It seems like President Joe Biden’s luck just keeps getting worse whenever things appear to be getting better.
After Biden’s terrible performance in the debate, which cast doubt on his ability to serve a second term and threw his reelection campaign into an existential crisis, there was no relief during the Fourth of July vacation.
Just four months before Election Day, on Friday, the president will face even more scrutiny when an interview with him airs on ABC. The interview will be a crucial evaluation of his ability to calm the Democratic Party’s fears.
Something is clearly wrong with the White House’s most recent attempt to defuse the dispute. According to three people informed about the president’s remarks, he informed Democratic state governors that he needed more sleep and would no longer plan events after 8 p.m., as reported Thursday in the New York Times and AWN. According to insiders, he irritated numerous governors who had travelled to the White House for reassurance on Biden’s health. Further doubts over the president’s fitness to carry out his duties as president will inevitably arise, even as we approach the end of his second term, when he will be 86 years old. Democrats, who want Biden to be more outspoken and demonstrate his endurance and wit through unplanned, unscripted events, may also find Biden’s remark irritating.
Even though he has been told privately by a few allies that the next few days could be pivotal for his chances of remaining in the race, Biden has once again issued a rebellious warning that he has no plans to step down. As military families gathered at the White House to watch the July Fourth fireworks, Biden assured them, “I’m not going anywhere.” For sure.
No matter how much the administration tries to justify the president’s dismal performance in debates, it just makes matters worse. So far, Biden’s supporters, officials, and aides have put out the following excuses: a cold, jet lag from two trips to Europe (even though the debate was held more than a week after he returned home), and an overworked debate prep team. Despite White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying the day before that the president hadn’t been examined since his last full physical in February, the president did see a doctor in the days following the debate, which further damaged the White House’s credibility on Thursday.
The president’s comeback campaign’s next major hurdle
In the days leading up to his pivotal interview, which will air on ABC this coming Friday night, Biden has been facing increasing pressure due to his recent setbacks. The interview with George Stephanopoulos is seen by many as a self-imposed test for Biden, who was left indelible in the minds of fifty million viewers of the AWN debate as a president who was clumsy and confused at times. Another setback for the campaign could happen if the interviewee shows any indication of diminished mental acuity. After last week’s debate in Atlanta, Democrats will be looking to Biden to present a strong case for a second term and to properly pursue his case against Trump.
During Wednesday’s radio broadcast on “The Earl Ingram Show,” Biden admitted, “I had a bad night.” And the truth is, I messed up. Seriously. It was my fault. You’ve been on stage for 90 minutes. After three and a half years, look at all I’ve accomplished.
The issue with the president’s argument is that voters are now thinking about whether they can withstand another sluggish and fragile president taking office in the future, in addition to his administration’s accomplishments, which are on par with any other modern Democratic president. This is all because of the debate disaster.
Because Biden’s performance seemed to validate the opinions of vast majorities of voters—that the president is too old to be running for a second term at the age of 81—the consequences of the debate might be extremely harmful. In the wake of a week-long construction crisis, the Biden campaign’s long-sought contrast to Trump—who, if reelected, would launch a campaign of revenge and who nearly brought down democracy by refusing to concede defeat in the 2020 election—has been, if only briefly, erased.
What this implies is that every public appearance by Biden is now subject to intense scrutiny. He delivered a speech at Thursday night’s Independence Day gathering utilizing lines he had previously delivered. His feelings were deep, but it was hard to ignore the president’s senior age, particularly when compared to public events of just a few years before.
Concern among Democrats is on the rise
There is deep-seated concern among Democratic lawmakers that the president’s issues may bring them crashing down and give the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives to the Republicans. Two lawmakers have already demanded that Biden resign before the August Democratic National Convention.
Even Biden’s staunchest Democratic supporters think he needs to show voters he can handle a second year in office. Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, whose district is a key November swing state, said on Thursday’s “AWN This Morning” that voters were “a lot afraid” of Biden’s debate performance, but that they also understood the sensitivity of the process involved in selecting a new nominee. She made the case that Trump had a poor debate performance as well, but she urged Biden to campaign more aggressively. “He needs to prove it this week,” she admonished.
After campaigning for Joe Biden in Michigan, California Governor Gavin Newsom vehemently backed him during Wednesday’s governors’ meeting at the White House. As for possible schedule cuts by Biden, he played down their significance, knowing that Republicans will use them to further their claims that he is unqualified to be president. It’s human, according to Newsom, who spoke with AWN. “And may God bless the president, it is refreshing when he or she admits they are human. Personally, I feel that a lot of people are trying to decipher meaning in it.
The question was whether Newsom would back Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee in such a scenario, given that he is considered as a possible alternate candidate in the event that Biden opts to withdraw from the campaign. Although he stated he would “not go into that,” he did admit that the inquiry was reasonable.
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign, made the observation that Trump shown very little rigor, asserting that the former president “spends half of his day ranting on Truth Social about plans that would cause a recession and the other half golfing.” On top of that, he said that “normal presidents strike a balance” by going to bed at 9 p.m., but Obama had supper with his family at 6:30 p.m., which was a concession to his daughters’ youth rather than Obama’s age at the time.
The Trump campaign is having to think about how the electoral arithmetic might change because of Biden’s problems. It appears that the former president is getting ready for a possible change of Democratic nominees by trying to pick out the vice president in addition to his successor. Additionally, the likely Republican nominee proposed a one-on-one discussion between Biden and himself, sans moderators, on Thursday. “The Crooked Joe Biden Incompetence Puzzle has an answer—let’s have another debate, but this time there will be no holds barred. It will be an all-out discussion, with just the two of us on stage, discussing the future of our country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
After the debate, Trump gained a little lead in a number of national surveys, ending months of a close race within the margin of error. Next week’s press conference at the NATO summit in Washington and the interview with ABC News will be pivotal since many Democrats are anxious about the Biden campaign’s increasingly dismal performance.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) said on Thursday’s “AWN News Central” that, “I think we’ve got to take a very sober look at the reality of the race as it currently stands.”
“That wasn’t a single unfortunate event; it was a series of unfortunate events that may have cemented a very regrettable narrative regarding the health and age of President Biden, and that narrative could prove to be extremely difficult to reverse,” Huffman stated.
Huffman continued by saying, “We’re four months before the election and the guy who’s threatening our democracy, our fundamental rights in the free world right now is winning.” This scenario is frightening Democrats and might soon raise concerns about Biden to a critical point.
