In the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency, we are learning more about the efforts to push him out of the race in the summer of 2024. And what we are learning is troubling — to say the least.
Consider this new report from the New York Times on a July 13 meeting between Biden and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer in Delaware:
It was July 13, 2024, a humid summer afternoon just before four o’clock, and Mr. Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, was about to make a blunt case to Mr. Biden that he needed to drop his bid for a second term.
If there were a secret ballot among Democratic senators, Mr. Schumer would tell the president, no more than five would say he should continue running. Mr. Biden’s own pollsters assessed that he had about a 5 percent chance of prevailing against Donald J. Trump, Mr. Schumer would tell him — information that was apparently news to the president. And if the president refused to step aside, the senator would argue, the consequences for Democrats and Mr. Biden’s own legacy after a half-century of public service would be catastrophic.
None of that is good for Biden. But I want to pull out a single line that, to me, is stunning (bolding is mine):
Mr. Biden’s own pollsters assessed that he had about a 5 percent chance of prevailing against Donald J. Trump, Mr. Schumer would tell him — information that was apparently news to the president.
WHAT?
This was two-plus weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate performance. He didn’t know that his own polling showed the bottom dropping out not just of his numbers but of Democratic candidates’ numbers across the country?
There are two possible explanations here — neither of them good for Biden and his campaign:
Biden’s campaign had told him about the polling problems and he either forgot or ignored them entirely
Biden’s campaign had not told him about the polling numbers, seeking to keep him in happy albeit woefully misinformed.
If it’s option #1, then it’s clear that Biden’s mental acuity was in worse shape than we even now know. Or that he was so totally blind to the facts that he chose to ignore reality.
If it’s option #2, his campaign committed malpractice in the service of trying to keep an old man happy.
Either way: It’s awful -- and scary.
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