Well, after Monday, we know at least this much separates Donald Trump from Kamala Harris: He doesn’t have problems sitting down for an interview, and you don’t have to ask where he stands without him consulting a teleprompter for an answer.
During a wide-ranging two-hour-plus discussion on Monday night with X impresario Elon Musk on the social media network’s “Spaces” audio streaming platform, the Republican standard-bearer said that Harris was “incompetent” and a “third-rate phony candidate.”
And don’t think his erstwhile opponent was spared from his wrath, either: Trump said that President Joe Biden has always had a “very low I.Q.” and now “might not even have an I.Q. at all.”
BREAKING THE INTERNET! @realDonaldTrump 🤝 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/26YgA5vwJO
— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) August 13, 2024
According to Reuters, at least 1.3 million users listened into the chat, which was delayed by a reportedly massive distributed denial of service attack.
We tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier today https://t.co/ymqGBFEJX0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
When it finally did get started, as the New York Post noted, Trump came out swinging regarding both Biden and Harris.
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On Biden: “This president [has] a low I.Q., very low I.Q.”
“He had a low IQ 30 years ago, by the way, but now he might not even have a IQ at all,” he added.
The remarks came during a section regarding Biden’s actions with Russia and Ukraine.
NEW: Donald Trump says President Joe Biden’s IQ is so low that he may not even have an IQ.
“This president [has] a low IQ, very low IQ. He had a low IQ 30 years ago, by the way.”
“But now he might not even have an IQ at all. There’s nothing on the board that goes this… pic.twitter.com/SPHIDRdbhi
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 13, 2024
At another point in the talk, Trump said that Biden was “close to vegetable state.”
“I looked at him today on the beach, and I said, Why would anybody allow him? The guy could barely walk. Why would anybody allow him — does he have a political adviser that thinks this looks good?” Trump said.
🚨🇺🇸TRUMP: BIDEN CAN’T LIFT A CHAIR… AND IT WEIGHS, WHAT—3 OUNCES
“I looked at him {Biden} today on the beach, and I said, why would anybody allow him?
The guy could barely walk.
Why would anybody allow him? Does he have a political advisor that thinks this looks good?
He… https://t.co/03z2X69lJ7 pic.twitter.com/vBlkFKaDNZ
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 13, 2024
“And it’s, it’s ridiculous, I mean, and he’s been doing that for a long time, you know, you can’t lift the chair. The chair weighs about three ounces. It’s meant for children and old people to lift, and he can’t lift it. The whole thing is crazy,” Trump said, referencing a viral video involving the nominal leader of the free world struggling with a beach chair.
Shirtless Joe has spent over a 1/3 of his time in office on vaca, but still has a lifeless pallor about him. Let’s hope he has a 90 sunscreen.
He bumbles around & makes it to the chair & plops down.
The 🌎 is watching.
Wish we could afford the beach.
pic.twitter.com/0JbA8cXfQw— 🌴♥️🇺🇸Dixie ♥️s America & Trump🇺🇸♥️🌴 (@DixiDarlen) July 8, 2023
As for Harris, Trump hit her repeatedly on the border, particularly her refusal to call herself “border czar” despite being tasked with something approximating it by the Biden administration.
During one part of the interview, he claimed Central and South American countries were emptying their prisons and allowing people to go to the southern border, where — thanks to the porous nature of it under the Biden administration — they could cross easily.
“They’re doing it right now, while this third-rate phony candidate — don’t forget, I beat Biden,” he said. “He failed in the debate miserably. And, you know, some people said, ‘Oh geez, too bad.’”
“We cannot have” Harris, he added: “She’s incompetent … She hasn’t done an interview since his whole scam started.”
As for those in the media who might say that Kamala was just charged with sorting out the “root causes” of illegal immigration?
“She was the border czar, and people can’t allow them to get away with their disinformation campaign,” Trump told Musk.
“Now she’s trying to say that she wasn’t, she wasn’t really involved, and the whole thing is horrible,” he added. “She was totally in charge.”
Indeed, during the news conference in which Harris was given the portfolio, Biden said his veep was tasked with the effort to “lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept the returnees” from the border and “enhance migration enforcement at their borders.”
Now, as Trump noted, she’s acting as if she’s going to get her act together at the border.
“She tries to pretend she’s going to do something … she’s had three and a half years,” he said.
The full interview is here, for those interested:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024
While the media might focus on the alleged DDOS attack or other aspects of the Trump performance, this is hopefully what voters will remember and the Republicans will hammer home until Election Day: Biden is a veritable vegetable, Kamala is better mentally only by default and is no better on policy, and they’re covering up the fact that the latter knew about the former’s decline.
This may have been a three-hour Spaces interview and one that’s well worth listening to in full. However, that’s the distilled message that conservatives need to keep on hammering home until November.
Americans will listen if they’re exposed to it — because they’ve lived through this administration and know exactly how incompetent it is.
