Author’s note: This is the analysis of one round of the 2024 Presidential debate between Biden and Trump. It is linked from a more comprehensive article.
Question: Will you name tonight one specific step that you’re willing to take to keep Social Security solvent?
TRUMP: So I’ve dealt with politicians all my life. I’ve been on this side of the equation for the last eight years. I’ve never seen anybody lie like this guy. He lies – I’ve never seen it. He could look you in the face. So – and about so many other things, too.
What does this even mean? I’m rating it a brain fart.
Ad hominem: It’s clearly an attempt to disparage Biden, but for what it’s not clear.
And we mentioned the laptop, We mentioned “Russia, Russia, Russia,” “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.” And everything he does is a lie. It’s misinformation and disinformation. The “losers and suckers” story that he made up is a total lie on the military. It’s a disgrace.
More ad hominems.
More debunked repeat claims.
It’s also a false comparison to himself. An informal ABC fact check, for instance, lists Trump statements as false five times more often than Biden’s, of least one of which is a simple misstatement of numbers ($15 for the cost of insulin v. $30), and we know he’s not good with number recall.
But Social Security, he’s destroying it. Because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they’re putting them on to Social Security; they’re putting them on to Medicare, Medicaid. They’re putting them in our hospitals. They’re taking the place of our citizens.
More hyperbole and another red herring
A repeat of the immigrant argument which has already been debunked, even the claim they collect on Social Security and Medicaid.
They’re – what they’re doing to the V.A., to our veterans, is unbelievable. Our veterans are living in the street and these people are living in luxury hotels. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. And it – it’s really coming back. I’ve never seen such anger in our country before.
Another debunked repeat argument .
More hyperbole and another red herring.
Everything above a vague generalization.
These are all non-responsive and irrelevant to the question of what he would do to make Social Security solvent.