A New York Times columnist argued that it was not a question of whether President Biden should drop out of the 2024 race, but “how” he should do so, following last week's widely criticized press conference and the special counsel's harsh report.
“Joe Biden should not run for re-election. That was obvious long before the special counsel's comments about the president's memory lapses inspired an outpouring of age-related angst,” urged opinion columnist Ross Douthat. “What's less obvious is how Biden should get out of this.”
The release of special counsel Robert Hur's report last week on Biden's handling of classified material fueled questions about Biden's mental acuity when he described the president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning old man with a bad memory” who could not remember important events in his life. Biden then held a last-minute press conference at the White House to challenge the idea, but the event was called a “political disaster” even by The New York Times.
While Douthat believed Biden had “delivered results” despite his “obvious” decline, he feared that another nearly five years of Biden as president would not bode well for the country.
BIDEN'S AGE, MENTAL ACUITY IMPACTING ELECTORAL OPPORTUNITIES BECOME MEDIA FOCUS AFTER DIFFICULT ADVISORY SPECIAL REPORT
A New York Times opinion columnist called on President Biden to resign during the Democratic National Committee in August. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The impression the president gives in public is not so much one of senility as one of extreme fragility, like a light bulb that stays on as long as you keep it on,” he wrote, predicting that the 81-year-old president's memory lapses would be inevitable. appear more frequently during the campaign season.
However, there is no easy way for Biden to drop out of the race now because of “his terrible vice presidential pick” in Kamala Harris, he argued.
She is “even more likely” to lose to Donald Trump than Biden, Douthat said. But if Biden did not endorse Harris, she would only fuel more controversy and fights within the party.
“[H]”He would be opening himself to a narrative of identity betrayal (an elderly white president stabs the first black vice president) and preparing his party for months of bloodshed and betrayal, a constant churn of personal and ideological drama,” the columnist said. Times. feared
'THE VIEW' FLOATS TO KAMALA HARRIS, GAVIN NEWSOM REPLACES BID AFTER ADVISOR'S SPECIAL REPORT
Ross Douthat said Kamala Harris was even more likely to lose to Donald Trump if Biden dropped out and endorsed her as the nominee. (Left: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Right: (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images))
The columnist proposed that Biden remain in the race until the Democratic National Convention in August, “when he would shock the world by announcing his withdrawal from the race, refusing to issue any endorsement, and inviting convention delegates to choose his replacement.”
While it might be momentarily “painful” for the Democratic Party, it would be shorter than a long primary battle between Harris and other high-profile Democratic contenders like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, he thought.
“The proximity of the general election would create stronger incentives for Harris or any other disappointed loser to take a behind-the-scenes bid and fall in line if the convention battle doesn't go their way. And the format would encourage the party—as an institution, not as a party as a mass electorate, to do the traditional work of a party and choose the formula with the greatest national appeal,” Douthat predicted.
JOE BIDEN'S TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NOT GOOD, VERY BAD WEEK AND THE NEXT MOVEMENT OF THE DEMOCRATS
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggested that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or California Gov. Gavin Newsom could compete for the Democratic nomination if Biden withdraws. (Getty Images)
This solution would surely give Republicans a “field day,” but at least a more “popular and seemingly competent” candidate would alleviate concerns voters have about Biden's age and mental acuity, Douthat argued.
A withdrawal plan would allow Biden to “hold out” if he doesn't see better alternatives for the Democratic Party, but it would also open a path for the country to “escape an election that right now seems like divine punishment,” he wrote.
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Several Democratic aides and media commentators criticized last week's press conference and special counsel report as a “nightmare” and a “disaster,” fearing they would highlight Biden's memory problems ahead of the 2024 elections.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.
