The Emperor Has No Clothes, the Unfortunate Situation of Biden Continuing as the Democratic Presidential Candidate
American Eclectic posts articles twice a month, on the 1st and 15th. This is the third year of publication; previously published articles can be found on my site.
July 15, 2024
Jon Stewart on The Daily Show five months ago addressed President Biden’s memory and age. The clip, after Stewart raised the issue of Biden’s memory, showed Donald Trump unable to recall events or people. The clip showed Trump being asked, “Do you recall the years you were married to Miss Maples?” Trump looked stumped. Trump was married to Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999. Trump managed to state, “I have a good memory.” Stewart closed this part of the segment which focused on Trump stating, “Yes, it turns out that the leading cause of early-onset dementia is being deposed.”
While Stewart made fun of Trump, the segment addressed Biden and his memory and age. A special counsel’s report investigated Biden and classified documents in his possession in which the report included a reference to Biden’s memory stating, “[Biden suffers from] diminished faculties and faulty memory.” Furthermore, Biden was referred to as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with poor memory.” Stewart said:
This guy couldn’t remember stuff during his deposition. Do you understand what that means? He could not recall very basic things under questioning. The footage of the president unable to recall simple facts must have been brutal to watch.
Biden’s response to this report was to say “My memory is fine. ...[T]ake a look at what I’ve done since I became President.” He then pivoted to what he had accomplished adding, “None of you thought I could pass any of the things I got passed.” Reporters tried to ask him about his age and its impact on his ability to govern. Biden responded, “That is your judgment.” Biden then proceeded to walk away from the podium but then turned around and went back and began to address the issue of Gaza and referred to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the President of Egypt, as the President of Mexico. Stewart summarized this press conference:
So Joe Biden had a big press conference to dispel the notion that he may have lost a step and, politically speaking, lost three or four steps.
Stewart then highlighted Trump giving a speech in which he said that Pennsylvania would have the state’s name changed if Biden was re-elected in November. Trump sounded more than just odd, but out of touch. Stewart added:
It should be noted, while concerns over any president’s fitness and acuity are legitimate, especially those at an advanced age, Biden’s opponent also seems to live at the Villages. ...These two candidates—they are both similarly challenged. And it is not crazy to think that the oldest people in the history of the country to ever run for president might have some of these challenges. ...What is crazy is thinking we are the ones as voters who must silence concerns and criticisms. It is the candidate’s job to assuage concerns, not the voter’s job not to mention them. ...The stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny. It actually makes him more subject to scrutiny.
Biden's bad performance at his debate on CNN with Donald Trump simply highlighted what was already known. The debate cannot be seen as a surprise and suddenly Democrats were made aware of Biden having age-related problems. Recent newspaper articles noted that Biden’s age is more than just catching up with him but seems to be accelerating. A Washington Post article stated:
During the Group of Seven nations summit in Italy last month, several European leaders came away stunned at how much older the president seemed from when they had last interacted with him only a year or, in some cases, mere months earlier, several officials familiar with their reactions said. “People were worried about it,” said one person familiar with leaders’ reactions.
Put Stewart and his commentary on Biden and his age aside and go back to April 2023, in a poll of Democratic-leaning voters 45 percent said Biden should not run, and 86 percent of those who said he should not run cited his age as the issue they were having with him. A U.S. News & World Report article stated:
While those who have known and followed Biden throughout his Senate and White House career know that Biden has never been a smooth speaker and has for decades tended to go off on tangents when talking, the speaking style has drawn attention for what it might say – rightly or wrongly – about his mental sharpness.
Biden’s debate performance makes it impossible to ignore the issue of his age and his ability to govern: It exposed what was already there. If he is re-elected and begins a second term in January 2025, where will he be, mentally speaking, at the end of 2025, forget thinking in terms of a four-year term? Despite Trump talking nonsense about renaming Pennsylvania or any other speeches where he wanders off into the bushes mentally, none of that will matter over these next months leading up to November because all the focus will be on Biden.
I addressed the age issue in an earlier article (“Two Old Men Decided to Run for President but the Narrative was Only One was an Old Man”) which pointed out that Biden’s age was getting more attention than Trump’s. It does not matter whether that was wrong, from the point of view of news coverage of both Biden and Trump, it was just happening. Now, we can expect even more focus on just Biden and that will overshadow any strange statements Trump will utter. Trump reposted on his social media site, Truth Social, that former Representative Liz Cheney should be tried before a televised military tribunal. Cheney responded, “This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult—and are not fit for office.” This exchange will have little, if any effect on voters since Biden walking like an old man will be the one thing that stands out to voters.
Polls after the debate showed that swing states which will determine the outcome of this election have moved from leaning toward Trump to more slightly leaning more toward Trump. I addressed the swing states in an article two weeks ago (“Can We Learn from Trump’s Endorsements During the 2022 Senate Races How to Look at His Position in the 2024 Race”).
I suspect when books are written about this election, we will find out that there were concerns by many Democrats who interacted with Biden or had frequent interactions with people in the White House where they were informed of concerns within the White House. Silence is normal, the race was a tossup and still might be, just not as much of a tossup as it was before the debate. What Biden’s debate lack of performance did was to make it acceptable for Democrats to now speak publicly about what many of them knew privately, or strongly suspected before the debate.
George Clooney, the actor, published a piece in the New York Times on July 10th, in which he called for Biden to back out of the Presidential race. Clooney held a fundraiser for Biden on June 15th. Only after the Presidential debate on June 27th did Clooney then wait almost two weeks to call upon Biden to step aside and let another Democrat run for the Presidency. The debate simply allowed Democrats to begin to publicly express what, no doubt, many were saying privately. The fundraiser Clooney co-hosted with Julia Roberts raised more than $30 million.
Biden and Trump are set to have another debate in September, I am sure Trump is looking forward to that rematch and Biden is under the impression that he can present himself in a way where any concerns about mental awareness associated with his age will be dispelled. If that is the thinking, then that is crazy. The interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News was supposed to do something to make Biden appear more aware. The best that can be said about that interview was that it was a wash: Biden was coherent but that did not take away from him looking old. It is seeing what is in front of our eyes that we have seen for months but now see differently. Jon Stewart’s piece on Biden and his age was five months ago, well before the debate, but only as a result of Biden’s debate presentation is he being seen differently.
This 20-minute interview with Stephanopoulos looked like two separate conversations. The questions Stephanopoulos asked were not answered by Biden, rather Biden kept pointing to what he has accomplished as President. That would be the normal, even the traditional approach for a President running for re-election to run on his record, but Biden cannot do that now. This first debate was like looking at the emperor without clothes. Suddenly Hans Christian Andersen’s children’s tale is painfully relevant to a Presidential election. We cannot take our eyes off Biden and see him as anything but old and getting older. Worse, is that several days after this interview, Stephanopoulos is reported to have said, “I don't think he can serve four more years.”
Recently the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held a conference in Washington and twice Biden made slipups that stand out. After the conference ended, Biden referred to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, and in a news conference later the same day, he referred to his Vice President, Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” These slipups, unfortunately, stand out magnifying any questions being raised about Biden’s fitness for the Office of the President.
Think of these slipups in comparison to a statement Trump made on transgenders:
No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender a concept that was never heard of in all of human history. Nobody’s ever heard of this what’s happening today? It was all when the radical left invented it just a few years ago.
This is just plain crazy talk by Trump but Biden’s slipups trump Trump’s off-the-wall statements. Voters are forced to choose between a candidate who just makes up insane crazy nonsense or one who they might perceive, whether correct or not, as suffering from aging. At Biden’s press conference after the NATO conference, the questions were about whether he is still up to the job of being President because of aging. Between now and election day that will not change and Trump can slip under the radar.
Ironically, while Melania Trump is hardly ever to be seen, and raises questions about what type of marriage Donald and Melanie Trump have, Jill Biden has emerged as a visible force defending her husband. Certainly, it is odd that one marriage looks like a loveless marriage and the other looks like a couple in love. All those religious conservatives wanting to see a stable and loving marriage may have their hopes dashed by a new First Lady who keeps her distance from her husband. As a Vanity Fair piece stated:
[S]everal first lady experts predicted this week that Melania will not make the White House her home base in a potential second term for her spouse. The more likely scenario, they believe, would be for her to continue “jetting between Palm Beach (where she’s spent the past four years) and New York (where tongues are wagging about Baron maybe attending NYU), coming to the White House only for ceremonial undertakings like state dinners or special events.”
Yet it is Jill Biden taking the heat because she is seen as not helping to convince her husband to announce he will not run again for President. I suspect there are people behind the scenes talking with her and see her as the one who needs to seriously understand the situation then she needs to talk with her husband.
Going with Biden will only make the age issue front and center and nothing else will matter. Forget believing that policy differences can be addressed in this post-debate environment. Trump, for example, is playing a game that he does not know the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 which addresses programs and policies for a second Trump administration—I seriously doubt that. Reading this wish list of what they want to achieve if Trump is back in the White House is difficult to completely grasp because so much of it is just plain extreme in its visions for the federal government. I have to wonder how many federal government employees are aware that if Trump is President again and takes Project 2025 to heart, many of their jobs could be in jeopardy. Since Trump wanted to take a large number of Civil Service jobs when he was President and reclassify them on a par with political appointees and Project 2025 supports that idea, what type of chaos in the functioning of the federal government would follow? Issues such as this will receive scant attention because Biden’s age will be the only issue. Project 2025 proposes dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It appears that the reasoning behind this idea is to make sure this particular government agency cannot exist to address climate change. The assumption, or maybe the fear, is that Trump is receptive to this proposal. A former high-ranking official when Trump was President wrote, “[NOAA is a] colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future US prosperity.” One heck of an approach to addressing issues that matter to us all, sweep bad news under the rug and make believe it will go away.
In this post-debate environment, are there any issues about Trump’s policies seriously being addressed? Biden’s age and mental acuity will not go away and that overshadows this entire campaign. As one psychologist put it, “Ageism is a stubborn prejudice. People of all ages show bias against older adults.” The more campaign appearances Biden has, the greater the attention will be focused on how he is responding and feeling and whether he needs a rest to keep going. Reporters and news stories will continue to focus on Biden’s mental awareness and health. Trump just has to be disciplined enough to keep his mouth shut and he will look younger and healthier by comparison. Again, do not hold out hope that a September debate between Biden and Trump will turn anything around for Biden (and Democrats running for Congress who could lose because of Biden doing badly), it will not.
Various polls take different Democrats, mostly several governors as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, and match them against Trump and their chances of winning. I do not see those as relevant unless, or until, an actual new, different, younger Presidential candidate emerges. In addition, a Presidential debate between Trump and whoever will be different than a September debate between Biden and Trump where Biden may be alert like he was in his interview with Stephanopoulos but will still look old. At the September debate, how many questions will be asked of Biden focused on the same questions Stephanopoulos asked. Sure, to make the debate look balanced, the same questions will be asked of Trump but bet on the attention of undecided voters focused on Biden. Biden wants to keep highlighting his accomplishments, the problem is who will be paying attention. It is difficult to see that voters are doing anything but having nostalgic impressions of what they thought the Trump term as President was like. Some of that nostalgia is because of how they have been looking at Biden.
Biden and his wife can keep talking about what he has done for the country but that will not matter. If Biden stays in the race this is not an election about choosing between Trump and what plans he has for America versus Biden and his accomplishments and what he wants to continue to accomplish. All this election will be about is whether you want an old man back in the White House and make predictions on when he stops completely functioning before his term ends or if you want a President who looks fit simply because he can swing a golf club and can get back in a cart and drive to the next hole. Odd advice to give Donald Trump: Keep your mouth shut and you win (OK, he will not). The way to force that to change is with a different Democratic Party challenger.
Polling and the Impact of the Republican National Convention
I mentioned that polls showed more of a shift in Trump’s favor after the debate. Usually, there is a need for the dust to settle and it takes about two weeks to see if there is something of substance that can be said about polling after the debate. This article was posted 18 days after the debate, and it still does not look good for Biden. I plan to address polls and this election. Admittedly, there is some degree of reading the tea leaves that goes with trying to understand polls. For example, as I stated in this article, some polls showed a slight shift in favor of Trump after the debate, but the race is still seen as tight between the two candidates so still very much a toss-up election. In addition, the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee today. We can expect that Trump should under normal circumstances get a bump in the polls because of the convention. If Biden wants to undercut any bump in the polls that Trump might get, the best time to announce that he is not running or state that he is freeing the delegates who support him to support whoever they like at the Democratic National Convention, is do that while the Republican convention is underway. There are Biden supporters who point to some degree of chaos within the Democratic Party that might follow such an announcement, but what about Trump and his campaign? Trump is all about his grievances aimed toward the Biden administration. Imagine the changes that the Trump campaign will need to make aimed at an unknown challenger.
The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump
I completed the above part of my article by July 12th so the attempted assassination will take time to understand its impact on the campaign.
I do not see this horrific incident as changing the need to have Biden out of the race—his age issue does not change and there will still be concerns about the next four years if he is re-elected. We cannot simply focus on believing Biden is the best chance to beat Trump and ignore what he would be like in a second term.
Regarding this shooting, some articles recalled Robert F. Kennedy being assassinated in June 1968 after Kennedy won the California and South Dakota Democratic primaries, I thought of a situation that occurred during the 2008 Presidential campaign in which Barack Obama faced the late Senate John McCain. During a McCain campaign appearance, a woman stood and said that she heard Obama was “an Arab,” McCain responded, “I have to tell you. Senator Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States.” This was a moment where McCain tried to lower the political fever he felt was building during the campaign. Trump, after the shooting, issued a statement on his site Truth Social, that sounded like an attempt to also lower the political fever. It will be interesting to see how both the Republicans and Democrats change, if that is possible, as a result of this shooting.
Notes
Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey, Maria SACCHETTI, John Hudson, and Dan Diamond, “Biden’s aging is seen as accelerating lapses described as more common,” Washington Post (July 5, 2024): https:// www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/05/biden-aging-recent-months/
George Clooney, “George Clooney: I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee,” New York Times (July 10, 2024): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/opinion/joe-biden-democratic-nominee.html
Oliver Darcy, “George Stephanopoulos gets blunt after Biden Interview: ‘I don’t think he can serve four more years,” CNN (July 10, 2024): https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/george-stephanopoulos-gets-blunt-after-biden-interview-i-don-t-think-he-can-serve-four-more-years/ar-BB1pJJDC?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Bess Levin, “Melanie Trump Will Have a Long-Distance Relationship With the White House If Trump Wins Again, First Lady Experts Predict,” Vanity Fair (June 25, 2024): https:// www.vanityfair.com/news/story/melania-trump-will-have-a-long-distance-relationship-with-the-white-house-if-trump-wins-again-first-lady-experts-predict
Jonathan Martin and Amie Parnes, “McCain: Obama not an Arab, crowd boos,” Politico ((October 10, 2008): https://www.politico.com/story/2008/10/mccain-obama-not-an-arab-crowd-boos-014479
Susan Milligan, “For Biden, Questions About Age Aren’t Going Away,” U.S. News & World Report (April 23, 2023): https:// www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2023-04-25/for-biden-questions-about-age-arent-going-away
Dharna Noor, “Trump will dismantle key US weather and science agency, climate experts fear,” The Guardian (April 26, 2024): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/trump-presidency-gut-noaa-weather-climate-crisis
Dharna Noor, “Trump Would Gut and Privatize US Climate and Weather Agency, Experts Fear,” Mother Jones (April 27, 2024): https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/donald-trump-gut-privatize-noaa-weather-forecasting-storms-climate-alarmism/
Kate Sullivan, “Trump amplifies posts calling for televised military tribunal for Liz Cheney,” CNN Politics (July 2, 2024): https:// www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/trump-liz-cheney-military-tribunal/index.html
Kirsten Weir, “Ageism is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. Psychologists are working to change that,” American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology (March 1, 2023): https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/03/cover-new-concept-of-aging
“Trump to push for legislation that only recognizes two genders if elected,” https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=trump+says+transgender+was+created+2024+jon+stewart&&mid=C9B60635E1EC47EFC90BC9B60635E1EC47EFC90B&&FORM=VRDGAR
https:// www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/george-stephanopoulos-steadily-presses-biden-with-tough-questions-but-got-no-fireworks/ar-BB1pwhYz?ocid=BingNewsSerp