospect they underestimated Trump’s hold on his base, maybe assumed DeSantis would be a stronger opponent and Trump would have to fight for the nomination more.
At the end of the day Biden still stepped down so Kamala was the candidate and yet the monster ranting about eating cats and dogs was still chosen.
No candidate in another country would have survived the idiotic debate where orange monster failed against Kamala.
The media always expects democrats to run a perfect campaign but the orange blob gets away with everything. That needs to be examined especially when the Fox News propaganda is spread across the country.
Tom Nicholls has said that Americans aren’t a serious people and that was proven in November 2024. That’s the book that needs to be written. Rehashing what Biden did doesn’t even matter because there is no Dem presidential incumbent this time around.
Many nonpartisan analysts have rated KDH’s debate performance as the best of the modern era. Notice Trump would not do another one while claiming he actually won the one where she dragged his bloated carcass all over the stage for ninety minutes. There was supposed to be another one two weeks before the election. As close as the vote ended up being, another face plant by Trump that close to election day and during early voting could have made a difference. Harris tried to shame him into doing it and the media should have helped to shame him. He was so chicken 💩 not to do it. Of course, the media was chicken 💩 to let him get away with blowing off the debate and the 60 Minutes interview. I will die mad about all of this.
He never said he was doing one term! That was a lie by the freaking Politico press in February of 2021! I wish everyone would stop saying this. He flat out said that’s not true and his press refuted that whole lie. It was in February 2021 they started attacking Kamala Harris.
I maintain that the reason that the people behind Biden and Harris didn’t have those two out doing cute little things like the Obamas date nights or going to Ray’s the Steaks or getting ice cream from that place I can’t remember the name of is because Trump and the GOP set so many fires that Biden and Harris spent four years putting them out. And worse they commit the Democratic sin of not talking about what they had to do. And WORSE not finding a clever legal way to deal with an entire party that has gone treasonous, and I mean that both in the casual conversation sense and also in the “giving aid and comfort to our enemies.” Merrick Garland is going to burn in hell for that but this was a GD five alarm fire and the Biden administration wanted to rest and rely on “norms,” even with a caldera full of evidence that the GOP had long since left any loyalty to country miles back.
And now we have a fascist dictatorship.
Clooney looks like Frankenstein’s monster. All he needs is a bolt sticking out of his neck.
Or Lurch from Munsters? Addams Family?
Corpse Bride.
… and still smug.
Re: A President using a wheelchair. It’s my understanding that it was kept a secret that FDR used one. I wish I had thought to ask my grandparents before they passed if this really was a secret or if “everyone knew and just didn’t talk about it” (A hallmark of that generation and their children’s generation).
The press at the time actively covered up the president using a wheelchair. How times have changed! But I think most of the public knew anyway. Certainly they knew by 1944 when he was last elected.
See, I don’t think it’s ageism to suggest that an 82 year old man might be too old to be responsible for the potential fate of the world! That presidential debate was a catastrophe.
There is a retirement age for a reason, and cognitive capacities can decline drastically after a certain age- older people have tired bodies and minds.
Biden was too old, Trump is too old, and I think there should be an age limit for presidential candidates.
It’s just too important.
This. Plus….even on his best days, Joe Biden was no FDR. FDR was tired by 1945, but he was only 63 when he died. I’m not saying he was sharper or healthier, but I’m saying his decline could be hidden a little easier. When Joe walked out at that debate he was done.
I agree. I also believe there were times of day when Biden was more sharp and aware – I think he had elements of Sun downing that culminated during the debate, but also explained how he could come out 3 days later and rattle off policy and world events without a blink — no matter how much we love him, do you want that person answering the phone at 0300 in an emergency?
I think this is an accurate take, @Wendy. As I said before, Biden suffered from some of the same “I alone can fix this” hubris as Trump does. He should have kept to his 1 term pledge and worked to elevate Harris if he felt she was up to the job.
It doesn’t even have to be dementia-related sundowning (which Biden doesn’t really meet the criteria for). Let’s not forget that Biden also had “a bad cold” that hit the day before the debate that persisted for weeks, which was later diagnosed as the newer strain of COVID (which rapid tests weren’t calibrated for yet, producing lots of false negatives, even in weeks-long infections). Biden was hit hard by COVID infection the previous time he had it, and even had a rebound case a week after receiving antivirals.
And one of the worst early symptoms of COVID in the elderly is brain fog. It’s intense in the early infection/symptom period, then becomes intermittent the longer the infection lasts.
So COVID brain fog plus prescription cold medicine plus exhaustion would explain him being in rough shape at the debate. Of course he’d do better when he was well-rested.
Which is not to minimize anything. If your world leader can be that seriously impaired by a common virus or even exhaustion, you’re in trouble.
Yeah, I’d take that trouble over Trump’s hate and incompetence aggravated by clear signs of dementia. But I’m still pissed that we didn’t give younger, qualified leaders like Kamala and Tim the time and support they needed to wage a full campaign.
So you are cool with abelism. I am going to say right here, why this whole thing got everyone’s back up and a ton of seniors by the way is that if you are 70 plus you need to go into a field and die.
But he wasn’t able anymore. Wendy put it really well – he was having periods in which he was obviously pretty far off his game. If we had a functioning media and the GOP wasn’t fully traitorous, that would have been handled better, because Biden still functioned better than Trump. It’s not ableism if a person cannot perform the job.
That in fact, Walking the Walk, was the same message during the height of the pandemic: Able people would mostly be fine, so why mask? (Of course, lots of able people died, but that didn’t fit the narrative.) Why close schools and businesses? If older and chronically ill people die, well, that’s just nature taking course.
On his worst day, Biden was miles better — smarter, kinder, sharper, more compassionate — than the monstrous Trump.
White men doing white men things….no awareness beyond their white masculinity (power). Their need to always be seen as smart and in control of how people should behave never fails. Jake Tapper and George Clooney want to be known as saviors of the free world for what they did to Biden and by extension Harris. Well we got Trump; so go figure, who is free under Trump? A certain demographic right 🤔.
Jake seems to be enjoying the view from on top of the mountain. His career has been boosted by his Biden ‘revelations’. I’ll see where he lands by the end of this decade.
To Whom it may Concern: Watch your back around George Clooney.
The one person who knows him best is Jill, who strongly believes he could have won and was mentally intact.
I agree he is mentally intact. But his job approval was only 37% on election day. He wouldn’t win with those numbers. Kamala outperformed him by 11% and saved Dems from a massive blowout.
Kamala got smoked in areas that the Biden/Harris ticket won in 2020. Can we not all lie about how well Kamala did. Also presidential approval numbers do not equal you are winning the presidency. His approval numbers kept dropping via people who were reading the constant attacks on Biden and Harris for months. I want everyone to recall one of the highest Google Searches on Election Day was why is Biden not running for President.
NYT ran a well-researched article soon after the election that talked about his inner circle overprotecting Biden from bad news. That article discussed that, although there was a lot of noise about Biden‘s mental capacity at the time, the real reason that they finally convinced him to step away from the election was that there was no (even internal) polling data that showed a path to a win. Of course, all of the noise about his mental capacity could be the reason that his polling numbers were down, but will never know for sure.
For some reason, that part gets no media play, and I think it’s the critical point. He stepped down, even though he felt he was mentally sound, because there was no way for him to win, according to his own internal polls.
I would sleep much better at night, if Joe Biden was still in the WH! Even if he was in a wheelchair, falling down and asleep.
This, a thousand times, this.
We should have age limits for all members of government.
Was Biden too old? Yes. Should he have passed the torch sooner? Yes. But no one needs a book about it. We lived thru it and we got Trump because of it. I don’t need a fucking book to remind me.
“Might need a wheelchair” at some unknown point in the next 4 years.
He’s not using one now and seems to be getting around just fine. The ageism and ableism in Tapper is reprehensible. Needing a wheelchair has no bearing on one’s ability to think. For God’s sake, Jayson Tatum at 27 has one of the most incredibly fit bodies on planet earth and he’s using a wheelchair right now.
Tapper is rightly being shredded on X for his ableism and failure to address the mess currently presiding in the White House.
What was the point of this book by Tapper (other than trying to rake in some cash).
There are so many more pressing issues we are dealing with right now as a country than rehashing this old trope about Biden’s fitness for office.
AND, I have to say in relation to the monster we do have in office Biden, in any capacity, would have been a significantly better choice.
Exactly. And people here are using the same terrible comments. There’s a reason why the disability community is up in arms on this terrible book. Don’t forget they attacked his stutter too.
A group of scientists analyzed years of speeches and interviews by Biden and Trump leading up to the election and there were zero signs of cognitive decline in Biden and many in Trump. This was pre debate because that obviously would be a point against Biden. Biden had more signs of physical aging. The podcast Shrinking Trump discusses the study in depth. I can believe his mobility was worse than we knew but mentally was there really evidence of a big decline that a group of data scientists missed or is this all a way to cya for people in the White House to hopefully get jobs with other Dems?
Oh please, there is room for nuance!
There are certain professions and jobs where a ful physical mental ability is essential. I wouldn’t trust an 82 year old surgeon, I wouldn’t trust an 80+ driver, because faculties decline with age.
You’re talking about the presidency!
Clooney is a spoiled little manchild.
Being a Dem my self, I can’t help but have the sinking feeling that Democrats are the worst – so ready to eat our own, and for what? So we can lose elections and give fascists more power in Washington? F*** these people.
Jake Tapper can go eat a bag of dicks
Agreed.
totally agree.
There are words I’d really like to call Jake Tapper, but I won’t say here. All I will say is this country is unbelievably ageist and ableist. So what he’s old. Back in the day, they used to call it Institutional Memory. It meant that you had been in DC so long you knew how everything worked. That’s a good thing. Why do you think Obama chose him as VP? I will never forgive the DNC for what they did to Joe Biden and lightweights like David Hogg need to be shown the door.
Hmm. Disagree on many parts. We certainly need institutional memory, but the President needs to be mentally agile enough to respond. Again, since I don’t expect you to have read all most posts on this thread, I think Biden was slipping in a few ways. I still think Tapper and Clooney are part of the machine that enjoys eating their own. I think Trump is was and always will be far worse than Biden and that the media not focusing on that was a travesty.
But the Democratic Party increasingly acts like controlled opposition and I’m glad Biden have the grace to step out, and I think the DNC exists for its own purposes and those purposes frequently do not include winning or being effective. There are miles between the DNC’s flighty ineffectiveness and intraparty ruthlessness (having AOC as a head would have been effective and visible instead of a very kind man who had stage 4 cancer and has already had to step down; instead they torpedoed her) and the villainous treachery of the GOP.
The more and more I think back to this election, the more I’m not convinced that any Democrat could have won, whether Biden, Harris, or another candidate, even if Biden had stepped aside earlier in the race.
I think there was a ground swell of people who were unhappy with inflation and the way the economy was going. I heard so many business colleagues say that they were unsure of who to vote for when I know they ended up voting for Trump because if their business interests. And then there are the incels who are following Joe Rogan, and the Maga people. There is a lot more support for Donald Trump out there than was visible before the election, or at least there are people who didn’t like what the Democrats were doing that were not being captured by any of the polls. Do you remember that, even as of the day before the election, there was polling coming out suggesting that Kamala was going to win in a landslide.
The polling issue is a real problem for the next election that the Democrats are gonna have to figure out very very quickly.
The media was so laser focused on running bullshit narratives on the democratic ticket that Biden/Harris stood no chance.
Trump was the financially lucrative candidate for the establishment (Lobbyists – Wall Street, media, unions) that controls the narrative for the elections. The lobbyists didn’t like the policies the democratic ticket was running on – more regulations, more taxes on the wealthy, lowering drug costs – so they helped push the narrative that both Biden (old man) and Harris (non-white woman) were incompetent. The Trump team then pushed the culture wars to rile up the dissidents’ emotions against ‘liberal woke democrats’.