https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/22/the-joe-biden-debacle-shames-the-democrats/
So, he finally caved. On Sunday, Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House. This followed weeks of intense pressure on him from Democratic Party bigwigs, who were shocked into action after his disastrous debate performance on 27 June.
Biden’s decision is historic – there has never been a withdrawal from a US presidential contest so late in the process. It reveals a Democratic Party in shambles, trying to pick up the pieces before November’s ballot. This chaos is an indictment of both Biden and his party’s elites.
By running for re-election, Biden selfishly put himself above the party. Back in 2020, he claimed he was just a transitionary figure, a defence against Donald Trump’s re-election and a bridge to the future Democratic Party. That implied he would not run for a second term. But then he proceeded to do just that. He (and his family) knew that he, as an 81-year-old, was no longer physically and mentally up to the job. Yet the vain Biden thought that, even as a shuffling old man, he was the only one in the country who could now beat Trump in 2024.
The party’s leaders – among them the old guard of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, as well as current congressional leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries – are as much, if not more, to blame for this debacle. They have also known – for years! – about Biden’s declining health and diminishing faculties. They were quite happy to have a puppet in the White House who would do what he was told. They cynically thought they could continue to get away presenting this Weekend at Bernie’s frontman for re-election in 2024. Rather than have a messy primary contest, they cleared the way for Biden to enjoy a virtual coronation as the party’s nominee again, without any real debate or contestation (which would have revealed Biden’s poor state).
Biden was made the presidential nominee in spite of a majority of Democratic voters saying, for many months, that Biden was too old to run again. Now, in forcing Biden to withdraw from the race via behind-the-scenes pressure, the party elites will no doubt claim that they are simply following the will of their voters. But what the country is seeing is an incumbent president, whom party members still voted for in the primary, being brought down by a palace coup. And this is happening in the party that says it is defending democracy.