Three things are true about President Biden: He has done a great job as president. He has been treated ludicrously badly. His every word and physical faux pas has been dissected with a level of scrutiny far beyond that applied to the incoherent torrent of lies and vulgarity uttered daily by Donald Trump. And he should probably step down as his party’s presidential nominee in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Anyone who follows American politics and policy knows what an incredible job Biden has done. For decades, America seemed unable to act to secure its future, but Biden, despite having only a slim majority in Congress, has implemented massive investments in infrastructure, advanced technology, and green energy.
He did all this while presiding over the best economic performance of any rich country. True, inflation soared as the global economy recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that happened just about everywhere. Meanwhile, as the International Monetary Fund put it, American growth was “remarkable relative to other countries,” and inflation fell sharply without a recession. Biden’s harsh criticism of his economic policies now seems silly.
It’s baffling how little credit Trump gets for these accomplishments. Nearly as many voters give him credit for infrastructure as Biden, who got the job done, and Trump, who repeatedly promised to create a plan and became the butt of jokes. Everyone remembers when gas prices (over which the president has little influence) hit $5 a gallon, but far fewer people noticed that gas prices hit a three-year low on the Fourth of July.
At the same time, many Americans probably don’t fully appreciate how strange and menacing Trump seems these days. You only need to watch footage of his rallies to understand how incoherent and outlandish his speeches have become. Have you heard his rants about electric boats and sharks? Few people knew about the extremely un-American Project 2025 until actress Taraji P. Henson highlighted it while hosting the 2024 BET Awards. The project’s leaders promise a “Second American Revolution,” but one that will remain bloodless “if the left lets it.”
Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan in recent days, claiming to know “nothing” about it devised by people very close to his campaign, before declaring that he doesn’t agree with “some of what they’re saying” — a clever tactic considering he doesn’t know anything — and that he wishes the plan’s architects the best of luck anyway.
But here’s the thing: Last month’s presidential debate was Biden’s golden opportunity to present both himself and Trump to the American public as calm and reassuring while Trump was lashing out. And Biden failed that test completely.
The only real hope of salvaging the situation was for Biden to get on the ground as soon and as often as possible, give open-ended press conferences and interviews, and show that the evening’s slump was a fluke. But for whatever reasons, he didn’t.
What he did instead was an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that did nothing to repair the damage, never mind the theatricality of it or how he was received. I think the defining moment was when Biden, asked how he would feel if Trump won the election, replied, “I’ve done the best I can, I’ve done the best job I know I can, and that’s what this is about.”
No. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Biden, but this isn’t a game of giving it your all, getting points, and feeling good if it wasn’t enough.
This is the election with the highest stakes. If Trump wins, this may be the last real election — one in which the party currently in power allows its power to be taken by its opponent. America will have that for a long time. If you think Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election is an exaggeration, you haven’t been paying attention. So at this point, it’s all about protecting our democracy.
Perhaps we can learn a lesson from France. After France’s far-right party came in first in the first round of parliamentary elections, and faced with a threat to democracy, many French politicians put the country’s interests above their own ambitions and withdrew from the second round in order to improve their rivals’ chances of defeating the anti-democratic opposition. The result was a surprising and unexpected defeat for France’s far-right parties on Sunday.
Do we know that Biden could do as much for America if he left office now? Of course we don’t know. And if Harris were to replace Biden (it’s hard to see a plausible alternative at this late stage), she too would face a wave of name-calling and insinuating attacks. But she is smart and tough, and the ugliness of the predictable attacks on her gender and race could backfire.
Either way, Biden is clearly a wounded man, and if he insists on running, it seems highly likely that he, and perhaps the future of our democracy, will lose. I have no doubt that the President is a good man who loves his country, so I hope he does the right thing and steps down.
