OPINION:
President Biden is surrounded by fair-weather friends. His allies spent years telling us the Big Guy is perfectly fit and ready to lead the free world through January 2029. Now, they’re scheming behind the scenes to take away his presidential nomination just because he had the worst debate performance since the invention of television.
Mr. Biden has good reason to hold fast. After all, were he to give up now, who would pardon his son Hunter, who faces sentencing on a gun charge and trial on tax evasion charges? And who’s going to sell access to the White House on his behalf?
As Politico reported on Saturday, a group of a dozen or so millionaires and billionaires were invited to events at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. late last year. In what is surely a coincidence, within a day or two, the same tycoons wrote checks of up to $900,000 for Mr. Biden’s campaign war chest.
This recalls the days when then-President Bill Clinton turned the Lincoln Bedroom into an Airbnb priced at $100,000 per stay. Reviving the practice confirms Scranton Joe hasn’t lost his Midas touch.
But some donors are having second thoughts and threatening to withhold further support unless Mr. Biden does their bidding by stepping aside for someone younger and less White. It’s almost as if the only reason they ever backed him in 2020 was the polling showing he would win the presidency without ever setting foot on the campaign trail.
In 2024, things have changed. Democracy itself is on the ballot. It would be rather undemocratic to remove the candidate who won 14.4 million Democratic primary votes. His closest primary rival, “uncommitted,” received only 707,000 votes. That’s on top of the 81 million votes he won in the general election four years ago.
Congressional Democrats don’t care. Since their return from the July Fourth break, they’ve been caterwauling in private about the possibility that the octogenarian statesman’s presence on the ticket might drag down their own reelection prospects.
This is a silly concern. In the last election, 94.5% of House incumbents kept their $174,000 salaries, showing this selfish calculation is without merit. Instead, they ought to think about the country.
Who has delivered as much change as Mr. Biden in his first term? His commitment to diversity included awarding a high-level Department of Energy position to a “nonbinary” appointee with the courage to change into designer women’s clothing he picked up at the Reagan National Airport baggage carousel.
Progressive judges made sure this fashion-forward, now-former administration official never served a single day behind bars, even though he helped himself to thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to others.
On Mr. Biden’s watch, prison time is reserved for old ladies who pray in front of abortion clinics and Republicans like Steve Bannon. Mr. Biden’s friends on the bench jail only those who might help reelect former President Donald Trump. This must be done, Mr. Biden says, because Mr. Trump is a man who would start prosecuting his political opponents were he elected.
This proves Mr. Biden is uniquely suited to his role. The Democratic Party deserves him at the top of the ticket.
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