The Democratic Party’s strategy to re-elect Joe Biden as President of the United States was simple and blunt: Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, so it is the constitutional duty of all patriotic Americans to prevent him from returning to the White House. Vote for Joe!
Given Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021, when he did nothing — until it was almost too late — to dissuade a massive mob of his supporters from storming the Capitol to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, this was a legitimate strategy that resonated with voters. The polls showed it. The overwhelmingly pro-Democratic American media pushed it.
And it has been torn to pieces by the very people who came up with it.
We now know that those closest to President Biden in the White House and at the top of the Democratic National Committee (which is controlled by the White House) have been lying to the American people for months, or rather, years, about Biden’s suitability to run for a second term.
When those at the heart of government and in control of the ruling party are willing to lie, dissemble, and obfuscate to hide the truth from the people — and the simple, uncensored truth is that Biden is clearly unfit to run, much less serve, a second term — I think it is fair to conclude that those who are lying are at least as great a threat to democracy as Trump.
There are doubts about the suitability of US President Joe Biden to run for a second term
Several reports have emerged suggesting that former President Barack Obama has privately concluded that Biden cannot run for the White House again.
It is vital for the United States and its allies that whoever occupies the Oval Office is of sound mind. In its own selfish interest, the Biden team insisted that this was the case for their man, even as evidence mounted that this was not the case. The falsehoods emanated from the very top.
Informed by Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff, and Karine Jean-Pierre, his hapless press secretary, as well as the numerous acolytes gyrating furiously beneath them, a docile media and clients embraced him with enthusiasm.
In America’s major newsrooms there are roughly ten Democrats for every Republican. All of them faithfully reported what they had been told: how sharp, shrewd and coherent the president was in meetings with his staff and visitors.
I remember telling a White House staffer almost a year ago that I thought Biden seemed increasingly unstable and incapable of running again. He told me bluntly that, unlike that staffer, I had not seen Biden operate behind closed doors, where he was “very sharp.”
I was not convinced. I was being asked to believe that someone who increasingly stumbled over his words (and his feet) in public was magically transformed in private. I asked if any of these sessions illustrating his brilliance had been recorded on video. Our conversation ended abruptly.
Anyone who dared to question the prevailing narrative was denounced as a Trump lackey and a peddler of fake news. Some were even excluded from administration briefings on key policy issues.
It was a cover-up to overshadow the Watergate scandal, as exposed in the fateful televised debate with Trump late last month, when Biden was involved in a slow-motion car crash from which he has yet to recover.
But the White House lies did not stop. We were told he had had a bad night, that he had a cold, that he was suffering from jet lag. The excuses came from all over Biden’s team, each one less credible than the last. But something significant had changed: even Jet-Lag Joe’s media cheerleaders no longer believed what they were being told.
Democratic donor George Clooney has called for Joe Biden to resign
When asked to choose between White House manipulation and what they had seen with their own eyes, even partisan journalists chose their own eyes. So did the American people. A large majority now believes Biden is unfit to run again. A clear majority of registered Democrats agree.
Now, Biden’s hunting season is open, from both the left and the right. A steady trickle of prominent Democratic politicians, joined by party loyalists in the media and Hollywood, are calling on him to step aside and let someone else try to defeat Trump, as polls increasingly show he can’t.
But Biden is tenacious. He spent 50 years coveting the White House and is not willing to give it up without a fight, especially since his wife is unwilling to do the right thing.
Many senior Democrats had hoped Jill Biden would take her husband aside and gently tell him it was time to make way for a new generation. But she loves being First Lady and is even less willing to give up than Joe. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, given his many legal troubles, has his own reasons for wanting his father to stay in power.
But a growing number of Democratic House members are openly turning against the President (17 at the time of this writing) and a couple of senators have said the same. Yet this steady trickle is, so far, nowhere near a tsunami strong enough to sweep him away.
Still, the ground seems to be crumbling beneath his unsteady feet. Thursday night’s press conference was not a disaster on the same scale as the debate. But it did not help Biden’s claim that he is sane, let alone competent, that just before the conference he introduced Ukraine’s President Zelensky as President Putin, or that he called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”
“He left us in purgatory,” said one veteran Democratic loyalist.
Keep an eye on Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker and fellow gerontocrat. Obama remained loyal after the debate car crash — “bad debate nights happen” — but appears to be moving toward the “Get rid of Biden” camp.
While he may not have been the one who instigated George Clooney’s call for Biden to resign, those who know both men have no doubt that the Hollywood star consulted with his close friend before publishing it in the New York Times.
Obama made no effort to dissuade him. In fact, he may even have made some suggestions to toughen the text. Several reports have emerged suggesting that Obama has privately concluded that Biden cannot run again.
Biden can’t turn to Obama’s wife, Michelle, for support. She has been at odds with the Biden family since Hunter divorced her close friend, Kathleen Buhle. She believes the Bidens have treated Buhle poorly, showing no compassion or concern for the trauma Hunter put her through.
Barack Obama, for his part, has never appreciated Biden. He kept him on the sidelines as vice president for eight years and rarely listened to his advice (which included urging Obama not to kill Osama bin Laden).
He also pressured Biden not to run for president in 2016. If the Obama clan has turned against Biden, then it’s really over for him.
Then there’s Pelosi, whose advice Biden is said to value. She made an unhelpful intervention on television this week, saying she would support Biden no matter what he decided, but that he had to make a decision… Which was odd because Biden had already said he had made a decision: he was running.
The most ominous development for Biden as this weekend approached were reports that Obama and Pelosi were in private discussions about how to orchestrate his removal as their party’s nominee.
If that turns out to be the case, the dam would break for good and Biden would have no choice but to step aside before the Democratic convention in Chicago next month.
No amount of White House lies could stand up to an Obama-Pelosi duo against the president. Chicago would become a fight between those who think the crown should automatically go to Vice President Kamala Harris and those who want an open contest among a half-dozen contenders.
As the White House moved to shore up Biden’s position after the debate, it tried to focus attention on the numerous lies Trump had told during the debate. Fair enough. Trump is usually oblivious to the truth. But it somehow lacked traction coming from people who had been caught out for blatantly lying.
Biden has also failed to realize that, by putting himself before party and country, he is guilty of the same narcissism he has often (rightly) accused Trump of.
By clinging to power when a graceful exit is required, Biden is not only increasing Trump’s chances of winning in November, he is becoming a more Trump-like figure than he could ever have imagined.
