Three weeks after it became obvious that Joe Biden should not run for a second term as president after his disastrous debate performance on 27 June, he has finally stepped aside. In a letter addressed to “My Fellow Americans” on 21 July, he wrote that while it had been the “greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he now understood that it was “in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down”.
In a follow-up post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden offered his “full support and endorsement” for his vice-president, Kamala Harris, to become the Democratic nominee. “Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump,” he wrote. “Let’s do this.” He said he would address the nation to explain his decision later this week.
The time it took Biden to reach this decision notwithstanding – it has been obvious to a majority of Democratic voters in poll after poll since the debate that he was too old to run again – he has just done something that the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, would not: put his party and his country first.
The Republican national convention last week marked the final phase of Trump’s takeover of the party. His one-time political rivals – Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz – fell in line, bending the knee to the man they had once openly reviled on the stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The event took on an overtly messianic tone following the assassination attempt against Trump in Pennsylvania on 13 July. Speaker after speaker praised god for sparing Trump’s life, which they interpreted as divine intervention; incontrovertible evidence that his presidential bid is god’s will. Many delegates openly wept as Trump described how he had felt “serene” during the shooting “because I had god on my side”.
Yet this may also turn out to be the moment that Trump miscalculated. Fuelled by hubris and an unshakeable belief in his own hype, he blew the opportunity to reinvent himself – or even just to moderate his tone very slightly – delivering an hour-and-a-half long monologue that veered from one grievance to the next, and reminded viewers at home just how unhinged his first term had really been. It is difficult to make a speech about surviving your own near-assassination dull, but by indulging his most narcissistic instincts, Trump somehow pulled it off.
Then, there is his selection of JD Vance as his running mate. Perhaps he no longer believes he needs to appeal to the middle ground, and he has bought into the idea that Vance helps him in crucial rust belt states because the Ohio senator has lived through the struggles of left-behind America, which he documented so eloquently in his best-selling novel, Hillbilly Elegy.
Maybe. But Vance is also a former venture capitalist and a political newcomer who holds hard-right views on abortion (which he opposes even in cases of rape or incest), the 2020 election (which he has said was “stolen from Trump”), and Ukraine (he has said he doesn’t “really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other” and vowed to cut off aid). He has overcome his own objections to Trump – whom he once said could be “America’s Hitler” – now that it suits his personal ambitions. It should be all too easy for a competent Democrat to define him as a political extremist and a cynical opportunist, if the party can now unite behind a new nominee.
This is not a given. It is hard to overstate the scale of the challenge that now awaits Kamala Harris – or whoever turns out to be the Democratic party’s nominee. From a standing start, with four months to go before polling day, and all the baggage of the last administration still weighing her down, Harris will have to unify a party that is currently in open disarray and turn around her own poor approval rating and ominous polls.
This is an almighty gamble for the Democratic party. But it is better than following the Republican model of clinging to a weak candidate long after his flaws have been thoroughly exposed. If Democrats could have picked their ideal opponent ahead of his election, it is hard to think of a better choice than a convicted felon, who attempted to overturn the results of an American election and has been found liable for sexual assault and fraud. Even better, if he then went on to pick a hardcore Maga convert who opposes even basic abortion rights. There is no question that the Republican base is all-in behind Trump and Vance, but it is far from clear that their message will be as palatable to undecided voters in the handful of swing states that will decide this election.
Almost three weeks ago, I wrote that if Biden could be prevailed upon to stand aside, he would be remembered as a man who had devoted his life to public service and defeated Trump at a moment of national peril, but who understood, eventually, when it was time to pass that baton on. By becoming the transitional president he once promised to be, Biden would signal his faith in his party and the democratic ideals it represents. What comes next may well be messy. Certainly, it is fraught with risk. But whereas last week the Democrats seemed to be heading for certain defeat – with Trump re-elected by a landslide, and likely Republican control of the house and senate too – now, however slim, they have a real chance to fight.
[See also: America on the brink]
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