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Biden dropped out because “the most important thing” is “we must defeat Trump”: CBS News
(www.vanityfair.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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I'd be a little less skeptical of that claim if he hadn't said that he'd be OK losing to Trump, "as long as I gave it my all." I appreciate him stepping aside for the good of the country, but it took nearly a month of pressure from Democrats to get him to drop out, and I'm sure if the party leadership hadn't turned in him, he'd be happy to take his chances against Trump.
I give him a pass for that statement. Biden was running on the platform of election trust and legitimacy. How else does he answer the question? "No, and I'll fight tooth and nail to dispute the results if Trump wins?". Maybe the democratic base would have loved to hear that, but it's mixed messaging that would have been used as ammunition against him. He's the President of the United States. He has to project confidence in the system, which means trying hard to win, but stopping right on the dot at "doing your best" and accepting the will of the people, even if it's a distasteful outcome for everyone involved.
Honestly, I still think that's a pretty terrible answer when your entire campaign messaging has been, "Democracy will end if you elect this man." I think if he had said something like, "I understand the stakes of this election, I would feel horrible if I lost and let the American people down, but it less than 5 months to the election and I am the best positioned candidate to defeat him," that would have been a much more reasonable answer. It would have been wrong (clearly), but at least it wouldn't have sounded like he was losing a little league game.
Oh yeah, I hated the answer he gave too, but it was pretty clear he wasn't expecting the question either. It was a bad answer and a mistake, but definitely one of the less egregious mistakes his campaign had been making in the weeks leading up to his departure from the campaign trail. At it's core, being satisfied with doing your best is a sentiment most people can agree with, but one that falls short of what we actually needed. It did not resonate with the people who were upset with him at the time. We needed Biden to be ruthless after his debate disaster, but he was still playing softball at the major leagues.
Fair enough. It certainly wasn't the worst gaffe from that period.