Tag: mental health
Trump's Debate Debacle Is Shock Therapy For Distracted Voters

Trump's Debate Debacle Is Shock Therapy For Distracted Voters

As we tuned into the big debate, the Trump camp was peddling the claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's dogs and cats. When the debate turned to the subject of immigration, Donald Trump jumped on that hallucination without prompt.

"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs!" he howled. "The people who came, they're eating the cats!"

The split screen showed Harris initially laughing at the lunacy. Then her face screwed up with the concern of a psychiatric nurse.

There are no credible claims of dogs, cats or other pets being eaten by immigrants in Ohio. A debate moderator inserted that modest fact check. His source was Springfield's city manager, who would know.

Nurse Ratched is a character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the Ken Kesey novel made into a movie then a Netflix series. The head nurse in a mental institution, Nurse Ratched exerted authoritarian control over the patients, enforcing rules. Harris could have channeled that disciplinarian at the debate, herding Trump's outlandish statements into a padded cell with a strong hand.

Harris further tormented Trump by noting his references at rallies to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional psychiatrist and serial killer. Lecter was a cannibal who ate his human victims, never mind dogs.

She baited him into meltdown over the crowd size at his rallies. Of course, she was going to do that. And he responded with what shrinks might call "a dissociative episode," a means to cope with the overwhelming stress of hearing that some of his rallygoers left early.

Trump went on about the 75 million people who voted for him. Harris pointed out that 75 million is less than 81 million, the number who voted for Joe Biden.

"Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people," she said. "Clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that."

Harris used the words "tired" and "old," leaving out the word senile. Trump had repeatedly referred to Barack Obama as his 2024 opponent at a time that Biden was the presumed candidate. And he has confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi. We call these episodes memory lapses.

At a certain point, Harris had to say, "It's important to remind the former president, you're not running against Joe Biden. You're running against me."

Immediately after the debate, Harris called for another one. Serious commentators opined that if Trump went for round two with her, he'd have to prepare. This is something he's known not to do and for which he may lack the mental capacity. Staffers working for Trump at the White House say that when they tried to hand him simple one-page summaries, he wouldn't read them. Or couldn't.

In the reality-based world, a new report has inflation slowed to 2.5 percent in August — another reason the Federal Reserve is expected to soon lower interest rates. Violent crime is way down. The Southern border is now calm.

And dogs trot the streets of Springfield, Ohio, unthreatened by hungry migrants.

You can't "sane wash" this guy, as much as some Trump supporters, real or paid, may try. This debate treated Americans to an informal forensic psych eval of Donald Trump. Such assessments are used to determine an individual's competency to stand trial.

As for how therapists might manage Trump in the future, one might borrow from Ratched's "comforting" quote to an unruly patient: "The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine."

Donald Trump has administered a kind of political shock therapy to the part of the voting public that hasn't been watching closely. Lest he regain possession of the nuclear codes, intervention is called for, preferably at the polls.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Right-Wing Media Using Deceptive Video To Attack Biden's Age (Again)

Right-Wing Media Using Deceptive Video To Attack Biden's Age (Again)

Right-wing media figures were quick to use a video shared by an official Republican National Committee social media account in order to continue their attacks on President Biden over his age and accuse him of “experiencing a serious mental decline.”

  • An official RNC social media account shared a video purporting to show Biden “freeze” on stage while attending a fundraising event
    • RNC Research, a social media account of the RNC’s rapid response team, shared a video and claimed it showed Biden “freeze” on stage before being led away. The video was originally captured by The Hollywood Reporter’s Chris Gardner and shows Biden and former President Barack Obama waving and gesturing to a crowd during a fundraising event, with Gardner noting the pair offered “final waves to Peacock Theater crowd as Obama then grabs Biden’s hand to lead him offstage following 40-minute conversation with Jimmy Kimmel.” [Twitter/X, 6/16/24, 6/16/24]
    • The Daily Beast noted that the video features Biden and Obama “taking in the crowd’s cheers” and that the clip captured by Gardner and posted by the RNC did not include “most of the lead-up to the seemingly innocuous moment.” The publication further noted, “After they wave to the applauding crowd for nearly a minute, Obama reaches out and gently touches Biden on the arm before they walk off stage together.” White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates also pushed back on the RNC’s characterization of the video, claiming that Biden was rather “taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds.” [The Daily Beast, 6/16/24; Twitter/X, 6/16/24]

    • The RNC Research social media account has a history of promoting misleadingly presented or edited videos of Biden to push claims that he is in physical and mental decline and unfit to continue serving as president. Notably, within the last two weeks the RNC Research account has shared a misleadingly edited video of Biden during a D-Day memorial event, which they claimed showed him “pooping or sitting on an invisible chair,” as well as a separate video that was reportedly doctored to show Biden supposedly wandering off during a G7 meeting. [Media Matters, 6/6/24; The New Republic, 6/14/24]
  • Right-wing media outlets and social media figures quickly spread footage of Biden at the fundraiser and claimed that he “froze”
    • Less than four hours after RNC Research’s post, The New York Post published an article repeating the claim that Biden “appeared to freeze up” at the fundraiser. The Post’s article characterized the event as Biden staring at the crowd “until former President Barack Obama took his wrist and led him offstage.” [The New York Post, 6/16/24]
    • The Gateway Pundit claimed that Biden gave the “appearance of dementia” after “freezing up” at the fundraiser. The article noted that the video shows Biden “briefly applauding the audience” but the article claims he was “standing frozen until Obama grabs him by the wrist and leads him offstage.” [The Gateway Pundit, 6/16/24]
    • The Washington Examiner described Biden as standing “motionless” in the video before being “led offstage by Obama.” [The Washington Examiner, 6/16/24]
    • Infowars stated that Biden “awkwardly froze onstage.” The article used the video to declare Biden a “senile Democrat” and revive the Trump-coined “Sleepy Joe” moniker. [Infowars, 6/17/24; MSNBC, 4/16/24]
    • Conservative outlet PJ Media claimed the video shows “Obama stepping in as Joe Biden’s handler.” The article alleged, “It was lucky for Biden that his former boss was there to snap him out of his old man trance and lead him off stage.” [PJ Media, 6/17/24]
    • Right-wing social media account End Wokeness shared the video, stating that “Biden froze again” and claiming the president “had to get escorted out by Obama.” [Twitter/X, 6/16/24]
    • Conservative commentator Piers Morgan called the video “so embarrassing.” He added, “The Democrats can’t let this go on, surely?” [Twitter/X, 6/16/24]
    • Right-wing YouTuber Tim Pool used similar footage of the event and claimed, “There is more evidence that biden froze up on stage than there is that the hunter laptop is part of a russian disinformation scheme.” [Twitter/X, 6/17/24]
  • After the video gained traction, Fox News used it to claim Biden “froze in a geriatric trance” and has “dementia”
    • On America’s Newsroom, Fox News contributor Steve Hilton claimed that the White House is “forcing Democrats to lie” about Biden’s fitness for office after the video was circulated. He added that, “Every Democrat that now goes out there and says, ‘Oh, it's fine. He's great.’ They’re lying. They can see. We can all see. His wife is lying to protect him.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/17/24]
    • On Fox Business, Varney & Co. host Stuart Varney claimed that Biden “had to be rescued” by Obama, before adding that “the president’s mental and physical condition is topic one in politics.” Later in the episode, Newsweek Deputy Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon claimed that Obama had taken “a feeble President Biden by the hand by like some sort of son or grandson” before adding that the video is “terrible optics to a nation that is already asking itself who’s running things actually in this administration with somebody so old and apparently not in control completely of his faculties.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 6/17/24, 6/17/24]
    • On Fox & Friends, Fox host Jimmy Failla claimed that the video showed “a president with dementia.” He added, regarding Obama walking off stage with Biden, “You don't do that to another grown man unless you are trying to show him consideration because he is embarrassing himself.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/18/24]
    • Fox host Greg Gutfeld claimed that Biden “froze in a geriatric trance” at the fundraiser. He went on to repeat a racist attack against former President Obama by joking that “a nice Kenyan man was able to guide him off stage.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 6/17/24; USA Today, 10/13/21]
    • Fox host Sean Hannity claimed on his show that Biden “is experiencing a serious mental decline” and that the video showed that “Obama seemed so worried that Biden wouldn't be able to kind of make his way off the stage, Obama gently — he pulled Joe by the hand.” He also read a quote from Piers Morgan claiming that the video shows “the moment everyone realized the president’s not fit for office,” with Hannity adding, “We’ve known that for a long time.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/17/24]
    • On Special Report, Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy claimed that Biden is “not fit to run, like, a lemonade stand.” He added, “Someone needs to step in and say, ‘You know what, Joe, you’ve had a good run. We’re going to run someone else. You’re just not up for it.’” [Fox News, Special Report, 6/18/24]

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Does Trump Belong In Prison -- Or A Mental Institution?

Does Trump Belong In Prison -- Or A Mental Institution?

I remember when a politician who expressed an easily debunked, crackpot conspiracy theory would be through in public life. Indeed, it took a whole lot less than that.

Just 20 years ago, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean was more or less hounded out of the race after emitting what TV news producers deemed an inappropriately loud cheer at an Iowa campaign event.

Dubbed “The Scream,” the event was broadcast on network and cable TV a reported 653 times over the next four days. Late-night comic Jay Leno joked “the cows in Iowa are afraid of getting mad Dean disease,” and that was pretty much it for the Vermont governor’s campaign. (Reporters on the scene found nothing odd about it; TV monitors had greatly amplified the sound.)

But times have changed. Only last week, a presidential candidate accused a political rival of conspiring to have him murdered, and the general response was “So what else is new?”

Needless to say, that candidate was Donald Trump, who delivered a screed on his Truth Social network claiming that “Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.”

The Trump campaign followed up in a fundraising email with the all-caps headline: “BIDEN’S DOJ WAS AUTHORIZED TO SHOOT ME!” The message claimed Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out.”

Trump loyalists everywhere echoed the claim — and they will continue to do even after their hero was found guilty on all counts in his “hush money” case. The candidate’s willing propagandists on Fox News gave the story big play. Sean Hannity and the rest feigned shock and outrage. Never one to miss a chance to fly her own freak flag, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X (formerly Twitter) “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.”

In real life, of course, making public such delusional allegations could lead to a person being confined to a psychiatric hospital for their own protection. In Trump World, however, pretty much anything goes. Hardly anybody thinks the candidate himself actually believes half the crazy things he says — not for more than a few hours anyway, before he’s on to the next damned thing. The only constant is that everybody’s out to get him, the Universal Genius and the Greatest Man in the World.

You do have to wonder, however, about the deluded followers who send him money. Are they in their right minds?

Search warrants have boilerplate language about force

In reality, of course, the FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago for the thousands of pages of classified documents Trump had illegally taken from the White House, refused to return and repeatedly lied about having in his possession did everything possible to avoid encountering him.

They deliberately scheduled the action for a day when the great man was 1,000 miles away in New York, notified the Secret Service in advance and were escorted onto the property by Trump’s protectors. They carried a search warrant duly authorized by a federal magistrate. Everything was done scrupulously by the book.

The simple, easily verified fact is that all FBI search warrants, every single one, everywhere in the United States, include boilerplate language empowering agents to respond with force if physically attacked while doing their jobs.

The idea that the FBI and the Biden White House were scheming to execute Trump is simply preposterous. Indeed, it’s already old news. The candidate himself has already dropped the idea and moved on. Fox News quit talking about it after 24 hours.

Indeed, Trump attended a NASCAR event in Charlotte, North Carolina, last Sunday — an odd thing to do for a man claiming the president of the United States meant to have him whacked. There he reverently saluted the playing of “Amazing Grace” as if it were the national anthem. It’s tempting to wonder if he knows the difference.

Of course, if President Joe Biden did something so peculiar as to salute a hymn, we’d never hear the end of it. The great paradox of Biden as depicted by Trumpers is that he’s a doddering old man who can barely speak coherently.

“Why isn’t Joe Biden here speaking to you tonight?” Trump asked a crowd of Libertarians he addressed recently. “You know why? Why isn’t he? Because he can’t put two sentences together.”

In the next breath, Trump depicted his rival as the ruthless boss of the “Biden Crime Family” scheming to have him assassinated and masterminding “a toxic fusion of the Marxist left, the deep state, the military-industrial complex, the government security and surveillance services and their partners all merging together into a hideous perversion of the American system.”

Oh, and Biden, the feeble old-timer, is also a “fascist” who, if reelected, means to “put Christians in prison for 11 years for the crime of singing hymns.”

Why 11 years, I really can’t say.

Reprinted with permission from Chicago SunTimes.

Joe Biden

Yes, Biden Is Old -- But His Stamina And Mental Condition Are Good

Our octogenarian president traveled 8,000 miles to meet with India's premier, Narendra Modi, and to attend the G20 summit in New Delhi. He then flew another 2,000 miles to visit America's new pal, Vietnam — all over the course of just five days. That's a demanding trip, even for a younger person. After meeting for several hours with the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, Biden held a formal press conference. And he did fine.

Yes, his voice is weaker than it used to be, and his gait is stiff, but on the matter that currently has 62% of the public seriously worried — namely, whether he has the mental acuity to serve as president — his performance should be reassuring.

The public's perception of Biden's mental decline is out of all proportion to reality. A May NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that 69% of registered independent voters believe Biden's mental fitness is a real concern. A more recent CNN poll found that 73% are seriously concerned that his physical and mental health might not be adequate for another term. Even among Democrats, only 49% say he has the stamina and mental sharpness to serve another term. At dinner parties, people say the president has dementia.

To be clear, it would be better to have a younger president seeking reelection — and I would like to be four inches taller and gifted at the cello. But we got what we got, and part of being a grown-up is accepting reality.

There is no way to watch Biden's Hanoi press conference and not recognize that his brain is working fine. He responds to questions in appropriate fashion. His words are diplomatically chosen, and his thoughts follow in logical order.

Anyone who has ever had a friend or relative with dementia knows that this is nothing like what they sound like. They repeat themselves constantly without self-awareness. They don't distinguish between things that happened that morning and things that happened years ago. They get angry and tearful for no apparent reason. Dementia is a devastating disease and quite different from normal aging. In fact, while the percentage of people with dementia rises with age, only about 10% of those aged 70 and older suffer from it.

Now, have a look at Biden's press conference. He was asked about a Chinese official's accusation that Biden was "insincere" about the relationship with China, and also whether he thought Chinese President Xi Jinping was sincere in light of his recent move to "ban" Apple in China. Biden had trouble hearing the first part of the question (OK, that is his age showing), but then gave a careful answer.

He declined the implied invitation to get into a spitting match with Xi and emphasized that "we're not looking to hurt China ... We're all better off if China does well," adding that "if China does well by the international rules, it grows the (world's) economy." To underline that point, he noted that "It's not about isolating China. It's about making sure the rules of the road — everything from airspace and — and space and in the ocean is — the international rules of the road are ... abided by."

Without overt threats or intemperate words, Biden then noted that he is building and/or bolstering alliances with other Asian nations. "That's what this trip was all about: having India cooperate much more with the United States, be closer with the United States, Vietnam being closer with the United States. It's not about containing China; it's about having a stable base — a stable base in the Indo-Pacific."

I could have done without the too-clever-by-half tactic of calling only upon female journalists (a reprise of an Obama gimmick from 2014). And Biden's acknowledgement at the start that the five questioners had been chosen in advance was a mistake. He introduced the Q and A by saying, "And now, I will take your questions. Let me see. They told me — they gave me five people here," which made him seem directed by others instead of in charge. And he stumbled over their names all the same.

But in the course of his basically direct, non-meandering answers, he touted the new rail and shipping corridor just announced at the G20 that will link India to Europe; noted that the United States has the world's strongest economy; praised a past Republican senator for working with poorer nations to maintain forest land; and mentioned the amount of carbon the Amazon rainforest absorbs.

At one point he did sound like a geezer, quoting from a John Wayne movie, but that was one deviation from an otherwise workmanlike performance.

Biden's physical presentation — the slow and careful walk, the slightly pitched posture — suggests age more than his words. But, bottom line: He is perfectly capable of thinking on his feet. Too many Americans have come to believe that he is in sharp mental decline. When you see him in a Q and A, it's clear that he isn't, and people need to know that.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

Trending

World