Remember: Axios reported that unnamed White House staffers told them that Joe Biden is “dependably engaged” between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM! Of course, a google search to see if any of the other major credentialed media picked up on that claim, even just to refute it, turned up nothing. The media are going to resolutely ignore it for as long as possible.
From The New York Times:
Biden’s Family Tells Him to Keep Fighting as They Huddle at Camp David
President Biden is trying to figure out how to tamp down Democratic anxiety after last week’s disastrous debate performance.
By Katie Rogers and Peter Baker | Sunday, June 30, 2024 | 4:47 PM EDT
President Biden’s family is urging him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite last week’s disastrous debate performance, even as some members of his clan privately expressed exasperation at how he was prepared for the event by his staff, people close to the situation said on Sunday.
That’s right: blame the staffers!
Mr. Biden huddled with his wife, children and grandchildren at Camp David while he tried to figure out how to tamp down Democratic anxiety. While his relatives are acutely aware of how poorly he did against former President Donald J. Trump, they argued that he could still show the country that he is capable of serving for another four years.
Another four years? Does anybody believe that? With modern medicine, Joe Biden could live, physically, for another four years, but while his physical decline is obvious, that won’t stop his mental decline. Franklin Roosevelt ran the country for twelve years from a wheelchair, proving that a President can have physical handicaps, as long as his mind was sharp and engaged, but Mr Biden’s mind is only sharp and engaged for six hours a day, if even that much.
Mr. Biden has also been soliciting ideas from advisers about how to proceed, and his staff has been discussing whether he should hold a news conference or sit for interviews to defend himself and change the narrative, but nothing has been decided yet. Aides were burning phone lines over the weekend to prevent major elected officials and financial supporters from abandoning him.
Simply the fact that such a family meeting was called to discuss whether Mr Biden should drop out is evidence that he’s not fit to continue!
One of the strongest voices imploring Mr. Biden to resist pressure to drop out was his son Hunter Biden, whom the president has long leaned on for advice, said one of the people informed about the discussions, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. Hunter Biden wants Americans to see the version of his father that he knows — scrappy and in command of the facts — rather than the stumbling, aging president Americans saw on Thursday night.
It’s good to know that the President of the United States “has long leaned” on a drug addict for advice!
The anger among Democrats was made evident on Sunday when John Morgan, a top Democratic donor, publicly blamed the advisers who managed the president’s debate preparations, citing by name Ron Klain, Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer.
“Biden has for too long been fooled by the value of Anita Dunn and her husband,” Mr. Morgan wrote on social media. “They need to go … TODAY. The grifting is gross. It was political malpractice.”
He elaborated in a subsequent interview. “It would be like if you took a prizefighter who was going to have a title fight and put him in a sauna for 15 hours then said, ‘Go fight,’” he said. “I believe that the debate is solely on Ron Klain, Bob Bauer and Anita Dunn.”
Members of Mr. Biden’s family were likewise said to be focused on the president’s staff, including Ms. Dunn, a White House senior adviser, and her husband, Mr. Bauer, the president’s personal attorney, who played Mr. Trump during debate rehearsals.
Were Mr Klain and Mrs and Mrs Bauer on the stage last Thursday?
Mr Morgan is, apparently, saying that the debate prep team pressured the President too much, and took too much out of him. Big Whoop! The President of the United States has been sending money and military equipment and munitions to a nation directly in combat against Russia, a nation with a strategic nuclear arsenal, and a leader who arguably has a screw loose, yet a top Democratic donor is telling us that his debate prep staff put too much pressure on Mr Biden? I’d think that a President inching the world and us ever closer to a nuclear fucking war would be under more pressure, every f(ornicating) day than just a 15-hour-sauna.
Me? I’d rather not see New York City, or any other place in the US, engaged in a 15-second nuclear sauna of 14,000º Fahrenheit. Shouldn’t the President of the United States be under pressure to help avoid that?
The rest of the Times article tells us that no, Mr Biden does not want to withdraw, but that the possibility isn’t wholly foreclosed, though the probability of a change is small. More, while Mr Morgan, publicly, and others privately, are blaming the debate preparation staff, Mr Biden himself is not unhappy with his staff. But it’s good news for Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the country as a whole: the longer such a decision is delayed, the greater the chaos in among the Democrats, and the ever-shortening time they’d have to choose a replacement nominee if they did. At a certain point, they simply couldn’t change horses in midstream, unless President Biden either died or resigned.