With President Biden’s 2024 campaign in crisis mode following last week’s disastrous debate performance, and polls showing a small but significant shift in former President Donald Trump’s direction, many dismayed Democrats and other critics have complained about what they consider a double standard on the issue of candidates’ fitness to hold the position.
“Given who the Republicans have chosen as their candidate, it’s quite ironic that it’s the Democrats who are concerned about the candidate’s choice,” said MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. said this week.
Maddow then listed all of Trump’s legal troubles, including his recent convictions on criminal charges of falsifying business records in New York.
Debating the debate
In the hours after the debate ended, a memo from the Biden campaign 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.”
Biden’s top surrogates, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have also sought to shift attention from Biden’s performance to Trump’s.
“How can you have a legitimate debate when someone is totally lying and you have to dispel their falsehoods?” Pelosi said.
Although many media outlets, including Yahoo News, performed fact checks on what each candidate said in the debate, Biden’s halting and confusing presentation became the story. Several prominent editorial boards promptly called on Biden, 81, to step aside so Democrats could have a better chance of defeating Trump.
“To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Drop Out of the Race,” the New York Times he wrote.
The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board adopted the same structure to make the opposite argument. “To serve his country, Donald Trump should drop out of the race,” he said. He wrote back.
“President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look prompted calls for him to abandon the presidential race,” the newspaper said. “But lost in the hubbub was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance and fearmongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger for democracy and unfit for office.”
The issue of physical conditioning
The divide over whether Democrats should continue to support Biden’s candidacy goes far beyond the editorial 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 this sentiment is not limited to Biden, it has been a bigger problem for him than for Trump. In April, a survey released by the Pew Research Center found that 65% of registered voters believed they had little or no confidence that Biden was physically fit to serve as president, while 40% said the same about Trump.
Campo Biden tries to move forward
The stumbles of last week’s debate, watched by more than 50 million people, proved difficult for the Biden campaign to simply ignore, despite its initial attempts to do so.
“Did you see the amazing clips of our supporters on the floor doing the Cupid Shuffle at 2am on the night of the debate?” a fundraising email from Biden told supporters the weekend after the debate. “Well, no, probably not, because the media is busy hyperventilating and trying to manifest drama to increase ratings.”
And in a video call with supporters on Monday, Biden deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks continued that line of attack, saying: “The media has spent a lot of time exaggerating this. We will not be defensive in this campaign.”
Damage control
Of course, the damage to Biden’s campaign goes far beyond the media narrative.
Some Democratic officials have begun openly calling for him to withdraw from the race, even though he is only weeks away from receiving official renomination from his party.
In a Milwaukee radio interview that aired Thursday, Biden’s stance seemed at least somewhat defensive.
“I had a bad night,” Biden said. “And the fact is that I screwed up. I made a mistake.”
Now, as Biden himself has acknowledged, his task is twofold: reassuring voters about his fitness for office, while also trying to make the race about the man he still hopes to defeat in November.
“And, you know, we’re going to win this election,” Biden told Ingram. “Let’s just defeat Donald Trump. And like we did in 2020, we will beat it again.”
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Biden tells allies he knows he only has a few days to save his candidacy. “Biden emphasized that he is still deeply committed to fighting for re-election, but understands that his viability as a candidate is at stake.” [The New York Times]
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The Biden family is ‘betting’ on the president’s continuation in the 2024 race, the source said. “The first lady is fully involved. The family is fully involved.” [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 may be no alternative, DNC rules provide a path should Biden step aside. “‘Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president,’ the talking points read.” [NBC News]
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Democratic governors to President Biden: ‘The path to victory is the No. 1 priority.’ “But while several governors later said they “support” him, they also emphasized that their main goal is to find a “path to win.” [USA Today]
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Trump allies step up attacks on Harris as talks over Biden’s replacement escalate. “The Trump campaign and its 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 listed ‘Kamala’ among its trending topics in politics, with some 188,000 posts, many offering a mix of genuine support and wry bemusement.” [NBC News]
