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When a flagging Joe Biden turned in a dismal presidential debate performance earlier this summer against Donald Trump, everyone from George Clooney to Jon Stewart called on the 81-year-old to quit the race.
But when Biden dug in and vowed to stay in it amid sagging poll numbers, one of his closest allies told the president’s advisers he would support the reelection bid on one condition: that his brain function be assessed by a pair of independent neurologists who would then present their findings to the public at a news conference.
According to an eye-popping report published Thursday by The New York Times, the information came from multiple people with firsthand knowledge of the situation.
The ultimatum itself was proposed by US Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and West Point graduate who heads up the Armed Services Committee, according to the newspaper.
A spokesman told the outlet that Reed’s proposal was not meant as an “ultimatum,” per se, but “to impress upon Mr. Biden’s aides the need to be proactive and transparent in the best interest of the president.
Rumblings about Biden’s age and ability to retain the Oval Office had been increasing in frequency and pitch since June’s disastrous debate against Trump. However, Biden held firm about his unwillingness to drop out.
In early July, Senate Democrats convened at their weekly luncheon, where nine out of 12 spoke forcefully against Biden’s stubbornness about his candidacy, the Times reported.
“It knocked my socks off how upset and angry people were, how the overwhelming majority got up and spoke really strongly,” Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said.
A day earlier, an obstinate Biden had sent an open letter to Congress insisting that he was going to continue running for a second term as US president and angrily lashed out at the “elites” pushing for him to bow out of the race.
This “fueled a sense of panic” among Democratic leaders, according to the Times, which said Sens. Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester, Democrats of Ohio and Montana, respectively, were particularly concerned about losing their seats if Biden continued apace.
To try and force the issue, Schumer reportedly then arranged an emergency meeting with Biden’s top aides, arriving with a coterie of high-level Democratic legislators who insisted the president end his reelection campaign. To do otherwise could not only taint Biden’s legacy but would expose Americans to the possibility of a second Trump term, a wholly unacceptable outcome, according to the Times.
Those who were there said the atmosphere was one of “affection and appreciation,” rather than one of anger or bitterness, the Times reported. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who recently left the Democratic Party to become an independent, “made the case that Democrats were acting out of affection for Mr. Biden, much as a family persuading an aging grandparent to surrender the car keys,” according to the Times.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, reportedly said he’d continue to support Biden and say publicly that the president was in fine shape. But if Biden’s mental acuity were to decline to a point at which his shortcomings were too obvious to ignore, it “would make a liar of him,” the Times report said.
Biden’s advisers pooh-poohed concerns about the debate, but those gathered in the room said they “could not unsee what they had seen,” one attendee told the Times. When it emerged that Biden’s advisers hadn’t shared any details of the meeting with the president, Schumer called White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients and “demanded” a face-to-face meeting with Biden.
On July 13, Schumer met with Biden at the president’s beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware.
A week later, Biden suspended his race for reelection.
As of Thursday afternoon, according to nationwide polls, vice- president Kamala Harris was leading Trump by 3.5 percentage points.
