At the end of the news conference , Biden was asked this question: “If your team came back and showed you data that she (Vice President Kamala Harris) would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?
And Biden answered in his weird whisper : “No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’ Me. No one is saying that. No poll says that.”
How quickly times change.
Since then, Trump faced an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania; the Republican National Convention officially nominating Trump took place in Milwaukee; and Biden got COVID-19.
The American people deserved a better explanation, much sooner
Biden told the country that it has been the “honor of my life to serve as your president,” but he said he has also realized that it’s time to “ pass the torch to a new generation .”
How did Biden go from being so adamant that he’d soldier on with his campaign to believing “it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” as he wrote in his letter Sunday ?
Biden didn’t offer a good explanation in his Wednesday address.
Biden spent much of his brief Oval Office remarks defending his record and what he’s done, and how he plans to spend his remaining months in office.
As he usually does, Biden reiterated how this election is all about preserving and defending our democracy.
Yet, Biden did not give an adequate rationale as to why he waited so long to make his decision. By doing so now, so late in the game, he denied Democrats a true primary in which they could have picked from a robust crop of candidates.
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Instead, they appear stuck with Harris, whom no one voted for in the 2020 primaries . She has quickly become a media darling and star fundraiser now that the Democratic Party has rallied around her.
At 59, she is decades younger than Biden, 81 – and Trump, 78 – but she doesn’t bring much else to the table.
Biden also refused to level with the American people about his health, even as he struggled to read at times from the teleprompter.
There are tumultuous times ahead in the coming months, and Biden did not offer any confidence that he’s the one to lead us through them.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @ Ingrid_Jacques
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