For a brief two weeks, American journalism came to life. Finally freed from the burden of keeping secret Joe Biden’s cognitive challenges, we saw the re-emergence of the New York Times as an actual newspaper urging Biden to drop out of the race. The reporting of a number of leaks from within the Biden White House and political sources expressing concerns about the president’s work hours and capacity during those work hours was new and refreshing.
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos was hand-picked to interview Biden in what could only be called a halting performance by the president. A president who on multiple times during the interview said that he didn’t need to take a cognitive test, “every day I take a cognitive test” referencing the work he does as president. The same George Stephanopoulos told a passerby on the streets of New York that he didn’t believe that Joe could serve for four years.
But then a strange thing happened. Joe Biden flashed back to his Vietnam War days and told everyone who would listen, “Hell no, I won’t go!” And when they did a gut and polling check, those in the Democratic Party who think a President should be able to work more than thirty hours a week, seemingly gave up.
Joe Biden looked the media and Democratic leaders in the eye and said, use the 25th amendment if you dare, and just try to beat me at the same convention you stacked so I couldn’t be defeated.
In short order, George Stephanopoulos apologized for voicing his up-close observation of Joe Biden. As a former press secretary for a young and too vigorous Bill Clinton, Stephanopoulos has had an up-close view of what it takes to be president, and now he is apologizing for his expert evaluation of Biden’s ability to serve out another four years.
And suddenly three days into the week when most people, including myself, thought Biden would be forced out of the race, but allowed to keep the presidency through Jan. 20, 2025, the mood has shifted.
The reality is that Democratic leaders, including their media sycophants, messed up when they cleared the field of credible challengers to the obviously failing Biden before the primary race. It never occurred to them that Biden would not gracefully step aside when he was told to do so. It never occurred to them that Jill and Hunter Biden would be particularly vociferous in reminding Joe that he had the nomination and there was nothing the elites of the party could do about it. And it never occurred to them that the most important decision that Joe made was when he put Barack Obama’s choice for Vice President in the number two slot.
For his immediate political survival anyway. Kamala Harris has always been the biggest obstacle to replacing Biden. Her cackling, nervous laugh is like running fingernails against a chalkboard—those under 40, YouTube it — makes her a uniquely bad public messenger, which in today’s 30-second reels world is a political killer.
Apart from her massive cringe factor, Harris has failed on the national stage with every opportunity presented. She got the border assignment, made some statements about working with Central American countries to deal with root causes, and then forgot about it. The subsequent flood of illegals is one of the defining issues in the campaign with growing, legitimate concern that the Biden administration will use this flood to overturn the will of the citizens of the United States in November through illegal voting.
Harris’ word salads make Biden’s glitches sound like Ronald Reagan classics doing further harm to her ability to carry the day in a short, electoral knife fight with Donald Trump.
The irony is that Biden’s insistence on remaining in the race also locks Harris into her role. And it is inescapable that the American public knows that Biden is incapable of doing the job now, let alone in the next four years. So, the Democrats now have the worst of all situations.
But one thing they have going for them is that as the inevitability of Biden’s candidacy becomes obvious, the media and their social media allies will do everything they can to shield voters from knowing about his shortcomings, moving rapidly away from the two-week journalism anomaly back to their lapdog roles.
After all, Orange Man Bad and must be stopped at all costs.
As Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post is fond of reminding us, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” while their leftist activists masquerading as reporters put a blanket back on reporting on Biden’s inability to perform the office of the presidency, providing the very darkness they ironically warn against.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
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