Bye-din: President Joe Biden Drops Campaign, Does Not Resign

After weeks of speculation and intense pressure from a multitude of Democratic donors, electeds, and party leaders, President Joe Biden today has officially dropped his re-election campaign.

Biden, though, will remain president until the inauguration next January.

The momentous – but not un-surprising decision – was announced, surprisingly,  on Twitter/X at 1:46 Sunday afternoon.  In his statement Biden said that serving as president “has been the greatest honor of my life.”

He thanked the American people for helping him forge a successful presidency, but in the end said “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the reminder of my term.” (‘Party’ before ‘country’?  Ick.)

Pointedly, he thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for “being an extraordinary partner” and endorsed her as his replacement in a separate tweet about a half hour later (one assumes that adding that into the actual announcement would have come off as crass.)

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,” Biden wrote. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

Biden said he will address the nation in greater detail during the coming week.

Those details, one assumes, will focus on his health as the reason he cannot continue the campaign.  While that is certainly true, it is also years late.

Exactly what he will describe as his health issues are obviously not yet clear.  But he most certainly will have to offer something specific and something relatively new to both justify why he has remained in the race (let alone the presidency) for so long when the issues were obvious to anyone paying attention.

Newly minted Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance – just hours before the announcement – wrote on Twitter/X: “If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground.”

But to downplay the on-going cover-up of his health, the personal humiliation of being forced from the only job he has ever wanted, and to hopefully garner some public sympathy, his speech will follow something along these lines:  

President Biden announces that he has Parkinson’s disease (or something else rather serious), a fact that was only confirmed to him recently (possibly after his reported January meeting with a neurologist.)  During the announcement, Biden admits he has been struggling – a bit, and only on occasion, and never when it really counted for the nation – with certain symptoms he had put down to mere aging and/or controllable with some minor medications.

But, Biden then tells America, the diagnosis became official and he has admittedly been lapsing off more frequently – but, again, never when it mattered…until the debate.

Because of the “very recent” diagnosis, he and his family have decided that he should not run for re-election.

His doctors, however, assure him he is still capable of his presidential duties for the rest of the year and even a year or two after, but then… Therefore, he will remain as president…” 

As to what to do now, it is his and Harris’ and the party elders job to convince the public that she is up for the job.  The endorsement could also end any prospects of an “open” convention or the nightmare of trying to figure out how to keep the cash that was donated to the “Biden/Harris”  campaign.  Unlike anyone else, her name is on the donations made and therefore, almost all legal scholars say, she is entitled to use the funds as she sees fit (though the delegates are technically pledged to him, not her – her name was not on the ballot, so one can be assured there will legal and rules questions surrounding that issue.)

It is true she is currently polling worse than, or at least as poorly as, Biden but the party may believe they can turn that around.  They know they can’t turn Biden’s decline around anymore.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had high praise for the former candidate, saying on Twitter/X that “President Biden has been an extraordinary, history-making president — a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans. He will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents.”

That being his public stance is not at all surprising – he has been one of Biden’s foremost public defenders.  Of course, you can’t stab someone in the back unless you get behind him, as Newsom was tight-roping both angles for months.  Now that balancing act appears to have been for naught and if – shudder – Harris is actually elected in November, Gavin may have to put off that 2028 dream – challenging an incumbent is not typically a wise idea.  In other words, right now Newsom is sneaking around Sacramento putting “Trump/Vance 2024” bumper stickers on every car he can find.  

Remember, Trump can’t run again in 2028.

The people who forced him out had, like Newsom, nothing but effusive praise for Biden.

“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he’s a truly amazing human being. His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first. Joe, today shows you are a true patriot and great American,” wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on X, prompting more than one response along these lines:

“He was so great that you all asked him to step down, right?”

The very very backroom nature of today’s announcement will dog Democrats through November and beyond. Biden got third world dictator levels of voter support during the primaries and, obviously, these voters have not been consulted about the decision.

Ripping out one candidate and replacing him with another at practically the last minute – I believe that can be described as election interference. Or, at the very least it is awfully reminiscent of the thoroughly un-democratic “gut and amend”   sleaze trick used too often in the California legislature.

For his part, Trump took to his Truth Social platform and did not let up – at all:

Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t – And now, look what he’s done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Beyond the health issues – which are both true and will be used as a cover – exactly how did the country have its president drop his re-election bid only 105 days from the election? It goes back to the debate which was so awful that even the media had to stop lying about his condition.  

Democrat donors and officials took up the call, goading the media that until literally weeks ago had openly propagandized for Biden to go along with the plan.  Possibly consciously – definitely subconsciously – the media, too, realized they had been caught and had to change track fast to hold on to some ethical relevance.

His stepping aside from the campaign does not obviate Biden, his family, his handlers, and the Democratic Party from the blame they must take for the preternaturally vicious scam they have pulled on the country over the past five years.  The party – and its deep state thugs and minions – intentionally lied to the nation and used a feeble man in order to hold and increase their power.

Their actions are detestable and they should void any trust the public has in them through these actions – sadly, that may not occur entirely because one of the other benefits for the party and the security state is that they can try to claim blamelessness – Parkinson’s  or another health issue –  gives all of them a least a bit of cover.

The media was unable to retain any public respect, but it did push Biden to the brink.  And then the assassination attempt happened, the photo happened, and the joyous Republican convention happened and that was that. Biden and even his family – so completely dependent upon his position for their own existence – realized it was over.

As for the next 6 months or so, expect to see the administration attempt to jam through as many new regulations and appointments as possible before Trump takes over.

Expect to see Kamala desperately trying to make sense when speaking in public and expect her to be going over names of who to pick for her vice president (good Lord, that’s a terrifying sentence to type.)

Expect to see one of three types of people in that role:  a relatively conservative soon-to-be-former governor like Roy Cooper of North Carolina to try to balance the ticket somewhat may work.

Or, if in an intersectionality box checking mood, she could go with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker or with former Rhode Island governor and current Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (amongst many others.)

By the way, it can’t be Gavin – they’re both from California and that makes him very happy that he doesn’t even have to say “no” right to her face.