CNN host Abby Phillip questioned Donald Trump’s fitness for office, pointing to the former president’s comments on immigration in 2016 compared to the debate earlier this week.
Phillip opened her show Thursday by asking viewers whether “there is a double standard over the mental acuity of Donald Trump” noting that the former president “veers off topic several times” during Tuesday night’s debate on immigration—his top issue in the election.
“After months of hitting President Biden’s fitness, Trump is now under scrutiny for his rambling at rallies and at that debate that we all just witnessed this week,” Phillip said in a clip shared by Mediaite.
“We compared his debate answers back in 2016 to the ones that he gave this week after the very first question on the issue of immigration that is right there in his wheelhouse.”
Phillip then played clips of Trump’s debate answers in 2016 making the case for his border wall, compared to 2024 when he rambled onstage about how Harris’ immigration policies could start “World War III,” turn the US into “Venezuela on steroids” and that migrants in Springfield, Ohio are “eating the pets of the people that live there.”
“You can definitely see such a clear difference, Phillip said after the clips. “I mean, immigration is the issue for Donald Trump. It’s been that way for almost a decade now. But there was a weird clarity in 2016 that was completely absent this week.”
Following Tuesday”s dismal performance, Trump announced that he would not participate in another presidential debate with Harris.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday, referencing his first face-off with President Joe Biden in June and his second with Harris.
Ryan Girdusky, a former staffer to Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), defended the Republican nominee, telling Phillip that even though Trump has aged his mental capacity is not as diminished as Biden’s.
“There are signs of aging, as there is with everybody, but I don’t think it is clearly not at the level that Joe Biden was during his debate where he said he defeated Medicaid,” Girdusky said. “I mean, that’s just it’s not even close to the same exact comparison to me.”
