Politico’s John Harris wrote in a column on Thursday that President Biden has “essentially been only half a president,” and argued his address to the nation on Wednesday showed why he had to drop out of the race.
“It is [Donald] Trump who used the presidential pulpit — and the mania and obsessive interest that followed him even after he lost it — in ways consistent with the grain of American history. He preoccupies the psyche of the nation, no less among those who loathe him as among the half or nearly half who are open to returning him to power,” Harris wrote. “It was Biden who is the tragic exception.”
Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday and told Americans he was dropping out to unify the Democratic Party, adding that the election was about “defending democracy.” Harris wrote that Biden’s speech showed “a paradox,” in which “Trump represents continuity and Biden is the anomaly.”
“On the performative dimension of the presidency — using words to inspire his supporters, box in his enemies, to reframe debates — he [Biden] has been arguably the weakest Oval Office occupant in more than a century, back to the days before television or even radio, when most Americans might read about a presidential speech but had never heard the president’s voice,” he continued.
President Biden has announced he will not seek re-election and endorsed Kamala Harris for the 2024 Democratic nomination. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
BIDEN ADDRESSES DECISION TO DROP OUT OF 2024 RACE, INTENDS TO COMPLETE TERM IN WHITE HOUSE
Harris argued that Biden did perform admirably when it came to passing legislation. He wrote Biden’s voice has gotten fainter throughout his presidency and said the president’s “thoughts straddle a line between discursive and incoherent.”
“A president who was effective at waging a national argument and reframing debates to his advantage would not be facing a potent threat from the same politician he beat in the last election,” Harris wrote in the column.
He further criticized Biden’s Oval Office address in the column, which was widely praised by members of the media, as another example of the president’s “weakened capacity to wage argument.”
On the other hand, CNN’s Van Jones said Biden was a “hero” who “fell on his sword.”
US President Joe Biden delivers a prime-time address to the nation in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Photographer: Evan Vucci/AP Photo/Bloomberg (Getty Images)
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“To reach this standard requires employing all tools of the modern presidency, not just half,” the column concluded.
In his address, without going into specifics, Biden discussed his decision to bow out of the race, which came after weeks of fierce pressure from his own party and his own insistence that he wasn’t going anywhere.
“In recent weeks, it’s become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believed my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” Biden said.
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“That includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”