The Democrats are in a very difficult situation.
In reality, they probably wish they had pickled their 81-year-old standard-bearer, President Biden, to preserve him until November. Biden unleashed an epic round of lamentations following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27 and did little to assuage concerns about his physical condition in his interview afterward with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Republicans like me are mildly amused by this newfound concern about Biden’s age, since his decline has been evident for years. But there was a curious lack of curiosity about it until the debate and the terrible polls that followed showing Biden losing to Trump in a landslide nationally (the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CNN all show Trump leading by at least six points).
There are now serious concerns about Biden’s ability to function. Axios’ Alex Thompson reports that a former White House aide said Biden “is so closely tied to his staff that he has lost all independence.” The New York Times says Biden’s “missteps appear to have become more frequent, more pronounced and … more troubling.”
Biden is not just a candidate, of course. He is the current commander in chief! And he has made it clear that performing the duties of president (a trip abroad that ended nearly two weeks before the debate and a cold) makes him too “exhausted” to debate Trump for 90 minutes. Biden works from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, according to Axios, but is less reliable outside of those hours.
Never mind the 3am call. Hillary Clinton once warned aboutAmericans are now hoping that the world's bad actors won't wreak havoc later in the day.
But Democrats aren’t responding to the alarm that the current president might not be able to fulfill his duties. If Biden had simply turned in a mediocre performance against Trump and stayed within reasonable distance in post-debate polls, they would have had no problem sticking with a candidate who will be 86 years old at the end of his second term.
The Democratic panic is purely political. If you think Biden won’t rise to the occasion in January, you must believe he won’t rise to the occasion today. So why aren’t there more calls for Biden to resign rather than simply stay on the sidelines as a candidate? As of this writing, the Biden family appears to be more entrenched than an Alabama tick. But Democrats are openly asking: Would we be better off with Vice President Kamala Harris in November?
That is a good question. Biden never trailed Trump in 2020, but he's consistently behind todayHe suffers from a job approval rating of around 30% and faces an electorate that knows he cannot fulfill the duties of the office for four more years.
Let me be clear that I don’t think Democrats can go with anyone other than Harris. She is America’s first black female vice president, and Democrats are not going to pass her over in favor of another white man. Please. Passing her over would be an admission that she was not qualified for her current position, which Biden picked her for in 2020, and that’s simply not going to happen.
Harris’s candidacy could have some appeal: She’s much younger, which eliminates the question of physical fitness. She’ll get a burst of energy from a Trump-hating political media that has clearly moved on from Biden. And she could have the ability to reinvigorate minority voters who are dissatisfied with Biden in poll after poll.
But let’s not sugarcoat it: Harris is not a great politician. Her approval rating is 37%, roughly the same as Biden’s. Her 2020 presidential campaign was a complete failure, with the high point coming when she suggested Biden was racist during a debate. And her bizarre speeches featuring phrases like “the importance of the passage of time” and “relief of what has been” have become the laughing stock of the internet.
Part of Biden’s appeal in 2020 was that he at least pretended to be a cordial, moderate dealmaker who could withstand the extremes of both parties. With Harris, you get an unapologetic, credentialed progressive who embraces whatever emerges from the swamps of liberal fever.
It would be reasonable for Democrats to conclude that they would be better off with anyone but Biden. All of the party's voters who would prefer a stuffed buffalo to Trump will opt for a new candidate, and a fresh face would remove the burden of Biden's age.
But Biden defeated Trump once (by about 44,000 votes in three states) and won the Democratic nomination in 2024. Impeaching him now may seem like a knee-jerk reaction to a nation yearning for strong leadership. There is some chance Biden could win again, though it is dwindling if data-crunching prognosticators are to be believed. And it would be a little comical if the self-proclaimed party of democracy stripped the nomination away from someone who won it fair and square in a series of primaries.
I'm betting Biden will still be the nominee. His wife will be on the cover of Vogue in August and his son Hunter will be able to hang out at Camp David and the White House as he prepares for his tax evasion trial in September. Something tells me they'll have to drag the Biden family out of the White House.
Scott Jennings is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a prominent political commentator for CNN. @ScottJenningsKY
