Let's workshop some rhetoric

[edelsont]

In a recent dispatch from the alternate universe that is Donald Trump's brain, we learn that that he had “smiled” when North Korea described Joe Biden recently as a “fool of low I.Q.” The White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also said that Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim’s government “agree in their assessment” of Mr. Biden.  (www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/us/politics/trump-biden-north-korea.html)

Later in the day, Mr. Biden chose to take the high road in response: “I’m not going to get down in the mud wrestling with this fella.”

 

Probably a sound strategy, in general.  But in this case, I think maybe he could have had it both ways.  Would he have been "getting down in the mud" if he had replied with something like this?

 

"I don't know about you, Mr. President.  But speaking for myself, I don't think that an endorsement from Kim Jong-un is something that I would choose to brag about."