One pro-Democrat pundit comments while ‘sitting in the rubble’ of the ‘calamitous’ debate
Kevin and Phineas Ellis talked bluntly on a podcast about the debate catastrophe from a pro-Democrat point of view. In contrast, Vermont’s members of Congress (like Rep. Becca Balint) spoke politely about Biden’s blunders or said nothing at all.
By Guy Page
Vermont’s three members of Congress either glossed over or ignored President Joe Biden’s performance in Thursday night’s debate. Instead they took aim at his opponent, Republican Donald Trump.
Sen. Peter Welch was giving a pep talk Friday morning to Vermont journalists and publishers about bills he has sponsored to help the traditional news media’s bottom line. At about 9:40 AM, while sitting on the podium at the UVM Davis Center during the Vermont Journalism Conference, Welch quickly dropped in his take about the debate:
“Was there a debate last night?” [Collective eye roll, chuckle from audience.] “I’m worried. It was not good.”
He then pivoted to his traumatic first-person reminiscence of hearing the gunfire during the January 6 incursion. As far as Welch’s social media is concerned, the debate didn’t happen.
Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vermont) also praised Biden’s performance with faint damnation.
“Let’s just, like, call it like it was, right?,” she said Friday afternoon on the pro-Biden Dean Obeidallah podcast. “The president did not have the night we wanted him to have. We know what he is capable of. We know his talents and his strengths. And unfortunately he didn’t have the night that we all wanted him to have. Obviously, that’s disappointing, I’m not going to dance around that,” Balint said.
Then, like Welch, she pivoted to condemn Biden’s opponent. “But I was also just struck by the sheer volume of lies coming from Trump.”
Sanders delivered this one-paragraph comment on X Saturday: “Last night Trump said that “everybody” wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. That’s just one of the many lies he told. Recent polls showed that 2/3 of Americans opposed that terrible Supreme Court decision. Americans know that women, not the government, should control their own bodies.”
Not a word from Sanders about Biden’s performance.
Vermont’s political pundit class – with one notable exception – also has apparently decided that if you can’t say anything nice about Biden, don’t say anything at all. Ever since a June 27 column about Bernie Sanders, it’s been crickets. The same day VTDigger ran a news story on the VT GOP backing felonious Trump. Not a word about Biden since then.
One high-profile Vermont Democrat pundit who did cover the debate was Kevin Ellis. The former journalist/lobbyist now publishing the Conflict of Interest blog and hosting a WDEV morning show produced a refreshing podcast with a young relative, Phineas Ellis, himself a D.C.-based podcaster of note.
Both men prefer a Democrat president over Trump. Ellis the Younger repeatedly calls Trump ‘a monster.’
Here’s how Ellis starts the 22-minute Conflict of Interest podcast, which is well worth the listen for Trump supporters wishing to understand the Other Side:
“We are sitting here in the rubble of the calamitous Joe Biden – Donald Trump debate,” Ellis said. ….Boy, those first few minutes, it was horrible.”
“The president and his team had one job. That was for his team to show up and prove to his skepticla electoral that he is not addled,” Ellis continued. “And they failed the test, badly. He looked addled, he looked confused.”
The Ellis duo compared how Trump issues like the border and the Deep State fare with young people (surprisingly well, even among the young left, Phineas Ellis) compared to how Biden communicates with young people (poorly).
The cumulative impact of the alienation of youth and the debate disaster could mean a Trump landslide – if Biden stays in.
They conclude with Phineas Ellis asking the elder Ellis, what happens now? How could the Dems replace Biden. Ellis recalled the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention, after incumbent president Lyndon Johnson pulled out of the race. His departure left the nomination open to an also-ran free-for-all, including Robert F. Kennedy Sr..
For that to happen at this month’s convention – also in Chicago – Biden would have to drop out. Kevin Ellis thinks a phone call from only one person could make that happen.
“It will be interesting to see the next 48 hours, what happens. Is Obama going to make that phone call? I don’t think Bill Clinton can do it anymore, and I know Hilary Clinton can not. But Barack Obama can. And I don’t know if he’s gonna.”
Ellis said he’s pulling for Biden to drop out: “I think it would be good. It would be healthy.”
Vermont has no elected Republican officials on the national stage, but Vermont GOP chair Paul Dame weighed in X (Twitter.)
Trump Critic: “Trump is perfectly fit for the Oval office, right Paul? I can’t roll my eyes hard enough.”
Dame: “I’ve never said Trump is a perfect fit for the Oval office. I don’t think anyone is. But after last week Biden isn’t even fit to take drive-through orders.”