And Donald Trump isn’t a bit sorry about it, either. In a speech to the NRCC last night, Trump joked that he wanted to give a general a kiss after hearing his estimate for defeating ISIS. “I felt like Joe Biden,” Trump quipped as the audience laughed:
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that former Vice President Joe Biden is “being taken care of pretty well by the socialists,” suggesting that a recent wave of criticism against the potential 2020 presidential candidate is the product of attacks hatched by his own party’s left wing.
Criticism of the former vice president has spiked in recent days as multiple women have come forward to say that past physical interactions with Biden, a notoriously tactile politician, left them feeling uncomfortable. While all of Biden’s accusers have said that their interactions with him were not sexual in nature, the criticism has cast a shadow of doubt over his possible entrance into the 2020 presidential race, in which he is expected to be a top contender.
Speaking at the spring fundraising dinner for House Republicans’ campaign arm, Trump jabbed at the former vice president and insinuated, like Biden’s own team has, that the accusations had been planted by a rival campaign.
“It looks like the only non-, sort of heavy socialist, he is being taken care of pretty well by the socialists,” Trump said. “They got to him. Our former vice president. I was going to call him — I don’t know him well. I was gonna say, ‘Welcome to the world, Joe. Are you having a good time, Joe?’”
Well, that’s certainly one explanation. The Democratic primary will be hyper-competitive this time around to make up for the last one, which Hillary Clinton and the DNC did their best to rig (and Clinton almost lost it anyway). Biden offers one of the few campaigns with any claim to the center, which makes him a target for progressive activists, especially those who want to pursue identity politics in this cycle.
That’s hardly the only explanation, though. Allahpundit wondered yesterday whether the sudden focus by the Left on Biden’s handsiness didn’t come from Michael Bloomberg, who might benefit most by a Biden exit that leaves the center to the former New York City mayor. But Bloomberg’s not the only Big Apple billionaire that answers the cui bono question. Biden might make the strongest case against Trump if he could survive to the nomination. Biden would do a lot better than Hillary in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, states Trump needs to hold to win a second term. Why not kneecap Biden early, using Trump’s $100 million-plus warchest, and push Democrats farther to the Left?
Of course, it might just be that Democrats and the media are finally discussing what has been common knowledge on the Right for years. Perhaps a sense of fair play has finally emerged. Wait … did I write that with a straight face? Naaaah, that can’t possibly be the real explanation.