Biden's best debate strategy: Don't explain. Don't excuse. Attack, attack, attack.
Trump has told so many lies about migrants and crime and everything else that his base voters are immune to argument at this point, and of course, so is Trump.
So, what should Biden do?
He should talk about the dozens and dozens of American citizens who lost their lives to mass shootings while Donald Trump was in the White House, refusing for his four years in office to do anything meaningful against gun violence. He didn’t do anything about crimes by migrants during the same period, but that’s another argument Biden shouldn’t make. Instead, he should list deaths by mass shootings, most of which were done by shooters using AR-15 style rifles that Trump nixed putting any sort of controls on.
For starters, here is my partial list the White House is free to use of the mass murders by firearms that took place after Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017:
Oct. 1, 2017: May as well get things started with the largest mass shooting in American history. A 64-year-old gunman, using multiple AR-15 style rifles, most of them equipped with the kind of bump-stocks that Trump’s Supreme Court just legalized, killed 64 people and wounded more than 400 at a music festival. Nov. 5, 2017: A 26-year-old man using an AR-15 style rifle killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. It remains the deadliest mass killing in Texas history.
May 18, 2018: A 17-year-old student at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, killed ten students and two teachers with a handgun and shotgun using ammunition he had bought online without showing proof of age. Thirteen others were wounded.
Feb. 14, 2018: A nineteen-year-old shooter using an AR-15 and multiple large-capacity magazines killed 17 people and wounded 17 more at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Oct. 27, 2018: A 46-year-old self-described antisemite and racist walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and killed 11 people in the congregation, including two Holocaust survivors. He wounded six more.
This is an excerpt from my weekly column in Salon. For the rest of the column, go here:
At the debate, I would love to see Biden look Trump in the eye and simply state, “You, sir, are a convicted felon, a habitual liar, a rapist, and a grifter who— while claiming to be a billionaire — constantly begs your supporters for money that many of them cannot afford to give you. In short, you, sir, are a disgrace.”
I think Biden should remind people that the “successful” businessman Trump had filed several bankruptcies thereby screwing working class tradespeople who he owed money to. Also document and remind voters that Biden’s first term was good for all Americans INCLUDING Trump supporters. And don’t get me started on Trump’s disparaging remarks about veteran’s being “suckers” and “losers”.