Democrats’ worst presidential nightmare Joe BidenAn unexpected and important press conference was held on Thursday.
It went well.
But Biden’s first appearance before reporters in months at what was billed as a “big boy” press conference wasn’t a spectacular one. Biden spoke for about an hour, and was mostly coherent. He was slurred and rhetorically stuck up. Donald Trump Red faced, the usual angry Grandpa Simpson moment.
But Biden made no major gaffes, did not waver hopelessly, made no attempt to mention dead world leaders or repeated many of the flaws that Democrats had pretended not to notice until his terrible debate performance two weeks ago.
What Democrats needed in this was a moment where they could finally show Biden, his family and his advisers how bad things were, something that even the staunchest Biden supporters could look at and say: From now on there’s no turning back.
Instead, all they can do is grit their teeth and wait for the next opportunity.
Biden gave mostly strong responses to questions about his own ability as a candidate, but he called his running mate “President Trump.” He cleared his throat several times but spoke more clearly than he did during the debates. He praised the economy but said corporate prices are too high, as if he wasn’t to blame for inflation.
That leaves the Democratic Party in a terrible mess. They can support Biden and worry every day that a critical moment of collapse will come when it will be too late to fix it. Or they can work to pressure Biden, which would be a politically devastating mess that would leave the party no better off than it is now and probably even worse off: bitterly divided.
Moreover, Democrats are locked in a dismal political Groundhog Day, with Washington reporters (finally) fully immersed in a narrative of the president’s decline, breaking news about Biden going back years, and many of them asking the same question, paraphrasing the famous Watergate question: “What did leading Democrats know, and when did they know it?”
On Thursday alone:
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CNN reported that White House meetings have become more “staged” since the Biden administration. An anonymous source told the outlet that cabinet members are asked in advance by staff how they will answer the president’s questions, and Biden is provided with talking points. This is “Bernie’s Weekend: The White House Edition.”
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According to ABC News, several people who attended the Juneteenth commemoration at the White House said they noticed the president behaving strangely, with officials using words like “standoffish,” “stiff” and “incomprehensible.” Texas Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Houston-area Democrat, told the network, “We didn’t know what to make of it, but we thought something was off. He did seem different.”
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NBC News reported that the Biden campaign’s fundraising is drying up, with one source saying its fundraising figures in July could be half of what it was in June.
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A Wisconsin media company acknowledged that one of its radio stations edited an interview with Biden at the request of the Biden campaign — a disgrace to the station rather than the candidate, but one that shows that even friendly media interactions can be dangerous for a president.
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According to The New York Times, Biden’s campaign is conducting polls to gauge how many votes Vice President Kamala Harris would get if she were to run against Trump, as the campaign would expect, but the results will surely be leaked to the public.
If polls show Biden as a weaker candidate, calls for him to resign will intensify. If Harris performs even worse, some Democrats will be outraged that the campaign is deliberately undermining the vice president, who could take over the role anyway or become a potential candidate down the line.
The longer this situation drags on, the more likely Democrats will question whether the president is even fit to stay in office right now, let alone seek another four years.
The more Biden is isolated from all but his most trusted family and aides, the more information is prepared for him in advance and the more the work of the presidency appears to be done by others, the more other Democrats will suffer.
It is becoming increasingly clear that if Biden is not willing to serve another term, he will not be able to withstand the enormous day-to-day strain that comes with the presidency, and if something disastrous happens as a result, all Democrats will pay the price.
So they need to show publicly that Biden is really done. The longer he dithers, the worse it will be for his party.
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