Joe Biden Was Beaten By Donald Trump

The Shadow Of Donald Trump Hangs Over The White House

So Joe Biden went on live television¹ presumably to explain why he dropped out of the 2024 Presidential election.

In the rambling and mumbling fashion that has become Biden’s new normal, Biden made on thing absolutely clear²: he dropped out because he knew (was told?) that he could not possibly beat Donald Trump.

I believe my record as President, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy, and that includes personal ambition

There is, of course, no doubt as from what Joe Biden believes democracy needs saving: Donald Trump.

The “threat to democracy” rhetoric has been such a mainstay of Biden-Harris campaign rhetoric attacking Trump that the phrase has become truly shopworn, even as Trump has repaid the attack measure for measure.

President Joe Biden has said that nothing short of American democracy is on the line and declared his opponent “willing to sacrifice democracy to put himself in power.”

Former President Donald Trump, in turn, has said that “if we don’t win this election, I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country.” He also has said that it is Biden who threatens democracy by “weaponizing government” against him.

Biden’s “saving our democracy” shtick was preceded by the formulaic framing of the election as the great American “choice”: “America has to choose between moving forward or moving backward.”

In the most amazing of rhetorical coincidences, this rhetoric aligns almost seamlessly with comments made by Kamala Harris earlier to the Zeta Phia Beta Sorority convention in Indianapolis:

“These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back. We are not going back,” Ms. Harris, a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, said again with emphasis, in a banquet hall filled almost exclusively by Black women. “Ours is a fight for the future, and ours is a fight for freedom.”

As the media noted in covering Kamala’s speech, the “extremists” in question are Donald Trump and his supporters.

We should note that independent Presidential candidate (and former Democrat) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., argued earlier this spring that Joe Biden was by far the greater threat to American democracy.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued Monday that President Joe Biden is a greater threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump.

His argument made on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” centered around being blocked on social media platforms during the Biden administration, which he labeled as an effort to “censor political speech” and undermine the First Amendment.

“I can make the argument that President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy, and the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history – the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent,” he said.

The rest of Biden’s address was a hodgepodge of paeans to the American people, little more than rhetorical boilerplate on a speech that was perhaps less substantial than his bizarre letter and tweet on Sunday announcing his withdrawal from the Presidential race.

It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident. We’re all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to it, to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either and I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.

Besides not mentioning Donald Trump by name, the other notable omission from Biden’s address was an actual endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive replacement nominee for the Democratic Party. He took pains to thank her, noting that she was “experienced” and “tough”, but his address stopped short of any statement endorsing her candidacy or offering up the usual political bromide of what a wonderful President she will make.

In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice. I made my views known. I would like to thank our great Vice President Kamala Harris. She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country. Now the choice is up to you, the American people.

We should note that the Democratic National Convention rules committee is not giving anyone much opportunity to step up and challenge Harris for the nomination.

The compressed timeline — nominating Harris less than two weeks after President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race — nearly guarantees the vice president’s path to the nomination, given the wide swath of support she’s picked up from Democrats across the country since declaring her candidacy on Sunday. She also benefits from the DNC pushing ahead on a virtual roll call that would conclude by Aug. 7, which the committee has defended as necessary to avoid potential legal challenges by Republicans in Ohio.

Given that abbreviated time frame, it is impossible to tell whether the lack of Biden reaffirming his endorsement of Harris was an oversight or a small gesture to weaken Harris support going into the convention—a possibility that cannot be completely ruled out given the unconfirmed reporting floating around Washington that an effort is underway among Biden’s delegates to vote for Arizona Senator Mark Kelly rather than Kamala Harris.

If that reporting is correct then there has been an actual coup within the White House and within the Democratic Party forcing Biden to step down.

Operatives at the very highest levels of the Democratic Party threatened Joe Biden with forcibly removing him from office unless he stepped down, sources told The Post.

The well-orchestrated "palace coup" to stop the faltering president seeking re-election has been in place for weeks, but stubborn Biden fought against it every step of the way, a source close to the Biden family told The Post Monday.

Was this speech part of a larger palace intrigue? Although I do not rule it out, I have no way to tell. Beyond noting the unconfirmed reporting, I am not prepared to speculate on it further.

Yet any such coup, if it did happen, merely reiterates Biden’s admission tonight: Joe Biden does not believe he can beat Donald Trump, and neither do the Democrats. The Democrats might not even be certain Kamala Harris can beat Donald Trump—if I were to hazard a guess, I would guess that among the Democratic Party “bosses” Kamala Harris is not given much chance to win against Donald Trump.

That was the reason Biden bowed out. Whether he was forced to bow out or choose to do so on his own, the rationale is still the same: Joe Biden believes he stood no chance against Donald Trump.

That might be the best reason of all for supporting Donald Trump: The Democrats are truly terrified of him, and not because he’s a “threat to democracy.”

1. While I’ve provided a link to the YouTube video from the AP LiveStream of Biden’s address, as a hedge against the video “disappearing” (as I have noticed other news video feeds occasionally do) I am including the full video of the address here as well.

2. “Transcript: Biden’s Speech Explaining Why He Withdrew from the 2024 Presidential Race.” AP News, AP News, 24 July 2024, apnews.com/article/biden-speech-transcript-campaign-withdrawal-432dc25a5af4ddebf75d73bfcc0fa72a. (Archived at https://archive.ph/xQOYx)