OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden’s campaign has officially responded to a challenge from former President Donald Trump to play 18 holes of golf.
At his rally at Trump National Doral in Miami on Tuesday night, Trump declared his willingness to take on Biden in a 1-on-1 golf match for charity.
“I’m officially challenging ‘Crooked Joe’ to an 18-hole golf match right here, on Doral’s Blue Monster, considered one of the greatest tournament golf courses anywhere in the world, ” Trump said. “It will be among the most watched sporting events in history, maybe bigger than the Ryder Cup or even the Masters. I will even give Joe Biden 10 strokes a side…That means 20 strokes in case you don’t play golf. I will give him 10 strokes a side and if he wins, I will give the charity of his choice one million dollars.”
Not long afterward, Biden’s campaign responded with a scathing statement filled with half-truths and outright falsehoods.
“Donald Trump hasn’t been seen in public for 12 days, now he’s inviting fictional serial killers to dinner, teasing lil’ Marco Rubio, praising Project 2025 architect Tom Homan, and challenging the President of the United States to golf,” the statement reads.
“We’d challenge Donald Trump to create jobs, but he lost 3 million. We’d challenge Donald Trump to stand up to Putin, but he bent the knee to him. We’d challenge Donald Trump to follow the law, but he breaks it. We’d challenge Donald Trump to not destroy our country but that’s all his Project 2025 aims to do,” the statement continued. “Joe Biden doesn’t have time for Donald Trump’s weird antics — he’s busy leading America and defending the free world. Donald Trump is a liar, a convict and a fraud only out for himself — par for the course.”
On X, user Paul A. Szypula posted a clip in which Biden actually told Trump during their debate that he “would be glad to play a round of golf” with the former president if he carried his own bag.
Your lying really is embarrassing.
During their debate, Joe Biden challenged President Trump to play golf.
And Trump has been seen many times in the past 12 days.
All you do is lie and the American people are sick of it.
You are quite horrible people.pic.twitter.com/LgBPGEUsai
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) July 10, 2024
Earlier this week, Trump revealed what he first noticed about Biden when they walked onto the CNN-sponsored debate stage in Atlanta.
“They introduced him, and they introduced me, and I walked out and saw him, and he looked extremely pale, to put it nicely,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity by phone. “And I don’t know, maybe it was a good make-up job, maybe it wasn’t, but he was a very pale-looking man.”
Biden’s debate performance was horrible, most observers agree, and that has led to panicked calls from Democrats for him to drop out of the race. But on Monday, Biden sent a letter to Democratic leaders informing him that he has no intention of leaving the race, a decision that first lady Jill Biden reiterated at a campaign rally.
“Joe has made it clear he is all in,” she told a crowd in North Carolina. “That’s the decision he’s made. And just as he has always supported my career, I am all in too.”
The letter chastised Democratic legislators who had urged Biden to pull out after his poor debating performance against former President Trump. Biden asked Democrats to let go of the matter and push forward unitedly.
“This morning, I sent a letter to my fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill. In it, I shared my thoughts about this moment in our campaign. It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump,” Biden wrote.
He added that he “declined” to step aside and argued it was time for the party drama “to end.”
