Scott and Steve have expressed confidence that the Democrats will force Joe Biden off the ticket–it’s only a matter of time. That may well prove to be true; at even money, that is how I would bet. But it isn’t yet a done deal.
Biden insists that he is in the race for keeps, and challenges anyone who doesn’t like it to run against him. Of course, no such course is feasible: the delegates have been chosen, and Biden has virtually all of them. Meanwhile, Biden’s inner circle has shrunk to almost nothing–a few aides who owe their careers to Biden, and his wife and son, Hunter.
Miranda Devine writes: “Hunter Biden’s the real point person in Joe’s White House — don’t underestimate the first son.”
While the focus has been on four-time Vogue cover girl Jill Biden and her screeching assurances that Joe is hale and hearty and fit for another four years, the first son has flown under the radar.
But Hunter is glued to his father’s side for a reason. He was with him at Camp David to help prepare for the disastrous debate; was there for the vainglorious Annie Leibovitz family photo shoot post-debate; then flew back with the president to the White House, where he has been ensconced ever since.
He reportedly is acting as “gatekeeper” to his father and helping write speeches for him, while White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that he has been sitting in on Joe’s meetings with senior staff.
It is astonishing that Hunter is now at his father’s side in the White House, but that is the state to which our political life has devolved. Hunter has an enormous interest in Joe staying on as president: not only can Joe pardon him for the crimes that he has been charged with, a Biden Department of Justice will remain somnolent while the statute continues to run on Hunter’s various misdeeds. If the two people Biden is listening to most closely are Jill and Hunter, don’t count on him to see the light.
This morning, Biden sent an aggressive letter to Congressional Democrats, asserting that he is the party’s rightful nominee:
Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Tramp.
***
We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively. I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,000 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin.This was a process open to anyone who wanted to run. Only three people chose to challenge me. One fared so badly that he left the primaries to run as an independent. Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated. The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party.
Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?
I decline to do that. I feel a deep obligation to the faith and the trust the voters of the Democratic Party have placed in me to run this year. It was their decision to make. Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned. The voters — and the voters alone ~ decide the nomince of the Democratic Party. How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that. I will not do that.
The rest of the letter is an attack on Donald Trump and the “MAGA Republicans,” using DNC talking points. It is often delusional, and always contemptible:
They are siding with the wealthy and the big corporations and we are siding with the working people of America. It wasn’t an isolated moment for Trump to stand at Mar-A- Lago and tell the oil industry they should give him $1 billion and he will do whatever they want.
That’s whose side Trump and the MAGA Republicans are on. Trump and the MAGA Republicans want another $5 trillion in tax cuts for rich people so they can cut Social Security and Medicare. We will never let that happen. It’s trickle-down economics on steroids. We know the way to build the economy is from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. We are finally going to make the rich and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes in this country. The MAGA party is also still determined to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which could throw 45 million Americans off their coverage. We will never let that happen either. Trump got rich denying rental housing to Black people. We have a plan to build 2 million new housing units in America. They want to let Big Pharma charge as much as they want again. What do you think America’s seniors will think when they know Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to take away their $35 insulin — as wel as the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs we Democratsjust got them? Or what do you think American families are going to think when they find out Tramp and the MAGA Republicans want to hit them with a new $2,500 national sales tax on all the imported products they buy.
And so on. Joe Biden is determined to be the Democrats’ demagogue in chief, and it remains to be seen whether that party’s politicians, donors and media figures can change his mind. So, for the time being, let’s hope that Biden stays strong and the drama continues to play out in public view. The more absurd and chaotic the situation becomes for Democrats, the better.
