This week promises to be exceptionally turbulent for national Democrats, as a substantial portion of the party elite and their media allies continue a desperation-fueled gambit to pressure Joe Biden out of the presidential race, just weeks ahead of their nominating convention in Chicago. For months -- years, actually -- this exact same coalition aggressively and repeatedly lied to the public, insisting that any observations about Biden's manifestly diminished capacity to serve as president amounted to right-wing lies, smears, "cheap fakes," etc. When the Bad People notice things, the press takes that as their cue to carry water in the other direction. But when this shameless gaslighting collided violently with reality in a nationally-televised debate in front of tens of millions of viewers, their conspiracy of silence instantaneously morphed into a frantic effort to push Biden out of the race, due to the very same manifestly diminished capacity they'd been indignantly denying and minimizing all the way up until approximately 8:20pm on June 27th.
Some members of this coalition are openly calling for Biden to step aside. Others are impotently wringing their hands, saying different things in public than they're saying in private or 'background' conversations. Others are silent, effectively paralyzed. Still others seem resigned to Biden being the nominee at this stage, so they're defending him full-throatedly and demanding their colleagues do the same. Meetings are being hastily called, amid the ritual gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. As I noted on social media last week, in order for a Biden ejection to succeed, three conditions must be met: (1) The center-left must be united around the proposition, (2) an alternative course of action (nominee) must be widely agreed upon, and (3) Biden himself must be a willing participant. On the first point, there is no such unity at the moment, with the clock ticking away. National polls have shown that while divided, most Democrats want the incumbent to remain their nominee through November. The second point is still the source of a fair amount of debate and consternation, but it does seem as though an understanding is emerging that if it's not going to be Biden, it almost has to be Vice President Kamala Harris, who presents an entire separate set of electoral challenges for their side. More on her later.
But item number three is by far the most important domino that would need to fall, and over the last few days, the president has sounded resolute in his determination ('completely ruling out' leaving the race) to see this election through as the Democratic nominee. And in fairness to him, he is the incumbent, he was elected by the American people, he has run away with his party's virtually uncontested primary, securing the votes of more than 14 million Democrats (nearly 90 percent of participants in the process), compared to his closest competitor, 'uncommitted.' If he well and truly doesn't want to go, and steadfastly refuses to do so, there's almost nothing the pack of eleventh-hour panickers can do about it. Thus, Democrats have arrived at the current impasse, which amounts to an extraordinary and historic game of chicken:
We are witnessing a high-stakes game of chicken among Democrats. Either Biden will blink by letting himself be pushed aside, or the party’s doubters will blink by accepting he won’t budge (he’s the incumbent/nominated by voters) and do a big show of unity.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 7, 2024
One or the other has…
'One or the other has to happen soon because this purgatory is bleeding them,' I wrote noting the undeniable truth that the status quo represents the worst of all worlds for Democrats. They're either going to succeed in 'convincing' him to go, soon, or they're going to have to link arms, jump together, and hope for the best. What is the Trump campaign rooting for here? And do they have any agency in bringing about their preferred outcome? I'll explore that question shortly, but first, I'd like to reflect on this simple but powerful statement of fact:
If Biden were in Trump’s polling position, there wouldn’t be any serious discussion about replacing him. It’s a political problem for Dems, not an ethical one.
— Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons) July 7, 2024
Does anyone seriously dispute this? Let's say Biden had been slightly leading Trump heading into last month's debate, both in the national polls and in most swing states. The mid- and post-debate meltdown on the center-left would have either been far more muted, or simply wouldn't have happened at all. They would have put on their bravest faces, sprayed their spin at high decibels, and white-knuckled their way through the next week or two, waiting to see what the polls showed. And if no major shift in public opinion were detected, nearly all of them would be full speed ahead, ridin' with Biden -- even after the exact same debate performance we all just saw. Much of the 'journalism' suddenly 'exposing' the problem that's been in plain sight for years would not have been published or aired. It's quite telling how very little of the current freakout even pretends to be about whether this man is capable of effectively serving as president, now or in the future. It's about the prospect of losing the presidency, as evidenced by Trump's polling leads, and possible down-ballot fallout.
The truth is that the same people who brought us the 'Russia collusion' invention and the brazen Hunter Biden laptop/Russian 'disinformation' manipulation are also responsible for a massive, multi-year cover-up of a flagrantly and dangerously deteriorating Commander-in-Chief. These are genuine outrages, taken separately. Taken together, they're astonishingly sinister. The president has reportedly been wrapped in something of a protective bubble by a handful of close aides to the First Lady, and now has his convicted felon son (with whom he's effectively been in business for years) attending high-level White House meetings and serving as a de facto gatekeeper to the most powerful office on earth. Many of the people who are complicit in all of this -- lots of whom treat the rest of us to 'country over party' lectures and high-minded sermons about 'democracy' -- have been jealously protecting their tribe's political power at all costs. And a large number of them are now demanding that their "pro-democracy" party dump millions of duly-cast votes into the ocean and pick someone other than the nominee-in-waiting, elected by their own voters. Their motivation for wanting to do this is that too many general election voters are now unavoidably aware of the stark reality they've been colluding to hide.
They assuage themselves with self-righteous reassurances that what sets them apart from their opposition is their scrupulous truthfulness. Come to think of it, they say, their furious 'ditch Biden' stampede is actually evidence of how 'healthy' their internal debates are -- unlike those nasty Republicans, who held a real, contested primary. It's really something to behold. In any case, back to the question of what, if anything, the Trump campaign could or should do about this. There's a strong argument to be made that Trump staying out of the limelight and allowing this 'Dems-in-Disarray-on-Steroids' nightmare to play out. Stay out of the way. Soon enough, though, Trump is going to have to announce his running mate, and the GOP will have to put on a convention that features a compelling and sustained case against their presumed opponent. Is their likeliest opponent Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or someone else? As stated above, I think it's extremely likely that either Biden or Harris will lead the ticket. If it's Biden, it's also a campaign against Harris because everybody understands and more or less admits that Biden cannot serve much longer. So either way, it's a campaign against a President Kamala Harris.
I also believe there's a compelling case to be made (looking just at current polls, for example) that the known commodity of Joe Biden is the most straightforward campaign for Trump to run. The incumbent is plainly too old for the job, has been for some time, and that problem will only grow worse. He can't do this. He's also been a failure of a president, with an unpopular record hanging around his neck. There now also exists a huge trove of clips showing Democrats and media liberals questioning or outright rejecting his ability to go on. Harris is also strikingly unpopular, and is tied at the hip to Biden and his agenda. She's also been one of the chief liars and collaborators regarding Biden's condition:
WATCH: Over 6 minutes of Kamala Harris covering up Joe Biden's cognitive decline.
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 7, 2024
For years, she said Biden is "very bold and vibrant" and is "tireless in terms of working." Kamala claimed Biden "is gonna be fine," and said he "is in good shape, in good health."
Kamala LIED. pic.twitter.com/d2domPIUOA
Some polls show her faring worse than Biden in a hypothetical match-up against Trump. Others are a mixed bag. Still others suggest she'd enter the race in a more competitive position than Biden presently enjoys. The point is that there are plenty of unknowns when it comes to the prospect of pivoting a general election campaign away from the presumptive nominee (who has already participated in a general election debate!) to somebody else, even if she is deeply flawed (her cringe factor, her ridiculous rhetorical tics, her even-further-left agenda, like eliminating private health insurance). It's also the surest bet around that if Harris is substituted in, the media will go into full-blown propaganda mode to boost her image. If the Trump campaign therefore believes that its best bet moving forward is to face Joe Biden in November -- that's an 'if' -- is there anything they can do about it? Democrats, after all, have famously meddled in internal Republican politics, succeeding to an unfortunate degree in 2022. I would submit that there is one card to play on this front:
Question: While I am fascinated by Trump’s relative silence as next-level #DemsInDisarray plays out, given our tribal age negative partisanship , what would happen if Trump publicly, briefly & forcefully…
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 3, 2024
…called for Biden to exit the race, for the good of the country? 👀
If Donald Trump stepped forward to the cameras and delivered an announcement like this, what would happen next?
Today, I am calling on President Joe Biden to resign from office and withdraw from the 2024 campaign. I say this with no pleasure because I believe I would easily defeat Biden in November, as the polls show, but this is about the best interests of our country. As even many of his own allies in the Democrat party and the fake news media have finally admitted, Joe is dangerously incapable of carrying out his duties -- both right now, and certainly for the next four-plus years. Our friends around the world, and certainly our enemies, are watching. They can also see what we all saw at our debate last month. For the safety and security of the United States, Joe Biden needs to hand over the reins of power and step aside. I believe Vice President Kamala Harris would be a terrible president, and I'm confident we will beat her, too. But she is at least mentally and physically capable of doing this job in the months ahead, unlike the president. As a show of goodwill, I pledge to pardon the president's son if I am elected by the American people. We need to put this sad chapter to a close. This country does not deserve and cannot tolerate a frail and almost-incapacitated president. Joe Biden should move into a comfortable retirement, away from any real authority. He already spends so much time at the beach, and he recently bragged about his golf game, so we can all wish him well as he hits the links in Rehoboth. But as President of the United States, it's painfully clear that he must go. Now. Thank you very much.
If the goal is actually to keep Biden in the race, perhaps the best way Trump can help ensure that eventuality is to demand precisely the opposite. In case you hadn't noticed, it's basically a reflexive article of faith on the Left to fanaticaly oppose anything Trump wants or does, no matter how successful a policy (remain in Mexico), or how wise a proposal (open schools during COVID) may be. If Trump is for it, they're against it. It's Machiavellian, and it still may not pan out, but if Team Trump has calculated that their chances of winning are enhanced by Joe Biden remaining in the race, Trump's well-timed and high-profile endorsement of Biden's ouster could very well galvanize many liberals to rally around Biden, seriously complicating 'done with Biden' Democrats' arguments to force the incumbent from the race (we don't take our marching orders from Trump!) -- while also playing to Biden's ego and temper, to similar effect. I'm not endorsing the idea, but I believe it's one that the Trump braintrust should seriously consider. The Democrats' internecine battle may come to a fever-pitched head sometime very soon. Trump has the power to drop a one-time grenade into those already-fraught dynamics if he chooses to do so. Will he? Should he? Tick tock.
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