On Saturday, at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump sustained a bullet wound on his ear that came close enough to blowing off his head that, had he not moved at the last second, he might well not be with us as I write this.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden had to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas because he tested positive for COVID-19. He flew aboard Air Force One back to Delaware, where he will self-isolate until he is well.
Our thoughts and prayers are with both of these men for speedy recoveries.
We can all agree, however, that the two incidents are not analogous or comparable in seriousness in any way, shape or form.
Well, check that: We can almost all agree. Because MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Jen Psaki are still gainfully employed and allowed to share their opinions on air.
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In a segment from MSNBC’s Republican National Convention coverage on Wednesday that must be seen to be believed — and, really, isn’t terribly believable upon being seen — the two women, for the most part, agreed that the 78-year-old Trump getting shot in the ear and the 81-year-old Biden getting COVID are, for the most part, the same.
“Here’s the question that I have on that,” Reid said during the discussion, which happened during the 6 p.m. Eastern hour.
“These two men are both elderly. Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take a iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. Weird situation, we’ll figure that out one day.
“But his survival of that and bouncing right back and going right to his convention is being conveyed in the media world as a sign of strength.
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“This current president of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID. Should he be fine in a couple of days, doesn’t that convey exactly the same thing? That he’s strong enough — older than Trump — to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age?
“So, if he does fine out of it and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn’t that exactly the same?”
“It should,” said Psaki — Biden’s former White House press secretary, in case you’ve forgotten.
“I mean, it’s not exactly the same,” Reid said, in a moment of self-correction.
“It’s not the same incident. But it’s an elderly man coming through out of an illness.”
Reid whines that Trump surviving an assassination attempt is viewed “as a sign of strength.” She suggests Biden recovering from COVID should be celebrated the same way: “If he does fine…and is able to do rallies, isn’t that exactly the same?”
“It should,” Jen Psaki says. pic.twitter.com/P6CS47Q2PX— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 17, 2024
Not only that, but minutes prior, Reid had suggested Biden use the diagnosis to essentially accuse the former president — who was just almost killed — of killing people, essentially. Well, not exactly killing people, the same way as getting COVID and getting shot aren’t exactly the same. But who’s counting?
“It’s also a quite interesting opportunity for President Biden to also show being responsible,” she said.
“I assume he’s going to put a mask on when he gets inside Air Force One and not spread COVID around. But also to remind people of what hell we went through with COVID because of Donald Trump.
“Here is a great messaging opportunity for President Biden to bring out the tape and remind people of how many people died — a million people are no longer with us. People’s grandmas were dying alone with their iPad.
“A great opportunity and messaging opportunity should the White House choose to take it.”
Joy Reid praises Biden’s COVID diagnosis because it can be used politically. She claimed Trump killed millions of people:
“[Biden can] remind people of what hell we went through because of Donald Trump. Here’s a great messaging opportunity…remind people how many people died.” pic.twitter.com/VggS9VElLy— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 17, 2024
The White House should not choose to take it, I would proffer, because 1) more people died of COVID-19 under Biden than under Trump and 2) have you lost all contact with reality, woman?
On Saturday, we almost had a presidential candidate assassinated for the first time since Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. We did have the first current or former president shot since Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Thankfully, Trump is fine, although Reid seems more than happy to pump conspiracy theory innuendoes into her ramblings. (“Weird situation, we’ll figure that out one day.”) However, this is about as serious as it gets without actual death occurring to a candidate.
As of April, according to Worldometer, there were 111,820,082 recorded cases of COVID-19 in the United States. This is likely an undercount since people stopped reporting long ago. It’s Biden’s second bout with the disease.
When there is something in the ballpark of 111,820,082 attempted assassinations on American politicians — or, heck, I’ll even lop the last three digits off and give these witless flibbertigibbets a figure of 111,820 — then Joy Reid and Jen Psaki can say that the two situations are close to being the same, if not exactly the same.
If not, this is not the time for the unintentional comedy duo of Joy and Jen to fatuously equate a virus with an attempted assassination.
