President Joe Biden just couldn’t seem to catch a break.
Within a week, an assassination attempt against former President Trump rocked and united the Republican Party, the Republican National Convention sailed through without a hitch, and then, shortly before Trump gave a multi-hour keynote speech, it was announced that President Biden tested positive for COVID.
“Today is a terrible day,” said CNN commentator Van Jones. “[A] bullet couldn’t stop Trump. A virus just stopped Biden.”
“You’ve got nominees of this party getting their butts kissed. Biden’s getting his butt kicked by his own party. The Democrats are coming apart. The Republicans are coming together. That’s what’s happening. And at some point, this party has to look at the reality of that,” he added.
All of that came to a final head on Sunday June 21, when Biden announced he would no longer seek reelection. The announcement made history. With less than 100 days left in the Presidential campaign, no party has ever had to change their nominee.
Biden, 81, is the oldest sitting US President and faced increased scrutiny regarding his mental and physical capacity since his disastrous debate. The headwinds against him grew stronger as each passing day saw a growing number of national Democrat leaders calling for Biden to withdraw.
Some Republicans even expressed serious national security concerns and called on President Biden to resign the Presidency itself or the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Then COVID struck.
On July 17th Biden used his official X account to start a thread that announced “I’m Sick” followed immediately by “of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.”
The attempt at humor landed flat, even infuriating some Democrats and “melting the brain” of others. One Congressional Democrat admonished Biden’s staff to “read the room.” The internet immediately turned the Tweet into a meme adding insult to injury.
Whether he withdrew or not, support was shriveling and the Biden Presidency was effectively over.
Conservative journalist Dan Flynn observes that the best PR move for Democrats would be for Biden to withdraw during the weekend, overwhelming the press from the Republican National Convention.
That is exactly what happened.
Early reports were that Biden’s symptoms had “improved meaningfully,” but the damage was done. Two senior Democrats expressed belief that Biden would leave the race while the President pledged to continue the fight for the White House but staffers openly began saying they saw no chance to win in November.
Calls for Biden to step down from the Presidency quickly followed even as he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.
With the Democratic National Convention still a month out, the Democratic candidacy sits wide open. Harris has welcomed endorsements from former President Bill and Sec. Hillary Clinton while former President Barack Obama has endorsed an open nomination process. It has been almost 60 years since a National Convention had an open nominating process.
