A big donor says Joe Biden’s team has gone all Trumpian

STOP ME IF this sounds familiar. A president warns of an existential threat and says he alone can fix it. His advisers blithely deny facts that everyone can see with their own eyes and cover up health scares. His supporters reject all criticism and instead demand his opponents be imprisoned.

I’m not talking about Donald Trump. After a catastrophic debate, Joe Biden and his team are in danger of emulating the very movement they oppose.

If Mr Biden is right to say there’s nothing more important than stopping Mr Trump from returning to the White House, then he’s wrong when he says the best—or only—way to do that is by keeping his own name on the ballot. The idea that Mr Biden “alone can fix it” is a self-aggrandising delusion on a Trumpian scale. No wonder the audience at the president’s post-debate rally sounded just like a MAGA crowd from 2016. “Lock him up!” they chanted. It was a true through-the-looking-glass moment.

Mr Biden’s advisers are just as deluded if they think they can tell Americans they didn’t see what they saw on that debate stage. “One bad night” or “the effects of a cold” is spin that would make even Mr Trump’s flacks blush. The White House press secretary denied that Mr Biden had seen a doctor after the debate, then Mr Biden admitted to state governors in private that he did—just as Mr Trump’s White House frequently lied about his medical treatments, from routine colonoscopies to when he nearly died from covid.

Claiming Mr Biden just needs to get more sleep won’t cut it. Nor will blaming the press. “The media has spent a ton of time blowing this out of proportion,” a campaign aide said to donors a couple of days after the debate. It’s the Biden campaign that has lost any sense of proportion if they think they can make the country forget what it saw at the debate.

The truth keeps coming out, even in low-stress situations. In a brief address to military families on July 4th, Mr Biden called Mr Trump “one of our colleagues”. In a radio interview the same day, fumbling a line about Kamala Harris, his vice-president, he said that he himself was the “first black woman to serve with a black president”. To blame this all on needing a bit more sleep is the emperor’s new pyjamas.

Elections are about contrast, especially this one. So why is the candidate of truth mirroring the candidate of “alternative facts”?

I think Mr Biden has been an excellent president. He inherited a mess, with the economy in freefall and covid surging. He got the country back on its feet, creating 15m jobs, ending a 20-year war, and finally getting an infrastructure bill and the strongest climate-change legislation in history. That’s a record to celebrate.

But if he means what he says about a battle for the soul of America and the future of its democracy, then he has no choice but to withdraw and let a stronger candidate lead this crucial fight. Part of leadership is facing the facts—real facts, not “alternative facts”—and then making the wisest decisions about how to move forward.

The Joe Biden we saw on the debate stage is simply not up to the job of defeating Mr Trump, let alone governing for four more years. And we’re still seven months away from the point at which he’d even be starting that second term. The country’s worst fears about him have been proven true. He was already losing. Doubling down now is a death wish.

Yet we’re seeing nervous Democratic leaders bury their heads in the sand, the way Republicans used to do whenever another indefensible tweet came out. I get it. No one wants to be the one to push a beloved figure off the stage. This is heartbreaking, especially for those of us who like and respect Mr Biden.

As a CEO, my job is to analyse risk and make hard decisions about how to mitigate it, while maximising value. It’s time for Democrats to do the same. The risk from Mr Biden continuing to run after his debate performance is astronomical.

With deep respect for Vice-President Harris, putting her at the top of the ticket also carries significant risks. She has not managed to earn much support from the swing voters who will decide this election and her own presidential campaign petered out in December 2019. Fortunately, there are several less risky options that could all but ensure victory in November.

A ticket of strong Democratic swing-state governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro would electrify the country and put Democrats well on their way to securing a strong majority in the electoral college.

There are, to be sure, practical obstacles to making this switch, but none are insurmountable if Mr Biden and Ms Harris put the good of the party and the country ahead of their own political interests. Together, they could help unify Democrats behind new leaders with energy, broad appeal, none of the baggage of the past four years and much less risk for the next four.

Mr Biden reportedly listens only to his family and a small circle of longtime advisers. These confidantes should ask themselves which is the more noble service: helping the president navigate a dignified exit that preserves his legacy or destroying that legacy by enabling a crushing defeat?

When Jill Biden told her husband after the debate, “Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question! You knew all the facts!”, and the next day defiantly wore a dress plastered with the word “VOTE”, I couldn’t help but think of Melania Trump wearing a coat that said “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” after touring a detention centre for child migrants. I hope Dr Biden cares enough about the world her grandchildren will grow up in to tell her husband the truth and help him do the right thing.

If all else fails, a group of young Democratic leaders such as Ms Whitmer and Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, should jointly declare their candidacies. Together they represent the future of the party as well as its dynamism and diversity. There would be strength in numbers and they would be impossible to ignore.

All of this is painful. But the stakes could not be higher. America is currently on a glide path to disaster. Democrats need to be clear-eyed about the risks—and we can’t forget that we’re supposed to be different. We’re not MAGA Republicans. The Democratic Party is not a mindless cult of personality. We are patriots who put the country first. Let’s show it.  ■