Joe Biden’s exit elevates Kamala Harris against Donald Trump and leaves his legacy to all of us | Opinion

President Joe Biden is out, Vice President Kamala Harris is his choice to be the new Democratic Party nominee, and former President Donald Trump is still Trump — divisive but ascendant a week after an assassination attempt — amid an ongoing seismic shift in this election.

The complicated reality is that Biden’s campaign exit is the right thing for the nation even if some see it as a party coup that disenfranchises millions of voters. There are many Americans like me who watched last months’ disturbing debate and thought, “This is the best we can do?

Biden was clearly not up to the task of campaigning while running the country. Republicans could see it. Democrats could see it. Independents could see it. Many people will now question whether he’s able to be president, but don’t expect him to resign. Still, that won’t quell GOP calls for that.

In other words: Buckle up, America.

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Last week, the nation wondered if the political rhetoric would ratchet down. As if.

Trump’s harsh remarks at a Michigan rally Saturday showed it wouldn’t. Biden’s departure means the next debate and nasty campaign ads could be between Harris, the prosecutor, and Trump, the prosecuted, but that’s not guaranteed. Either way, expect the rhetoric to be at a perpetual boil between now and November.

On Sunday, Trump called Biden a “complete disgrace” while former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him a patriot without endorsing a replacement, signaling both the great debate over Biden’s legacy and the great uncertainty over the next steps before the Nov. 5 election that had long been cast as Biden-Trump II, a rematch of 2020.

The most chaotic U.S. presidential election in history may become the most consequential. That could mean it also has the greatest turnout in any presidential election. That’s strange to say when Democrats are waiting to see who they’ll even be voting for, and Republicans are waiting to see if the GOP mounts legal challenges in any or all 50 states. But the stakes are high.

Democratic leaders are left with the task of picking a replacement while Republican leaders reconsider their attacks. They were already saying a vote for Biden was a vote for Harris, whom they disdain. Now they’ll say a vote for Harris is the same as a vote for Biden would have been.

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Hours after the announcement, it was clear Harris had major support. Bill and Hillary Clinton endorsed her, and Rep. Jim Clyburn, who helped Biden become president by endorsing him as South Carolina’s most powerful Democrat before the state’s 2020 primary, endorsed her, too.

If it’s Harris, Democrats will frame the election as a choice between the first female and the first felon to be president while Republicans frame it as a choice between someone who will secure the border and a vice president who failed her first job as “border czar.”

The ads will write themselves, leaving voters to choose a president to cement U.S. policy and Biden’s legacy.

We are only three and a half months from the Nov. 5 Election Day, two months from the earliest voting starting in four states and one month from the Democratic National Convention. Emotions are high, and any process ultimately will be assailed to some degree. But there is a process.

Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison said the path forward will be deliberate, writing on X: “The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear. In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November. This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”

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Are those reassurances from Harrison, another prominent South Carolinian, going to be enough for anyone who feels disenfranchised after tens of millions of Americans selected Biden as their candidate during this year’s primaries? Will those votes be explained away as votes for Biden and Harris in hindsight? Are the nomination procedures going to be as airtight as they need to be to hold up in court against legal challenges? And who will be the vice presidential pick?

The Americans who are already turned off in large numbers by presidential politics are now going to be surrounded by stories and conversations about presidential election policy.

Beyond the election, of course, is the question of whether Trump (and hard-core supporters like those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when the last election legitimately, legally didn’t go his way) will accept the results of a loss to Harris or some other Democrat after any legal challenge.

He should be asked as soon as possible and again and again if he doesn’t definitively say yes.

The bottom line is neither Biden nor Trump knew when to exit the biggest stage in the world.

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Trump urged his supporters to storm the Capitol. Biden refused for weeks to listen to a swelling chorus of Democratic leaders and one-time supporters who nudged him out, promising a legacy in exchange for leaving. He also refused to listen to Father Time who has clearly had an impact on Biden in the last three years. He sounds and looks frail. He did in his debate and he has since in subsequent interviews. The day after the debate, he seemed vigorous in North Carolina, reading prepared remarks in front of a supportive crowd. But he failed to stem criticism.

Sunday, he let a letter speak for him.

What a two-month span. A defiant Trump became a convicted felon on May 30. A feeble Biden had a disastrous debate on June 27. The U.S. Supreme Court granted Trump broad presidential immunity on July 1. A bloodied Trump pumped his fist in the air and urged supporters to “Fight, fight, fight” after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear on July 14. A judge dismissed a classified documents case against Trump on July 15. Biden got COVID-19 on July 17.

Just like that, last week, Trump, 78, was so strong a bullet couldn’t stop him, and Biden, 81, was battling disease and demands from longtime supporters in public and private who were urging him to withdraw from a race they said he couldn’t win, stewing and recovering out of view.

Millions of Americans who have had to take car keys away from their elders will feel the poignancy of the moment while millions of others who have been calling Biden’s mental acuity into question for months despite pushback from Biden’s team will feel vindicated.

Looking back, a big question is who knew what when about Biden’s condition, including Harris?

So much to think about, and the nation hasn’t even had time to fully process the other stunning developments in this election. All of it was shocking. But now Biden’s legacy will definitively be decided by voters on Nov. 5 — and by his successor’s deeds. Who will that be? Who knows.

Ultimately, the future of this election seems likely to energize both Democrats and Republicans. And isn’t that a good thing for the great American experiment and its two-party system?

It matters less how we got here, and more that we’re here. Let the Republicans be excited, and let the Democrats be excited, and let those in the middle listen and vote our conscience.

Send me 250-word letters to the editor here, 650-word guest essays here and email here. Say hi on X anytime.