Very Smart People Think Old Joe Biden Should Drop Out, Clear The Field For Elderly Convicted Felon
Oh, we're gonna talk 'West Wing.'
Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony gun charges Tuesday. A jury determined that Biden had made false statements about his drug addiction when purchasing a gun in 2018 and then illegally possessed the gun for 11 days, during which time he didn’t actually shoot anyone. That’s probably why the National Rifle Association didn’t rush to his defense.
Wow, if the federal government can prosecute the president’s son, that means they could do the same to us if we break the law and are easy targets for our father’s enemies. It really makes you think.
You’d imagine that Republicans would celebrate bringing down the single greatest criminal threat in the nation today, but MAGA World is truly the unhappiest place on Earth. I felt nothing but joy over Donald Trump’s conviction. Yet Republicans insist on finding defeat in their apparent triumph.
Shortly after the verdict, Trump stooge Stephen Miller ranted on social media, “DOJ is running election interference for Joe Biden — that’s why DOJ did NOT charge Hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (FARA) or any crime connected with foreign corruption. Why? Because all the evidence would lead back to JOE. DOJ is Joe’s election protection racket.”
There are probably easier ways to protect President Joe Biden from his made-up fantasy land crimes than prosecuting and convicting his own son. Donald Trump would probably trade his eldest son whose name he struggles to remember for a side of McDonald’s fries, but Biden actually loves his troubled son. He released the following statement on Tuesday:
As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.
As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.
Biden’s supportive words probably confuse and astound the MAGA cult, so their simple minds and small hearts conclude that Biden pretends to respect the rule of law as part of some larger diabolical scheme. Trump smears the presiding judge and jury from his own trial like any innocent, honest man.
“The gun charges are a giant misdirection,” Miller continued. “An easy op for DOJ to sell to a pliant media that is all too willing to be duped. Don’t be gaslit. This is all about protecting Joe Biden and only Joe Biden.”
Yet, this wasn’t the dumbest thing I read about Hunter Biden’s conviction.
The Sorkin Script
Jonathan Martin at Politico posted on social media, “In the Sorkin version of 2024, Hunter’s conviction would be the escape hatch Biden takes to focus on family and drop out of the race, deferring to a Democrat, who is not approaching 82. Here in reality, it will take the jaws of life to get Biden out and Dems will continue what they’ve done for two years: grumbling but saying nothing in public.”
Martin refers to West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, whose series Martin must not have watched very closely. During its second season, Sorkin revealed that his idealized white savior Democratic President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) had multiple sclerosis, a condition he’d kept hidden from the public when running for president. This became Bartlet’s significantly less scuzzy version of Bill Clinton’s fellatio felonies, which led to his impeachment. House Republicans launched an investigation into the Bartlet administration, and Bartlet eventually accepted congressional censure because he realized it was wrong to have misled the public and not trusted them with this vital information prior to the election. (The censure resolution satisfied Sorkin’s Republicans because it’s not entirely clear that Sorkin has met any actual Republicans.)
However, in the Sorkin version of 2001, Bartlet’s health was not “an escape hatch” for him to “focus on his family and drop out of the race.” In the second season finale, “Two Cathedrals,” Bartlet, devastated after the death of his longtime assistant Mrs. Landingham (Kathryn Joosten), considers quitting and letting the younger Vice President John Hoynes (Tim Matheson) take over. However, later in the Oval Office, he imagines a conversation with Mrs. Landingham, who tells him that if he’s thinking of not running again because it’s too hard or he’s afraid he’ll lose, “Well, god, Jed, I don’t even wanna know you.” Her words echo what she’d said when she challenged a much younger Bartlet to confront his terrible father (Lawrence O’Donnell).
Bartlet eventually resolves to run again because he has unfinished business, as does Joe Biden. When he publicly reveals that he has MS, the press asks if he still intends to seek a second term. We don’t learn his answer until the third season premiere (and after 9/11): “Yeah,” he answers firmly, “and I’m gonna win.”
That’s obviously preferable to Bartlet quitting like a quitter and the series ending after two years. There’s a reason Aaron Sorkin has won more Emmys than Jonathan Martin.
The One-Term Pledge Biden Never Made
Of course, the First Lady, Dr. Abbey Bartlet (Stockard Channing), isn’t thrilled that her husband is running again. Not only did he not consult her (just his imaginary dead secretary) but he specifically backed out of the agreement they’d made that he’d only serve one term.
“You missed it!” she says, when he joins her in the White House residence. She’s drinking what is probably not her first glass of wine. “It was incredible! All over the news. This crazy man got in front of millions of people and totally screwed his wife.” (I love Stockard Channing).
Even in 2001, I thought this was a little absurd. If you or your family can’t commit to at least two presidential terms, then you shouldn’t run at all. It’s a disservice to the nation and your party. You don’t set out to have a lame-duck presidency. That’s not good presidenting.
However, way too many political pundits seem to think that Biden shouldn’t run again. There’s already been a Democratic primary, where all these supposedly better candidates could have challenged Biden but instead hid under their beds. The election is in five months. That’s nowhere near enough time for anyone to launch a successful presidential campaign, even with a quick “Eye of the Tiger”-scored movie montage.
Silver claims that “Democrats would have been better served if Biden had decided a year ago not to seek a second term, which would have allowed them to have some semblance of a primary process and give voters a say among the many popular Democrats across the country.”
If Silver’s whole point is that Biden is old and no one likes him, why does he think “many popular Democrats across the country” refused to challenge him? It’s (still) a free country. No one actively prevented Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Raphael Warnock, or Gavin Newsom from running. Of course, Martin, Ezra Klein, Jonathan Chait, Nate Silver, and the rest who argue that Biden should step aside want to ignore that Kamala Harris is standing behind right him. Josh Barro is hardly a fan of the vice president, but he at least recognizes she is the likely nominee if Biden drops out. But with these guys, it’s not just Biden’s age. It’s Harris’s everything.
Responding to Silver’s social media post, New York Times reporter Astead Herndon wrote, “It’s even worse imo. Biden 2020 intentionally signaled this wouldn’t happen during his original run. It mattered and help lessen age concerns at the time. To now say ‘ofc the incumbent would run again’ is haughty political insider bs. They gaslit public and may pay for it.”
Here are the articles that Herndon provides as proof that Biden would serve one term: Biden describes himself as a “bridge” to the next generation; Biden might choose a vice president early (so did 40something Ted Cruz in 2016); Biden “hints” that he’d be a one-term president. Even the last one isn’t definite, just whispers and speculation. Biden himself repeatedly stated that he wasn’t running for lame duck.
Jamison Foser shared a tweet from Herndon that directly quoted a 2019 exchange between Biden and CNN reporter MJ Lee: “Would you do one term?” she asked. “No,” Biden replied. How could voters have possibly cracked that code?
Herndon noted at the time that “if Biden were to serve a second term, he’d be sworn in at 82.” See, even in 2019, most Americans could count and understood that Biden would continue to age. It’s not like he was elected Santa Claus.
Biden wasn’t my preferred candidate in 2020, but Democrats had their chance to remind voters that Biden was old. He still won the nomination. Only winners of the Fred G. Sanford “You Big Dummy” Award would knowingly nominate someone to serve a single presidential term. No rational person could have assumed that Biden was one and done.
Yeah, Biden’s running again, and we need him to win. Fantasy time is over.
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The rewarding part is that Biden is the one playing the long game, whom history will remember very positively, while all these pundits are writing things that will be meaningless tomorrow.
Couldn't agree more. The other ridiculous pundit suggestion calling for Justices Sotomayor and Kagan to go ahead and retire now, so Biden can appoint two younger Justices before the election is also wearing thin. Once Dark Brandon is in his second term, and has a Democratic House and Senate, he can pack the court. I'd be in favor of 39 total Justices, (3 for each of the 13 District Courts), and all SC cases assigned to randomly drawn 3 judge panels. There are a few other little tweaks that would vastly improve the SC, and Dark Brandon could work with the new Senate Judiciary chair, Sheldon Whitehouse to make those happen.