Biden-Trump Debate Fiasco: Who’s Running the “Sole Superpower”?

The stumbling, at times incoherent performance of President Joe Biden in his June 27 debate with Donald Trump sent shock waves through mainstream media pundits — not because they were unaware of his infirmities, but because they had assumed his handlers would be able to cover them up. His weak responses to most questions, combined with an often prolonged, clueless stare, confirmed what many voters had suspected, that Biden should not be a candidate for a second term, as he appears to be suffering from dementia. A poll taken after the debate found that 72% believe he is not fit to serve as President.

Predictably, the media raced into a cover-up mode, typified by the New York Times, which has been a strong backer of Joe Biden. Within two days after the debate, the daily ran a lead editorial, “To Save His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race”, along with at least five op-eds from their opinion columnists, echoing the same line. Each had the same formulation: Biden’s a good man, he’s done a great job, he saved the nation from further degeneration by defeating Donald Trump in 2020. However, his disastrous debate performance shows that he will probably lose in November, therefore the Democrats must replace him on the ballot.

Missing from these paeans to the virtues of Joe Biden was the topic which was largely ignored in the debate, that NATO, under the direction of the Biden administration, is escalating its provocations against Russia, as it is losing the proxy war in Ukraine; and that the U.S. has become isolated internationally due to its full backing of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Both of those conflicts risk crossing “red lines”, bringing the U.S.-NATO forces into full-scale war with Russia, with the risk of triggering nuclear war. Neither candidate offered a solution to this crisis, and neither addressed the peace proposal offered by Vladimir Putin, which called for negotiations.

The real issue remains obvious: if Biden is at times mentally incapacitated in a period of multiple strategic crises, who is in charge of the U.S. military, in particular its nuclear component? Thoughtful people around the world have been asking that question for a long time, but with even greater urgency now.

In an article posted on his substack.com blog, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh poses the discussion in terms of the unwinnable wars in Ukraine and in Gaza. He singles out Tom Donilon, President Obama’s National Security Adviser from 2010-2013, as well as Tom’s younger brother Mike Donilon, as among the key insiders around President Biden who have played an oversized role in shaping policy, and who also function as part of a palace guard to keep him living in a bubble of unreality.

It is noteworthy that Tom Donilon is currently Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute and that in an earlier role as chief of staff at the State Department under Bill Clinton, he was responsible for the development and implementation of the department’s major policy initiatives, including NATO expansion to the east. Read more here.