We knew the general gist of how Democratic lawmakers lost all faith in the octogenarian Joe Biden in the past year, and how Biden’s abysmal performance on the debate stage the night of June 27 prompted a panic. But this morning’s New York Times offers Chuck Schumer’s version of events, and the details are pretty jarring.
If there were a secret ballot among Democratic senators, Mr. Schumer would tell the president, no more than five would say he should continue running. Mr. Biden’s own pollsters assessed that he had about a 5 percent chance of prevailing against Donald J. Trump, Mr. Schumer would tell him — information that was apparently news to the president. And if the president refused to step aside, the senator would argue, the consequences for Democrats and Mr. Biden’s own legacy after a half-century of public service would be catastrophic.
Biden’s pollsters didn’t meet with him in person and saw little evidence that the president was personally getting the data that they were sending him, according to the people.
Why? Why did Biden’s pollsters never meet with him? Did Biden’s closest advisors and handlers believe Biden couldn’t handle receiving bad news?
Getting bad news is a big part of the job of the president!
This does explain Biden’s recent nonsensical insistence that if he had stayed in the race, he would have beaten Trump. Apparently, Biden didn’t realize he was losing, and losing badly, until shortly before he withdrew from the race. And he may well have forgotten that already.
So elected Democratic officials either knew Biden was mentally no longer capable of handling his duties, or had serious doubts, but held their tongue. And they wonder why the country doesn’t trust them anymore!
