Joe Biden’s political future evaporated last Thursday night, but he, his family, and the entire Democratic Party are still wrestling with the early stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining and depression.
The sooner they are accepted, the better for all of them and for the country.
Step 1: Negation
Biden told many donors that he had slept most of the night because he had foolishly taken a ton of international travel just before the debate.
Bull: He got back from Europe 11 days before that Thursday, took the weekend off, then started preparing for the debate, sleeping until 11 every day and taking a nap in the afternoon.
And during his showdown with Trump, he wasn’t sleepy; he was completely disinterested.
50 million viewers watched it.
Meanwhile, spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre stuck to the “bad cold” excuse on Tuesday. Can’t they even string out lies? (By Wednesday she was citing “a cold” as the reason.) and It’s jet lag.
In a behind-the-scenes move to shore up Trump, his allies have been telling stories that suggest he still has the leverage, such as his tough call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel.
Sorry, but Israel is a friend and ally of America. Israel needs us.
The Democrats want to demonize Bibi, but he, like poor Volodymyr Zelensky, will have to endure Joe’s bullying.
The real test will be whether our President can get tough on Iran (for 3.5 years he has not done so, instead has appeased Iran) and Vladimir Putin (remember Biden said Vladimir would be okay if we took some of Ukraine).
For that matter, what if he remains as perplexed as he was on Thursday night when word came that China had launched an invasion of Taiwan?
The commander in chief can’t put six words together properly, or worse, tells the U.S. military that it’s time to “finally defeat Medicare.” What will they do?
Hunter Biden will likely act as an interpreter for his father.
Yes, Hunter is in the White House meeting right now because his core family is also evacuated.
Step 2: Anger
Jill, Hunter and perhaps Joe himself have blamed the debate disaster on several of Biden’s longtime aides, infuriating them as they are the same people who have defended him throughout the waning days of his presidency.
Of course, Anita Dunn and Ron Klain aren’t to blame for the president becoming a zombie.
Once Biden decided he wanted an early debate to wake up the American people to the fact that they were facing a Trump-Biden contest, his fate was sealed.
They managed to put out the growing fires, even getting The New York Times and The Washington Post to corroborate the ridiculous “cheap fake” myth of Biden’s repeated lumps, slurring and stammering in the video.
There is a false sense of anger running rampant throughout the campaign, with letters to Biden supporters accusing people of “bedwetters” for panicking over the president of the United States’ complete and utter failure on national television.
Attack your friends, that’s the answer!
(And should they really mention bedwetting, with Biden in the state?)
Step 3: Negotiation
Biden’s team believes they can get through this by having Biden make a statement via teleprompter.
They gave him a similar four-minute speech on Monday night and a longer one on Tuesday afternoon.
But he has a reputation for being able to read a script.
And at one point, instead of following the instructions (“Say it again”), he read it out loud.
Moreover, he did not answer any questions.
That won’t work, and neither will the edited version of ABC’s taped interview with George Stephanopoulos that’s set to air Friday (surely in Joe’s “functional” time slot of 10 to 4).
The fact that the President isn’t conducting a live, unscripted, two-way debate tells everyone that he can’t do it.
Step 4: Depression
Some members of the party are getting there fast, looking at the latest polls, which show Joe losing support in all the battleground states, with new ones emerging: New Mexico, Minnesota, Virginia, New Hampshire.
If this continues, New Jersey and Colorado could be added.
It’s also depressing that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can (presumably) legally inherit the $200 million the Biden-Harris campaign has accumulated.
Yes, the Democratic Party may be haunted by the Queen of Wordiness, if she can beat Donald Trump (stranger things have happened), or maybe the whole country will, if anyone remembers to read the 25th Amendment.
This is all pretty awful when you think about it, and it’s not just a Democrat problem.
But it is a reality and they – and all of us – need to deal with it.
Step 5: Do you approve?
Some Democrats have reached that stage, perhaps because their own fates hang in the balance: Twenty-five House Democrats from battleground districts are preparing a letter to Biden urging him to drop out of the race.
They’re rightly afraid that a Trump landslide victory will crush them, too. At least with Harris (or Gavin Newsom or whoever) at the forefront of the candidates, they have a chance.
But Biden hasn’t gotten to that stage yet. On a campaign conference call, he said he was “in it to win.” That’s a delusion and a terrible thing for the country.
Denial, anger, negotiation — none of these are or will be effective.
