Joe Biden, extremely weakened, returns to the campaign on Friday after a completely failed debate against Donald Trump which raises, even among his supporters, the question of whether he will continue to run for a second term.
Just read the implacable editorial by Thomas Friedman, who describes himself as a “friend” of the American president, on Friday in the New York Times.
“Joe Biden, a good man, a good president, is in no position to seek re-election,” wrote the columnist, who said he “cried” as he watched the 81-year-old Democrat, who looked haggard at times, stumble over words and stammer for 90 minutes in front of CNN’s cameras.
Philanthropist Maria Shriver, niece of assassinated President JFK and an ally of Joe Biden, wrote on the social network X that she was “heartbroken” by this disastrous performance.
“He had one thing to do (in the debate), and that was to reassure America that he was capable of being president at his age. He failed,” said a former Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill, on MSNBC, a channel that the main person concerned often watches.
The campaign team’s attempt to justify the slump by a “cold”, by instead drawing attention to the “lies” spouted by Donald Trump, fell flat.
– “Panic” –
The American media are reporting a real “panic” among the Democrats, four months before the election and approximately six weeks before the convention supposed to inaugurate the American president.
Which should be an opportunity to ask “who is best placed to prevent Trump from returning to power”, even judges a German official responsible for bilateral cooperation with the United States, Michael Link, interviewed by the daily Tagesspiegel.
So far, however, no Democratic Party heavyweight has publicly echoed this sentiment.
Officially, the line remains to support the octogenarian candidate, who will be campaigning at 12:30 local time (16:30 GMT) in North Carolina, a southeastern state that his team hopes to wrest from his 78-year-old Republican rival in November.
At the same time, he will raise funds in New York and then in the Hamptons, a very chic resort area not far away.
Donald Trump will be in Chesapeake, in the state of Virginia (east), on Friday.
The billionaire, so quick to mock “Sleepy Joe,” did not even need to insist after the debate on his opponent’s poor performance.
Above all, he published a video on his Truth Social network showing him making nice golf shots: the former real estate developer did not appreciate Joe Biden mocking his performances on the green during the debate.
– Convention –
Vice-President Kamala Harris herself recognized that Joe Biden had made a “laborious” start but felt that he had finished “strong” against an opponent who multiplied false or outrageous assertions without ever losing his calm. , nor his poise.
The 59-year-old Democrat, sent to the front Thursday evening to limit the damage, will campaign on Friday in Nevada (west).
His name is obviously on the list of those who could replace Joe Biden in the race for the White House, alongside in particular some prominent Democratic governors, such as Gavin Newsom in California or Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan.
If Joe Biden threw in the towel, the Democrats would meet in August in Chicago for what is called an “open” convention, during which the votes of delegates collected by the American president during the primary would be put into play.
A scenario not seen since 1968. The party then had to find a replacement for President Lyndon B. Johnson after the latter gave up running in the middle of the Vietnam War.
Outgoing Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated, and lost in the election to Republican Richard Nixon.
oh/seb
