Government

One Impossible Question Each For Harris And Trump

You could ask Trump or Harris hard questions in interviews, but you'd never hear an answer.

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If you watch an interview of Kamala Harris, or Donald Trump, or any other politician, the politician will answer some questions and filibuster in response to others. Instead of answering a difficult question, the politician speaks endless nonresponsive words, permitting the politician to make a point — or simply waste time — while the interviewer’s clock runs. (In court, of course, this tactic doesn’t work as well: There’s no time limit, and there’s a judge present to insist on responsive answers.)

You could ask Trump or Harris hard questions in interviews, but you’d never hear an answer. They’d filibuster.

What are the truly hard questions for each of the two major party presidential candidates?

A terribly difficult question for Harris is this: When did you first notice Joe Biden’s cognitive decline?

What’s Harris to say?

“Biden’s not in decline”? We all saw Biden at the debate. He’s in decline. And Biden himself was ultimately convinced to withdraw from the race (although he of course says that he withdrew because of the polls, rather than his condition). If Harris insists that Biden hasn’t lost a step or two, everyone knows that Harris is lying. “Biden’s not in decline” can’t be the answer.

So when did Harris notice Biden’s decline?

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She didn’t notice?

Then she’s not a very observant person. I’m not sure I’d care to have her in charge.

Perhaps Harris noticed Biden’s decline last year?

Then why didn’t she say something? POTUS can no longer handle the job, and Harris is remaining silent? What kind of patriot is she?

Can Harris say that she thought Biden was surrounded by good people and could thus handle the presidency even though he personally had lost a step? That doesn’t say much for the office of the presidency.

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Thus, my impossible question for Harris: “When did you first notice Joe Biden’s cognitive decline?” Harris can’t answer that question, and you’ll never hear her try. She’ll filibuster instead.

What’s an impossible question for Trump?

There are a ton of hard questions for Trump, but he has answers (that convince his loyalists) for many of them: Why did a jury find that you committed sexual assault (which a judge later found was, in the usual sense of the word, rape)? It was a biased New York jury! Why did a jury convict you of 34 felony charges?  It was a witch hunt by the prosecutors, and the jury was biased! Why did you incite an insurrection on January 6? I didn’t incite an insurrection! I told the crowd to walk peacefully and patriotically down the street!

But I think the hardest question for Trump is this:

On January 6, why did you say absolutely nothing for three hours while you watched a mob attack the Capitol Building?

There’s no answer to this.

None of Trump’s answers work: Consider “The mob was antifa!” or “The mob was the FBI!” or “Nancy Pelosi didn’t have enough police at the Capitol Building that day!”

It doesn’t matter. There was still a mob. The mob was still attacking the Capitol Building. Perhaps you didn’t know who the mob was, perhaps the Capitol was inadequately defended. You still should have immediately said: “I don’t know who you people in the mob are. But, if I have any influence over you at all, please listen to me: Don’t attack the Capitol Building! This is wrong. This is not what I had in mind. This is criminal. You will be prosecuted for this. Please leave the building and go home!”

What possible (and nonincriminating) reason is there for Trump not to have said that?

The stuff I’ve heard from Trump supporters when I pose this question is all drivel: “It was only three hours.” Yeah? Trump was the president; he’s supposed to care about the country. The Capitol Building was being ransacked and people were getting hurt. Under those circumstances, I give him about three minutes to make a statement; he sure doesn’t get three hours.

Trump supporters also say: “Trump’s got a big ego. He didn’t believe he’d lost the election. It took him three hours to pull himself together and say something.” No, no, no: Trump knew he had lost the election shortly after election day, eight weeks earlier. Trump had been told by many, many people that he’d lost. I might give a person with the emotional capacity to be president a few hours to get over the loss — after all, throughout history, losing candidates have pulled themselves together on election night to give public concession speeches — and the loss surely stings for a while. In fact, I suspect that the loss probably stings forever — you probably go to your grave regretting the night you lost the presidency. But that doesn’t mean that you allow a mob to attack the Capitol Building for three hours.

Trump simply can’t answer this.

What are the real answers to my two questions?

Why didn’t Harris tell the public that she saw Biden suffering from mental decline?

I suspect that Harris saw that Biden was weakening. But everyone in the White House was saying that they could hide Biden during the campaign, prop him up for a few public events, permit him to win reelection, and then cover for him for the next four years. That was the company line among all of Biden’s staffers, none of whom wanted to lose their cushy jobs. Harris, a loyal Democrat, played along.

Does that stink? You bet it does; that’s one of the reasons why I dislike politicians. I’m nonpartisan in this regard: I dislike all politicians. How many Republicans, for the sake of their political futures, have hidden the fact that Trump is unfit for the presidency?

What about my impossible question for Trump? Why didn’t Trump ask the mob to call off the attack on the Capitol Building while he watched for three hours?

Because he wanted to keep power, even though he’d lost the election.

You decide whether Harris or Trump committed the greater sin.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].

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