A New Race, A Fresh Start

To his credit, President Biden finally faced reality and exited the 2024 presidential contest. In light of the mortal threat Trump poses to the Republic, Democrats must now unite behind the person best positioned to beat him: Vice President Kamala Harris.

Publisher note: This is a special edition of The Republic Sentinel that will take the place of the usual Monday edition.

Of all the accounts of President Biden's mental deterioration that have emerged this year, easily the most disturbing for me was the one revealed by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) in a Boston Globe op-ed on July 19, in which he talked about how critical Biden was to his own successful initial House campaign:

The next year, after I had won the general election, he would invite me to breakfast at the vice president’s house and teach me about Congress. Sometimes he would pick up the phone to comment on a TV interview. Every time we crossed paths and I caught his eye, he would break into that big, wide Joe Biden grin and say how glad he was to see me. It was like that just last Christmas at the White House Ball.

More recently, I saw him in a small group at Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me. Of course, that can happen as anyone ages, but as I watched the disastrous debate a few weeks ago, I have to admit that what I saw in Normandy was part of a deeper problem.

It was a crushing realization, and not because a person I care about had a rough night but because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.

In that same Boston Globe op-ed, Moulton called on Biden to exit the race. Today, Biden did just that. Today's devastating polling news out of Michigan was probably the final straw, though we'll only learn that in the days and weeks to come.

It's no surprise that Biden felt angry and feeling betrayed by so many who have been with him for so long. In the period after the debate and before Thomas Matthew Crooks' failed assassination attempt on Trump, Biden and his campaign aides tried and failed to stem the growing calls for him to end his campaign, with some prominent, long-time donors this past week calling on him to step aside in favor of another Democrat with a better shot at leading the party to victory over Trump in November.

Biden himself originally promised to be a "transitional" candidate, but he had reneged on that commitment until today. His anger, ego, and perhaps his diminished cognitive state, had all coalesced to convince him he was the only Democrat who can take Trump down. He's wrong, and the polling on his running mate and America's current vice president, Kamala Harris, clearly says he's wrong.

There is one very senior House Democrat trying to orchestrate Biden's ouster who clearly does not share the view that Harris can beat Trump: former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

As the New York Times reported on Friday (July 19) via a leak by participants, during a private meeting with other California delegation colleagues Pelosi made it clear she favored some type of competitive Biden replacement process at the upcoming August Democratic National Convention in Chicago:

Ms. Pelosi, who arrived late to the meeting, spoke up in response to questions from members. When asked about Mr. Biden, she said she did not think he could win, citing polling data, an assessment that she has shared privately with the president himself. Ms. Pelosi said that if he stayed on the ticket, Democrats would lose any shot they might have of winning back control of the House, according to three people familiar with the confidential conversation who insisted on anonymity to describe it.

Lawmakers in attendance then pressed her on what the landscape would look like if Mr. Biden ultimately decided to step aside under pressure. Ms Pelosi told them she favored a competitive process. Ms. Pelosi, according to a source familiar with her thinking, is a friend and fan of Ms. Harris, a former senator from California. But she believes even Ms. Harris would be strengthened to win the general election by going through a competitive process at the convention.

It's fair to ask what kind of "friend and fan" would suggest that a fellow woman who has already served competently for over three years as the second most powerful person in the Executive branch needs to go through a DNC elite-orchestrated "mini primary" at the convention. Given Pelosi's reputation as the leader of the Democratic political "California mafia" one wonders whether California governor Gavin Newsom is her unstated preferred candidate.

None of the governors whose names have been floated as Biden replacements--Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Wes Moore of Maryland, or Newsom--have the kind of national political, legal, or national security experience Harris has acquired as California attorney general, in the Senate and as vice president.

I have plenty of issues with Harris when it comes to criminal justice reform and her entirely too cozy relationship with police unions and organizations. Even so, the framing of "The Prosecutor v. The Felon" in a national election against Trump would be an extremely compelling one, and a case that Harris is uniquely qualified to make.

Harris is over 20 years younger than Biden, and anyone who saw her in the Senate questioning prospective Supreme Court nominees knows that she would likely destroy Trump in any debate. Harris would also have the advantages of both incumbency and the Biden-Harris campaign war chest if she became the nominee. While those advantages would not guarantee a Harris victory over Trump, the de facto political reset her ascendancy to the top of the ticket would bring is exactly the kind of change most Democrats, and probably many undecided voters, desperately need to see.

Time is a cruel master, and I'm deeply sorry that President Biden's mind and body have become a victim of it. But what would have been crueler still would be for Biden to have remained on the ticket and lose to Trump, with all of the horrors and constitutional rights violations that would inevitably result from such an outcome. With Harris at the top of the ticket, there's a at least a chance to avoid that dark future.

Thanks for reading the Sentinel. If you're not currently a subscriber, please consider becoming one as doing so is free through 2024 and it's an easy way to show your support for my work. Also, please share this piece with family, friends, and anyone else you believe would benefit from reading it.