Here's yet another reason why I prefer to judge politicians by what they do rather than what they say:
Porter was listening to Vice President Harris speak. As I walked by his office, I heard her say, "For the past 10 years we have had a president who did his best to divide our country." I fully admit that that's a paraphrase, because I don't remember word-for-word, but I assure you that was the sense and the number is correct.
I can't just walk away from something like that, even though yelling at the screen didn't do the least bit of good. Let's do the math.
Ten years ago, we were more than halfway through 2014, and Barack Obama was president. Donald Trump took office in 2017, then Joe Biden in 2021. That's four years when Trump was president, with roughly two and a half of Obama and three and a half of Biden. So, four years of the person she vilifies, bracketed by six years of those she admires. Shouldn't the latter take 60% of the blame for the mess she claims was made of the past ten years? She, personally, should take 35%, since she was second-in-command, and by her own admission highly influencial in the decisions that were made during that much of the time.
Did she really say that? Sounds more like a slip of the tongue from Biden or Trump. I'm really surprised,as of course you're right.
I found the exact quote. The context is the first question of the interview of Harris and Walz by CNN's Dana Bash. It was part of her answer to the very first question, "If you are elected, what would you do on Day 1 in the White House?" You can find it within the first 2 minutes of this CNN YouTube video.
"Sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation, and I think people are ready to turn the page on that."
I can give her the benefit of the doubt, as she might well have meant the more indefinite "within the last decade" and been referring only to 2017-2020. Of course that's the interpretation she intended, but I still think it's reasonable to assume she was referring to an actual ten-year period.
I think she might well have meant a decade, give or take a year, because that’s roughly how long Donald Trump has been politically active, right? So she would not just be referring to his tenure, but his comportment before and after.
Rounding.
Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, so fairly accurate. She wasn't just talking about during his term in office.
