The Democrats' only fighting chance
Donald Trump and JD Vance are a grave threat to American liberty, but those concepts have been left undefended by the selfishness and delusions of a small group of men and women clinging to power instead of their duty.
Hours before Donald Trump survived assassination, President Biden joined a phone call with worried House Democrats that included Colorado Congressman Jason Crow. Here is how Puck News reported the conversation. It is shocking.
Right before the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a group of moderate Hill Democrats held a “tense” Zoom call with the White House to express their concern about Biden’s ability to win—and their ability to win, should he tank and take them down with him. “The call was even worse than the debate,” one of the participants told me. “He was rambling; he’d start an answer then lose his train of thought, then would just say ‘whatever.’ He really couldn’t complete an answer. I lost a ton of respect for him.” A second participant in the call confirmed this characterization. “The president was rambling, dismissive of concerns, unable or unprepared to present a campaign strategy, and had a particularly troubling exchange with Jason Crow—saying to him, ‘Tell me something you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son,’” this member of Congress told me. “Had the assassination attempt not occurred an hour later, I imagine 50 people on that Zoom were ready to come out publicly against him.” (Biden ended the call on Saturday, just after 5 p.m., by saying his staff told him it was time for mass. The attempted assassination happened shortly after 6 p.m.) A third participant confirmed the descriptions of the president’s demeanor during the call to my partner Abby Livingston.
The Biden campaign pushed back strenuously on these members’ characterization of Biden as a rambling old man, sending me a half-dozen tweets from other call participants, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a fierce Biden loyalist, who said the president was “sharp, forceful.” “Just in the past week, the president has met with Democratic leaders in both chambers and numerous congressional groups to solicit their feedback and answer their questions,” a campaign official said in an email. “Engagement with House and Senate members is ongoing, and the campaign will continue to have candid and robust conversations with congressional offices.”
The campaign did not, however, dispute this next part, about Crow and his Bronze Star. In a video of the Zoom that I was able to view, you can hear Biden chastising Crow, who asked about the importance of national security to voters. “First of all, I think you’re dead wrong on national security,” the president says, the emotion at times garbling his words. “You saw what happened recently in terms of the meeting we had with NATO. I put NATO together. Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy. Tell me! Tell me who the hell that is! Tell me who put NATO back together! Tell me who enlarged NATO, tell me who did the Pacific basin! Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star like my son—and I’m proud of your leadership, but guess what, what’s happening, we’ve got Korea and Japan working together, I put Aukus together, anyway! … Things are in chaos, and I’m bringing some order to it. And again, find me a world leader who’s an ally of ours who doesn’t think I’m the most respected person they’ve ever—”
Crow, the Army Ranger, who served in the unit that is the heir to the legacy of the Rangers Biden celebrated last month at Pointe Du Hoc in Normandy kept his cool by saying:
“It’s not breaking through, Mr. President,” said Crow, “to our voters.”
Biden responded as follows:
“You oughta talk about it!” Biden shot back, listing his accomplishments yet again. “On national security, nobody has been a better president than I’ve been. Name me one. Name me one! So I don’t want to hear that crap!”
Does he remind you of anyone?
Jason Crow was a company commander with the 82nd Airborne and the 75th Ranger Regiment. His Bronze Star was awarded with a valor device. Major Beau Biden was a JAG officer, who received his decoration for meritorious service, which was routinely awarded to company-grade officers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The awards are different, and the president’s comments were abhorrent.
California’s next Senator Adam Schiff said the following in a statement:
Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better.
But our nation is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.
And, Senator Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Jeffries have told President Biden that it is time for him to step aside because he has lost the confidence and support of Democratic elected leaders, voters, and more generally, the American people.
The bitter harvest from the delusions, cowardice, group think, White House bullying and the rigging of the Democratic primary process by obliterating the New Hampshire primary have come due. A terrible political crisis is at hand.
There are three essential facts at hand that must be put squarely forward in order to reach a terrible conclusion that should disgust every person that cares more for the nation than they do their party or clique.
Donald Trump and JD Vance are everything Joe Biden says they are. They are both fascists and extremists. They are a danger to the republic.
Trump is winning decisively.
The Biden campaign has functionally collapsed. It has imploded like the backyard submarine that didn’t make it to the Titanic last year. Schiff’s truthful comments, Schumer, Jeffries, the shameful meltdown at Crow, and the pathetic split screen of the declining president struggling down the stairs of Air Force One and slow shuffling across the tarmac as JD Vance took the stage at the RNC are the coup de grace that have brought the travesty at hand into its end stage. Sadly, it is going to be very ugly and unnecessarily so. The actions of the small group of individuals suborning this travesty, starting with First Lady Jill Biden, convicted felon Hunter Biden, and a small group of cloistered and out-of-touch White House aides, is quickly passing from selfishness to villainous. The arrogance is astounding.
There is a simple question at hand now for Democrats and the nation.
Appeasing Biden’s delusions and ego is an appeasement of Trump and MAGA. It is an act of capitulation and surrender to a cause each and everyone of them, including Joe and Jill Biden, believe is as dangerous as they say it is.
The strategy of shouting down the obvious, and pretending the failing president isn’t lost is over forever.
Lastly, I am heartbroken over the humiliation of Joe Biden and the presidency that I am witnessing. Each interview is further proof of the president’s decline. The plain truth is that he is barely intelligible when he speaks. The decision to continue forward is an act of political suicide.
Donald Trump has always been a grave threat, and his comeback on Joe Biden’s watch is Joe Biden’s greatest failure as president — bar none.
Winning is all that matters, and Joe Biden can’t win. It’s over. Joe must go, and anyone who maintains the “I’m With Joe” charade is really a spoiler and a quitter who cares little about the dangers that we face, or the future of the country.
I’m not ready to lie down for Trump and JD Vance.
It’s time to fight for our values and our country against a terrible and growing malevolence. It’s time to stop lying to one another, and face the future with the same grit our ancestors did.
It’s time to change the game.
The future cannot be postponed. It must not be Trump, and it isn’t Biden. Who will it be?
Who knows?
Whomever winds up at the top of the ballot will at least give Democrats a fighting chance, which is a hell of a lot more than they have now.
As a human being, I never intentionally want to hurt someone’s feelings. That being said, there’s a fine line between honesty and hurtful. It’s difficult to decide the right choice for the Democratic Party because the stakes are so high for our country. The only sure thing for me is that we cannot give Trump the victory. The party leaders appear to be listening finally that the American voters have never wanted this race. And I hear what you hear in Biden’s resistance. Like Trump, he has made this personal. It’s time for Joe to retire, because it is not about his future, but the future of this country and our children’s future.
I agree, sadly and with profound respect for what Biden has accomplished. His comment that he brought order from chaos is true, and telling. He did that the first year of his presidency. But this campaign is different. He cannot rest or campaign on what he has accomplished. This election is about no less than our future. I, for one, have no desire to live in a fascist country, or even a country aiming to be fascist. Joe must go.