President Joe Biden did not perform all that differently in last night’s debate than he normally does.
However, with Biden’s decline fully exposed in the high-stakes forum, and not covered up by teleprompters, crowds, or video editing, Democrats and the media responded with collective panic.
Left-wingers from far and wide turned against the president by publicly stating that Biden had utterly failed and, in many cases, that he had shown himself to be incapable of winning the presidency.
It was an incredible moment. The longstanding taboo on voicing concerns over Biden’s obvious mental decline had shattered. Just hours before, asserting that Joe Biden had cognitively lost it would have been considered right-wing disinformation.
Let’s take a moment and assess just a sampling of the collective left-wing abandonment of Joe Biden. If the Democrats fail to convince Biden to end his candidacy, then these words will continue to haunt him throughout his reelection bid.
“Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.” –Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times columnist
“That was painful. I love Joe Biden, I worked with Joe Biden, he didn’t do well at all, he did not do well at all… He had a test tonight to restore the confidence of the country, of the base and he failed… There is time for this party to figure out a different way forward, if he will allow us to do that, but that was not what we needed from Joe Biden and is personally painful for a lot of people.” –Van Jones, CNN contributor
“His biggest issue that he had to prove to the American people was that he had the energy and the stamina. And he didn’t do that.” –Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s communications director from 2021 to 2023
“President Biden is a good man who capped a long career in public service with a successful presidential term. But I hope he reviews his debate performance Thursday evening and withdraws from the race, throwing the choice of a Democratic nominee to the convention in August.” –Nicholas Kristof, New York Times opinion columnist
“Biden is toast — calling it now.” –Jay Surdukowski, New Hampshire Democratic activist
“My job right now is to be really honest. Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight. And he didn’t do it. He had one thing he had to accomplish. And that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight.” –Claire McCaskill, former Missouri senator
“And Joe Biden couldn’t respond to any of those lies. In fact, as the New York Times said, he spent much of the night with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and forth. He couldn’t fact-check anything Donald Trump said. Not only that, he missed one lay-up after another, after another.… If he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?” –Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe
*****
Coming back from this seems impossible. When your top public supporters — including Thomas Friedman and Joe Scarborough — turn against you in such a public fashion, how do you even begin to restore the full support of your party?
Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: the Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.
