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“Some elected Democrats loyal to President Joe Biden raised fresh questions on Tuesday about his 2024 re-election bid, with one calling for him to step aside, a shift after many defended him in the wake of last week's shaky debate performance…
“U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first congressional Democrat to call for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race on Tuesday. He told NBC News in an interview that he hoped other Democratic lawmakers would follow his lead… The president and his campaign are scrambling to bolster support. Biden will hold a meeting with Democratic governors virtually and in person at the White House on Wednesday and speak to lawmakers this week, White House officials said.” Reuters
Here’s our coverage of the presidential debate last week. The Flip Side
Many on both sides are critical of the Democratic Party:
“Even worse than those unbearable 90 minutes has been the spin that followed. Democratic operatives and Biden’s friends in high places came to his defense; Barack Obama himself brushed off the president’s dismal performance, posting on Twitter that ‘bad debate nights happen.’ C’mon. Yes, a bad debate night happened to Obama when he was running again in 2012. A bad debate night is not what happened last week…
“Pushing this line is offensive, and contemptuous of the American voting public. Everyone saw the same debate: It was reality rubbing human mortality in our faces. Biden is old, and the process of his aging seems to be accelerating, as it is wont to do… My anger isn’t even really at Biden himself. I am mad at the Democratic Party, which seems to truck along with a mission of its own while remaining wedded to the past.”
Hillary Frey, Slate
“The Democratic Party, as an institution, was determined to avoid [a competitive primary]… [They] had their reasons. Incumbency has advantages, which are lost if the incumbent is replaced with an untested national candidate. Biden had beaten Trump once. Every incumbent to face a serious primary challenge has lost; confusing correlation with causation, Democrats believed that they could avoid the problem by not having the primary…
“Ordinary, rank-and-file Democratic voters wanted an alternative to Joe Biden because they could see what their leaders tried so hard to conceal: that old Joe, who had run as a one-term transitional figure in 2020, was no longer up to the task of another national campaign. If Democrats are led to the slaughter in November behind a feeble old man, it will not be because of their voters, but because their leaders denied them a choice in the matter.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
Other opinions below.
“Democratic voters should be furious about what certainly seems like a manipulation of the public’s trust… But, if the point is for the Democrats to figure out their best shot at defeating Trump, we should realize that the duplicitousness, incompetence, and arrogance of the Biden Administration and Democratic Party leadership is actually a case against a seismic shift. These are still going to be the same people who decide on the process for a successor. Do we actually trust them to get it right?”
Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker
“If Biden gets dumped and Democrats plunge into a civil war… The story will be all Democratic disaster, all the time. [The story] would not be about their superb record on job creation since 2021, or about faster-than-inflation wage growth for middle-income and low-income workers, or about the funds for infrastructure and a greener economy, or about their success in reducing crime…
“It wouldn’t be about the Republican veto of immigration enforcement, or about Biden’s rebuilding of relationships with democratic allies, or about Democrats’ tireless work to defend women’s freedom… The story would be one of chaos and fratricide and splits.”
David Frum, The Atlantic
Others argue, “Biden’s presidency is proof of the Democratic Party’s ability to act strategically. He didn’t win the Democratic nomination in 2020 because he set the hearts of party activists aflame. Support for him always lacked the passion of support for Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or even Andrew Yang. Biden won because the party made a cold decision to unite around the candidate it thought was best suited to beating Donald Trump…
“Since 2018, Democrats have been on a winning streak because they have acted strategically while Republicans have acted impulsively… An open convention would be a risk. Nominating Harris would be a risk… [But there’s also] the possibility of a ticket that re-energizes the Democratic Party, that excites voters who currently feel they have no good choices… Democrats should give themselves a little bit more credit.”
Ezra Klein, New York Times
“Even as the Biden team ramps up its damage control, fresh word on the president’s compromised mental state keeps popping up. Among the worst of the latest: President Biden’s top staffers, per high-level leaks to Politico, have been keeping bad news from him during his regular briefings — lest it trigger one of his notorious rages…
“And this is presumably during the 10 a.m.-to-4 p.m. window (per aides’ leaks to Axios) when the staff figure the president is functional — albeit, it seems, not so functional that you can level with him… Did the press outlets now breaking the grim news (even The New York Times is getting in on it) know the truth, and keep silent — or just miss the obvious? Either way, the lie has finally crumbled.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“In press releases and on cable news, the Biden campaign has repeatedly insisted that ‘90 minutes does not negate three-and-a-half years of results.’ Setting aside that fewer than 4 in 10 voters approve of those ‘results’ and only 1 in 4 believe the country is on the right track, a second term in office is not a reward for a job well done. No, presidential elections are forward-looking, and this coming November’s contest will be a referendum on whether the incumbent can effectively do the job for another four years. He cannot.”
Editors, The Dispatch
Many also argue, “The White House has said that Biden is ‘engaged’ between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. This is not a credible defense but a condemnation… Even Joe Scarborough, one of Biden’s arch defenders, while reeling from the debate, asked what company would keep as its CEO someone who had turned in a performance like Biden’s under pressure. The answer is no one…
“Our nation requires a functioning executive. It is clear that [Biden] cannot govern us because his mental and physical condition now leave him under the custody of others who govern him — his son, his wife, and a couple of trusted aides whom the American people would not recognize by name. Luckily, our Constitution provides for such a situation. It’s time we made use of it.”
Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review
