With President Biden’s 2024 campaign in crisis following last week’s disastrous debate performance, and polls showing a small but significant shift toward former President Donald Trump, many dismayed Democrats and other critics have complained about what they see as a double standard when it comes to the candidates’ fitness to hold office.
“Given who the Republicans have chosen as their nominee, it’s kind of ironic that it’s the Democrats who are concerned about their choice of candidate,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said this week.
Maddow then listed all of Trump’s legal troubles, including his recent convictions in New York for falsifying corporate records.
📣Debating the debate
In the hours after the debate ended, a Biden campaign memo declared that Biden had won and that “the more they saw of Donald Trump’s erratic and vindictive behavior, the more they remembered why they voted against him in 2020.”
Key Biden surrogates, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also tried to divert attention from Biden’s accomplishments and focus on Trump’s.
“How can you have a legitimate debate when someone is completely lying and you have to debunk their lies?” Pelosi said.
While many outlets, including Yahoo News, fact-checked what each candidate said during the debate, Biden’s halting, muddled delivery became the story. Several leading editorial boards promptly called on Biden, 81, to step aside so the Democrats could have a better shot at defeating Trump.
“To serve his country, President Biden should drop out of the race,” the New York Times wrote.
The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board embraced the same framework to make the opposite argument. “To serve his country, Donald Trump should drop out of the race,” they wrote back.
“President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His incoherent responses and bewildered look led to calls to drop him from the presidential race,” the newspaper said. “But Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, exaggeration, bigotry, ignorance and fear-mongering was lost in the hand-wringing. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.”
❓The demand for fitness
The division over whether Democrats should continue to support Biden’s candidacy extends far beyond the opinion pages of the nation’s newspapers. Polls conducted after the debate and released this week showed that a majority of Democrats now believe Biden is unfit for a second term as president.
While that sentiment isn’t unique to Biden, it’s a bigger problem for him than it is for Trump. In April, a Pew Research Center poll found that 65% of registered voters had little or no confidence that Biden has the physical fitness to do the job of president, while 40% said the same of Trump.
↪️Bidenkamp tries to move on
Last week’s debates, watched by more than 50 million people, were difficult for the Biden campaign to simply brush aside, despite initial attempts.
“Did you see the amazing clips of our fans on the tarmac doing the Cupid Shuffle at 2 a.m. the night of the debate?” a Biden fundraiser emailed supporters the weekend after the debate. “Well, no, probably not, because the media is busy hyperventilating and trying to create drama to boost ratings.”
And in a video call with supporters on Monday, Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks continued that line of attack, saying, “The media has spent a lot of time taking this out of context. We’re not going to defend ourselves in this campaign.”
🦺Damage Control
It is clear that the damage to Biden’s campaign extends far beyond what the media is claiming.
Some Democratic officials are openly calling for him to withdraw from the race, even though he is only weeks away from being officially re-nominated by his party.
In a radio interview in Milwaukee that aired Thursday, Biden’s demeanor appeared somewhat defensive.
“I had a bad night,” Biden said. “And the fact is, I blew it. I made a mistake.”
Biden himself has acknowledged that he has a dual task: He must convince voters he is fit for office, and he must ensure that the race is about the man he hopes to defeat in November.
“And you know what, we’re going to win this election,” Biden told Ingram. “We’re going to beat Donald Trump. And just like in 2020, we’re going to beat him again.”
➕Read more
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Biden tells allies he knows he has just days to save his candidacy. “Biden has stressed that he remains deeply committed to the fight for re-election, but he understands that his viability as a candidate is at stake.” [The New York Times]
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The Biden family is fully committed to holding the 2024 presidential election, a source said. “The first lady is all for it. The family is all for it.” [CNN]
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Who could replace Biden as the Democratic nominee? “Here’s the not-so-short list of hypothetical Biden replacements — along with how they rank among voters in a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.” [Yahoo News]
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As Biden’s team suggests, there is no alternative. The DNC rules provide a way out if Biden withdraws. ““Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee,” the talking points read.” [NBC News]
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Democratic Governors to President Biden: ‘The Road to Victory is Priority Number One.’ “But while several governors said afterwards that they “support him,” they also stressed that their main goal is to find a “path to victory.” [USA Today]
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Trump allies are stepping up attacks on Harris as talks over Biden’s replacement progress. “The Trump campaign and his Republican allies appear to be laying the groundwork for an all-out attack on Harris.” [Reuters]
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‘KHive’ and ‘coconut-pilled’: Kamala Harris sees a sudden social media renaissance. “X named ‘Kamala’ one of the trending topics in politics with about 188,000 posts, many of which offered a mix of genuine support and ironic bewilderment.” [NBC News]
