Coming out of the holiday, Politico has the state-of-polling level-set: “President Joe Biden’s debate face-plant has put him in his worst shape of the 2024 election.” Driving home the point:
On the bright side, we’re almost to the weekend? Happy Friday.
Rearranging the Deck ChairsOne week after his catastrophic debate against Donald Trump, President Joe Biden thinks an interview he is giving to George Stephanopoulos, airing tonight on ABC News, will save his nomination. Nope. Biden may appear “with it” in his teleprompter-free exchange, and even answer tough questions crisply with energy and detail. But for all the hype this interview is getting, on the big matter it will be largely immaterial. The Biden reelection effort is over. The Democratic party won’t nominate Biden after what they saw on June 27, but more importantly what they have learned since. The president and his family were given several days’ grace after he humiliated himself—time they used to gaslight voters and donors while Biden read written remarks instead of actually demonstrating he has the mental and physical capacity to serve four and a half more years. It was insulting. And the response to it was, effectively, a jail break. Devastating leaks about Biden’s condition were first published Tuesday, and continued throughout the week. The New York Times: “several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations . . . the lapses seemed to be growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.” A report from NBC quoted an unnamed senator: “The country saw [at the debate] what those of us who have had personal interactions with him have all known for the last two and a half years.” New York magazine reported yesterday that disturbed “Democratic officials, activists and donors” have been questioning since January whether Biden could serve another term, or even serve until Election Day: “Longtime friends of the Biden family, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, were shocked to find that the president did not remember their names. At a White House event last year, a guest recalled, with horror, realizing that the president would not be able to stay for the reception because, it was clear, he would not be able to make it through the reception.” Biden, urged on by his wife and son, remains stubbornly in the race. His campaign is planning more travel and big spending. But that money is now being devoted, in part, to damage control, not going after Trump. On Wednesday, meeting with Democratic governors, Biden declared: “No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.” Last night he insisted he’s “going nowhere.” Yet he conceded in that same meeting that he isn’t up to the grueling 24-hour-a-day job, telling the governors he needs more sleep and can no longer do evening events. The American people have seen a tired face, the old-man stare, and we could hear the quieter, slower speech. But we have now learned the truth—that he cannot lead us. Donors are abandoning him and creating a new PAC for a future candidate because no more money should be spent on Biden’s denial. Republicans are asking, Just who has been presidenting? The voters will too. And they will feel lied to. They have been. —A.B. Stoddard
Pelosi Matters MostWhen, a week from now, President Biden will have withdrawn as a candidate for reelection, I suspect Nancy Pelosi will have played a pivotal role. It was Pelosi who, on July 2, cut to the heart of the matter: “I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode, or is this a condition?’ And so when people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate.” Pelosi hastened to add that the question should be asked “of both candidates”—Trump as well as Biden. “Both candidates owe whatever test you want to put them to, in terms of their mental acuity and their health—both of them.” Pelosi is well aware that Republican leaders have proven, time and again, that they lack the courage or the patriotism to insist on any kind of test that might hold Trump accountable. But she also knows that Republican dereliction of duty is not a model Democrats should emulate. When asked Tuesday about her own judgment of President Biden’s condition, Pelosi understandably demurred: “I’m not a doctor. I can’t say what happens three, four years down the road.” Rep. Jim Clyburn echoed that sentiment shortly after: “I’ll have to wait on the experts in medicine to give their opinion, because I’m not a doctor, so I have no idea the extent to which all of this may have occurred.” But as Pelosi and Clyburn are well aware, there are doctors who could be consulted. The White House, after all, has access to the best neurologists, the finest medical specialists. Have they taken advantage of this? Has President Biden seen a specialist? Apparently not. Has his family or staff tried to persuade him to do so? Not that we know of. If one judges by everything the White House and Biden campaign have done in recent months to try to shelter the president, they are not confident all is well. Rather they seem—shockingly, irresponsibly—not to have wanted to know the answer to the question: “Is this an episode, or is this a condition?” I think we know the answer. So does Nancy Pelosi. And she knows what should happen. Pelosi stepped down as House Democratic leader two years ago, at the age of 82, which happens to be the age Joe Biden will be at the end of his presidential term. Pelosi then seemed to be—and thankfully still seems to be—in good health. But she knew it was time. Speaking on the floor of the House on November 17, 2022, she said that, “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead.” Nancy Pelosi stepped aside with dignity. She should now help Joe Biden do the same. —William Kristol Catching up . . .
Quick Hits: Trump 2.0 and UkraineDonald Trump’s meandering, vague, and self-contradictory rhetorical approach to foreign policy can sometimes play perversely to his political advantage: Quarreling factions within his coalition all have at least a fragment of a reason to hope he’s on their side. In an excellent and exhaustive piece for the site today, Cathy Young dives way deep into Trump’s jumble of comments on Ukraine to try to figure out how much we can actually know about a second Trump administration’s Russia posture:
Cheap Shots
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