In do-or-die mode, Biden does neither

Joe Biden’s foreign allies left town on Thursday. His allies at home, meanwhile, closed in for the political kill. 

Swarmed by a domestic political crisis, the embattled U.S. president held a rare, unscripted and free-wheeling news conference to close out this week’s NATO summit.

The event was carried live across TV networks as a do-or-die moment for Biden’s campaign, as numerous Democrats weigh whether to join the dozen-plus lawmakers publicly pressing him to drop out of the presidential campaign, amid doubts about his age and abilities.

In this do-or-die moment, what did Biden deliver? Something in between, a not-too-hot, not-too-cold performance, like his recent ABC interview, that leaves his allies floundering forward in a state of prolonged purgatory.

“I think it’s important to allay fears by letting them see me out there,” Biden said, when asked about those doubts.

Here’s what they saw: an aging president dropping cringe-inducing clunkers. He referred to Donald Trump as his vice-president, after earlier in the day drawing gasps at the summit by introducing Ukraine’s president as “President Putin,” before correcting himself.

But they also saw the president deliver lengthy, substantive answers to policy questions, even if none will enter the anthologies of hallowed American oratory.

He celebrated news of softening inflation and a successful NATO conference, while excoriating Trump as a threat to democracy, the democratic alliance, and to people’s pocketbooks with his promise of a 10 per cent global tariff.

But perhaps the most intriguing parts of the news conference came in fragments of answers that could be interpreted as indicating Biden not permanently, completely, ruling out resigning.

More than once, he referred flatteringly to his Vice-President Kamala Harris as eminently qualified to be president, touting her success as a prosecutor, senator and running mate.

Unfortunately for him, his first reference to Harris began with: “I wouldn’t have picked Vice-President Trump to be vice-president if I think she’s not qualified to be president.”

The other intriguing reply came toward the end when Biden was asked whether there’s anything his advisers could say to make him drop out.

After ruling it out, he added a caveat.

“No. Unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win,'” Biden replied, less emphatic than last week when he said only God could force him from the race.

But he added: “No one’s saying that. No poll says that.”

Spoiler alert: Lots of people are saying that. In fact, many of the elected members of Congress from his own party are saying it in private, and some are saying it in public.

Within minutes of his press conference ending, a couple more Democrats, one a senior party member with a role in national security oversight, joined those calling on him to quit.

Even some of Biden’s senior staffers or supporters are urging him to drop out, according to NBC News, CNN and The New York Times.

A grassroots ally and auto-union leader is reportedly eager to replace him. His big fundraiser and Hollywood ally George Clooney is too, saying so in a recent op-ed. Clooney reportedly discussed that op-ed with the most popular Democrat in America before running it: Barack Obama. 

Perhaps worse yet for Biden, Obama has not denied reports that he has neither encouraged nor discouraged the move to oust his old partner.

Some members of Congress have said he can’t win. One even went a step further: She said Biden should not just quit the campaign, but immediately resign his office. 

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, a rare rural Democrat, an auto mechanic who shocked the political world by winning her seat and two years later now faces a hard re-election fight, told a regional TV station she doubts Biden’s ability to perform his role.

But the rebellion is broader than the dozen publicly calling on him to quit. Numerous others hint strongly they want him gone. Several more are promoting Harris as the eventual nominee.

Biden’s team is said to be testing polls of how Harris would fare against Trump. 

The Republican Party has already begun its pivot. Confronting the possibility it might have a different opponent, it’s moved beyond attacking Biden, and constantly refers to, and attacks, Harris now, those attacks ranging from policy differences to conspiracy-mongering.

Others, like party fundraiser and former ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, said he would favour a mini-primary instead a Harris coronation.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those dropping hints publicly for Biden to leave, and it was her remarks this week on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Biden’s favourite morning TV show, that opened the floodgates to more criticism. In private, she has reportedly been more emphatic.

One prominent staffer who worked for both Obama and Biden says Pelosi knows what she’s doing, citing her subtle suggestions that Biden has yet to make the correct decision.

Jen Psaki says Pelosi faces competing pressures: wanting Biden to reconsider, versus not wanting to destroy him completely if he remains the party nominee.

“We don’t want to weaken him publicly,” Psaki, the former White House press secretary, told the podcast Pod Save America.

Also, she said, she’s witnessed the deep affection Pelosi feels for him.

“She loves him personally,” Psaki said.

The problem for Biden’s detractors is that time is running out. There’s a month to go to the party’s nominating convention in Chicago.

If Biden keeps borrowing time until then, he might assume that the closer to the convention, the less possible it is to sustain a rebellion.

At some point, it becomes an act of collective self-harm, no longer a takeout attempt against the leader but a circular firing squad that leaves the whole party electorally dead. 

If Biden remains the party nominee, every one of these public utterances amounts to little more than a contribution in-kind to the attack ad-makers from the Trump campaign.

Biden has bought two weeks after his catastrophic debate performance. He’s now trying to buy a third, flagging his interview with NBC in a few days, during the Republican convention.

At one point during his news conference, Biden took an opportunity to tout his own enduring political smarts — during a lengthy response to a question that started out about his cognitive abilities, which he started to answer before fishtailing to his policy achievements in Asia.

“Age creates a little bit of wisdom — if you pay attention,” Biden said.