Stand Down, Joe

Opinions about Biden’s fitness for office are getting cheap. Here’s another…

American democracy, or rather, what remains of it, is in peril. I know this. You know this. The people who ache for it to end know this. Joe Biden certainly knows this.

Following the Presidential debate, concerns about Biden’s fitness for office have mushroomed. Biden is adamant that he is both up to the task and the best chance we have at beating Trump in the election, but given what we’ve seen, a growing cohort is increasingly questioning both of those assertions.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes offered his perspective on Biden’s claims of fitness, "The problem fundamentally is we can’t control how we age and Biden is promising something (I’ll run a strong race the next 4 months) that’s to a certain degree outside his control. RBG didn’t want to hand the seat to Trump, but in the end she didn’t get to control it. It’s the tragedy being mortal." I’d add that Biden is telling us he’s good not for four months, but rather for fifty-two of them.

Osita Nwanevu took Biden and his party to task in a recent article for the Guardian (which you should read right now if you haven’t already done so). In that, Nwanevu wrote that since Biden took office, the President “and his backers have labored mightily to convince the American people he’s well enough not only to take on the duties of the presidency but to save American democracy. As it stands today, it’s doubtful he can even save himself.” Nwanevu further claimed that the “Democratic party is best understood less as a political party organized to enact or protect specific policies than as a professional association committed to protecting its most valued members,” using Biden and Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg as prime examples.

Nwanevu warned that spending the next four months touting Biden’s fitness “would push Americans more deeply into the political nihilism that has made Trump an attractive prospect for so many,” while encouraging many more voters “to disengage from a political system they see as hopelessly tainted by dishonesty and corruption. The result of doing so would “continue the corrosion of the faith in politics Biden promised to help restore in the first place."

Nwanevu further warned that the right has plans in place and is “willing to play the long game” to achieve them, while the Democrats are “beholden to the feudal political culture this crisis has exposed for all to see.” He closed with the quote below, calling for a new candidate and a reckoning for a sclerotic party that has lost its way.

Matt Yglesias has a mea culpa post where he admitted being wrong about Biden’s fitness for a second term. In discussing his expectations going into the debate, he wrote that he “thought Biden would clear the low bar that had been set for him by Republicans and take advantage of one of the few big opportunities to erase Trump’s advantage. Clearly, that’s not what happened."

In looking back on his misperception, Yglesias recalled several things from the months prior to the debate, but one in particular helped him reframe Biden’s fitness in retrospect. That was a discussion he had in the days leading up to the debate where someone who recently saw Biden, noted “that he looked and sounded dramatically worse than the previous times they’d seen him — as recently as six months ago — and that they were now convinced Biden wouldn’t be able to make it through a second term.”

George Clooney echoed those remarks with his op-ed in the NYT: “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

While calls for Biden’s exit have grown, the President has held firm, as he should unless he’s certain he’s not staying in. But in doing so, he hasn’t inspired the necessary confidence in the wake of his disastrous debate performance.

One of Biden’s attempts came via a two-page letter he shared with Congressional Democrats. In that, he laid out his case for staying. The letter included four paragraphs (highlighted in the screenshot of his letter below) in which he extolled the virtues of this year’s nomination process and the overwhelming support he’d received in the form of votes and delegates.

The problem with his argument is that this was not a true open primary, so Biden did not face the party’s top contenders. With the resources at his disposal and ten days to pull together a compelling argument, Biden put forth a deeply flawed argument for staying in. He shouldn't be trying to fool anyone with this and surely can’t expect it to fly with members of Congress who understand the nature of this year’s primary.

Biden also interviewed with George Stephanopolous following the debate. The sit-down needed to be a 180° turn from the debate performance. While the President did not falter as he had in the debate, he also did not deliver as needed. For me, the most remarkable moment of that discussion came when Stephanopolous asked him if he had watched the debate. (The video clip below is queued up to start with that question.) How could he not be prepared to answer that question?

Stephanopolous also asked Biden if he would be at peace if he lost the election. Biden responded by saying, “I'll feel, as long as I gave it my all, and I did as good a job as I know I can do, that's what this is about," The man told us he is the best person to beat Trump, but then told us he’d be okay if he didn’t win. I can’t speak for others, but I need to see more commitment than that given our circumstances. Responses like this leave me worrying that he’s more concerned about his legacy than what happens to America.

Yesterday, TMZ released a video (that was recorded surreptitiously) in which Stephanopolous was asked about Biden’s fitness for the next term. The interviewer said he did not think the President was up to the task.

Stephanopolous has since apologized.

Biden has remained defiant. In an interview with the Morning Joe show on MSNBC, he stated, “I’m getting so frustrated by the elites in the party – they know so much more,” and later added, “If any of these guys don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce they’re (running for) president. Challenge me at the convention.”

Biden has also claimed that he has far more public supporters in office than the number opposing him, but that’s to be expected. Until there’s a critical mass of those opposing his candidacy, those who step forward do so at personal risk. Think of Pete Meijer, the MI Republican who voted to impeach Trump, who’s no longer in office. The Dems might not be expected to turn so hard on one of their own, but those who publicly call for Biden to step down could certainly expect to lose favored status depending on how things went forward. But while relatively few members of Congress have publicly called for Biden to step down, that cohort is steadily growing and many more have reportedly called for him to do so in private.

Another interesting case came from Nancy Pelosi as she refused to acknowledge that the President had made his decision to stay in the race. Everyone knows that Biden has repeatedly stated that he’s staying in, but in an interview yesterday, Pelosi repeatedly refuted that, leaving people assuming she wanted him to reconsider his decision.

Van Jones joined the debate claiming, “Nobody believes Joe Biden can be president in four years.” He later added, “The reality is we are running Kamala Harris for president one way or the other.” If you agree with that, you should want her putting her best foot forward, rather than spending her time defending Biden.

I don’t often agree with Jones (or Yglesias), but I’ve included their thoughts to show that this is not just a progressive push to remove Biden. My belief that the President has supported war crimes and should be removed from office is separate from my belief that what I saw in the debate was a man who is no longer up to the grueling task of being president. That said, my biases are out in the open, so do what you will with that info…

So far, 13 members of Congress and one Senator have publicly stated that Biden should withdraw. It's possible that the dam will hold from here, but it seems likely that the trickle will continue and make it increasingly difficult for Biden to stay in the race. Meanwhile, election day draws closer while the party is divided and flailing. The longer it takes to resolve this, the messier it will likely get, risking both the Presidency — and thus democracy — as well as several down-ballot races.

The problem here is a matter of perception. There was no major change in who Biden was on the night of the debate, but I don’t see how anyone can look at him the same now. As Alex Seitz-Wald put it, “Joe Biden’s superpower inside the Democratic Party has been the belief he can beat Donald Trump — a belief that helped him prevail in the crowded 2020 primary campaign. But electability is quickly becoming his potential kryptonite as members of his party worry he’s poised to lose re-election and bring down everyone else with him.”

Seitz-Wald brings up a good point. His comments reminded me of an idea from Professor Michael Sandel. In Sandel’s famous online class, Justice, told students there was an irony to his course in that it teaches things they already “know from familiar unquestioned settings, and making it strange.” That’s kind of what happened with the debate. We saw Biden in a new light and need to adjust our perceptions and respond accordingly. (If you’re still not feeling it, please check out Biden’s results in the first two questions from the poll below.)

For my part, I see two possible paths forward that would avoid such chaos. Biden can either get a clear commitment from the party that the full cohort of Congress has his back, or he should drop out. For the former — which I don’t see happening — I’d expect a letter signed off on by leadership and all sitting members. If he could do that, he could plausibly move forward, but doing so would leave the concerns of the rest of us out of the picture. If he can’t show the full support of his party, he should recognize the harm he’s doing by staying in, and leave for the good of the American people.

If Biden drops out, the question becomes who to replace him with. Kamala Harris is an obvious choice, but other possibilities are available, like an open convention or a brokered one. For this, I recommend reading something Lydia Polgreen wrote following the debate. She’s someone I’ve learned to trust in response to her coverage of the student protests this spring.

As she watched VP Harris handle questions after the debate, Polgreen saw the way forward: “The obvious, logical path out of the mess President Biden created with his disastrous debate performance is for him to bow out with honor and endorse his young, vigorous and talented vice president to stand in his stead.” Please read Polgreen’s full post and consider our options and escalating urgency. Waiting for the convention invites chaos. And there’s also the pending matter of the Netanyahu visit to Congress later this month that threatens to divide the Democrats further. The Republicans are surely giddy for that event.

It is time for Joe Biden to step up to this demanding moment. It is well past due for him to find a way to end Israel’s assault on Gaza and help set the stage for peace. He can work to cancel the Netanyahu visit or at least get the Dems to sit it out and spend the rest of his term expanding the court and supporting Harris’ campaign. Stand down, Joe. You can wipe the slate and be a statesman on the way out.

I was about to post this when President Biden appeared on TV for his NATO speech. I decided to watch that and see if it might shift my perception before I hit send. He was pretty solid with his prepared remarks, strong even at points. Following that, he held a Q&A session with members of the media. I thought he started fairly well (aside from calling Kamala Harris “Trump”), but as the session wore on, he tended to look stressed, like he was surviving the event, rather than thriving. He looked tired and his voice sounded raspy.

He certainly looked like he cared and was giving it everything he had. If we were discussing whether he could finish out his term — without squeezing in the dual role of campaigning — I’d feel like we could get through that. That said, I didn’t get the sense he is up to four more years of this.

Many of tonight’s questions were related to his fitness. The President seemed evasive in his answers to some of those. He blamed his team for saying he intended to lighten his schedule and claimed he just needed to pace himself better to avoid getting overworked (while stating that he would not work less). I didn’t think much of any of those answers.

I expect polling will be unfavorable and that President Biden will eventually relent. How much harm will be caused along the way might depend on how long he persists.

Before I close this out, let’s revisit Osita Nwavenu’s exhortation. The goal of the moment is to hold off Trump. That is vital. I don’t think Biden is our best option now, but this is a highly complex matter and you may see it differently. Regardless, I hope we agree with Osita that the system that delivered our current options is overdue for renewal. Let’s get through this moment and then work on the system.