“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” — Proverbs 16:18
President Joe Biden, who earned our respect and affection over the past four years, is now trying our souls. In an interview on a Philadelphia radio show, he mumbled that he was proud to be “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.” Later, word leaked that campaign aides had submitted proposed questions to the radio hosts in advance. Was that a vote of no confidence from the staff?
In his interview with George Stephanopoulos, which was intended to calm worries about his debate performance — which itself was intended to calm worries about his deteriorating mental condition — the president was asked how he would feel if Donald Trump were sworn in for a second term in January 2025. “I’ll feel,” he said, “as long as I gave it my all, and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”
Biden’s word jumble is disturbing in two ways. In the first place, it’s yet further evidence that the president’s verbal fluency (and very possibly his mental functioning) is declining. But that was not the worst part. This election isn’t about Biden giving it one more college try. It’s about ensuring that Trump cannot return to the Oval Office. Biden refused to think of the stakes for the country and made it all about himself.
Biden’s interview answers are consistent with everything else we’ve seen from him since the catastrophic debate — denial, selfishness and appalling judgment. He’s elevated his son, Hunter, to a key adviser role. Hunter is apparently attending White House meetings and strongly advocating that his father stick it out. The younger Biden (like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump) has no qualifications to serve in the White House. How diminished must Joe Biden be not to see that Hunter may have ulterior motives?
When Stephanopoulos noted that no president with a 36% approval rating has ever been reelected, Biden snapped, “That’s not what our polls show … all the pollsters I talk to tell me it’s a toss-up.” Later, he seemed to discount polling altogether, asking, “Do you think polling is as accurate as it used to be?”
Dismissing polls is easier than accounting for the loss of support Biden has clocked since the debate, and the huge percentage of Democrats who say, even in our ultra-polarized time, that Biden should step aside.
Apparently, Biden is willing to risk the future of the country on the bet that the polls are wrong.
Some protest that it’s unfair to be focusing on Biden’s limitations when his opponent is a criminal would-be autocrat. But the threat Trump poses cuts the other way: When the alternative is so dire, the Democrats should be fielding a candidate who is unassailably electable. No candidate is without flaws, of course, and Biden has many advantages, but voters have consistently reported for years that they think he’s too old. Before the debate, it was possible to imagine that the 2020 Biden would show up for key moments and that voters’ misgivings would be overcome. But that hope was shattered on June 27, and there is no returning to the status quo ante. Voters’ worst fears have been confirmed and then some.
When it comes to a president’s mental and physical health, voters are unforgiving. At a primitive level, they are choosing someone to be able to respond to a natural disaster or military attack. A potential president must clear this bar. It’s the primate part of our brains. No doubt millions of Americans would vote for a comatose Biden over Trump, but there aren’t enough voters like us to be certain of victory. As Bill Clinton is reported to have said, “Strong and wrong beats weak and right every time.”
Some Biden stalwarts object that Kamala Harris is just as unpopular as the president. That is true, but it’s also the case that she hasn’t had many opportunities to improve her standing with voters. If she were suddenly thrust into the spotlight, she might enjoy a surge of support.
Similarly, many worry that an open convention would devolve into chaos. It might. But it seems equally likely that it would be the first political convention in decades to generate a true contest and accordingly intense public interest.
There was one answer Biden offered to Stephanopoulos that may signal the way things must go in the coming days.
Stephanopoulos asked whether, “If Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi come down and say, ‘We’re worried that if you stay in the race, we’re gonna lose the House and the Senate,’ how will you respond?” Biden said he’d already spoken to many of them, and they hadn’t asked him to step down. Stephanopoulos asked again, “But if they do?” Biden smiled and asserted, “They’re not going to do that.”
Those words could be interpreted as marching orders.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.
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