Biden is a danger to the free world – he should resign now
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It was the mumble heard around the world. President Biden, addressing an audience of pre-approved journalists at a crucial Nato press conference, was set to introduce a key attendant Volodymyr Zelensky. With a now-characteristic warble, the leader of the free world croaked out: “ladies and gentlemen… President Putin”.
Cue pained expressions from the row of global leaders standing behind. The room was silent. Had the president just mistaken one of his closest allies for his fiercest enemies? Backing away from the podium for a moment and, in the slowest instance of whiplash ever, returning, Biden continued his wandering train of thought: “President Putin, you’re going to beat President Putin, President Zelensky. I am so focused on beating Putin”.
An awkward save, and one Biden may have even gotten away with had it not been for another “misunderstanding” during his response to the first question from the press. Worries about unbreachable political divides in the US are clearly overblown: here is Biden, announcing that he wouldn’t have “picked Vice President Trump” to be VP if he “didn’t think she was qualified to be president”.
It hardly bodes well that Beltway insiders now see every press conference announced by the White House as a potential signal that the president is about to announce his withdrawal from the Democratic candidacy. The president, famously reticent to engage with unscripted encounters with the press, hoped that his performance last night would quell doubts from Democrats about his ability to successfully fight Donald Trump at the election.
He certainly took waverers off the fence: forget the candidacy, it is now increasingly doubtful whether Biden should even remain in his position as elected president now. If there were ever a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, this is it.
Trump’s team could hardly believe their luck: more humiliating soundbites showing Biden’s now unmistakable cognitive decline, with just enough arrogant defiance to indicate he won’t be backing out of the race willingly anytime soon. Suggesting that at least one person at Biden HQ has MAGA sympathies, an official Biden campaign social media account even made the decision to highlight the humiliating Zelensky interaction.
Democratic operatives find themselves in a nightmarish position, unable to admit publicly their fears that Biden is now unfit to serve (a fact many of them were aware of long before the disastrous June debate) and afraid that their private urgings on the president to stand down are falling on deaf ears.
But that’s not good enough. This is no longer a domestic issue. Our Prime Minister had already insisted earlier in the week that Biden is “on really good form”. The demands of diplomacy are evidently more powerful than the demands of reality. Still, with the enemies of the West searching for any sign of weakness, we cannot afford to have the president of the most powerful nation on earth babbling about his nap time at Nato.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s assessment of the president back in March - “a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” – was, if anything, too kind. Well-meaning? Biden’s 36 years in the Senate and two unsuccessful presidential campaigns were spurred by two deep-rooted emotions essential to understanding Biden’s mindset: ambition, and burning resentment.
His first presidential run more than 30 years ago ended in scandal after it was revealed that he had plagiarised a speech from Neil Kinnock. Perhaps we ought to ask the former Labour leader to draft a new speech for Biden’s benefit: standing down from public life.
