I wonder how President Joe Biden, our aging, failing, sometimes ailing commander in chief, for so long protected by a host of media, political, and Hollywood elites, is feeling as his closest lifelong allies throw him to the wolves.
The same people who raised tens of millions of dollars for the president’s reelection campaign just four weeks ago; the same people who three weeks ago called unflattering video footage of the president “cheapfakes” and silenced those questioning his fitness with mockery and censure; the same people who told us the president is running rings around them on policy and is the smartest guy in the room, are now lining up one by one to stab him in the back and in the front, calling him unfit to run, demanding he step aside.
Those same people who were perfectly content to help reelect him for four more years were happy to do so as long as his true state of mind was hidden from the American people. Now that Americans have seen the truth with their own eyes at the disastrous Atlanta debate—or rather, now that New York Times readers and CNN watchers have seen it—it’s coup o’clock for the “defenders of democracy” in the Democratic Party.
Unfortunately for those trying to oust him, President Biden had a good night on Thursday at a long NATO press conference. It was not without hiccups; he hilariously referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” But he mostly answered the questions he was asked, he finished nearly every sentence, he didn’t lose his train of thought, and he clearly engaged with complex policy issues that he has given a lot of thought to. I disagree with just about every point he made, but he made them. Disaster was averted. It’s a low bar, I know, but good for him.
And yet, on Friday, the plotters were back at it. Donors to the largest pro-Biden super PAC are reportedly withholding $90 million until the president falls on his sword. A House Democrat told Politico that a delegation of “super friends” is preparing to go to the White House to urge Biden to step aside. The lawmaker said that in an “ideal world,” the group would include senior figures like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
With super friends like this, who needs enemies? We should have nothing but disgust for his lifelong allies watching and hoping he will humiliate himself beyond repair.
The disloyal Democrats knifing Biden, the press corps finally giving him adversarial treatment, the millionaires and celebrities coming out against him, are all doing so with an aura of self-regard, as if they are stunning and brave for doing so. It would have been brave to speak up three years ago. It would have been brave three months ago. It would even have been brave three weeks ago. Today, it’s nothing but cowardice—and it’s being done in the most cowardly fashion.
Former president Obama initially tweeted his support of Biden after the debate performance—only to later green-light an op-ed by actor George Clooney calling for Joe to step down. Clooney had been happy to help Biden sail to victory three weeks ago, raising $30 million for him at a fundraiser before the debate. Turns out, Clooney knew something was up at that fundraiser—though, of course, he said nothing and just kept harvesting those checks. Two days ago, he stuck the knife in: “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020,” Clooney wrote. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
