The Case to Replace Biden is Growing Stronger
It’s even clearer now that the president is not up to the task. Democrats need a new messenger for a changed campaign.
JOE BIDEN’S INTERVIEW WITH Lester Holt last night, one more stop on his “I Can Do This” tour, was full of stumbles. But more damaging, for the embattled president, was that the discussion centered almost entirely around him.
Biden was largely on the defensive, explaining away his bad debate performance, arguing that he retains the mental capacity for the job, downplaying any idea that there is a rift between him and Barack Obama.
His candidacy has become an act of self-preservation. And if he is nominated next month, it will continue to be. That should be deeply unsettling for Democrats, who are painfully aware that if this election isn’t about Donald Trump, they are going to lose.
And yet, the public campaign to get Biden to end his campaign seems to be slowing. Trump’s attempted assassination, his running-mate reveal, and the jubilant MAGA-fest in Milwaukee has quieted the intra-party movement against Biden as Democrats sort through the uncertainty of the election and embrace calls for unity.
Respectful silence following Trump’s attempted assassination was appropriate. Biden’s campaign pulled down advertisements, and he made three appearances—including an Oval Office address—within two days to condemn the shooting and all political violence. He also called Trump personally, ordered an investigation into the Secret Service lapse at the rally, assigned Secret Service protection to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and sought to calm the turbulent political landscape.
It’s the type of leadership Biden pledged to provide a reeling nation at his inauguration two weeks after a deadly insurrection. The problem is that he can no longer sell it to the public.
Biden’s Oval Office address on Sunday night was, at times, painful to watch: a nervous president speaking too fast, mangling sentences and repeating twice that we must resolve our differences at the “battle box.”
And being presidential alone cannot dissolve Biden’s liabilities, which have deepened. As he tried to lead the nation, it is becoming clear that Biden cannot lead his own party. Hours before Trump was shot, Biden was on another listening session call with members of Congress and yelled at Rep. Jason Crow when he questioned his ability to serve another four years.
“The message we’ve been getting from him and his team: Shut up, fall in line, everything's fine,” Rep. Adam Smith, who called for Biden to step aside, told CNN. “That’s not good.”
Biden’s explanation for staying in the race despite stark doubts about his ability to serve is that his decades of experience, and three-and-a-half years in the White House, make him the best person to beat Trump. Biden does not—cannot—see the connection between his “most successful presidency of any president in modern history” and the inexorable data showing the electorate no longer believes he can serve.
But other Democrats, like Rep. Adam Schiff, can. One of the party’s top pollsters has presented the White House with “devastating” polling showing his party getting wiped out with Biden atop the ticket. Panicked Democrats fear Biden isn’t getting accurate information—that he is exaggerating and misrepresenting the dire state of the race in his interviews.
The latest fear is that Biden and his team might run out the clock, especially with a virtual roll call for the presidential nomination set to take place long before the convention actually begins, as Axios reported today. The president had challenged those Democrats worried about his candidacy to “challenge” him “at the convention.” A virtual forum would make that all but impossible.
Some in the party now find themselves simply resigned to losing a change election to someone who tried to overthrow the government by stealing an election. They groan that Trump’s near-death has cemented that outcome.
That is nuts.
If Trump is the same existential threat to self-governance that he was before someone shot him, then Democrats must make the tough political choices to stop him. And that means bypassing Biden to nominate someone else.
Another Democrat can not only more deftly navigate this fraught moment, which is likely to get worse before November, but make a more forceful case to the voters about Trump’s embrace of violent rhetoric, his threats and intimidation; about the dangers of unchecked power, mass deportation and internment camps and criminalizing mifepristone.
A new Democratic candidate can not only defend Biden’s record but, more importantly, look to the future in a way that Biden—and Trump—cannot.
There are plenty of skilled, adroit messengers in the Democratic Party. As Bill Kristol asked yesterday in The Bulwark after witnessing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s leadership following the attempt on Trump’s life: “Who can watch that and seriously think Biden is the best Democrat to take us forward in November?”
Demoralized Democratic voters want to move on from Biden. A staggering 33 percent of them are “satisfied” with him as their nominee, compared to 71 percent of Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris is outperforming Biden in polling.
A focus group held yesterday, of voters who chose Trump in 2016 and then Biden in 2020—and who dread and oppose Trump—was unanimous that Biden could not serve another term. Most of them said any new candidate would beat Trump, and that most of the people they knew would agree. Their opinion of Biden as a decent man had turned to frustration over his narcissism and unwillingness to step aside.
We are in week three of Biden’s post-debate delusion. He is costing the party, and the nation, precious time that should be spent moving forward to a plan to beat Trump in less than four months. Democratic leaders must act before the DNC ensures it is officially too late.
No matter what happens to Trump, Biden will remain the candidate of questions and doubt who is selling the past. If Democrats relent to this, they are buying a ticket to defeat and the dystopian hellscape they have promised will forever change America.