Biden tries to turn the party’s base against “the elites” to defend himself from those who want him to leave
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Joe Biden has turned to the populist card, claiming that the criticism he has received for his horrible performance in the debate against Donald Trump on June 27 and the demands that he abandons his campaign for re-election as president is some palace coup carried out by a few Democratic leaders who despise the party’s base.
That is the underlying idea of ​​the letter that the president has sent to his fellow party members in Congress, and whose first paragraph makes clear the president’s challenge: “Now that you have returned from the July 4 recess, I want you to know that, despite speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to continuing this campaign and finishing it and defeating Donald Trump.”
In the text, Biden reminds all those who have suggested he leave or expressed doubts about his mental capacities that “we had a nominating process [in which the voters spoke clearly and decisively. I have received 14 million votes, 87% of the total counted in the entire nominating process. I have almost 3,900 delegates, which makes me the presumptive nominee by a wide margin. And now we say that the process doesn’t matter? That the voters have no voice?”
With his letter, Biden tries to drive a wedge between his critics and the base. This is a terrain in which he moves – or at least moved – well in his political glory days, thanks to his ability to connect with voters, especially the white middle and lower-class voters who are now turning to Trump. But, indirectly, Biden is sending a second message to the party: this is not the television series about the U.S. Presidency, The West Wing, and replacing him would entail immense practical difficulties.
First of all, neither of the two parties in the United States has a governing body, so the candidate who wins the primaries cannot be removed from office by anyone. There is no general direction here. If Biden – or Trump, for example – leave, they choose to do so.
Additionally, Biden’s 3,900 delegates – who will vote for him at the Convention taking place in a month in Chicago – are approximately 73.4% of the total. In other words, in the vote at the Convention, there will be no mathematical way to defeat Biden. Finally, the president insinuates that the movement to have him withdraw his candidacy is some conspiracy by a minority of party leaders based on off-the-record statements, anonymous leaks to the media, and pure manipulation in which voters do not believe.
According to the public radio network NPR, nine members of the House of Representatives have so far called on Biden to withdraw his candidacy. At the same time, 13 Democratic leaders (four representatives, four senators, and five governors) have asked him to continue. In addition, six representatives, two senators, and one governor have expressed doubts about his mental capacity to continue serving as president for another four years but have not spoken out in favour of his withdrawal.
The debate remains open, especially after Biden’s interview with ABC on Friday, which did little to tip the discussion in one direction. Biden did a good job, but not a star-studded one, in an interview in which, as is usual with all kinds of public figures, the questions were already prearranged, and the meeting was so short – just 22 minutes – that everyone could believe what they wanted. To complicate matters, the interview was broadcast on the Friday of the July 4th holiday, thus ensuring that only the most die-hard fans of American presidential politics would see it.
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