Former President Donald Trump is desperately trying to get voters to believe his absurd claim that Vice President Kamala Harris and others who disagree with him are crazy, stupid or both.
The Republican presidential nominee, who is running against Harris, fails to acknowledge the possibility that voters could oppose him because of his harmful policies, incompetent presidency, efforts to overturn his 2020 reelection defeat, criminal convictions and charges, attacks on our democracy and freedoms and the hatred he spreads with bigoted comments.
But Harris and her fellow Democrats have turned Trump’s false claim of Harris’s mental unfitness against the 78-year-old former president, calling attention to his rambling and confusing speeches and media interviews, where he often makes nonsensical statements.
Trump’s bizarre behavior got even more bizarre than usual recently when he abruptly stopped taking questions at an event billed as a town hall in Oaks, Pa. after two people in the audience became ill. He then spent the next 39 minutes telling an aide to play nine songs and stood on stage swaying to the music, as if he were clumsily auditioning for the ABC TV show “Dancing with the Stars.”
The Harris campaign account tweeted a video of Trump’s strange behavior and said he “appears lost, confused and frozen on stage.” Harris tweeted “Hope he’s okay.”
In an adversarial interview Wednesday with Bret Baier on Trump-friendly Fox News, Harris called Trump “unfit” “unstable” and “dangerous.” Harris knew she would face hostile questioning on Fox but had the courage and confidence to appear. She has also accepted invitations to hold a second televised debate with Trump, but Trump has refused, following his poor performance in his first debate with the vice president.
Democrats have noted that Trump has lately turned down or canceled several high-profile interviews with news organizations that are not part of the right-wing media bubble, including the highly rated “60 Minutes” on CBS, as well as interviews with NBC and CNBC. Trump must realize he no longer has the mental ability to handle a tough interview.
Even Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.), has joined Democrats and Republicans like former Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois in criticizing Trump’s fitness to serve as president.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that McConnell said shortly after the 2020 election that Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist.”
McConnell made the comments in an oral history he recorded and made available to AP Assistant Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett, who has written a new book about McConnell. Yet ever the loyal Republican, McConnell supports Trump for reelection this year.
The latest example of Trump questioning the mental health and abilities of Harris and his other critics came Tuesday when he attacked the vice president at a rally in Atlanta.
“Any African American or Hispanic … that votes for Kamala, you gotta have your head examined,” Trump said.
Trump’s claim is consistent with his ridiculous assertion to the National Association of Black Journalists in July that “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.” If he really believes this, he ought to take his own advice and have his head examined.
And Trump can’t seem to grasp why many Hispanic voters are opposed to his plans to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants, including many who have been in our country for years and have U.S.-born children who are American citizens. Nor does he seem to understand that his denunciations of such immigrants as drug dealers, murderers, rapists and other criminals fail to endear him to most Hispanic voters.
Trump’s insults to Black and Hispanic voters who don’t support him echo his claim in September about Jews.
“Anybody who’s Jewish and loves being Jewish is a fool if they vote for a Democrat,” Trump said. “You should have your head examined.” If there is some strategy here to get the Jewish vote, I fail to see it.
Trump has similarly attacked both President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris.
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired and Kamala was born that way,” Trump said in September. Trump has also called Harris “crazy,” “nuts” and “dumb as a rock.”
During the Republican presidential primary campaign, Trump referred to his opponent Nikki Haley, who he appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as “birdbrain.” He has called other people he dislikes “lunatics” and “low-IQ individuals.”
Get the pattern? I could fill dozens of pages listing the baseless attacks and insults regarding mental health and intelligence that Trump has directed at people he opposes.
These attacks come on top of other hyperbolic insults and lies unrelated to mental fitness that Trump has hurled against whoever he dislikes — including journalists, judges and prosecutors in his legal cases, women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, people who have filed civil lawsuits against him and, of course, his political opponents.
Attacks Trump has made against those he opposes include calling some “communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” “the enemy of people,” “evil” and “traitors.” He has called for some to be imprisoned and even suggested that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now-retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, deserves the death penalty.
I’ve been involved in Democratic politics since I was a teenage volunteer on Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign. Years later I served as campaign manager for Vice President Al Gore when he ran for president in 2000.
I know political campaigns can be rough. But the wild charges, personal insults, blatant lies and threats Trump spews are not normal and raise alarming issues about his mental health.
Even Trump’s supporters should realize that putting him in charge of our country in his mentally diminished state is a risk we can’t afford to take.
Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of “Hacks: Inside the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.”