“The most astonishing thing about the debate around Joe Biden’s inauguration is the Democrats’ temporality, which seems to stop on November 5,” writes Edward Luce in the columns of Financial Times. Already unconvinced by the idea of letting the outgoing president run again, the columnist is more worried about how his future term will unfold in the event of victory. Born in 1942, Joe Biden, 82 years old, would be re-enlisted for four years, so until he is 86 years old…
Edward Luce thus advocates for a “Democratic convention”, which he fears will be “confused but which could save the Republic from Trump” by investing a new Democratic candidate for the presidency. In recent days, several options have been theorized on the Democratic side, in order to revive a dynamic that has been at a standstill until now.
A Democratic primary
The editorial of the chief columnist of the Financial Times comes a week after the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. A fiasco during which the president justified his nickname of Goofy Uncle Joemore or less well translated into ‘Joe, the clumsy uncle’, which is attributed to him across the Atlantic. Faced with Donald Trump, he struggled to find his words and lost the thread of his ideas, when he was not simply crossed by moments of absence.
Joe Biden’s health has therefore become the major issue of the last few weeks. The White House, through Karine Jean-Pierre, its spokesperson, referred to his medical visit in February. “It was this year. Not so long ago. And we provided a transparent report, a complete report…”, she defended.
However, on the Democratic side, the option of organizing a primary has not been abandoned. And in this scenario, several names are circulating. Among them: Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, respectively governors of California and Michigan, recalls The echoes. The architect of Biden’s victory in the 2020 primaries is also mentioned, MP Jim Clyburn, who is seen as having the stature to challenge Joe Biden’s institutional heir, Vice President Kamala Harris. Other names, compiled by L’Express, had already been circulating in the American press for several days: for example those of Hillary Clinton, candidate defeated by Donald Trump in 2016, or Pete Buttigieg, the current Minister of Transportation.
The Harris hypothesis to take up the torch
Media questions about Joe Biden’s health, especially those who had previously left the issue to the Democrat’s opponents, are helping to intensify doubts about the president’s abilities. “If he were a CEO and he performed like that, would a Fortune 500 company keep him?” asks Joe Scarborough, host of the podcast “Morning Joe“. A statement, noted by The worldwhich contrasts with those held last March, when he assured that “Biden [était] far more than convincing. He is better than he has ever been intellectually and analytically.”
Eyes naturally turn to her vice president, in office since 2020 and once again committed to the 2024 presidential race. By turning to Kamala Harris, the Democrats would spare themselves certain problems, including campaign financing. It would be easier to give her the funds raised and allocated to Joe Biden’s – nearly 200 million euros – than to any other candidate.
Long heralded as Joe Biden’s successor, Kamala Harris has nevertheless struggled to convince. Before the start of the war in Ukraine, 63% of Americans did not feel she was capable of taking over from Joe Biden. But the vice president, for what she embodies for a section of the electorate, a woman of color in high responsibilities, would be “unavoidable”, according to The echoes.
Biden’s second wind?
Another option remains open: Joe Biden continues his campaign. In an interview with a local Wisconsin radio station, He returned to his debate against Donald Trump. Lucid, he admitted to having “planted” it. But the tenant of the White House made it clear, during the July 4 celebrations, that he intended “not to leave.”
On Friday, July 5, at 8 p.m. (local time), he will engage in an exercise that could decide his future. He will be interviewed on CBS by George Stephanopoulos, a former adviser to Bill Clinton and a veteran interviewer,” according to the New York Times. The opportunity for Joe Biden to show that he is still the man for the job. It is “essential” that he do one or two high-profile interviews, declared the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, at the beginning of the week.