Yesterday, the Democrats finally decided to break Joe Biden out of his cocoon, noticing that the tide has turned in the presidential race and no, in fact, running some sort of a digital front-porch campaign in 2020 will not actually produce electoral victory against a vigorous incumbent president.

But in doing so, the party and Team Biden proved the real reason why the candidate has been in his basement all along. Biden’s trip to Pittsburgh was a disaster, to put it mildly.

**Joe Biden gets out of the car looking confused with pizzas in his hand**

Man in the distance: “Hey Joe, you finally got out of the basement!”

😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/XPAQgbwMVa

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) August 31, 2020

Put him on TV, and you get this…

What? pic.twitter.com/g8Xv43v8u8

— Thomas Catenacci (@ThomasCatenacci) August 31, 2020

And then there’s this, where he manages to slur his way through a denial that he’s banning fracking…

Biden discusses his energy plan: "I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me." https://t.co/LBywpukq9G pic.twitter.com/B5QXkBoQbt

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 31, 2020

Which is, well…

SUPERCUT: Biden promises "no more" fracking if he's elected President. pic.twitter.com/iWcsU2Yam8

— Abigail Marone (@abigailmarone) August 31, 2020

Of course, the highlight of Biden’s dementia spectacular is his party’s fabulous new narrative that it’s Donald Trump who’s responsible for the rioting and violence in the streets…

SHAKE DOWN GO AHEAD AND GIVE IT TO ME https://t.co/J5eyCiqkf6

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) August 31, 2020

Got that quote? “He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is. Does anyone believe there will be less violence…if Donald Trump is reelected?”

Kerpen is correct in characterizing the statement as a threat to the American people. Biden calls Trump weak on the violence in the streets, presumably because he doesn’t send in federal troops to crush the “mostly peaceful” protests in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and other cities. Of course, each one of those are Democrat-dominated cities in Democrat-run states, and in no case have any of the governors or mayors involved asked Trump for help. In fact, in Portland, despite the fact rioters are attempting to torch his condo building, mayor Ted Wheeler has defiantly rejected Trump’s demands that he call for federal assistance.

Because it’s right-wingers like Kyle Rittenhouse causing all the trouble.

Or Aaron Danielson, who was murdered by an Antifa rioter in Portland over the weekend.

But there’s a really easy thought experiment which makes what Biden is selling a little harder to swallow.

Which is this – if it’s a bunch of Republican terrorists in the streets of these blue cities causing all the trouble, then why haven’t those mayors and governors cracked down hard on them and restored order?

Anyone?

Joe? You want to handle this?

Oh, that’s right. No questions on his little tour.

We’d say panic has set in at Democrat headquarters, but we’d be surprised if anybody over there really thought this guy could hold up through this campaign without cratering.

Pittsburgh was just a taste of how this is going to go. It’s only going to get worse as Biden is forced to leave his basement and compete on the national stage.