Establishment voice calls for Harris to quit — Biden, too
Byron York
ESTABLISHMENT VOICE CALLS FOR HARRIS TO QUIT. BIDEN, TOO. Polls show that most people think President Joe Biden is too old to serve effectively in a second term. It seems obvious: If reelected, Biden would be 82 years old when he begins a new term and 86 when he finishes. Even now, at 80, the president has slowed down in the 2 1/2 years since taking office. He sometimes seems feeble and confused and has difficulty forming sentences. His staff has to organize his schedule around his falling energy level.
Most people can see what is in front of their faces. But many Democratic Party leaders and their advocates in the press have had a hard time admitting that Biden’s age is a very serious problem. Indeed, Biden has been extraordinarily successful in stifling public discussion of his age in Democratic circles. He has the party firmly behind him, with any major challengers shying away from running. And the Democratic-aligned commentariat, for the most part, has refrained from calling for Biden to step down and for a younger Democrat to take his place.
But now a Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius, has published a column with a simple, clear headline: “President Biden should not run again in 2024.” Despite that clarity, though, Ignatius still has a hard time facing what a majority of people have already faced, which is that Biden is too old to perform the duties of president. And on close reading, the column seems as much an effort to get rid of Vice President Kamala Harris as it is a nudge to the president himself.
Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
Ignatius begins by arguing that Biden has been a very good president. He has had a “remarkable string of wins,” Ignatius says. “With an unexpectedly steady hand, he passed some of the most important domestic legislation in recent decades. In foreign policy, he managed the delicate balance of helping Ukraine fight Russia without getting America itself into a war. In sum, he has been a successful and effective president.”
A reader might ask: If Biden is such a good president, why do you want him to quit? Indeed, Ignatius writes that “it’s painful” to reach such a conclusion. “But,” he said, “I don’t think Biden and Vice President Harris should run for reelection.”
Wait a minute. Ignatius is not just calling for Biden not to run in 2024. He’s calling for Biden and Harris not to run. How many times have you heard a liberal columnist put it that way? What’s going on? Perhaps this is one way of dealing with the party’s Harris problem even more than its Biden problem.
Ignatius writes that Biden seeking reelection “would carry two big liabilities into a 2024 campaign.” The first is his age. Ignatius cites a recent Associated Press poll showing 77% of the public thinks Biden is “too old to be effective for four more years.” That is serious, Ignatius says. But what is striking is that Ignatius does not argue that Biden is actually too old to be president but that many people think he is too old to be president. The perception is the problem.
Biden’s second big liability, according to Ignatius, is Harris. “Because of their concerns about Biden’s age, voters would sensibly focus on his presumptive running mate, Harris,” Ignatius writes. “She is less popular than Biden, with a 39.5% approval rating, according to the polling website FiveThirtyEight. Harris has many laudable qualities, but the simple fact is that she has failed to gain traction in the country or even within her own party.”
Next comes a very revealing passage. “Biden could encourage a more open vice presidential selection process that could produce a stronger running mate,” Ignatius continues. But isn’t Biden too old to serve a second term that would take him to age 86? Apparently not, if he could just find a better running mate. “There are many good alternatives,” Ignatius writes, “starting with now-Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass, whom I wish Biden had chosen in the first place, or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.”
The real problem here is that Biden can’t peacefully get rid of Harris. “Breaking up the ticket would be a free-for-all that could alienate black women, a key constituency,” Ignatius writes. “Biden might end up more vulnerable.” In other words, if Biden were to dump Harris from the ticket, it would set off war inside the Democratic Party. Better they both, Biden and Harris, quit than Biden try to find a new running mate.
Harris has been a problem since Biden bowed to his party’s obsession with identity politics and chose her. But now she is the vice president of the United States. If Biden were to die or become disabled, she is his constitutional successor. She would become president. If he were to remain able but announce that he is not running in 2024, as his running mate, she would be his presumptive political successor. And by the way, she is the first woman, and first woman of color, to serve as vice president.
Black voters are a huge part of the Democratic Party coalition. They are critical to the party’s political fortunes. With today’s political alignments, no Democrat could be elected president without their near-unanimous support. So do you think Biden could ditch the first woman of color to serve as vice president? Take her off the ticket because she has “failed to gain traction?” There is no way in the world Biden could try that without bringing the roof down on his head. Calling the resulting intraparty conflict a “free-for-all” would be an understatement.
That’s what this column — “President Biden should not run again in 2024” — is really about. Yes, voters think Biden is too old to be president. But that would be OK if he just had a better vice president. Harris, however, is a terrible vice president. But she can’t be dumped because of identity politics inside the Democratic Party. So better that Biden goes and takes Harris with him. That is the only way to solve the party’s Harris problem without setting off war over the 2024 ticket.
For a deeper dive into many of the topics covered in the Daily Memo, please listen to my podcast, The Byron York Show — available on Radio America and the Ricochet Audio Network and everywhere else podcasts can be found.