Ever since the disastrous first presidential debate on June 27, questions about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity have been front and center. The president’s campaign made a defiant gesture by penning an open letter to congressional Democrats, reminding them of his fair victory in the nominations. However, with no other major candidates in sight and any potential contenders being swiftly dismissed by the party, his assertion rings hollow.
He told donors he was “done talking about the debate” and instead aimed to direct attention towards Trump – a move he later had to apologize for after Trump survived an assassination attempt.
His campaign wrote an open letter to congressional Democrats making clear that he’d won the nomination fair and square and that to overturn the lower-case-D democratic process would be unethical.
Now it appears Biden may finally be coming to terms with reality – that his tenure as nominee can’t continue indefinitely and urgent preparations need to be made for a successor. A late Wednesday report by CNN revealed Biden had asked advisers if he should heed calls from within his own party to step aside – marking this as possibly the first sign of him seriously considering such a move.
“He’s gone from saying, ‘Kamala can’t win,’ to ‘Do you think Kamala can win?’” a senior Democratic adviser said, according to CNN. “It’s still unclear where he’s going to land but seems to be listening.”
There likely still remain problems for the transition in Biden’s inner circle. Harris’ progressive base is far from the Rust Belt states the Democrats need to carry to win the election, and Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate only makes her chances in the Midwest more difficult. In addition, before Biden’s meltdown on the debate stage, Harris polled worse than the president against Trump, and any bump in recent polls for the veep can only be attributed to comparison to a man whose mental and physical collapse is happening in real time on 24-hour cable news.