President Biden’s White House and campaign staffers say they learned about his withdrawal from the race on Twitter. They say they had believed his assurances that he was in the race to stay. A Biden-Harris fundraising tweet went out some minutes after his withdrawal was announced. So far, we have seen a letter posted on Twitter with Biden’s likely-stamped signature at the bottom. In the letter, Biden (or “Biden”) said he would be addressing the nation to talk about his decision in more detail within a few days, but thus far, no such address has been scheduled. Meanwhile, a number of events that had been on Biden’s schedule have been canceled.
Inevitably, some are speculating about whether Joe Biden actually knows that he has checked out of the presidential race. I think such speculation is unwarranted at this point, but it is frankly bizarre that the Democrats haven’t even scheduled a time when Biden will try to read his tearjerker address off a teleprompter.
J.D. Vance, among many others, is asking how, if Biden is too far gone to run for the presidency, he can be competent to serve as president. Biden tried rather feebly to address this question in his–or “his”–letter announcing his withdrawal from the presidential contest.
We live in a time in which conspiracy theories are flourishing, in part because so many “conspiracy theories” have turned out to be true. If the Democrats have any sense at all, and if in fact Joe Biden is still alive–this is one conspiracy theory I don’t buy–they should trot him out, however painful that may be, and at least demonstrate that he knows he has withdrawn from the campaign.
Meanwhile, Kamala has not been invisible, as she has conducted her first campaign event. But, ironically, since the vice president’s only constitutional duty is to preside over the Senate, Harris has declined to do so when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday afternoon. The Washington Post headlines: “Harris won’t preside over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.” The Post story begins:
Vice President Harris has declined to preside over the Senate chamber when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday afternoon, according to two people familiar with her plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
So Harris’s first official act as the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee will be to side with Hamas against one of America’s most important allies. Because that is the position of the party whose nomination she seeks. It would be less dishonorable if, like Joe Biden, she simply dropped out of sight.
