End of daze: stalking of lame US President Joe Biden by Democrats
The US’s top Democrats in congress are fighting back against President Joe Biden’s increasingly aggressive attempts to get them to fall in line and support his crumbling re-election campaign.
The US’s top Democrats in congress are fighting back against President Joe Biden’s increasingly aggressive attempts to get them to fall in line and support his crumbling re-election campaign, setting up a seismic battle within America’s governing party over whether their leader is fit for office.
Just hours after Mr Biden wrote to all congressional Democrats demanding they stop speculating on his physical and mental health, the third in the presidential line of succession and the Democrats’ longest-serving senator, Patty Murray, urged him to consider his future.
The Democrats’ two-week-long spiralling over Mr Biden’s calamitous debate performance against bitter rival Donald Trump only worsened on Monday (Tuesday AEST) after revelations a Parkinson’s specialist had visited the White House eight times in the past year.
As he prepared to welcome world leaders to the White House for NATO talks, Mr Biden, 81, also faced a barrage of revelations about how his staff tried to keep his increasing frailty from the public, including giving him detailed instructions on how to get on and off stages.
Tuesday’s (Wednesday AEST) NATO summit opening and the White House’s plan for what his press secretary bizarrely called “a big boy” press conference at the end of the week now serve as key tests for Mr Biden’s attempts to hold on to the White House and resist attempts to force him to move aside for Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The embattled President dug in over claims on Monday (Tuesday AEST) he is not physically fit enough to remain in the White House, and gave a rambling interview to his favourite television show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, in which he repeatedly raised his voice and dared Democrats to blast him out the White House.
“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites … elites in the party who … they know so much more. Any of these guys (who) don’t think I should; run against me. Go ahead. Challenge me at the convention,” Mr Biden said.
Ahead of Senate Democrats meeting on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), the President later told congress Democrats in a letter that he had the backing of voters in the primary elections and any attempt to get rid of him would repudiate “14 million votes”. “The question of how to move forward has been well aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump,” he wrote.
But just when it had looked like Mr Biden’s threats on Monday (Tuesday AEST) had succeeded in quelling the rebellion, Senator Murray declared late in the night that the Democrats “needed to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate”.
“Just as important, our nominee must be able to articulate what Democrats have accomplished and everything we will do to make life better for American families and protect their freedoms,” the 73-year-old six-term Senate veteran, who serves as the upper chamber’s president pro tempore, said in a statement. “More than a week since the debate, and after talking with my constituents, I believe President Biden must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump.
“At this critical time for our country, President Biden must seriously consider the best way to preserve his incredible legacy and secure it for the future.”
Australian officials attending the NATO summit for a Pacific-focused session on Thursday with Mr Biden were warily awaiting developments on his political future, but Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in Washington praised him for doing a “magnificent job”.
And in his first interview in more than a week, as he prepared to unveil his new running mate at next week’s GOP convention and launch his vision for an extraordinary return to the White House, Mr Trump failed to hide his glee over Mr Biden’s predicament.
With the Democrats’ infighting and fears over Mr Biden’s age overshadowing his recent criminal conviction, Mr Trump predicted his rival would stay in the race till November. “He’s got an ego and he doesn’t want to quit,” he told Fox News.
Some Democrats are rushing to Mr Biden’s defence after his demands for loyalty, including progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and insisting colleagues back the Biden presidency.
But the Senate’s Democratic chief whip, Dick Durbin, said Mr Biden had “a lot of questions to answer” about the viability of his candidacy, and senior congressman Adam Smith became the 10th to call for him to resign.
There was fevered speculation in Washington that more congressmen and women and senators would come out in the next 48 hours and demand a change to the presidential ticket.
Jill Biden declared herself “all in” on her husband’s bid to be the Democratic presidential nominee during a campaign stop on Monday. “For all the talk out there about this race, Joe has made it clear that he’s all in,” the First Lady told a military crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina. “That’s the decision that he’s made and, just as he has always supported my career, I am all in too,” she said.
Polls suggest Mr Trump has marginally increased his lead since the debate, with FiveThirtyEight, which aggregates surveys, putting him 2.3 percentage points ahead.
Mr Biden’s staff are reported to have started producing documents telling him how to navigate podiums during speaking engagements, complete with large photographs showing exits to stages. In one five-page document, revealed by Axios news service, two pages had pictures with the title “Walk to podium”.
It has emerged that a neurological doctor who specialises in Parkinson’s disease has met White House medical staff several times in recent months.
According to White House visitor logs, Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s expert at the Walter Reed medical centre, met Kevin O’Connor, an osteopathic specialist who has treated the President for years.
Dr Cannard has visited the White House eight times since August 2023, most recently in late March.
Mr Biden received a medical check-up in February, after which a public report said various experts had examined him and appeared to rule out Parkinson’s.
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