July 26, 2024

"If what you’re saying is right, that Biden did something really heroic by stepping aside, offering the Party and the country the best chance to beat Donald Trump in November..."

"... I think what irks me is my fear that the people around Biden, and you can include yourself or not, but his staff, his friends, his family, would not be denouncing it as a giant risk to the Republic if he had decided to stick it out. I feel like they would be showing loyalty to him more than to the needs of the country."

Isaac Chotiner asked Jon Meacham, in "Was Biden’s Decision to Withdraw 'Heroic'? Jon Meacham, the President’s friend and informal adviser, considers his legacy" (The New Yorker).

What do expect Jon Meacham, the President's friend, to say? He says: "I think your being irked is now a hypothetical.... I totally get what you’re saying. But the fact of the matter is that the decision has been made.... I’m not minimizing the concern you’re articulating. I’m not dismissing it. It is totally legitimate. I absolutely see how people would be wrestling with that. But in point of fact, it’s no longer an issue...."

It's not a hypothetical when looking backward into the many months when Biden was sticking it out and his staff, his friends, his family, and others, including Kamala Harris, were showing loyalty to him more than to the needs of the country. Was it not a great scandal?

35 comments:

Ambrose said...

LBJ in Heaven - or that other place - is looking down (up) and thinking "Oh my, why couldn't I have had such sycophants my press corp when I was driven out of office. 'Selfless' was bad enough, now we are at 'heroic.'"

Crimso said...

You expect honesty from Jon Meacham? He has clearly demonstrated in the past that he is ethically challenged.

mccullough said...

Meachem is a throne sniffer.

Typical sociopath

narciso said...

Chitiner has been a notorious hack

Iman said...

“What do expect Jon Meacham, the President's friend, to say?”

How about the goddam truth. THAT would be a refreshing change.

Ralph L said...

I’m not minimizing the concern you’re articulating badly. Why should we care about Chotiner's feelings? They were all in the bag for Biden until there was no bag. Quit dancing around their treachery to the country.

PrimoStL said...

Althouse said, "Was it not a great scandal?"

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Yes but you're supposed to forget about it if you were paying attention and assume it isn't that bad. If you weren't paying attention and are part of their voter base then they must make sure there was never a scandal to begin with.

Josephbleau said...

We kept it secret, we lied, we endangered the nation… what it’s out in the open now! Too late, it’s hypothetical, ok? The moment to reflect on what we did is now passed.

Mason G said...

"If what you’re saying is right, that Biden did something really heroic by stepping aside, offering the Party and the country the best chance to beat Donald Trump..."

I'm sure Democrats do, but why would "the country" want to beat Donald Trump? He's done more for them than the Democrats have.

Mikey NTH said...

Sacrificing your pride and ego isn't much of a sacrifice to others. A Victoria Cross or Medal of Honor isn't given for stepping up and doing the bare minimum, after all.

narciso said...

Thats not his bag,

mccullough said...

Biden quit. That’s all there is to it.

Too Dems put pressure on him and his family and he quit.

Fucking coward.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...
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West TX Intermediate Crude said...

The premise of the question is that Biden quit voluntarily.

It was voluntary the way Nixon's resignation was voluntary- something much worse and more painful would follow if either man had stayed. In Nixon's case, it would have been impeachment and conviction; he would have been the first president removed in this fashion.
In Biden's case, the likely next step would have been use of 25A, with public revelation of his decrepit mental state by his closest heretofore supporters, including Harris.
She and others would only have to say that they had noticed significant deterioration over the past few weeks or month and strongly recommend a formal cognitive evaluation. It's likely that the pot was sweetened for Dr. Jill- book deal, prestigious Ivy League professorship to take full advantage of her scholarly accomplishments, pardon for Hunter.

Nixon was way more heroic than Biden, both in his refusal to challenge the voting shenanigans in Chicago in 1960 and his choice to resign 14 years later. Both spared the country he loved turmoil and conflict.

Another old lawyer said...

I'm reminded of Rip Torn's defense counsel character in Defending Your Life, arguing at length at how brave and heroic Albert Books' character was for crawling miles in the snow for help after he hurt himself in a snowmobile accident.

Lee Grant's prosecutor character then stood and basically in a sentence said he was just saving his own life, hardly brave or heroic act.

mccullough said...

Nixon was a coward too.

Biden & Nixon are quitters.

Ambrose said...

@mccullough - I have always had a grudging admiration for non-coward Clinton - who should have resigned after what came out about what he did to a near child. He just said "No, I won't." Nixon should have done that - though its harder for a Republican.

Yancey Ward said...

"I'm reminded of Rip Torn's defense counsel character in Defending Your Life, arguing at length at how brave and heroic Albert Books' character was for crawling miles in the snow for help after he hurt himself in a snowmobile accident.

Lee Grant's prosecutor character then stood and basically in a sentence said he was just saving his own life, hardly brave or heroic act."


That is a pretty good allusion to an underrated movie. I was thinking of George Costanza and the fire at the birthday party.

Sebastian said...

"Was it not a great scandal?"

It was, but it is no longer an issue. Our overlords have decided. So there.

Bob Boyd said...

an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington, who also stepped away from the presidency.

Biden's case is the opposite of George Washington's.
Washington's contemporaries wanted to give Washington even more power, permanent power. They wanted to make him King.
Biden fought to keep his power and position. He lost that fight. He was pushed out.

What was heroic? Was it Biden's ultimately vain struggle to stay in office 4 more years or was it somehow heroic because he lost that struggle?

Biden was compromised. His relatives were compromised. The whole thing was more akin to a plea bargain than noble sacrifice.

Monty Kingsbury said...

It's OK, we don't really need Taiwan anyway.

Goldenpause said...

It would have been heroic if he had confessed to perpetrating a fraud on the American people, named his co-conspirators in the fraud and resigned from office in disgrace.

FullMoon said...
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FullMoon said...

Biden is a loser, a quitter. Stabbed in the back by his party, he didn’t have the guts to tough it out.
. Of course, he was bribed or blackmailed, but with his lifelong tough guy persona, and his constant claim that polls mean nothing and he will prevail, his fans expected more of him.

Now, the entire family is disgraced, curb stomped by the uncouth orange felon.
The elite parties will peter out.
No more influence to rake in the cash.May have to sell the Corvette and the house and survive on Dr. Jills community college salary
The Biden’s elite “friends” are laughing behind their backs.

Expect the stripper mom to change her mind about child being accepted as a Biden, may even change her name in order to distance herself.

Trump has figuratively taken Joey out behind the High School gym and beat him senseless.

Corn pop be damned, Dapper Donald baddest kid in the hood now.

Breezy said...

It is a great scandal, and it continues, does it not? Biden is still President with his diminished cognition. In addition, after all the historic and continuing lying about Biden, there is now active lying about Harris, her past and present. The lying has not stopped. It is a gargantuan scandal with no end in sight. Where exactly is the check on the press?

The media has gone from a funereal pulse to one of jubilee, but it’s just them that feels this way. They’re so glad to not be covering for Biden, but they’re still covering for someone - Harris. The voters know that Harris is a dud. When will the media read the room?

Mason G said...

"When will the media read the room?"

The media doesn't think what the room thinks matters.

RCOCEAN II said...

Does anything about Biden matter? The man was a senile old fool in 2020, and he's been a figurehead for almost 3 1/2 years. And now he's a lame duck and will be gone in Jan 2025. At which point Kamala, a complete idiot will take over and she'll be the new figurehead.

The WH staff and Cabinet members who "Ran" Joe Biden will "Run" Kamala. FDR, Wilson, and Reagan in the last year of their Presidency weren't really in charge. In all three instances it was due to illness. In Biden's case, its been his ENTIRE Presidency, not just 1 year.

He's the biggest nothingburger President in American History. Talk to a libtard and try to have them explain what they like (or Liked) about Joe Biden and you just get goobledegook. He wasn't TRump, or a Republican, and that's all they cared about.

He was a divider not a uniter. A dummy. A warmonger. A spendthrift. A vicious partisan. A small, mean, petty man. And that's when he wasn't "Sundowning".

Rocco said...

Biden was heroic?

I heroically took a nap on the couch after work today.

Dr.Bunkypotatohead said...

"He was a divider not a uniter. A dummy. A warmonger. A spendthrift. A vicious partisan. A small, mean, petty man."

That should be carved on his headstone. I'd pay for it.

wendybar said...

He was a divider not a uniter. A dummy. A warmonger. A spendthrift. A vicious partisan. A small, mean, petty man. And that's when he wasn't "Sundowning".

THIS^^^

tim maguire said...

Nobody believes Biden acted heroically, but it’s common convention that you don’t speak ill of the dead and Biden’s candidacy is dead.

285exp said...

When you’re been thrown out the window it’s not heroic to hit the ground.

Gunner said...

If you have to say you aren't Biden's Baghdad Bob, you probably are.

Iman said...

He was a grifter, a bullshitter, a user and a loser.

Preston said...

So Chotiner onducts a pathetically easy interview with John Meacham—who is not a historian—and doesn;t ask him the one question that ought to asked to every member of Biden’s circle: “When did you know that Joe Biden was senile and why did you cover it up for so long?” It was a pitiful interview; Chotiner allowed Meacham to say that he’s really not a Democrat and disagrees with Biden on some issues without pressing him on which ones. Chotiner and Meacham are as big frauds as Joe Biden.