Posted on 06/28/2024 6:27:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
Jonathan Martin is POLITICO’s senior political columnist and politics bureau chief. He’s covered elections in every corner of America and co-authored a best-selling book about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. His reported column chronicles the inside conversations and major trends shaping U.S. politics.
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One House Democrat said he spoke for others in the wake of the president’s stunningly feeble debate performance on Thursday: “The movement to convince Biden to not run is real.”
The House member, an outspoken defender of the president, said that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should consider “a combined effort” to nudge President Joe Biden out of the race.
Crestfallen by the president’s weak voice, pallid appearance and meandering answers, numerous Democratic officials said Biden’s bet on an early debate to rebut unceasing questions about his age had not only backfired but done damage that may prove irreversible. The president had, in the first 30 minutes of the debate, fully affirmed doubts about his fitness.
A second House Democrat said “reflection is needed” from Biden about the way ahead and indicated the private text threads among lawmakers were even more dire, with some saying outright that the president needed to drop out of the race.
A Democratic lobbyist close to many party leaders also invoked Jeffries and Schumer — “Will they do something?” — before noting, hopefully, that Jeffries and former President Barack Obama are holding a fundraiser for House Democrats in New York on Friday.
Highlights from the first presidential debate, in 180 seconds
SharePlay Video Many top party officials, however, believe Biden can’t be persuaded let alone pressured. One Democratic governor called the debate “beyond bad,” but said it was “too late” to nominate a new standard bearer.
For those close to Biden, his appearance was the realization of their worst fears. His top strategists sought to make the best of it — citing focus groups and snap polls that showed voters also detested former President Donald Trump — but made no attempt to hide their disappointment. Nobody in Biden’s orbit wants to be the one to approach him about whether to stay in the race, but as one adviser told me: “It’s got to be a conversation, and he will hate it.”
A consistent theme from Democrats who know Biden: First lady Jill Biden would have to be a party to any intervention with the president.
With less than two months until the Democratic convention, Biden would have to agree to withdraw in order for the party to throw open the race to the delegates in Chicago. And there’s no sign, even after former Biden aides went on television to pan his performance Thursday, that he’d consider ending his half-century career in politics with a humiliating, mid-campaign exit.
There was also no indication, at least as of early Friday morning, that elected Democrats would approach Biden or even go on the record with their desire for him to quit.
Which has been the recurring story now since Biden’s first year in office. Out of fear of abetting Trump, loyalty to their incumbent or just lack of any obvious alternative, Democratic leaders have grumbled about the president’s performance and capacity to run for a second term — but swallowed their fears.
A few prominent figures in the party have spoken out, perhaps none more forcefully than longtime strategist James Carville, who on Thursday simply said, “I tried.”
However, most influential Democrats, particularly in Congress, stayed quiet. Few wanted to grapple with the next question they’d invariably get — well if not Biden, are you for the vice president?
And after the party’s better-than-expected 2022 midterm success, well, any movement toward trying to usher Biden to retirement dissipated.
Now it may, indeed, be too late.
But there will at least be a conversation, this one in public. Biden’s lackluster showing ensured it.
“There are going to be discussions about if he should continue,” David Axelrod, Obama’s former chief strategist, said on CNN immediately following the debate.
Biden has finally pushed into the public sphere the backroom chatter I wrote about in February of 2023 when one of the few Democrats to speak openly was the congressman, Dean Phillips, who wound up waging a quixotic primary challenge.
The Please-Joe-Go push may have as much a chance for success as Phillips’s candidacy. Yet Biden will have to quickly dispel it and there’s no obvious, high-profile forum for him to quiet the chatter before the Democratic convention begins on August 19.
The president is in for a difficult summer — with his own party.
Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves. They stayed mum for three and half years and now they’re reaping the whirlwind.
Ha! Jill loves being queen. The Bidens are not going anywhere voluntarily.
When will the LBJ moment come and who is going to deliver the message to the WH?
My guess is Obama, Schumer, Jeffries and Pelosi will soon be visiting Joe en banc.................................
What I’m waiting to see is if Joe, Jill and little Hunter give the Hollowoodies their 40 million dollars back.
Well, when you elevate the color of the skin above the content of the character this is the kind of result you have to expect. Democrats have done very well with divisive, tribal politics. But now a tribe of angry black women is going to have to be told - for the good of the party - that their token needs to be set aside.
Get the popcorn. :)
Just wait a second.
They will start the ‘She ain’t black’ drumbeat any time now...................
This is all enormously entertaining but at the end of the day I want Biden as the nominee.
Part of me believes that will run Joe to prove their power in electing anyone they want.
“We control the elections now. Don’t even bother to vote”
this is all scripted.....there are no coincidences in politics
why a debate so early? to allow time for the switcheroo.....
all the mediawhore hacks singing the same ‘Joe must go’ song? after shamelessly protecting the old fool for so long? they received their marching orders from their DNC masters.
soon the will suddenly(!) discover Joe is corrupt and will start ‘reporting’ it. another reason Joe must go
they sent him out there to fail, for all the world to see what they have been hiding - and he did. now they can justify replacing him
“This is all enormously entertaining but at the end of the day I want Biden as the nominee.”
Agree on both points. Furthermore, Biden is such a horrible human being that whatever misfortune or humiliation comes his way is more than justified.
Popcorn time if the situation were not so serious. Anyone who supports Biden and his re election has a core visceral hatred for America and the American people.
This.
And when they say Biden they mean Jill because Joe doesn’t even know where he is anymore.
Agreed. And the FBI/CIA/IRS etc have plenty of info to put Biden in prison any time they want. Jill’s probably co-signer on his taxes so they’ve got her as well. The Soros/Obama cartel has a decision to make.
They will pay Hunter millions to talk the big guy into retirement.
That arrogant horse’s ass isn’t going to withdraw.
Can’t wait for the 2nd debate...when is it?
You’re probably right.
People seem to forget, if he resigns or loses, he no longer has the Power of the Pardon.
He MUST retain that power as a minimum to protect Hunter, brother James, his sister and daughters and neieces and nephews, and HIMSELF if necessary..............
..not that the demholes are concerned about rules but.... i’ve read the DNC rules allow a vacancy on the ticket after the convention if the nominee resigns, is disabled or dies, to be filled by the party. the deep-state will kill biden to keep DJT out of the WH and retain power. who knows what the ‘doctors’ will inject him with in august.
the new nominee - against which DJT will have barely 90 days to campaign against - will court the sympathy vote as in the Manchurian Candidate.
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