It has been a few days since the debate and I have waited a few days to give my assessment of what I witnessed and what I have read. My first reaction to the opening minutes to the Debate was pure shock. I didn’t fear for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, I feared for our Nation. What I was witnessing made me fear we looked weak in the eyes of the world. I have to admit that Biden looked old and Trump sounded like the liar that he always is. As the debate continued, I thought Biden did get stronger but Trump did not get more honest. If anything he got more dishonest because he knew he could get away with it. I don’t think that Biden was prepared for Trump’s dishonest statements and the fact that the moderators seemed not very interested in the truth, or if even if the question they asked was actually being answered. I think I would have looked confused with what was happening. I used to think that the truth was important to the voters but it just doesn’t appear that way to me today. Maybe I am just a naive old guy and the truth has not been important all along.

As most of the press and much of the nation were concentrating on how confused Biden looked at the beginning of the debate I thought there was a much more serious problem. That problem was the lack of truth in almost every word that Trump spoke. If I was a foreigner watching I would have wondered what type of nation we are that would let a pathological liar be the center of attention. Let’s look at what Trump said.

Trump stated that he gave the largest tax cut in American History. According to PBS it was not the highest but the fourth highest since 1940 and as a percentage of Gross National Product it rated seventh. One thing that goes along with tax cuts is an increase in the deficit which the Democrats don’t talk enough about and the Republicans ignore completely. Trump’s tax cut led to a huge increase in the deficit. Biden loves to say the rich has to pay their fair share but to be honest with you the Republican tax cuts have led to the huge deficit and it will continue to grow with the tax cuts that Trump is talking about. You can talk about all the cuts you want from social programs but that will only lead to less consumer spending which in turn, is not good for the economy. America cannot be great unless we have the tax revenue to do it. Greatness is not only measured by a large Army. The Soviet Union had a large Army but it wasn’t great because the people lacked the freedom and liberties that they deserved. Suppressing the people will never lead to greatness. The Republican’s suppression on women’s rights just takes away from our greatness.

Trump has loved to talk about Biden’s failure when it comes to immigration and the border.  Trump loves to say that Biden has allowed millions of people come here from jails, prisons, and mental institutions. There is no data to verify what Trump is claiming. None! There is data that between 2021 and 2024 there has been over one-hundred thousand (100,000) arrests of non-citizens with criminal records, which shows what Trump is saying is a lie. I have to also add that our Senate came up with a bi- partisan agreement on immigration that the Republican controlled House, because of Donald Trump’s instructions, refused to bring to the floor for debate. You can’t say Biden is failing at the border when you take away the nation’s chance to solve the problem because, the border is not Biden’s problem it is the country’s problem.  It is the legislative branch to come up with a permanent solution to the problem. Having our President write an executive order does not come up with a permanent solution. What it takes is our government working the way it is suppose to work.

Trump continues to rewrite history when it comes to the Jan. 6^th Insurrection. Trump now is saying Nancy Pelosi has said she is to blame. If you look at the actual quote and what Trump is saying are two different things. Records show that Nancy Pelosi did request National Guard support. Nancy Pelosi has no power to call up the National Guard. That power lies with the President and the Secretary of Defense. Trump sat for three hours as our Capitol was attacked and did nothing, three hours. The crowd was chanting “Hang Mike Pence”, and Trump did nothing. When he finally asked them to leave he told the people that he loved them. Yes, Trump is responsible for the death and the destruction of that day and he has been lying to the American public ever since.

Trump stated that the only jobs Biden created were for illegal immigrants and bounce back jobs from Covid. This is a false statement. There are no figures to support that statement and many of the 5.6 million foreign people working are not here illegally, or have been here for years if not decades. Under Biden 7.6 million jobs have been filled by native born Americans.  As far as the pre-Covid numbers, those were passed by June of 2022. Since then another 6.2 million jobs have been added.  When it comes to jobs, Biden has a tremendous record that will be hard to duplicate even by him.

Trump stated that when he left office we were energy independent. I don’t know what energy independent means but under Trump we exported more oil than we imported. Guess what? Under Biden I believe we have exported more oil than he have imported. What it really ties into is the difference in their position on the environment. Biden wants to wean us off of fossil fuels and Trump doesn’t. We have record flooding and we have record forest fires. We have had a record number of tornados and many deaths. We have record heat. The Hurricane projection is for one of the most active seasons in history. During Trump’s four years in office he had no significant climate legislation. If anything Trump made it worse by rolling back environmental regulations. During the debate he made a statement that the air was cleaner while he was in office. That was such a sad thing to say. The air was cleaner because people were stuck in their homes because of the Covid pandemic not because of any environmental program championed by Trump. It was because of his lack of leadership, not because of it.

I am going to make what I think is a very bold statement. If Trump would have handled the Covid Pandemic properly and had shown real leadership during the pandemic he would have won the 2020 election and we would be finishing up his 2^nd term. What the country saw was a true lack of leadership and a man that could not come up with a plan to save lives. Many lives were lost that could have been save with good, solid leadership. He lost the election because of his incompetence and nothing else. I don’t see where he will be any different this time around.  All Trump talks about is tax cuts for his rich friends and has no plans on how to move the nation forward.

I could go on but this is getting a little long. I am sure that I will be writing about many more Trump’s lies. Maybe Biden should step aside. I don’t think it would be too late. They haven’t even had their convention yet. He has insured his place in history. He has had one of the most successful Presidency’s in the history of our country. Maybe we need to turn the Country over to the younger minds that will carry on his vision for the Country and for the American people.