Biden Warned Opponent Against a 'Bloodbath' in 2020 - And the Establishment Media Never Blinked
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Among the chorus of Democrats and liberal media figures taking presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “bloodbath” comments out of context, you can quite predictably add his opposition, President Joe Biden.
In a series of social media posts on March 18, Biden became the latest figure to distort Trump’s remarks about the American auto industry facing a “bloodbath” if Democrats are allowed to remain in power and set trade policies.
“Let me tell you something,” Trump told a rally crowd on March 16 in Ohio. “To China, if you’re listening, President Xi [Jinping] … Those big, monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now — and you think you’re gonna get that, you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us.
“No.
“We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars — if I get elected.
“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
The media is lying about Donald Trump with this narrative about a “bloodbath” if he loses the election. He was very clearly talking about the car manufacturing industry—before and after he used the word.
You have to be extremely disingenuous to take what he’s saying out of… pic.twitter.com/qhctYGpi7K
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 17, 2024
Biden’s campaign account on the social media platform X posted a misleading, edited clip of the remarks along with misleading, edited clips of other Trump remarks — including the “very fine people on both sides” Charlottesville quote that’s been thoroughly debunked for anyone who bothers to listen.
And it captioned it all: “Donald Trump has shown us who he is, time and time again.”
Donald Trump has shown us who he is, time and time again. pic.twitter.com/pBqyMTloHX
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 18, 2024
Later in the day, another whistle toward the “bloodbath” lie, this time implying — surprise! — Trump is a Threat to Democracy™.
“Our freedoms are on the ballot. Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to take them away,” Biden said. “We will not let them.”
Our freedoms are on the ballot.
Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to take them away.
We will not let them.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 18, 2024
Yes, another iteration of Biden doing the “voting for me and only me is the only way to preserve democracy,” hoping the intended audience doesn’t notice the inherent fallacy in telling Americans that you can only vote one way if you want to have a democratic republic.
But never mind that, because there’s another inherent paradox in what Biden is saying: If those who say “bloodbath” metaphorically are in for a social-media lashing, why not start with him?
Back in 2020, as then-Democratic contender Joe Biden was closing in on clinching the Democratic Party nomination, he made headlines by warning against a campaign “bloodbath” if Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stayed in the race.
The comments were made after the tide had decisively turned in Biden’s favor after his surprise victory in the South Carolina primary and a decisive rout of Sanders in Super Tuesday contests, vaulting him from underperforming fossil to the clear favorite in the race.
“What we can’t let happen is let this primary become a negative bloodbath,” he told a crowd in Maryland, Politico reported at the time. “I know I’m going to get a lot of suggestions on how to respond to what I suspect will be an increasingly negative campaign that the Bernie brothers will run. But we can’t tear this party apart and re-elect Trump.”
“We can’t tear this party apart and re-elect Trump. We have to keep our eyes on the ball, in my view,” he added, according to USA Today.
At the time, do you know what got coverage? Guess what Politico’s headline was? “Biden’s ‘Bernie brothers’ remark lights up social media.”
Obviously, the joke is that ol’ Uncle Joe goofed and used “Bernie brothers” to refer to the so-called “Bernie Bros” — young, aggressive male Sanders supporters who had been previously called out by another presidential challenger, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Har har.
In all fairness, that probably should have been the headline. There was no story here aside from the fact that we were all getting a further glimpse into the swiftly declining mind moving the finger that would soon be on America’s nuclear button. Nobody flinched at “bloodbath,” even though Sanders’ supporters had been notorious for their aggressive nature and some form of confrontation wasn’t necessarily off the table.
Why was Biden’s “bloodbath” ignored? Because, unless that word is dropping from the mouth in the mold of a Fidel Castro or Robert Mugabe, it is nearly always metaphorical when used in the political sense. In Trump’s case, just watching the full clip in context should set virtually anyone straight.
With Biden, we don’t even need to watch the video to know that he didn’t imply physical violence.
In the four intervening years, the president and his people have conveniently lost any sense of the metaphorical when it applies to Trump.
So, too, have establishment media outlets, many of which have used “bloodbath” in other headlines in clearly non-literal contexts. No, the mere mention of that compound word is enough to drive the left to fainting spells and to conjure images of neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville and the most febrile rehashes of the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021.
The White House and the establishment media — can you even tell the difference anymore? — wonder why conservatives simply don’t trust their Chicken Little-ism over the possibility of Donald Trump being president again.
If they can’t grasp the reason why after l’affaire “bloodbath,” there’s truly no hope for them.
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