After a bizarre and and times incoherent performance during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday evening, there are new questions about the mental ability of Donald Trump to be president of the most powerful country in the world.
Over the course of the interview, which also included questions from a studio audience, Trump repeatedly insisted that if there was no testing for coronavirus in the United States, there would be fewer cases of the virus. There was also a strange prediction by the president that Joe Biden would win the election. Trump repeatedly flailed around for responses to questions and went off on strange tangents regarding protesters.
At one point, Hannity served up a softball question about what the president’s priorities would be if he won a second term. Trump never answered the question directly and instead began blathering about “talent” and how he never “slept over” in the nation’s capital until he was elected president:
Asked what his top priorities for a second term are, Trump can’t name a single thing pic.twitter.com/fF6xXaDAy0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 26, 2020
Here’s the transcript of Trump’s response when he was asked what are his top priorities for a second term. pic.twitter.com/XKMawRiXFs
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 26, 2020
All of it set off lots of chatter on Twitter, even giving rise to a new hashtag, #BabbleGate:
This bozo has the temerity to say *Biden* isn’t all there… https://t.co/qyz6UFrN1v
— digby (@digby56) June 26, 2020
Thinking about how moments earlier Trump was hitting Biden on his mental acuity. https://t.co/TwFw0Sefhl
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 26, 2020
.@realDonaldTrump says that Biden can’t talk?
This is complete gibberish. https://t.co/FEWAeIkj5x
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 26, 2020
If you a answered a question like this in a job interview – for any job – you would never hear from that employer again. https://t.co/yFzIpgivOA
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) June 26, 2020
The campaign ads for @JoeBiden should run this clip nonstop until November. https://t.co/TKvdwmK9P3
— Kurt Bradley (@kurtbradley) June 26, 2020
Events like this Hannity-Trump interview are complete propaganda. But I’m also not sure they do Trump any actual good other than reassure him that someone still loves him. It’s starting to feel like palliative care.
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) June 26, 2020
The thought of Trump attempting to debate later this year is both terrifying and hilarious.