The Column I Never Wanted To Write: It's Time For President Biden To Go

The debate last night was an unmitigated disaster.

by Ben Cohen

After a long week with a very sick two year old, I was not looking forward to watching the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump last night. Justin and I had decided to do a live podcast while watching it, so we spent a considerable part of the day figuring out how to do it.

The evening was a disaster from start to finish. Our live podcast was cut short after CNN filed a copyright claim on our Youtube channel (even presidential debates are money spinning bonanzas for corporate America), and we watched what had to be the worst debate in US history.

A painful experience

Within the first three minutes I knew the debate was over. Biden looked old, confused, and barely able to speak. Trump looked decades younger, spoke forcefully, and to my surprise, coherently. He had prepped well for the debate and delivered his barrage of conspiracy theories and lies with confidence and swagger.

Having covered presidential debates for almost two decades, I knew what this meant. The split screen image played by CNN for the majority of the night was brutal to Biden. He looked ancient compared to Trump, and deeply unsure of his surrounding in the way only very old people are. This was the Biden of right wing media memes, a version so bad no amount of rehabilitation or spin could ever fix. Having watched Biden’s excellent State Of The Union address three months ago I was convinced he still had it in him. But last night proved definitively that he does not.

To his credit, Biden’s performance as the night went on got better while Trump’s got worse, but it was too little too late. Trump lied about everything from the border to abortion, but with no live fact checking from CNN it was left to Biden to counter the bullshit. Biden had a couple of good lines (“you have the morals of an alleycat” he told Trump at one point), but it was not enough.

As the debate dragged on, I began receiving torrents of text messages from loyal Biden supporters I know. “Disaster” was the common word. “What the fuck” was another phrase I saw repeatedly. These were coming from people who have publicly defended Biden and refused to accept he is too old to continue.

Democrats are panicking

A similar dynamic was playing out in high level Democratic circles. Panic was setting in, and rightfully so. After the debate, a somber looking Claire McCaskill told Rachel Maddow: “Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight, and he didn’t do it,” said the former Democratic senator for Missouri. “He had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight.” 

Former Obama advisor and CNN contributor Van Jones was similarly despondent and almost on the verge of tears during a post debate analysis on CNN. “That was painful. I love Joe Biden. I worked for Joe Biden. He didn’t do well at all,” he said.

“He had a test to meet tonight to restore [the] confidence of the country and of the base, and he failed to do that.”

“There is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that.”

Biden cannot win

As much as this hurts me to say, I no longer believe Biden can win in November. Not after last night. He needs a motivated base and strong support with independent voters in swing states. This means a relentless campaign and flawless debate performances from hereon out. Biden may be capable of fulfilling his duties as president, but he is in no physical condition to be running a presidential campaign.

Furthermore, it is inconceivable that Biden could continue running the largest economy on earth for another four years. If Biden had a popular vice president, voters might be assured that he could hand the reins over after another year or so. But he doesn’t, so now the Democrats have to move very, very quickly to find a replacement.

Don’t blame Democrats

Alt left and right circles are now crowing about the catastrophe on social media. They told us so. Biden was never up to it. The dastardly Democrats knew all along that Biden was too old. Why are his supporters only now recognizing the obvious truth?

I call bullshit. Biden has been the victim of far right and left smears since he announced his candidacy in 2019. “Sleepy Joe” destroyed Trump at the ballot in 2020, helped his party win back the Senate, thwarted a red wave in 2022, and has consistently outmaneuvered his opponents. The bombardment of memes, AI generated deep fakes and MAGA conspiracy theories have made it almost impossible to know what Biden’s real mental and physical condition is. He has performed well in interviews, gave an excellent SOTU speech, and has fulfilled his duties as president with no obvious flaws.

I have previously expressed concern about Biden’s age, but have consistently maintained he is more than capable of continuing as president given the evidence available. Furthermore, he has maintained broad support within the party for one very good reason: the threat of Donald Trump. For all the talk about Democrats putting the country at risk by supporting Joe Biden, everyone seems to forget why the president ran in the first place.

Don’t forget Biden’s record

To win general elections you need to be able to build broad coalitions of voters. You need support from independent women, black voters in key swing state cities like Philadelphia, the Hispanic vote in places like Nevada and Arizona, and the white working class vote in the rust belt. Biden had ties to all of these groups, the experience and connections to launch a serious campaign, and the political skills to outwit Donald Trump. In 2020, no one else could have built a coalition like that, and it wasn’t clear any Democrat could for 2024 either.

That is why Democrats have supported Biden for so long. They desperately want to protect the country from a deranged, lying sociopath who has promised to destroy the institutions of government and use the White House to persecute his enemies. They know that the international order could disintegrate if Trump gets back into power, and have thrown their support behind an old school, globally respected statesman.

If anyone deserves blame here it is the GOP. They have supported a convicted criminal who tried to end American democracy via a violent coup. Democrats on the other hand have supported a fundamentally decent human being who has done an excellent job in office thus far.

New blood

I don’t believe it is too late to turn this around, but it is clear that Biden needs to step aside for the good of the country. The country need a powerful opponent to square off against Donald Trump and I don’t think Biden is that person any more.

My sense is that California Governor Gavin Newsom would be more than capable of launching a serious campaign, and his debating skills would present a real nightmare for Donald Trump. Newsom is charismatic, experienced, and has built a powerful online infrastructure that generates millions in donations for Democrats already. Newsom’s energy could create a renewed sense of purpose for Democrats, and with the right running mate, he can take Trump into deep waters and drown him.

Joe Biden has been a great president and rescued the country from the grips of a mad man. He needs to help us do that again, but this time by stepping down and allowing another Democrat to continue the fight.

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