The 2024 campaign hit another new level of absurdity on Thursday, but as one Trumpworld strategist put it, “This is how it’s gonna be: 2016 on steroids.”
It all started with “S p r i n t e r F a m i l y,” a pseudonymous X account whose posts about President Joe Biden have been debunked numerous times by the news agency AFP.
The account also appears to be the first major one on the platform formerly known as Twitter to share a video showing Biden reaching for a chair in such a way that, within hours, MAGA accounts and random internet observers alike had come to the conclusion that the President of the United States pooped himself—on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at a public ceremony on the beaches of Normandy, no less—for the whole world to see.
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RNC Research, the GOP’s hub of clips trying to show any and all Biden slip-ups, gaffes and stumbles, posted one of the most widely shared versions of the clip, titled “awkward [teethgrinding emoji].”
The slight problem was, the rest of the world, including the French press, didn’t see it that way at all.
While Biden grabbing for a chair in deceptively edited videos may not be the explosive story some of the MAGA faithful think it should be—whether out of genuine belief or out of revenge for pro-Biden accounts, sharing rumors of Donald Trump farting in court or wearing diapers—it is unfortunately a reality both campaigns must deal with.
Biden is 81 and Trump 77. Both men must deal with attacks based on their age, fitness for office and, evidence suggests, control or otherwise of their bodily functions.
This is the era of political content consumed via Elon Musk’s X, its new spinoff competitors, and importantly young people gravitating to TikTok, where both Biden and Trump now have campaign accounts.
The Trumpworld strategist, requesting anonymity to speak about a topic Republicans would rather let marinate, said their “2016 on steroids” framework pointed to the wild west nature of the 2024 landscape compared to the last two elections.
Last time out, in 2020, there was more content moderation on social media and the big tech platforms employed sizable teams dedicated to the complicated practice.
“I don’t know what Biden was doing. It looked weird, but was he shitting his pants? I don’t know,” the strategist said. “This is the influencer internet wars of spreading disinformation or semi, half-truths.”
As viral clips, some deceptively edited, continue circulating online at the speed of light, as part of the GOP’s disinformation obsession, fact checkers inevitably struggle to catch up.
In Normandy, Biden sat back down and appeared to be under no kind of discomfort.
The Biden campaign declined to comment for this story.
Predictably, the top level of the Trump campaign found the saga amusing.
At the end of a long day running both the Trump campaign and much of the Republican National Committee, Chris LaCivita shared a story from the satirical Babylon Bee site with the headline “Biden Drops First Bomb On Normandy In 80 Years.”
Then, on Friday, Trump went there himself, saying of Biden: “He goes over to France and something happened and it’s not good, I don’t know what it is.”
Fittingly, Trump was speaking in an interview posted on TikTok by the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Whether or not a clip fiasco can make any material difference in the race, by energizing the base or somehow persuading undecided voters, the Trumpworld strategist said it was just an unfortunate cost of doing business when hard news does not reach as many people as it used to.
“The good news,” the strategist said, “is voters don’t make their decisions in a vacuum, especially on Twitter.”
