New York Times reporter Peter Baker claimed Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s age and capacity to answer questions was turning into a major issue in the presidential campaign.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will face off Tuesday evening in a presidential debate hosted by ABC News. Baker claimed that the former president’s answers on child-care costs were a sign of Trump’s age affecting his ability to answer questions.
“He is now the oldest person on stage, and he won’t have Joe Biden’s issues to distract from your point of view of his own,” Baker told “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Katty Kay after Scarborough mentioned Baker’s Monday article in the Times. “A lot of people said on June 27th he didn’t necessarily present very well, but because Biden had such a hard time, you know, formulating his thoughts and looked blank at times, it distracted from a critical examination of Trump’s capacity. Well, that’s not going to happen now, obviously, Kamala Harris is 59, he is 78. He will be the oldest president in history if he wins and serves out his term. We’ve seen through that child care answer and other statements in recent weeks and months that he can go off by bizarre tangents, hard-to-understand statements.”
Baker’s article described Trump’s answer to the child-care question during an event at the Economic Club of New York as “meandering” and “hard-to-follow.”
WATCH:
‘Bizarre Tangents’: NYT Reporter Tells ‘Morning Joe’ Hosts Trump’s Age Is Now Major Issue In Campaign pic.twitter.com/Gmav6ITWu3
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 10, 2024
Trump survived an assassination attempt during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The would-be assassin slightly wounded Trump, killed former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and seriously injured two other attendees.
Trump’s 92-minute acceptance speech at the Republican convention July 18 was the longest ever at a Republican convention. Two days later, Trump held a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he also spoke for an extended period of time.
“While Joe Biden was still in the race, he confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, he confused World War II with World War III, he kept thinking, he kept thinking that he had beaten Barack Obama. He kept thinking he was running against Barack Obama,” Scarborough said. “He was – and again, I’m not – I mean, when I’m 78 and I’m standing up on stage with that sort of pressure, perhaps I would do it, we would all do it. But he definitely was looking addled and I just wonder, are you getting any reporting that’s why they’re keeping him off the campaign trail?”
Axios reporter Alex Thompson said during a Monday CNN appearance that the unscripted debate could lead to a repeat of some of Harris’ “worst moments as vice president” that have come during interviews. Since President Joe Biden announced he was ending his reelection bid July 21, the only sit-down interview Harris has granted was a joint appearance with her running mate, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, with CNN host Dana Bash on Aug. 29.
“That’s a good question, right? He is different than Joe Biden in that he projects more energy and he projects more volume, and that covers some of the mangled verbiage and unfinished thoughts at times, although if you play the full answer to some of these questions like with the child care thing, it comes through,” Baker responded. “In journalism, there’s kind of structural thing where we look for the quote that seems to make sense and we write a story or put a clip on air and we don’t tend to play them at length the way we probably ought to more often, because when you do see that – and we’ll see it tonight perhaps – you understand he isn’t completing a sentence, he isn’t completing a thought, and however loud he may be, people are questioning his ability to answer the questions.”
Harris currently leads Trump by 1.1% in the RealClearPolling average of polls from Aug. 22 to Sept. 6. Her lead grows to 1.9% when Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver and independent candidate Cornel West are included in surveys.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Rumble/MSNBC)
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