Search

Trump’s Deranged Theory That Democrats Would Replace Biden Might Have Helped Him Lose 2020 - Vanity Fair

https://ift.tt/2VWImBB

In early 2020, a frustrated and furious Donald Trump described Joe Biden as “a mental retard” while struggling to cope with his own placement in early polls, according to a passage from “Frankly, We Did Win This Election”: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, a forthcoming book by senior Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender. The author notes that Trump vented his anger at the time by interrupting “a policy meeting in the Oval Office to ask, ‘How am I losing in the polls to a mental retard?’” 

In another moment Bender writes that Trump held back on focusing his firepower on Biden during the primary stage of the election because he was convinced that the Democratic Party was scheming to switch out now president Biden for a different candidate—such as Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama—over the summer. The source of this conspiracy theory, per Bender, was Dick Morris, a former Clinton White House adviser who was “quietly advising Trump” last year. “Dick Morris told Trump that Biden was too old and too prone to gaffes to be the nominee,” Bender writes, while others in Trumpworld felt Biden would exit the race and be replaced by someone else if Trump began bashing him too hard. “Others said Fox News anchor Sean Hannity expressed concern that Biden would collapse under a sustained attack from Trump.”

According to Bender, Trump also felt that his attack strategy had backfired during the first stage of the Democratic primary. “The president, meanwhile, had often complained that his early attack on [Elizabeth] Warren had damaged her presidential bid, which he regretted because he viewed her as an easier opponent than Biden,” Bender writes. “Now he worried that a heavy blitz of attack ads would hasten the secret plot being hatched by Democrats, and his mind raced with who they might select in Biden’s place.” During a meeting held the month after the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S., Trump expressed his Biden replacement theory to advisers, saying that Democratic leadership would “realize [Biden is] old, and they’re going to give it to somebody else. They’re going to give it to Hillary, or they’re going to give it to Michelle Obama.” 

One person in Trump’s circle did work to put a stop to this absurd belief, which Trump apparently clung to so deeply that he “had cited it as a reason to hold off on heavy spending against Biden earlier in the month.” Bender writes that Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio “devoted nearly an entire page of [a campaign memo] to debunking a conspiracy theory that had bubbled up inside Trump World, including with the president, that Democrats were going to steal Biden’s nomination at the convention.” In the memo, Fabrizio reportedly wrote, “I know there is some concern (which I strenuously disagree with) that if we go after Biden too soon, we can collapse him, and the Dems will replace him at their convention. I know POTUS tends to share this opinion.” Bender adds: “The pollster aimed to debunk the theory by outlining the remaining Democratic primaries, in which Biden had no significant challenger, and the delegate math to secure the nomination. Biden would have enough delegates to secure the nomination in just three weeks, Fabrizio explained, and it would be mathematically impossible to steal it in four weeks.”

The book, which is slated for an August 10 release and will be published by Twelve, is one of several highly anticipated postmortem accounts of Trump’s 2020 defeat. Bender conducted extensive research for the book, interviewing more than 150 people, including Trump, whom he traveled to Mar-a-Lago on at least two occasions to meet with.


All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair       

— How the University of Iowa Became Ground Zero for the Cancel Culture Wars
— Inside the New York Post’s Bogus-Story Blowup
— The Mothers of 15 Black Men Killed by Police Remember Their Losses
— “I Can’t Abandon My Name”: The Sacklers and Me
— This Secretive Government Unit Is Saving American Lives Around the World
— Trump’s Inner Circle Is Terrified the Feds Are Coming for Them Next
— Why Gavin Newsom Is Thrilled About Caitlyn Jenner’s Run for Governor
— Can Cable News Pass the Post-Trump Test?
— From the Archive: The Life Breonna Taylor Lived, in the Words of Her Mother
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.

Adblock test (Why?)



"lose" - Google News
June 08, 2021 at 02:06AM
https://ift.tt/353rYTj

Trump’s Deranged Theory That Democrats Would Replace Biden Might Have Helped Him Lose 2020 - Vanity Fair
"lose" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3fa3ADu https://ift.tt/2VWImBB

Bagikan Berita Ini

0 Response to "Trump’s Deranged Theory That Democrats Would Replace Biden Might Have Helped Him Lose 2020 - Vanity Fair"

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger.