No one cares about how the wise guys on social media judge candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden by a glaring double standard.
Trump is a 78-year-old convicted of business records fraud and found liable for sexual assault. He lies constantly, and he once instigated an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Yet no media savants and no Republicans are calling for him to get out of the race for president.
Democrats, in contrast, led by the biggest names in media — The New York Times — are pressuring President Biden to exit the race after a disastrous debate performance. Yes, Biden at 81 looked lost as he stood there, unable to confront Trump’s lies and threats to democracy. But ask the man from Mars which candidate is the bigger threat to America’s future.
Despite his grand collapse in the debate, Biden remains the better choice. As Jeh Johnson, the former Homeland Security leader under President Obama, recently told MSNBC, “I would take Joe Biden at his worst day at age 86…over Trump any day.”
Johnson pointed to the idea that the presidency “is more than just one man,” and listed the names of quality people in the Biden cabinet. Most of Trump’s former Cabinet have rejected him as an unhinged autocrat.
And consider that if a moderate Democrat like Biden leaves the stage, the party will face a fractious fight for the nomination. That divisive battle royal will likely hurt its chances of holding the line against the chilling possibility of four more years of Trump.
Even so, despite what I see, I understand that at some point, perception becomes reality. The volume and intensity of Democratic donors, strategists and party elders calling me with concerns about Biden’s age and acuity is overwhelming. Their core complaint is the diminishing likelihood of Biden winning in November.
The latest Wall Street Journal poll finds Trump with his biggest lead ever in a matchup with Biden — 48 to 42 percent. And the Journal reports that a majority of Democrats want Biden replaced as the party’s nominee.
A New York Times poll after the debate said that 74 percent of the country thinks Biden is “just too old to be an effective president.”
All of this is too big to ignore.
The knives are out in full force, and they have carved out space in my mind for the possibility of taking the risk of searching for a new nominee to revive Democratic donors’ and voters’ enthusiasm to confront the threat of a second disastrous Trump presidency.
That new game plan may require a new face with a new story that can excite social media and win over independent and swing voters who don’t like Biden or Trump.
I say this reluctantly because Biden has a great record of getting important legislation from a polarized Congress and fighting Russia’s threat to world peace.
Also, I have seen him with my own eyes in public over the past three years and never thought him unfit to handle the presidency. In my heart I want the good guy to win. But even more, I want to preserve American democracy. I want Trump to lose.
As Congress returns to Washington this week the pressure continues to grow on Biden to step aside: Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) was the first to call on him to get out. And from what I see, there are dozens more waiting in the wings.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw,” Doggett said. “I respectfully call on him to do so.”
That kind of thinking is growing among Democrats.
In addition, several prominent donors now say they are pulling their dollars back from Biden. But it’s all up to Biden because he has won the party’s primaries and is the nominee in waiting going into the Chicago convention. The question now is how he can be persuaded to gracefully exit.
The answer to this problem is Vice President Kamala Harris. If Biden announces that he is not running, there is only one candidate who can claim the money now in his campaign account – Vice President Harris. Only Harris would be able to access the Democratic ticket’s money, so anyone else would be starting from scratch.
“So long as Harris becomes the nominee, the campaign funds can seed her new campaign and be spent the same as if Biden were the nominee,” campaign finance lawyer Steve Roberts has told The Hill.
That leads me to the only man who has earned the right to persuade Biden to take a knee — South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn. Clyburn made Biden the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 2020 by delivering him a victory in the South Carolina primary on the strength of Black voters.
Biden rewarded Clyburn and Black voters’ loyalty by appointing the first Black woman as his running mate and the first Black woman as a Supreme Court Justice. Clyburn is now opening the door to Harris as an alternative to Biden at the top of the ticket.
“I will support her, if he were to step aside,” Clyburn told MSNBC of Vice President Harris.
That goes for me and a lot of people.
Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.