Are They for Real?

Yesterday, Mark Knoller, former CBS News White House correspondent, tweeted this:

By my count, this is Biden’s 60th trip to Delaware, spanning 192 days. Compares at same point in presidencies to:
Trump - 18 visits to Mar-a-Lago/79 days
GWBush - 19 trips to his Texas ranch/141 days.

This seemed ridiculous to me. As many people pointed out in response to Knoller, Delaware is much closer than Florida or Texas, so the amount of time it takes Biden to get there (and the expense) is much lower. Trump in particular went a number of other places in addition to Mar-a-Lago, which Knoller did not include, such as Bedminster. And of course, Knoller doesn't mention the fact that Trump charged the Secret Service to stay at his establishments.

Knoller's use of Mar-a-Lago exclusively seems particularly disingenuous, since national media like NBC published stories like this: "Trump visited his golf clubs more than 150 times in his first official year in office, and at least 77 times in his second year in office." (That totals to 227 visits in two years, which is a few days less than the same point in his presidency.)

However, I wouldn't be mentioning any of this, except for the bizarre responses from Trump-defenders in the thread. They're all premised on the idea that Biden is senile, lazy, and/or physically unfit. While Trump is a hard worker and soooooo much younger and fitter than Biden:

Except Trump worked in Florida. Joe naps

Immortan Joe has to go get his treatments

To be fair, I don't think Biden could physically do any of the things [Trump did while on vacation].

Imagine the damage Biden could've done had he really worked

Are they bots? Or are they real people who truly believe this? Have these people ever heard Trump talk (that's a rhetorical non-question). Do they think he reads and did something approaching the normal level of presidential work?

Mainstream comedy's portrayals of Biden, like Saturday Night Live's skits, don’t help. They're a form of both-sidesism. Their creators must feel they have to have something to make fun of about Biden, since there isn’t anything else because he's kind of dull, especially compared to Trump. But this version of comedy provides cover to commenters like the ones in the Knoller thread and the right-wing pundits they parrot.

I don't spend my time watching every word Joe Biden says, and I did my best to watch as little of Trump speaking as possible. But it amazes me that anyone can think the bit of misspeaking that comes from Biden's speech disability or his occasional bobble (which happens to anyone who frequently speaks publicly) stands out compared to the word salad that emerged from Trump's mouth regularly.

It seems to me, these comments can only come from bona fide ableism combined with Fox News brain and cognitive dissonance about how incompetent Trump was as a president.

This is where we are. My only comfort is in thinking that the number of these people is smaller than the view from social media would lead one to think it is.