Biden resists calls to leave race — and here’s why Trump voters should be glad | Opinion

The days since the presidential debate have been filled with a growing chorus of Democrats suggesting with varying levels of urgency that Joe Biden should leave the race. Spreading alongside that clamor is the accompanying speculation over one question: What if he refuses?

The Biden White House and its remaining fan base had high hopes for a restorative interview with Democratic operative-turned-TV star George Stepanopoulos. But when his questions boiled down to various phrasings of “How impaired are you?” and “Do you realize how impaired you are?”, hopes for a rescue dwindled.

Nonetheless, Team Biden has doubled and tripled down on steadfastness. “I am firmly committed to staying in this race,” Biden wrote Monday in a letter to congressional Democrats. “The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party. Do we now say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?”

This would be a strong point if Biden’s primary wins had not been racked up before Democrats received a massive wake-up call from that debate stage. On that night, we saw the complete disintegration of the spin machines that had savaged anyone who dared question the president’s mental acuity. The Biden-friendly media turned suddenly hostile, shifting from their usual habit of protecting him to a new goal — hounding him from the campaign to make room for a candidate who can beat Donald Trump.

The White House and the Biden campaign, clearly shocked at the spectacle of allies turning so suddenly against them, have been caught flat-footed, weaving clumsy combinations of distraction and denial. But no recitation of past accomplishments or repeated assertions that “He’s fine” will silence the drumbeat. Democrats strongly sense that they are looking at a Trump victory in November if they don’t anoint a different nominee in August in Chicago.

So, we return to the central question: What if he refuses to budge?

I remember less and less from college each year, but I have retained some nuggets from an introductory philosophy class, such as the paradox of the irresistible force and the immovable object, which asks what happens when they meet. The short answer is, “something’s got to give,” which collapses the premise. Either the object was not immovable or the force was not irresistible.

In the standoff featuring Biden versus an increasingly tense Democratic Party, he has been the immovable object. If that doesn’t change, the deciding question will be whether his skeptics are in fact an irresistible force.

Removing him against his will seems deeply unlikely. From a convention coup that would thwart the commitment of thousands of delegates to a 25th Amendment gambit designed to remove him from the presidency itself, giving Biden the hook is fraught with too much drama to be plausible.

So, will this man — and his wife and his inner circle — awaken one day soon struck by an epiphany that they have been wrong all along and the naysayers have been right? That too seems far-fetched.

The compelling arguments for a Biden exit seem to lead nowhere if the president himself rejects them. And as Democratic voters anguish over the fate they have created for themselves, what is the wish list of voters primed to vote for Trump in four months?

While there is broad satisfaction over their candidate’s debate dominance and sweet vindication over the sweeping acceptance of things they’ve said about Biden for years, many in the Trump base surely find themselves rooting for Biden to hang in there. The same writing on the November wall that terrifies Democrats bolsters the confidence of Republicans. While they have spent years chronicling the failings and foibles of Vice President Kamala Harris, they must know that her ascendancy as the nominee would bring a burst of relief among Democrats and waves of media worship that would make her harder to beat than Biden.

Biden shows no sign of stepping aside, despite sagging polls and growing discontent among his own voters. Hopeful partisans such as James Carville have imagined a day when the family and close advisers gather to tell the president that he simply cannot win and should step aside, not just for the good of the party, but for the good of the country. An editorial cartoon portrayed this as the familiar image of collecting the car keys from a declining grandpa.

But with just over five weeks to the Chicago convention, those keys remain in Biden’s pocket, and he shows no sign of releasing his grip.

Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com. Follow him on X: @markdavis .

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