The fallout from President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance continues, with the far-left Occupy Democrats lashing out at the far-left New York Times.
Occupy Democrats posted on Instagram, “Maybe it’s time that the New York Times step aside for a younger, fitter, more coherent newspaper.”
Ouch.
So what’s going on here…
Well, it all started with this editorial…
“To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race” read a post-debate editorial from an obviously panicked New York Times:
Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it. His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020. That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.
The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.
That was published the morning after the debate, which means it was a panicked editorial written in the hours after the debate — it might have even been written during the debate.
Well, a lot has changed in the ten or so days since. To begin with, and most importantly, Biden is refusing to step aside, and that’s the whole ballgame. Biden won the primary. Period. Biden is the sitting president. Period. Biden holds the super delegates. If he doesn’t want to step down, no one can make him. He has already won the nomination. The convention is pure ceremony.
Biden signaled just how intractable he is with a letter to Congress on Monday morning. To circumvent reports that House and Senate Democrats were planning to organize some kind of rebellious intervention to force him out, Biden dropped this bomb on them:
I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump. I have heard the concerns that people have—their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them. I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.
Then came the kill shot: “The voters – and the voters alone – decide the nominee of the Democratic Party. How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that. I will not do that.”
Now, no one believes Biden actually wrote that letter or that he even read the letter. He probably tried to sign it with pudding. But that is still it. That’s the end of it. Which means…
Let the recriminations begin!
Those, like the New York Times, who have already called on Biden to resign will be made a brutal example of unless they pull an immediate 180, like Joe Scarborough, and grovel like a wounded gerbil.
Only a neurotic idiot (like Scarborough and the New York Times editorial board) would come flying out of the chute the morning after one bad debate to call for the Democrat nominee (and sitting president!) to step aside. Watching all of this unfold while on vacation last week was really something. If you honestly believe one bad debate followed by a weeklong corporate media news cycle can convince a sitting president who has already won the nomination and who is only a few points behind to step aside, that’s as bubbled and insulated as it gets.
Plenty more can still happen between now and Election Day, but plenty more will have to happen before a sitting president chooses not to run for reelection.
This is all good, as far as I’m concerned… Biden stays in the race while Democrats tear each other apart. Who could ask for anything more?
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.