Joe Biden informed congressional Democrats in a letter on Monday that he has no intention of dropping out of the race. Later, during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Biden defiantly dismissed those in the party who are calling on him to step aside and offered anyone to challenge him at the Democratic National Convention.
"The American public is not going to move away from me as the average voter," Biden told hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. "And again, I'm here for two reasons: One to rebuild the economy for hardworking middle-class people [to] give everybody a shot. It's a straight shot. Everybody gets a fair chance, number one."
"Number two: Remember all this talk about how I don't have the black support? Come on, give me a break," he added. "Come with me. Watch. Watch! I'm getting so frustrated but by the elites — now I'm not talking about you guys but about the elites — in the party."
"They know so much more," Biden said sarcastically. “Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention.”
ANGRY OLD MAN STARTS SCREAMING INTO THE PHONE: "CHALLENGE ME!" pic.twitter.com/EqtcusZfbf
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 8, 2024
That's a pretty serious challenge that Biden has made. Assuming that Democrats are not convinced that he has what it takes and more voices call for him to drop out and he refuses, a battle at the Democratic National Convention could be exactly where we are headed.
Scarborough has been an unabashed supporter of Biden and has frequently challenged the notion that he is in cognitive decline and potentially suffering from dementia.
"I undersold him when I said he was cogent. He's far beyond cogent," Scarborough said back in March. "In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been intellectually, analytically."
After the debate, he was singing a different tune:
I'm not saying that everything happens today. And maybe we wait a week. I'm just saying personal feelings... personal feelings, personal admiration...love... respect... honor... all the things I talked about in my feelings about Joe Biden, Jill Biden, and their family that Mika and her family have felt about Joe Biden for 50 years, that I felt for as long as I've known him that you felt about Joe Biden—that cannot play a role in any of this. This is a battle for the future of American democracy. And now is a good time in June—Thank God, June and not October, June—This is a last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we've known and loved for a very long time is up to the task of running for president of the United States. (Emphasis added)
If Democrats are not convinced that Joe Biden is fit to run for president, a challenge at the Democratic National Convention may happen. If it happens, any Democrat who thinks this is his shot to run — even if he has disputed the idea at first — will do so under the guise of trying to unite the party. However, a convention battle is more likely to divide the party.
The Democratic National Convention is coming up on August 19-22, and that's a terrible time for Democrats to be fighting over who their nominee is going to be. It's an even worse time to switch when Biden has been the presumptive nominee since the moment he announced his candidacy last year.
Biden clearly intends to stick around and doesn't care about what anyone in his party says, and if a convention battle is what he wants, his party may just take him up on it.
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