Let's Ask Trump To Leave The Race

Pundits and commentators are asking the wrong guy to step down after a disastrous Presidential debate.

(AFP)

Have you read the post debate hot takes? Here’s the Editorial Board of The New York Times:

The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race, and create a process to select someone more capable to stand in his place to defeat Mr. Trump in November.

That sentiment was echoed across the opinion pages. Here’s a screenshot from Friday night. 

Other respected commentators, many of them friends, had similar takes they shared in outlets such a L.A. Times, The Atlantic, Zeteo, and The Daily Beast. All of them care about the health and security of this nation and realize Donald Trump is a profound threat to this thing we call democracy. Democratic donors and insiders are allegedly in full blown panic mode and searching for a replacement. They’re musing about potential white saviors who can somehow come in at the last second, less than five months from the election, and magically push Democrats over the top. We’ve heard about Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer. A name that is rarely mentioned is Vice President Kamala Harris. This is after Democrats have spent the past four years doing absolutely nothing to help bolster her profile or image. How do you think all of this will go over with Black voters, especially Black women, who make up the Dem base? 

Meanwhile, the New York Times Editorial Board did not ask Donald Trump to step down. Not after he was held liable for rape or fraud or defamation. Not after he was convicted on all 34 counts by a jury of his peers. Not even after he vomited lie after lie at the debate and refused to admit that he’d accept the results of the 2024 election. No one is asking him to step down or pressuring the GOP to find another candidate. Why not? This absurd double standard reflects the utter asymmetry between both parties and how they are treated by our institutions. The bar is so low that Donald Trump merely has to slither underneath it. Most Democrats, unlike the cult of MAGA, actually have fidelity to the Constitution and rule of law instead of worshiping at the altar of personality. The fact they’re even openly entertaining this debate of replacing their candidate a few months before the election is a healthy sign of internal diversity. 

But the demand is also unrealistic. 

I’m not excited that Joe Biden is running for President in 2024. I wasn't excited when he ran in 2020. However, I do remain excited about protecting U.S. democracy which is under a full-frontal assault from MAGA Republicans and right-wing authoritarians both here and abroad. Yes, I saw the awful, no-good, terrible debate. Yes, President Biden looked old, sounded rough, had a hoarse voice, and lost his train of thought a few times. His most embarrassing moments were when he fumbled a slam dunk question on abortion and went on a strange tangent about undocumented immigrants, and the other is when he made the gaffe that he beat Medicare. Meanwhile, Trump just lied for ninety minutes without any fact checks, decided to amp up the xenophobia, and was his usual vulgarian self. 

Yes, President Biden has been a moral failure on Palestine. Currently, the extremist Netanyahu government is committing a genocide in Gaza according to most Biden voters. And, shockingly, Trump would even be worse on this issue. During the debate, not only did Trump not commit to supporting a Palestinian state he also used Palestinian as a pejorative to smear Biden. He has also promised to bring back the Muslim Ban and institute litmus tests for immigrants, turning away those immigrants who don’t “like our religion.” It remains to be seen if he was referring to white Christian nationalism or Trumpism.

The day after the debate, the President Biden that should have showed up in Philadelphia showed up at a rally in North Carolina. He looked awake, alert, passionate, and engaged. Maybe it was just a poor debate night? Maybe he had a cold? Maybe it was too late? Maybe it’s because he is 81 years old? I have no idea. Either way, he owned up to his advanced age, but he said he knows how to do the job, tell right from wrong, and fight. He read off a teleprompter, but who cares? That’s what politicians do. Even Donald Trump read off a teleprompter at his Friday rally in Virginia. And despite that help, he continued to lie, promote conspiracy theories, engage in racist comments about Palestinians, and revealed he has no idea how electric planes work. During his NRA speech in March, Trump awkwardly stood in silence for 35 seconds in the middle of his speech. He has also been known to slur and confuse people’s names. 

Both of these candidates are old, declining, white men who spent a small portion of the debate bickering over their golfing prowess. We don’t live in a perfect world or have the perfect choices. Ideally, both men would drop out, but they haven’t. This is what we have right now. This is what we had in 2020. As of today, Biden says he is still planning to run in 2024, which is why I will vote for him again. His opponent then and now remains Donald Trump, a supremely corrupt, dangerous, and vindictive vulgarian who cares about nothing and no one except himself. 

I agree with all the pundits that too much is at stake, which is why for now we have to jettison the fantasy of another magical candidate and try our best to help this one get over the finish line against a future authoritarian.