by Robert Romano
President Joe Biden still enjoys the trust of just 55 percent of Democrats the latest CBS News-YouGov poll conducted June 28-29 after Biden’s disastrous decision Debate June 27 with former President Donald Trump, during which Biden at times appeared disoriented, lost the thread of thought and uttered incomprehensible phrases.
Forty-five percent of Democrats say Biden should definitely step down. Disastrously, so do 70 percent of independents, and only 30 percent say he should continue running. Not surprisingly, 75 percent of Republicans say Biden should step down, while 25 percent say he should continue running — likely because they think he’ll be basic to beat in his current state.
Every age group thinks Biden should go: 68 percent of those aged 18-29, 66 percent of those aged 30-44, 64 percent of those aged 45-64 and 58 percent of those aged 65 and older.
Across racial lines, the only group that thinks Biden should keep running is blacks. 58 percent of them think he should keep running, but a vast majority, 42 percent, think he should drop out.
Otherwise, 68 percent of whites and 66 percent of Latinos say Biden should resign.
Beyond the debate results and the near-universal voices among political elites that Biden should withdraw (apart from his inner circle in the White House), polls almost certainly give the question significant weight.
But how to undo Biden’s decision?
If Biden simply resigns, Kamala Harris would immediately become president, but not the party’s nominee. That won’t be decided until the Democratic convention in August, but it would give her a chance to declare herself a candidate and show she can do the job in the weeks before she arrives at the convention. Presumably, delegates committed to Biden could also preemptively declare their support and grant Harris the status of presumptive nominee.
This may be the cleanest break possible, but it would raise significant questions, namely, how long did the White House know about Biden’s condition? And also, what is Biden’s condition? When was he diagnosed? The White House has been confirming Biden’s fitness all along, so the immediate question would be: What did Harris know and when did she find out?
There is clear deception about Biden’s mental health, which was downplayed for months, even years, dating back to the 2020 campaign, and his apparent decline was felt by many in the White House and the Washington press corps.
A similar rupture, but with even more glaring problems, would be for Biden to simply say he’s not running for reelection. If he did so now, it would throw the Democratic nomination into even greater chaos and raise even bigger questions. Why?
The kind of “soft” stepping away that we advocate would immediately result in calls for Biden to resign. First of all, if Biden were to be deemed unfit to serve as a presidential candidate, then he is certainly unfit to continue serving as president through the end of the year. That is simply more blood in the water.
All this has happened as Biden has presided over some of the most earnest national security challenges in recent years: a failed troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, an ongoing war in Gaza and, most importantly, being on the brink of world war with Russia over Ukraine as the conflict there continues to escalate.
In other words, the Democrats were willing to risk nuclear war and potential human extinction just to stay in power. The reasons to stick with Biden are mostly political and have nothing to do with what’s best for the country. It’s basically about polling, because the only candidates who are doing worse than Trump in the polls are everyone else. So the thinking would be, just stick with Biden and pretend nothing’s happening, because the alternative is almost guaranteed to lose in November.
Unfortunately, Americans are left to guess what ails Biden that is leading to his decline. Does he have Alzheimer’s? Dementia? Something else? Is he being treated? If so, what?
Biden already has a feeble relationship with Russia, but any weakening could make negotiating a ceasefire or peace deal with Russian President (*55*) Putin virtually impossible. What about China, North Korea or Iran? Same problem. Weakness is provocative, and Biden is visibly feeble — and Democrats are letting it happen.
At this point, any admission by Biden and the White House that he is unfit to continue running — due to age and mental acuity — will have inevitable political consequences that Democrats cannot avoid.
After lying to the American people about Biden’s health for a period of time—for how long a historian will have to determine—and thus posing grave and unnecessary threats to national security, Biden’s insurmountable political challenge is that if his mind is truly failing, he must resign immediately. And if not, Vice President Harris and the Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment. But even then, good luck explaining why this wasn’t done months, if not years, earlier. The truth will come out.
It may turn out that any option the Democrats have will undoubtedly hurt their chances of winning in November. Resignation would be the quickest, cleanest option, but it would immediately elevate Vice President Harris to that role. Or just pretend nothing is happening and continue whistling past the cemetery. Politically, sticking with Biden may indeed be the least bad option for the Democrats, but for the country it could be fatal.
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Robert Romano is vice president of public policy at Americans for Limited (*45*) Foundation.
Photo “President Joe Biden” by C-SPAN.
