Biden’s Calm in Trump’s Storm

Trump is the kind of guy Biden likely met many times in his young life.

Joe Biden has long struggled with a stutter. Joe often gives his direct phone number to kids who stutter. He offers them support to grow their courage and overcome the shame this can represent for them. “You can do this,” he says to them.

Now it’s coming to light that Trump’s hammering of Biden in the first debate, his constant interruptions and personal goading was an attempt to trigger a stutter from Joe. He wanted to break Joe and make him look weak. Trump failed, utterly. Joe’s composure was unbroken.

But to look at Trump’s behavior during the first debate, through this particular lens, that he wanted to trigger Biden’s stutter by hammering and insulting him in every possible way, makes Trump’s lack of human decency all the more evident. He is inhuman.

And it makes Joe’s comments during the debate all the more impressive and, for me, his restraint, deeply poignant. “This guy,” Joe said more than once, recognizing Trump for exactly what he is. The kind of guy Joe likely met many times in his young life.

My own father grew up on the streets of Richmond during the great depression. My father was, in his words, cockeyed. I have one photo of him as a young man. One eye…