The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.
— Joe Biden
On Wednesday night, at his first public appearance in nine days, President Biden spoke from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. It was a short but historic speech.
Biden told the American people what we already knew: He is giving up his bid for re-election and stepping away from the biggest bully pulpit in the free world. It was obvious, as he stared at a teleprompter and occasionally swallowed hard, that he was taking a victory lap but was not entirely happy about it. He never once mentioned his health as a reason for this decision.
“The defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden said. “I draw strength, and find joy, in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our Union is not about me. It’s about you. Your families. Your futures. It’s about ‘We the People.’”
He stumbled over his words occasionally and appeared to be battling with his emotions. In short, he looked like a man trussed up and carried before the camera to tell his family that his kidnappers were treating him well. Biden said he was stepping down to make peace with his party, unify it and move forward to fulfill our ideals. He fell on his sword.
What he said rang true. Our nation has been one built on hope. As the president said, we’ve never quite lived up to our creed that all people are created equal, but we haven’t backed away from that ideal either. But if you were waiting for Biden to offer a decisive explanation, I will suggest that you shouldn’t hold your breath.
Meanwhile, across the political divide, the last old man left in the race was building a fire in hopes of roasting Vice President Kamala Harris, who appears certain to be the new Democratic nominee for the office of president. Donald Trump was dancing like one of Satan’s imps, taunting and insulting Biden for leaving, mocking Harris as the new frontrunner, and attacking anyone else he could with his fetid rhetoric.
Vegas will give you great odds against Trump ever saying anything close to what Biden said Wednesday night: “I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our nation.” He said he would continue to do his job for his last months in office, calling for Supreme Court reform as “critical for our democracy.”
Trump, in the meantime, was espousing opinions based on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, while also disavowing any knowledge of the damn thing. Nonetheless, he is perfectly happy with the Heritage Foundation, which vows to keep women in their homes subservient to their masters — little more than breeding stock in lipstick and pantyhose, if they are allowed that much.
Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general in California, must now prosecute the case against Trump and what’s left of the Republican Party. Her Democratic supporters say we are finally entering a new age of enlightenment, and she will bring the energy needed to finish the job Biden started. Trump appears happy with technological feudalism, vowing revenge against those who stand against him.
Biden is absolutely right about one thing: America faces an inflection point, and the choices voters make this fall will shape our world for decades to come. It is the ultimate fork in the road. One road has a sign that says, “Here there be dragons.” Each side is convinced that sign hangs over their opponent’s path. This is only July. Imagine where we will be in three more weeks. Imagine where we’ll be after the Democratic convention. Imagine where we will be on the 6th of November, the morning after this election.
Biden once swore he wouldn’t back out of the race unless God himself told him to do so. So far, none of us in the reporting corps has asked what the Almighty said to make him move so quickly from “I’m in it to win it” to “I’ve decided to pass the torch.”
And while Biden said nothing about his health during his speech, nor about his debate performance against Donald Trump in Atlanta last month, he did talk about the future and his faith in his vice president — the same one who, just a few months back, some in the party said should be replaced.
Harris now sits atop that party, and so far is scaring the crap out of Trump and his lollipop kids in team MAGA. Some in that guild of miscreants have openly spoken of suing to keep Biden on the ballot. As laughable as that is, one has to wonder if the Supreme Court would back that move. Others have spoken of impeaching Harris, in a desperate effort to sully her reputation — while others, including Trump, toss around terms like “crooked” and “liar” to describe her. Pure projection, and par for the course in a party built entirely upon fear and division.
Still, despite Democratic euphoria, not everyone in the party is convinced Harris can win the presidency. “Well, Biden was dead in the water,” one source told me. “Maybe she can bring some energy and give us a shot.”
Others, like Democratic leaders in Kentucky, Arizona and Pennsylvania, describe Harris as “a great candidate,” saying, “She can handle Donald Trump and she brings a great deal of energy to the race.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, some of the Democrats on Harris’ short list of possible running mates hail from those states.
A little more than a day after Harris said she wanted to earn the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press and other news organizations announced she had wrapped up enough delegates to make that a sure thing.
In other words, in a single weekend she earned what takes most winning candidates months on the campaign trail.
It is not hyperbole to say we are in uncharted waters — and July isn’t over yet.
The best part of the past week is that the Trump camp, which prides itself on telling us very little but does it loudly and with boisterous, venomous enthusiasm, seems upended by the Biden announcement. Now it is Trump, one hopes, who will have to answer questions about his age and explain some of his unhinged rants about electric boats, sharks and fictional serial killers. I guarantee you someone is going to be asking those questions.
I only hope it will be actual members of the press — those that Trump will allow near him, anyway. Otherwise, I ask it now. I don’t expect answers, of course, from a man who still denies he lost the last election and believes the American public exists to serve his private needs.
Biden told us during his speech on Wednesday that in his office he has an inscription with Ben Franklin’s most famous saying. Reportedly, when asked by Elizabeth Willing Powel, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
That has been the central challenge since this country began. Sometimes it seems like decades go by without a serious challenge, and sometimes it seems like decades pass in a few weeks where we are under siege. We’ve been in that state of flux ever since Trump walked down that golden escalator and announced his candidacy for president. It made me want to vomit then, and still does.
Oh, excuse me: It makes me want to engage in an involuntary, partially liquid protein spill. (Apologies to George Carlin.)
I hope what I’m seeing right now is the bookend episode of a bad dystopian novel that began in Chicago during the 1968 election campaign. President Lyndon Johnson, after watching a documentary on the Vietnam War hosted by Walter Cronkite, decided to bow out of his own re-election bid. His vice president, Hubert Humphrey, eventually took the reins of the Democratic Party at a convention in Chicago riddled with violent protest. That followed the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, one of his opponents, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who preached peaceful coexistence and equality. Democrats failed to heal their differences and thus America went to the dark side, by way of Richard Nixon.
The biggest difference between then and now is that in 1968, we were mired in the Vietnam War. We saw images of Americans in body bags every night on television and every day in our newspapers. Biden pointed out on Wednesday that for the first time in this century, America is not at war. That happened under his watch.
After Nixon we got Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush “the Lesser” (or “Shrub,” as Molly Ivins called him) before we got Obama, Trump and Biden. The last half-century of American history reads like a horror story set in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” punctuated by violence, greed, despair and now, according to Joe Biden, hope. I hope he’s right.
In his bid to pass the torch, Biden said, “Our republic is now in your hands.” Ultimately, that’s where it always has been — even as millions of us look to Trump as our savior. Then there are those who believe Biden was forced out, that the republic is not in our hands and never has been, and the actions of his party show it.
Members of the press and the public at large, and indeed people across the globe, may speculate on the reasons why Biden stepped aside. Obviously he’s lost a step. He’s 81 years old. He has also accomplished quite a bit, and he let us know that even as he stepped aside.
Ultimately, consider this: Biden speaks of progress, of moving forward. Donald Trump continues to talk about making America “great again.” But what does that mean? Great for whom? When you ask Trumpers, they have in their minds some mythical place of serenity that never existed. If pushed, they almost always say that it was during the 1950s or thereabouts.
Who was it great for then? Minorities? LGBTQ folks? Women? Children? No. Just the average American white male. MAGA is simply racism, misogyny and nostalgia for slavery, all wrapped in a shoutable slogan.
Biden understands that, and told us on Wednesday night he has faith that most Americans also understand it.
His faith will be tested in November.
Apparently the Almighty has already spoken to Joe Biden.
Maybe we’d better listen to Joe a little while longer.
