No One’s Talking About the Other Deranged Conspiracy Theory Trump Floated During the Debate

Part of Kamala Harris’s strategy during Tuesday night’s debate was to bait Donald Trump into talking about himself and his grievances instead of discussing the issues cogently. The strategy was particularly effective because Harris not only got under his skin and off the talking points his advisors gave him but she brought out the “Truth Social Donald Trump” in front of an audience of 67 million people.

Never go full Internet crackpot in front of mainstream voters.

It was never more apparent than when Donald Trump fully unloaded his crazy by referring to a baseless rumor that Haitian immigrants were eating cats (and dogs and pets) in a town in Ohio (a baseless rumor that may have led to bomb threats this morning). It’s obviously not true, and despite whatever point Trump was trying to prove by bringing it up, all he did was make himself look like the crazy uncle at Thanksgiving dinner. Kamala Harris reportedly plans to exploit that further throughout the rest of the campaign.

But there was another, arguably even more deranged conspiracy theory that Trump also referenced during the debate. Unfortunately, it didn’t make for a great soundbite that could be set to the Peanuts theme song, in part because Trump was cut off by moderator David Muir while trying to talk about it. Trump may not realize it, but Muir did him a favor.

Here’s the transcript of the relevant portion:

TRUMP: And we have a president that we don’t even know if he’s — where is our president? We don’t even know if he’s a president.

DAVID MUIR: And just to clarify here.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They threw him out of a campaign like a dog. We don’t even know, is he our president? But we have a president…

DAVID MUIR: Mr. President,

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: …that doesn’t know he’s alive.

DAVID MUIR: Your time is up. Just to clarify the question, do you believe it’s in the U.S. best interests for Ukraine to win this war? Yes or no?

A President “that doesn’t know he’s alive”? Wait, what?

Here’s the short version for those who don’t speak Internet crackpot: Buried as it is in crosstalk, that is a reference to a conspiracy theory that Laura Loomer — who has been Trump’s constant companion, of late — helped to promote. The theory claims that the “real” Joe Biden died during his bout of COVID in July and that he’s been replaced by a body double. It’s the same body double that Barack Obama purportedly rolled out to give the State of the Union speech earlier this year (Obama, obviously, is still running the country in this fantasy). And it’s the same body double that stood aside and let Kamala Harris take his place on the Presidential ticket. The body double is also the Biden who briefly wore a MAGA hat yesterday as a good-natured joke while visiting firefighters (crackpot MAGA believes the Biden body double secretly loves Donald Trump).

Post by @demsmight

View on Threads

That’s the short version, although Trump — clearly frustrated by being baited time and again by Harris — made a bizarre reference to that by suggesting that Biden doesn’t even know he’s alive. Trump’s mental acuity is clearly lacking, and the Harris campaign might be wise to point to this exchange in the debate as another example of not just Trump’s cognitive decline but his descent into the conspiracy swamp.

It’s also worth noting, by the way, that Trump mentioned the Biden body double theory in the context of a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia.