‘ENORMOUSLY EFFECTIVE’

Chris Wallace: Biden Just ‘Blew a Hole’ in Trump’s Demented ‘Caricature’

“After tonight, Donald Trump is going to have to run against a candidate, not a caricature,” the Fox News host declared.

By Matt Wilstein & Martha MercerAug 20, 2020

If you thought Fox News loved Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech, wait until you hear what they had to say about Joe Biden’s.

As the fireworks began to go off in the parking lot outside the empty arena, anchor Bret Baier quickly deemed the former vice president’s address “the best he’s been” in his long campaign for president. “This is what he needed to do,” Baier added.

Chris Wallace was even more effusive, calling it an “enormously effective” speech. But most importantly for Biden, Wallace said it “blew a hole” in President Donald Trump’s attempts to paint him as feeble or even demented in some way.

“Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about how Joe Biden is mentally shot, a captive of the left,” the Fox News host continued. “And yes, Biden was reading from a TelePrompter, from a prepared speech. But I thought he blew a hole, a big hole in that characterization.”

“It seems to me that after tonight, Donald Trump is going to have to run against a candidate, not a caricature,” the Fox News host declared. “The Democrats have had a good convention. Now it’s the Republicans’ turn.”

“Joe Biden just hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth,” Dana Perino added. “He had pace, rhythm, energy, emotion and delivery. So I think that if he looks back, he’s got to say that’s probably the best speech of his life.”

Echoing Wallace, the conservative commentator Brit Hume called it a very good speech” delivered with “force and clarity” by Biden. “He showed no sign of the times when his memory seems faint and his grasp has seemed weak,” Hume said, caveating that you “wouldn’t expect that in a prepared speech.”

Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove also thought it was a “very good speech,” that helped portray Biden as “unifier, who will bring the country together.” He added, “If I were a Republican strategist in the Trump campaign, I’d be worried about how long and how effectively he carries that theme forward.”