Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator
As Biden gaffes go, I wouldn’t say that introducing the Ukrainian leader as ‘President Putin’ is particularly bad. Silly, awkward, absurd, yes – but for once Biden acknowledged his error and corrected himself: ‘President Putin? We’re gonna beat President Putin. President Zelensky. I’m so focused on beating Putin…. We’ve gotta worry about it. Anyway…’ The
Everybody knows that Joe Biden isn’t really there. His denials of ill-health are in fact a symptom of it – he clings angrily to his delusions because that is what people do when their minds go. And since he seems so immovable, the question is whether Democrats can somehow buy into Biden’s alternate reality again
Stick or twist? The gambler’s choice is the Democrats’ awful dilemma as the US presidential election draws ever closer. Do they stick with Joe Biden, their painfully decrepit Commander-in-Chief, who is losing in the polls? Or twist and gamble on replacing him, which could tear the party apart and make Donald Trump’s victory even more likely? The President may already be on
At rallies, Joe Biden often speaks after his wife. ‘My name is Joe Biden and I’m Jill’s husband,’ he begins. It’s a line he has used for years – a faux humble joke about how much more impressive she is. These days, however, it sounds more like an admission of the real pecking order. In
‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.’ Donald Trump, for all his flaws, has always had a knack for expressing what everybody is thinking. With those words, delivered on the CNN debate stage last night after Joe Biden had stumbled
Before Rishi Sunak was allowed to talk on last night’s BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special, he had to receive a volley from Kevin, a bearded Geordie. ‘I’m asking if you would confess to us tonight even just a small amount of embarrassment to be leading the Conservative Party into this election,’ said Kev. Sunak nodded,
After several weeks of almost daily embarrassing senior moments on the campaign trail, Joe Biden is somehow improving in the polls. The FiveThirtyEight website’s average now puts him 0.1 per cent ahead of Donald Trump in national surveys — the first time this year he’s lead his rival. The current president is still behind the
Can the ‘far right’ still really be called the ‘far right’ if it becomes the mainstream? That’s a question for political scientists to ponder as tonight’s European elections results come tumbling in. The right is winning in France, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will win twice as many votes as president Macron’s Renaissance. Macron
Towards the end of last year, Nigel Farage set tongues wagging as he entered the jungle for I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Yesterday he announced his return to electoral politics – and the national conversation about him now is curiously similar to what it was then. Will the masses actually vote for him? Will
This is an extremely strange moment for American democracy. Polls suggest that independent voters – the people who decide American elections – will not vote for a man who is a convicted felon. But now Donald Trump, currently the favourite to win re-election in November, has been found guilty, on 34 counts, of falsifying business
After many years in power, a corrupt and inept government is finally close to being removed. There is no great confidence in the opposition — but the people have had enough of seeing their country ruined and are finally having their say. No, I’m not talking about Britain and the Conservative party but South Africa,
The Pope is only infallible when he speaks ‘ex cathedra’ – i.e. when pronouncing on doctrinal matters of faith as Pontifex Maximus. So, last week, when Francis privately told a gathering of bishops that he opposed the ordination of homosexual priests because there was too much ‘frociaggine’ – or ‘faggotry’ – in the priesthood already, he
Ding ding ding! Trump vs Biden, the debate rematch, is on – so brace yourselves for the worst presidential tussle in history! This time, ladies and gentlemen, they’re four years older. The truth is Trump does not have a very good record in presidential debates In 2020, in the first presidential debate of a Covid-riven election,
We are in the fifth week of Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial and the real scandal is that it’s all so intensely boring. Sex, porn-star witnesses, shady lawyers, a president in the dock – the headlines are a tabloid dream. The crux of the case, however, is a bunch of tedious charges to do with
‘I looked at a picture of him today and thought: “Why are you wearing those expensive clothes, you twit?”’ Plum Sykes is in the Claridge’s ArtSpace Café, eating the avocado on toast and talking about Rishi Sunak. ‘He looks like he’s wearing handmade shoes, which is a real no-no – a real no-no! But he
Why did Stormy Daniels testify in court yesterday about her allegedly sexual encounter with Donald Trump? Anybody who has followed the Donald Trump story in recent years will have already heard most of Stormy’s account of her interactions with him. Daniels has a sense of humour. Like many others, she enjoys mocking Trump in public.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Winston Churchill’s description of Soviet Russia in 1939 could also apply to the independent candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr in the presidential election of 2024. What we can say with certainty about RFK Jr is that, in a year when the American electorate is deeply
The Democrats dare to hope that this week will be a study in contrasts. On their side stands President Joe Biden, the veteran statesman, using all his diplomatic experience to stop a third world war breaking out in the Middle East. On the other, in the dock in Manhattan, sits Donald Trump, facing 34 criminal
Is it Dozy Don now? Social media is already pulsating over reports that Donald Trump appears to have fallen asleep on the first day of his criminal trial. ‘His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack’, says the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman. Oh boy. ‘72 hours until all hell breaks loose!’ declared
The Trump 2024 campaign’s fundraising email operations went into overdrive last weekend. ‘Dems threaten to seize Trump Tower,’ screamed one call to donate on Saturday. ‘Maniacs want to seize Trump Tower,’ read another. ‘If they seize Trump Tower…’ said a third. ‘Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower,’ added yet another. The tone flitted from alarm to
