Donald Trump claimed Joe Biden faced a low bar in this year’s presidential debates and that simply standing would be enough for the media to declare it a brilliant performance, reminiscent of Franklin’s D.Roosevelt.
The two candidates agreed this week to meet for two televised faceoffs before the November election.
In a speech Saturday to the National Rifle Association, Trump, 77, said he had no hesitation in accepting clashes with his 81-year-old opponent.
After all, his own style of speaking, with its many threads and thoughts, was a beautiful thing.
“You know, there’s a genius in what I do,” he said, interrupting a meandering story about France’s President Macron, which may or may not have anything to do with tariffs, and including a brief interlude praising the name “Emanuel” and an attack on CNN.
“You know, there’s a genius in what I do,” Donald Trump said during a typically meandering speech at the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas on Saturday.
“You know I go from here to there, and it all comes back in a beautiful picture.
“It’s a beautiful thing.”
Then he turned to the “low IQ individual” he said he would face in the debate.
“If this horrible individual finishes the debate, which I think he will… if he’s up, if he’s up, they’ll say it was a brilliant performance,” Trump said, before imagine the criticism.
“It was a brilliant performance. They’ve never seen anything like it…very reminiscent of the days of FDR.
FDR, he said, had “a beautiful patrician voice, a magnificent voice, a great debater.”
The two candidates are due to face each other on the debate stage on June 27 and September 10. They agreed to meet in a series of lightning statements on Wednesday.
Trump offered his assessment of their chances during a typically wide-ranging speech Saturday night to gun enthusiasts in Dallas, Texas.
He warned them that a Biden A victory in November would bring more gun restrictions, and he has promised to roll back the new rules if elected president.
Trump said Joe Biden would simply have to be present at the end of their debates to be declared the winner. “They will say it was a brilliant performance,” he said
“The bad guys don’t give up their weapons,” Trump said.
“They will be so happy if the Biden regime gets four more years.” They’re coming for your guns… 100 percent.
The NRA threw its weight behind Trump during the 2016 campaign. In power, the gun lobby praised the way he elevated three conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
But since then, the group has seen its workforce and revenues decline. Wayne LaPierre resigned as chief executive just before a Manhattan jury found him and two other executives responsible for misspending millions of dollars.
The NRA attempted to declare bankruptcy three years ago, but the petition was denied by a judge who ruled it was not filed in good faith.
Even so, his annual convention remains an important opportunity to rally the Second Amendment supporters he needs to defeat President Joe Biden in November.
He treated his followers to his usual assortment of political headlines, impersonations of world leaders and personal grievances.
He promised to close the border and spent time attacking the judge hearing his hush money case in New York and a gag order that prevents him from attacking witnesses.
Thousands of NRA members were in Dallas for the annual convention
The NRA enthusiastically supported Trump in 2016 and 2020. Trump called on gun owners to make sure they vote in November
But he also offered red meat to the gun owners in front of him.
“On Inauguration Day at noon, we will fire anti-gun bigot Steve Dettelbach,” he said. “Have you heard of him?”
“He’s a disaster…and replace him with an ATF director who respects the sacred right to keep and bear arms.”
Before taking office in 2022, Dettelbach called for a ban on assault-style firearms, and he remains a figure of suspicion for Republicans.
Trump used his speech to remind his audience of the importance of voting.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “Maybe it’s a form of rebellion because you’re rebels, but gun owners don’t vote.
‘What does it mean?’
It was all part of Trump’s “too big to fake” argument. HWe stressed the importance of getting every vote possible and said that was why he should address the Libertarian National Convention next week.
Danny Batsalkin holds a rifle during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting in Dallas, Texas, United States, May 18, 2024.
The NRA has seen its membership and revenue decline over the past decade, but the gun rights lobby is an important support for Trump if he wants to beat Biden in November.
“They get their three percent every year, regardless of who the candidate is,” he said. “And we have to get that three percent because we can’t risk Joe Biden winning.”
“He is by far the worst president in the history of our country.
Vice President Kamala Harris said the choice facing voters worried about gun violence is clear.
“It’s clear that Donald Trump meant it when he said that Americans, tired of horrific gun violence, should just ‘get over it.'” In office, Donald Trump opposed common-sense measures related to gun safety and oversaw an increase in homicides,” she said before the former president’s appearance in Dallas.
“Now, at a time when guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in America, Donald Trump is speaking to the gun lobby and threatening to make the crisis worse if re-elected .”