Biden’s isolation is in stark contrast to Trump embrace
The current contrast between contenders in the US presidential race could not be more stark. Republican nominee Donald Trump is reigning supreme, smiling benignly in the VIP box at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee as speaker after speaker pays homage and extols the hand of God in his survival of the attempt to kill him. Embattled Democrat sitting President Joe Biden has retreated to his Delaware bunker with a second bout of Covid. The effect Mr Biden’s diagnosis is likely to have on US Democrats’ hopes for a second term in the White House may be uncertain. But what is in no doubt is that it adds substantially to perceptions of a deepening crisis within the beleaguered party at a time when Mr Trump and the Republicans are looking stronger, more united and more focused on achieving victory in November than at any time in recent history.
After Mr Biden’s catastrophic performance during the June 27 debate, some of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Party, erstwhile Biden loyalists, have demanded he recognise the reality of his increasing senility at age 81 and stand down from the race against Mr Trump. Among them, in recent days, have been no less than the Democrats’ leaders in the US Senate and House, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. Even more significant has been the call by prominent House Democrat Adam Schiff, who led the first drive to impeach Mr Trump, for Mr Biden to step aside. “While the choice to withdraw is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” the immensely influential Mr Schiff said. His statement coincided with Mr Biden conceding, before the announcement of his Covid infection, that only if he were found to be medically unfit would he be prepared to consider not running. He should do so without delay, before Mr Trump’s prospects of victory in November become the unstoppable express train they increasingly look like being. Mr Biden’s hopes following last weekend’s failed assassination attempt on Mr Trump, that the shock caused by it would help settle the battlelines drawn between him and Mr Trump, have clearly not been realised. On Thursday AEST it was Mr Trump’s formerly hardscrabble nominee for vice-president, acclaimed author JD Vance – no longer the “Never Trump, Trump is a Nazi” man he was – who was cheered to the rafters as he expounded on what he maintained was the greatness of Mr Trump. As Senator Vance gave vent to his isolationism, Mr Trump, his right ear still covered by a large plaster, could not have looked more delighted. Never in his wildest dreams, after his bogus claim that he was robbed of victory in 2020, could he have imagined the display of unity and reverence for him on display in Milwaukee.
The assassination attempt has done much to galvanise support for Mr Trump within the Republican Party. Democrats’ panic, which led them on Thursday AEST to delay by a week the roll call to endorse Mr Biden’s nomination ahead of their convention in Chicago on August 19, is a sign of the dire straits the party is in. Even The New York Times, formerly a rusted-on Biden backer, has taken to publishing headlines that talk of a “wipeout” for the Democrats in November, with little support for Vice-President Kamala Harris as the most likely replacement if the President does decide to stand aside. With Mr Trump and Senator Vance riding sky-high in Milwaukee, the Democrats are in a devilish fix that suggests inevitable disaster if they don’t move fast to find a more credible candidate than the now Covid-hit Mr Biden.