Joe Biden wasn’t forthright about his decline. Democrats need to be | Editorial

In the years of Donald Trump’s dangerous presidency — and in the years since — this editorial board had a frequent but simple request for Republicans in Washington:

Tell the truth about the president.

Say out loud what you’re saying privately.

Choose your country over your party.

Choose the rest of us over your political future.

Some Republicans did. Some — including North Carolina’s Thom Tillis — got brave on occasion and criticized the president, only to backtrack and retreat to politically safer territory. It was wrong then. It’s wrong now.

This week, Democrats are facing a similar choice with President Joe Biden. His debate performance late last month prompted uncomfortable questions about his cognitive ability, and it has cast doubt on whether he can defeat Trump again in 2024, let alone capably lead our country for four years in the event that he were to win this November.

Biden, however, is digging in. He’s daring Democrats not to support him. He’s attacking media and other “elites” for reporting reality and asking legitimate questions about him. If that sounds uncomfortably familiar, well, yes.

The stakes, as Democrats and so many others know, are significant. Donald Trump — who tried to overturn a fair election, who regularly exhibits disdain for the law, and who now has been given the highest court’s permission to break it — should not be president again.

For very different reasons, we also question whether Joe Biden should be. This is not about one bad debate night, but about a clear decline that should trouble any American. At 81 years old, Biden is showing signs of aging and cognitive decline, including slurred speech, disorientation and lapses in memory, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and others.

Worse yet, Biden and his team have been dodgy about his condition to voters and others. We can understand why the Biden administration perhaps didn’t want hostile leaders to believe they were dealing with an even slightly diminished president. But instead of acknowledging his limitations and leaving after one term, Biden and his team have clung to power and, toward that end, not told the full truth to primary voters about his health.

Now we know more. Democrats in Congress know more. They know that Biden faces a steeper climb this November. Voters already had questions about Biden’s mental acuity. The answers they are getting — and make no mistake, reporting on Biden’s decline will continue — make his reelection a longer shot than ever.

Let’s be clear: Should Biden win the Democratic nomination, he remains the far better choice in November. He navigated the country out of COVID and onto more solid economic footing. He’s been a stalwart advocate for the vulnerable, for women’s reproductive rights. Americans are, without question, better off under his administration than they were four years ago under Donald Trump. And, despite the troubling nature of Biden’s situation, he certainly does not pose a grave danger like Trump does. Biden or not, this election poses an existential question about our democracy, especially as Trump himself has recently called for his political opponents to be jailed and prosecuted in “televised military tribunals.”

But Trump vs. Biden isn’t the choice our country is facing — at least not yet.

Joe Biden has been a strong president, and he may be a fundamentally decent man, but is reluctant to cede power like so many before him. It’s up to others in his party to give voice to the questions voters are asking. Is Biden the best candidate to keep Trump from the White House? Is he the best Democrat to lead our country now and four years from now?

What Democrats must do now is demand the answers the White House is refusing to provide. They should call for Biden to submit to a full medical evaluation and publicly share the results. They should demand that he hold an honest press conference, answering tough questions from the media that are not coordinated in advance. And if he does not comply, they should encourage delegates to vote their conscience at the Democratic National Convention.

To be sure, there are some Democrats who have already expressed hesitation about the viability of Biden’s campaign. But media reports indicate that far more are expressing such doubts in private — even suggesting Biden should withdraw from the race — but have not yet voiced them publicly.

So today, we implore Democrats in North Carolina and elsewhere: Tell the truth about the president. Say out loud what you’re saying privately. Don’t hesitate because of the backlash you’d face from the president and his supporters. Don’t lose this election because it might help you with another down the road. Republicans, too, must still tell the truth about their own nominee, his half-truths, dangerous rhetoric and alleged crimes.

We already know what happens when you make the wrong choice.