After Joe Biden allegedly contracted COVID and left Las Vegas for his Delaware beach house on Wednesday, much speculation suggested he was preparing to leave the race. Even the betting markets shifted, showing the probability of Biden dropping out at an all-time high.
That was exacerbated by an interview where the president said he would drop out if a medical issue arose. Still, I offered some words of caution on that front.
SEE: Joe Biden Says He’d Drop Out If Doctors Told Him to, Sets Up a ‘Dignified’ Exit (Updated)
With all that said, my money is still, for the moment at least, on Biden staying in the race. There’s now a path for me to be wrong, but I won’t believe Jill Biden will concede the White House until it happens. There is also a long list of handlers who derive their living from Biden who aren’t going to want to go quietly. Further, he can’t simply leave the presidential race. He’d have to resign the presidency as well. After all, how can you be too senile to run for president but not too senile to be president?
The machinations that would need to happen going forward are almost unfathomable.
Perhaps I was on to something because Biden’s handlers responded with a vengeance on Thursday. As RedState reported, a senior administration official rebutted claims that the president was close to bowing out, stating that he could start campaigning again as soon as next week.
White House coffee boy Andrew Bates also lashed out publicly in no uncertain terms.
Now, Biden’s handlers are getting even more vicious. A report from NBC News quotes a “source close to Biden” throwing Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi under the bus before backing up over them. They even go so far as to say the three named above were responsible for Donald Trump being elected in 2016 because they pushed Hillary Clinton to the forefront.
“Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump? In 2015, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary; they were wrong then and they are wrong now,” the source told NBC News.
The source pointed to polling in the 2016 election that showed Hillary Clinton leading by as much as nine points.
“How did all this work out for everyone in 2016? Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from 2016; one of them is polls are BS, just ask Sec. Clinton. And two, maybe, just maybe, Joe Biden is more in touch with actual Americans than Obama-Pelosi-Schumer?” the source added.
That doesn’t sound like Biden is about to drop out of the race, does it? As I’ve said before, there’s more going on behind the scenes than just what the president wants. Jill Biden is wildly ambitious and shows no sign of wanting to give up the life of luxury her husband’s position provides. There’s also a laundry list of hangers-on both working for Biden’s campaign and within the administration itself who do not want to lose their gravy train. If the president leaves the race, they will be largely sidelined, and they know.
Then there’s Biden himself. He’s a deeply egotistical man who will not want to go down in history as someone who gave up against Trump. Never mind that he’ll almost assuredly be blamed if he does drop out and then Kamala Harris goes on to lose. There’s no easy path out of the race for Biden that allows him to save face.
With that said, attacking the biggest names in the Democratic Party seems less than helpful. If Biden’s handlers burn the party to the ground in their attempt to keep their jobs, then a loss is all but certain come November anyway. So what’s being gained?
This entire thing is an unbelievable cluster. Admittedly, I’m not that old, but I’ve never seen anything like this in all my time following politics, and certainly not in my time commenting on politics. There’s no good answer here for Democrats, though that’s a reality no one seems keen to accept at this moment.
