Michael Moore: Biden Doesn’t Have the “Enthusiasm” to Defeat Trump
In 2016, documentary filmmaker, avowed socialist, and left-wing rabble-rouser Michael Moore was one of the few people simultaneously cheering for Hillary Clinton to win…and predicting that she would not. Moore was seen as a kind of Midwest prognosticator after the election when Trump, defying all mainstream conventional punditry, swept the Rust Belt, tore down Hillary’s Blue Wall, and became the 45th President of the United States.
While Moore is probably over-celebrated for this prediction (which involved nothing more or less than actually getting outside of the New York City/Beltway bubble and taking a look around), it has earned him a bit of clout when it comes to forecasting the election.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Moore said that he has deep concerns about Joe Biden’s ability to win in November.
“Biden does not generate the necessary enthusiasm that it’s going to take to get people out,” Moore said. “The Democrats are cynically counting on everyone’s desire to remove Trump.”
The “Bowling for Columbine” director said that reminds him a lot of the situation in 2016, when Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were depending on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to sweep her to victory. He said that Biden would be wise to adopt as much of Bernie Sanders’ agenda as possible in an effort to stir up passion in the ultra-left wing of the party. He told the magazine that Biden had no other choice if he wanted to overcome Trump’s supporters, who “are more rabid than ever.”
Moore’s concerns about the 2020 election go beyond his doubts about Biden’s capabilities as a candidate, though, and veer into the usual left-wing conspiracy theories about Trump, the American Hitler.
“There will be no November 3 election if things keep going the way they’re going right now,” Moore said. “I think he would have figured out a way, even without the coronavirus, but this is a gift to him because I think he never really intended on leaving in the first place. He admires dictators. He admires strongmen, wishes he was one. I think the writing is on the wall right now that he is in deep electoral trouble.”
Moore also said that it was possible that Biden wouldn’t even be on the ticket.
“This has been a crazy year, a crazy election year, a crazy year on so many levels,” he said. “Anything you would have predicted back in December or January is out the window. The year we thought we were going to have on any level is out the window. So if it’s all out the window, what else is out the window? Nothing is lined up right this year. Just because he’s got the most delegates and everybody’s conceded, it doesn’t mean he’s going to be the nominee. They’re not even going to have a real convention. Anything can happen.”
Between holding out hope that someone will replace Biden and believing that Trump will somehow cancel the election, we’d say Moore’s 2020 theories speak less of his crystal ball and more of his unwillingness to face what’s overwhelmingly likely to happen: A plain, old, mundane Trump re-election.
On the other hand, Moore is right about one thing – this has been a crazy year…and anything, indeed, can happen.