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Which of the following candidates is being asked by members of their own party to withdraw from the presidential race?
► A recently convicted felon who has also been charged with election interference and mishandling of classified documents, and convicted of sexual abuse and defamation, as well as lying about his net worth to obtain loans related to his vast real estate portfolio?
► Or the sitting president who has a recent track record with bipartisan infrastructure bills and the Cut Inflation Act, a bill with a questionable name but that nonetheless addresses many of his party’s priorities, including climate change?
Both are of retirement age, they ramble on and get names wrong when asked questions, and they both won primary debates, but they didn’t participate in them.
Yet former President Donald Trump, 78, has managed to reshape the Republican Party around his own divisive personality. The other, President Joe Biden, 81, has slowly emerged from the protected bubble of the White House after a disastrous debate and shaky interviews since, and has defiantly defended his ability to do his job for weeks.
Next week will provide a new look at what will likely feel like a brutal dichotomy for Biden supporters.
When the Republican National Convention gets underway on Monday, it will feature a speaking schedule of prominent far-right figures and an official party platform that has been rewritten and streamlined to fit President Trump’s priorities.
In the meantime, Trump will choose his running mate from among the handful of candidates who previously criticized him but now fully support him.
In 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, insulting the size of Trump’s hands, calling him a con man and saying he couldn’t be trusted with nuclear codes. Now Rubio is a Trump supporter, as is Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who was not a Trump supporter but has become a true supporter.
Some Democrats are moving in the opposite direction. Longtime supporters fear that Biden cannot beat Trump and want him out of the race. Their only goal is to make sure Biden does not beat Trump, as they fear a return to the White House.
Either way, Rubio and Vance should be on the alert, as should South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who are also reportedly on the list of Trump’s running mate candidates. Former Vice President Mike Pence is one of many who worked in Trump’s first White House who have not endorsed Trump’s latest campaign after an angry, Trump-inspired mob stormed the U.S. Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”
Republicans had a chance to go the other way. A CNN poll released in February, before Trump won the GOP presidential nomination, suggested his chief GOP rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, would fare much better in a head-to-head matchup with Biden. Republican primary voters voted decisively for Trump.
One of Haley’s key policy proposals was cognitive testing for older candidates like Biden and Trump — a prescient idea, as Biden has faced calls to take a cognitive test and Trump has bragged about how easily he could pass it.
While Trump has his sights set on a convention next week to celebrate his ascendancy, Biden is pushing back against Democratic convention delegates’ assertions next month that a younger successor should be chosen.The latest in a series of public tests of Biden’s competence is an interview, this time with NBC news anchors, set to air in primetime on Monday.
It’s too late in the election cycle for Democrats to have this conversation: Primary elections are over, the convention is next month and Trump is currently considered to have an advantage in key states heading into the November election.
There are some signs that Biden is regaining support among key Democrats. More than a dozen lawmakers have called on Biden to withdraw, and that number continued to grow Friday, but longtime ally Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina said on the “Today” show that the debate over Biden’s fitness needs to end before it damages the party.
“I support Biden,” Clyburn said. If Biden withdraws, he said he would support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – not Biden’s natural allies on policy – have also defended Biden, arguing that the party should rally around him and mobilize for November.
Meanwhile, Biden, at an unusual news conference on Thursday, said that no polling data suggests he will lose the November election, despite a host of polls showing him trailing Trump in key states that could decide the election. Biden’s statement that polling data could theoretically convince him to drop out of the race was a reversal from last week, when he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that only “God Almighty” could change him.
Biden also said at the press conference that he had changed his mind about a pledge he made in 2020 to “build bridges” between an older generation of lawmakers and a new generation of leaders.
“What I’ve found is that being a senator for so long has given me the wisdom and knowledge of how to negotiate with Congress to get things done,” he said.
Biden also clearly believes he is still the best person to beat Trump (a driving force for Democrats these days) and has been shocked by Trump’s staying power and the Republican Party’s shift towards MAGA during his presidency.
“He thought it was in the past,” Chris Whipple, author of a recent book about Biden’s presidency, “The Battle for My Life,” told CNN’s Jessica Dean on Friday.
“I don’t think Biden necessarily intended to serve two terms as president, but now that Trump has become the alternative, Joe Biden truly believes he is the person who can beat Trump,” Whipple said.
In a strange twist, Biden’s continued campaigning may be the very reason other Democrats are calling for him to step down.
