Biden’s struggles are concerning. But GOP, media give Trump a pass.

Someone must have dropped America on its head, because this country isn’t making a lick of sense.
President Joe Biden had a disastrous debate performance last week that reinforced concerns about his age and mental acuity. That’s a fact, and it has prompted people in the Democratic Party to ask fair and serious questions about the best path forward.
That makes sense.
It’s a mature, reasonable response, kind of like the response a mature and reasonable person might expect if, to toss out a random example, a political party’s presidential candidate had been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and found liable for sexual assault and defamation.
Democrats have said: “Our candidate is an older man and he just struggled through a prime-time debate, occasionally losing his train of thought and generally sounding weak. Should we replace him? How do we rebuild trust among the voting public?”
Republicans, on the other hand, have said: “Our candidate is also an older man and a convicted felon who fomented an insurrection and continues to deny the results of the last presidential election while often delivering near-indecipherable rally speeches about boats and sharks and batteries. Who cares? TRUMP 2024!!”
Beyond the parties themselves, a veritable parade of pundits and commentators across the political spectrum have decided, unequivocally, that Biden MUST be replaced on the Democratic ticket. He’s gotta go. The end.
The day after the debate, The New York Times’ editorial board trumpeted: “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race.”
The editor of The New Yorker called for Biden to step aside.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editorial board wrote under the headline: “It’s time for Biden to pass the torch.”
What about Trump’s lies?Biden’s disastrous debate creates a mirage of Trump competency. It’s all lies.
All of that – from opinion slingers and political prognosticators on platforms large and small – would be fine and would make perfect sense … if the guy representing the Republican Party in this race was NOT A LITERAL FELON.
How are we, as a country, looking at Trump and saying, “Well, he has been convicted of crimes; he has been indicted in a bunch of other cases, including one in which he’s alleged to have stashed some of our country’s most highly classified documents in the bathroom at his golf resort; he routinely demonizes immigrants; he has pitted Americans against each other and framed anyone who disagrees with him as ‘vermin’ or worse … but it’s not like we need to demand he step aside and not try to be president!”
Where’s The Times editorial excoriating the Republican Party for having the gall to suggest someone like Trump is in any way fit to serve as commander in chief?
At a weekend rally, as the chattering class was chattering on about the debate, Trump said this: “They want electric planes. What happens if the sun isn’t shining while you’re up in the air. Well, sir, I told you there’d be problems, sir. No. They want electric everything. They want electric boats. The problem with the boats is they don’t float, because the battery is so heavy it sinks the boat. They say we don’t care we want them anyway.”
What?
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling clarifying the scope of presidential immunity for “official acts,” solely because Trump has been repeatedly indicted for alleged crimes committed while he was president.
And yet liberal talking heads and political strategists are out there delivering a laundry list of possible Biden replacements while zero Republican pundits or advisers are saying, “We need Trump to step aside to let Nikki Haley run, for the good of the country and the party!”
I’m not here to defend Biden. I wholly understand the concerns that followed last week’s debate. And contrary to the right-wing caricature of liberal columnists, I don’t feel devoted to Biden. I don’t have a Biden poster hanging in my room, and if he winds up stepping aside, I’ll respect that and support whoever Democrats put up against Trump.
I don’t love political candidates of any stripe. But I do fear Trump and the chaos and cruelty he would bring to another presidential term.
Trump’s debate performance:Republicans deserve the version of Trump we saw during the debate. Too bad it won’t last.
So I hear the complaints about Biden, and I understand the age-related issues, and I welcome the conversation about what’s best for the Democratic Party and the country. But I call absolute bull—- on every bit of it, because somehow we inhabit a timeline in which “this guy’s old” is a way bigger deal than “this guy’s a cruel crook, and he’s demonstrably nuts.”
What exactly is the thinking here? Is it, “Well, Biden might not even make it through his presidency, so we’d better just hand the job to the adjudicated rapist”?
If the thinking in this country is so out of whack that a troubling debate performance from a guy who has gotten a lot done as president is a bigger deal than – imagine me vigorously waving my hands in all directions – all the bonkers stuff Trump has done and continues to do, then we are right and truly screwed.
We can’t function in a society that holds a normal politician like Biden to a far higher standard than an abnormal politician like Trump.
We can’t take seriously the voices howling for Biden to bow out unless they are howling equally loudly for Trump to get lost.
I don’t know what the answer is when it comes to Biden. That’s for others, and for Biden himself, to sort out.
But I do know the guy representing the other party has done a lot worse than show his age during one debate. A whole lot worse.
And the hollering isn’t near commensurate. Not even close.
I don’t know what’s going on with you, America. You’re not making a lick of sense.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk