Biden ending his campaign is one thing; Biden *resigning* would mean:
a) endless GOP House "investigations" on Kamala Harris "covering up" Biden's mental state;
b) the GOP House and broken Senate both have to confirm the new VP, they won't, and GOP will blame Dems.
It's simply not a viable plan.
I think you basically have the same issues with Biden withdrawing; it practically invites the House GOP to ask how Biden can be fit for office, yet unable to campaign.
Also, the DC press won't care—they'll run endless "cover up" stories in either case.
That one at least has an easy answer: Biden is withdrawing from the campaign because he's fine now, but he's thinking about what he might be like four years from now. He's being a prudent steward, etc.
“I have the health & energy to be president. I have the health & energy to run for president. I have the health & energy to do both at once. What I don’t have is the health and energy to do both at once *while* working to stop a corrupt faction of the Supreme Court which has endorsed a coup”
Ok, but he'd better have a good and true reason for why this wasn't the case just 4 mos ago when he ran in primaries.
Otherwise: "We told you so! Dems knew it, and they've been lying to you the last 4 years. What else are they lying about?"
Yeah, this isn't hard. He did what he set out to do! He saved the country from Trump. He deeply wanted to do it again, but he knows it's better now to pass the torch to the VP so she can lead us into the future! Do it for Old Joe, and blah blah blah. It's an EASY sell!
This is the story that gets written if he makes the decision not to run a year ago, not now, after he’s been pushed out by his party after bombing a debate. What gets written now are endless insider “how did we get here?” pieces.
Those voters don't know about any of this yet, lol! They'd still be surprised to hear Biden's in any trouble. (Doesn't mean he might not be fucked. Elite circle jerks are a hell of a drug.)
And I think this is basically true, that he's functioning well as president but doesn't have another 4 years in him! I mean, I'm confident that his administration will also do fine if he can't do the job, but that's not a good position to run on.
But what do we care whether the GOP says Biden is unfit if he's not running for reelection? I don't think this would happen. Once he became a lame duck he would get an immediate halo like Obama in 2016.
You could just as easily get (a) from Biden staying in office with Harris as the nominee. And it's more serious with Biden still in office.
And the chance of no confirmed VP is a real negative risk, but it almost certainly plays *for* the Dems, highlighting the GOP House and its extremism.
I don’t really want Mike Johnson next in line.
And it’s hard to govern and campaign simultaneously, at any age. Harris would need to be free to do a major campaign blitz.
They'll do it anyway.
Hope that all the security agencies are ready this time around &will kick their butt accordingly.
Because they are saying what they're going to do: not recognise the outcome of the election and fight for their christian country.
You're dealing with the domestic "Taliban".
I don't think it was deepfaked.
But it WAS a set-up.
They knew exactly that Trump will be lying 160 lies/minute , they did nothing.
As Michael Cohen said (he did a great commentary on the debate together w @velshi.bsky.social )
you could put two AIs instead of Dana&Jake for all they were doing there
You will need to ask @cnn.com
Also – Tapper and Bash.
I have questions:
1.
Where was the fact checking?
2.
Why were they both muted, too?
3.
Why did they keep thanking Grump with
"Thank you, Mr. President"
but Biden with
"Thank you"?
And Biden said he was exhausted.
As far as conspiracy theories go, the only one I would think of is that they put a tranquilliser into his water.
Or a cold medicine .
Because the next day in the rally he had said everything people wished he did in the debate , as if nothing happened.
Perhaps not harder to spot, everyone saw the blatant lies.
But when there's no reaction, from the moderators nor the audience,it's a way of #normalising them.
Joe did dispute some of them, but that's what I meant w a set-up:his role in such a debate environment wld be a permanent,relentless attack
Oh yes.
That's how it works.
It all looks very legitimate.
But it's a setup.
Reminds me of how Putin has this Q&A session w Russian Governors,who are allowed to ask him hard questions on TV , but if they go off the script,he sends his MAGA candidates & invented "scandals" in the media after them.
It's a MAGA plan and it hasn't been talked enough about how the media are pushing that narrative, while the numbers and Joe himself show a completely different situation.
Some media have started pedalling back, but too many are just getting into same hysterics as witg Hillary.
And this dirty trick has been pulled on Biden, Scholz, Green politicians in Germany, Macron,... it's just disgusting.
Because ppl don't read anymore, they just skim over the headlines , it's the simplest way to lie about someone.
bsky.app/profile/grma...
Look at how Axios frames what Biden said if he lost to Trump. Compare it to( I posted a screenshot from the transcript) what President Biden actually said.
I'm seeing the radical left Biden haters post that screenshot from Axios and say that Biden is saying "no big deal"
Biden must finish term. Harris needs to start acting as if the campaign is hers & must be everywhere. She should attend & participate at the NATO summit. Joe should stick to teleprompter & Rah-Rah events. Buys DNC a few weeks, then decision time. Harris VP pick should be white dude from swing state.
Who on earth (aside from the GOP base) would blame Dems for congress not confirming a VP replacement, particularly a moderate one or former Republican?
It will be portrayed as chaos in the White House because there is no VP, and that is the fault of Dems, who control the White House.
Is this fair or true? That doesn't matter, it's how the media will play it nonstop to mislead low-information voters.
I think this is way overshooting how salient a VP vacancy would be, and even how much Republicans would think that's a line of attack worth focusing on, in part because they'd correctly see it's not an effective one. They'd attack the new running mate, sure. Refuse to confirm, maybe. But so what?
Rockefeller got put the wringer for four months in Congress (while a Dem House speaker was next in line) before they confirmed him as VP. And he wasn't even going to run in the next election, he was just a placeholder to finish the term.
VP vacancies aren't ideal but they aren't that big a deal.
In this media environment? They’d scream how the nominee is unqualified, the Times would find some random Democrat to say “I think Harris knew it’d be hard to get anyone confirmed” and run a headline of “Congress says candidate unqualified, Harris knew they wouldn’t be confirmed”
He surely is obsessed with his legacy at this moment. The way to cement it includes, whether in the race or not, the strongest speech of his life at the convention
Biden ending his campaign and not resigning would prompt months of outcry over whether the guy who can’t run for office because he’s too tired is handling the nuclear codes
Assuming there's some benefit I'm missing of having Harris take over,wouldn't that be doable without Biden resigning by invoking the 25th amendment Section 3 which allows a POTUS to transfer presidential authority to the VP without resigning and with the ability to resume control if the need arises?
