It’s the age of instant gratification, and if voters hate one thing the most, it is vacillation. Last Thursday, June 27 (Friday morning India time), a 78-year-old and an 81-year-old debated about their country’s future on the CNN network. The 78-year-old did he what he has been doing for many decades — lie. The 81-year-old, a career politician and the current resident of a white-coloured neoclassical style building, convinced millions of people around the world — including this writer (‘Biden should withdraw from race’, FPJ, June 29) — that his cognitive abilities are not those that are required to run a country that is as complex as the United States of America.
Former President Donald Trump (78) and current President Joe Biden came across as unfit to run for office for different reasons. But the pressure is on Biden to prove that he is mentally fit. His family and closes associates insist that he is; but even if he is, the optics of his slurring, forgetfulness, fumbling and inability to complete sentences are too embarrassing to not notice. The first national level lawmaker to tell him to withdraw was US Representative (equivalent to Lok Sabha MP in India) Lloyd Doggett of Texas. He made an official statement on Tuesday.
Biden is not helping matters. He tried to shout his way through in a post-debate rally that worsened the image because everybody started joking that he took performance-enhancing drugs. He then told donors in a private meeting that he “almost fell asleep on stage.” He was referring to Trump being boring, but it came across as something else.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre stoutly defended her boss at the daily press briefing saying he had been afflicted by a cold during the debate and that he forgot to take his pills. But that does not explain why he was incoherent and why he simply forgot to complete sentences. Worse, he was caught open-mouthed on several occasions not only during the debate, but also during the post-debate rally. It was excruciating to watch.
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A Reuters poll of Democratic Party supporters after the debate indicated that one-third of Biden’s voters now want him to withdraw. The Biden inner circle would argue that 67% of their supporters still want him to continue, but it is a strawman argument. In politics, perception is everything, and the more the party delays the inevitable, the stronger Trump gets.
Trump’s prospects should also be viewed from a judicial lens. The US Supreme Court, which is now Republican-heavy thanks to three conservative judges appointed by Trump during his tenure. Six of the nine justices — Roberts (also the Chief Justice), Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett — are officially Republican. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Presidents enjoy “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution with regards to conduct concerning their “core constitutional powers”. The court also protected all future Presidents from their official acts becoming the subject of criminal prosecution. Though Trump was convicted by a New York court in the hush money trial last month, his sentencing — originally slated for the second week of July — has been deferred to September. His other trials will, in all likelihood, never take place at all.
This is a massive blow to the American motto that all are equal before the law. Biden not only lost the debate; Trump has pulled the rug from under his feet with his Supreme Court machinations.
This is where the Democratic Party needs to intervene quickly. If the party is convinced that Biden is not fit to run for office or that he will not win enough votes, they have to bring in alternative faces to the national convention in Chicago next month. If they want Biden to continue, they have to say so immediately so that the campaign strategy and tactics can be planned. Dithering won’t work.
For Biden to make a comeback is going to be a Himalayan task. Not the Everest kind, but the K2 kind. The fatality rate while climbing the world’s tallest peak is less than 3%, but with K2 it is as high as 13.7%. Biden wants to climb K2, but then it is his choice.
As the first step, he will be speaking to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News (Stephanopoulos is a former Bill Clinton adviser and one of America’s seniormost political journalists) in an interview that will be broadcast on Friday night (Saturday morning India time). On Thursday morning (today), he is expected to speak to Democratic governors, and try to allay their fears.
Stephanopoulos cannot, and will not, throw softball questions at Biden. The Democratic governors are not going to sit idle as they lose votes. US House Representatives and US Senators have their constituents to answer. Therefore, these two events are key.
Biden clearly does not have a long rope, and even then, his closest advisers will be hoping it does not end up becoming a political noose.
Sachin Kalbag, Senior Fellow at The Takshashila Institution, is a former Washington Correspondent and editor of Indian newspapers. Email: sachin@takshashila.org.in. Twitter: @SachinKalbag
