OPINION | Let Trump Mock Biden’s Stutter: It Only Will Hurt Him in the End
It will serve to remind voters that a speech impediment is not "cognitive decline"
With fresh, post-State of the Union momentum behind President Biden and his own fortunes flagging, it should come as little surprise that Donald Trump decided over the weekend to mock Biden for his lifelong stutter during a rally in Georgia.
It's cruel, and abhorrent, of course.
But given that we can't expect any better from Trump, I say that the more that he attacks the president for his speech impediment, the better.
The more that Trump does so, the more that it only will boomerang on the Republican on Election Day.
Let me explain.
Biden’s stutter is old news: Voters were introduced to it during the 2020 campaign.
What Trump, his surrogates and right-wing media have succeeded at in recent years is conflating in the public’s mind that stutter — and a few unrelated gaffes — with some fictitious “cognitive decline.”
But the more that Trump mocks Biden’s stutter, the more that he reminds voters that it is a stutter — and not the “dementia” that the political right has been pretending it is.
Although Trump’s deplorable MAGA hordes will howl with laughter along with his cruelty, most Americans recoil at the idea of ridiculing a person for a disability.
So, by mocking Biden for his stutter, Trump will unintentionally generate empathy for Biden among the independent voters who will help decide this year’s elections.
And Trump only will serve to remind those same voters — at a time when Biden already hit a political home run with his State of the Union this year — that Biden’s speech impediment is not “cognitive decline,” and therefore entirely capable and qualified to be reelected to another four years as president.
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