Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) is in trouble. The North Dakota Democrat is about to be trounced by Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer. Like all red state Democrats, she was facing an uphill battle. First, her 2012 win was very slim; she won by less than 3,000 votes. Second, her state is deep red and was carried heavily by President Trump. Third, she made a horrible blunder in the tail end of the race, printing an open letter ad attacking Cramer for his remarks about the sexual misconduct allegations that were lobbed against Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation battle. The open letter contained names of women who were survivors of sexual assault, but some of the women were misidentified as survivors, while others did not give Heitkamp permission to release their names. There’s no time to correct this error. Even CNN said that there was nothing she could do. Oh, and voters were going to punish her.
Trailing by double-digits, Heitkamp’s crew is soliciting the help of former Vice President Joe Biden for the week. I don’t think that’ll do much to improve her chances either. And in typical Biden fashion, he shot off his mouth. Diarrhea of the mouth is a terrible affliction of Mr. Biden. When many sides are calling for the political rhetoric to be toned down, Biden seems to insinuate heavily that Cramer should be beaten up (via Daily Wire):
Former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden suggested at a rally for Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) that the trade union president beat up Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), saying, "show him a threshold of pain."
"As my brother, who loves to use lines from movies, a John Wayne movie, there's a good line in a movie, a John Wayne movie where the Indian chief turns to John Wayne and says 'this is a lying dog-faced pony soldier,'" Biden rambled.
[…]
Biden then suggested that the trade union president should beat up Cramer.
"Well, I get that president of the trade union is up here and he'll show [Cramer] a threshold of pain."
It very well could’ve meant mental toughness, but it was still a very poor choice of words. Democrats are about to enter into a nauseating contest concerning which one of them could out-tough guy the other for the 2020 nomination. So, swipes at Republicans and Trump, and hoping they get the crap kicked out of them, will be commonplace. Biden is considered a 2020 contender. It appears he’s still mulling it, right? As for the 2020 Democratic bench in general, there’s not a lot of talent there—and no one stands out as someone who could beat Trump.
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UPDATE: Again?