The debate after the TV debate is getting more and more heated: Should Joe Biden withdraw from the election campaign? There are rumors in Washington that he is no longer making that decision himself.
A nasty rumor is doing the rounds in Washington. In a capital city that is not exactly short of rumors and with its numerous political intrigues, that would not be worth mentioning. But when it comes to who is leading the most important nation on earth, it is worth listening more closely. The rumor goes like this: In truth, it is not Joe Biden who is in charge in the White House. It is his wife.
It was striking how Jill Biden celebrated her husband on stage in the TV studio after his completely botched debate performance last Thursday evening. In the opinion of many observers, the 73-year-old First Lady cheered the President a little too exuberantly, praising him for his performance – although in the opinion of pretty much all observers, it was abysmally bad.
Even the New York Times, which is close to the Democrats, could not help but recommend that the incumbent withdraw from the current presidential election campaign after the frightening images and sentences that the 81-year-old had delivered during the duel with Trump.
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Source: t-online
“Biden is a good man and a good president,” wrote three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman. “He must drop out of the race now.” Friedman admitted that he cried while watching the debate. Biden’s shockingly weak performance broke his heart. “The president’s family and his political advisers must now come together quickly and have a blunt conversation with him, a conversation that is driven by love, openness and determination,” Friedman appealed.
Indeed, the Biden family met at the presidential estate in Camp David over the weekend. And the discussions that took place there were evidently marked by the love, openness and determination that Friedman had called for. But the result was not exactly what the New York Times commentator had imagined. Biden wants to continue. His family encouraged him to take this step, the paper wrote late Sunday evening.
It increasingly seems as if it is his wife Jill who is motivating her husband to carry on. Her husband is the “only person who can do the job,” she said at a fundraiser after the debate debacle. Leading Democrats also threw their support behind the president over the weekend. “I think he is the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump,” said Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.
This shows that those around Biden apparently do not consider the impact of the debate on voters to be as serious as the majority of political commentators currently do. Jill Biden, who supported her husband at the events of the past few days and gave energetic speeches, still believes that he is “the best president for America, now and for the next four years, 100 percent.”
Attitude towards the two candidates has hardly changed so far
According to a recent Axios snap poll, 60 percent of US voters want the Democrats to replace Biden. They are calling for a different presidential candidate, one who can take on the much more agile and aggressive Donald Trump.
On the other hand, the same poll showed no major shifts when it comes to voters’ preference for who should move into the White House next year. 46 percent think it should be Trump. 45 percent still think Biden should stay there and be allowed to continue to govern. This means that Americans’ attitude towards the presidency was initially no different than it was before the debate. Even then, the challenger only had a razor-thin lead.
