Biden Tries to Bait Trump

John Podhoretz: “Joe Biden has become America’s leading troll — and he’s trolling Donald Trump. The president’s supposedly grand speech in ‘defense of democracy’ under attack by ‘Trump and the MAGA Republicans’ was hardly a visionary call to renew our commitment to the Republic.”

“If it had been the highfalutin speech we were promised, Biden wouldn’t have spent ludicrous time praising himself for things like prescription-drug costs and burn-pit health coverage. No, this speech was nakedly, even comically, designed not to elevate but to offend — to poke and taunt and push his predecessor and his predecessor’s camp followers and acolytes into firing back about how evil Biden is.”

Rich Lowry: “Trump and Biden compensate for each other’s problems, and they are effectively working together to get Trump nominated — which Trump wants because it’s the necessary precondition for winning a second term and Biden wants because Trump would be the riskiest GOP candidate in a general election.”

“It’s not the most edifying relationship. Indeed, it’s a de facto partnership toward a demoralizing rerun of 2020. But neither Trump nor Biden is as likely to get where they want to go without the other.”