We are heading to Chicago on a wave of euphoria, exuberance, enthusiasm, excitement and even, one might say, ecstasy.
It will be a glorious coronation – except that everyone will be angry at each other.
Leading Democrats are brimming with resentment, even as they try to form a united front at the United Center in the Windy City. A clique of powerful Democrats maneuvered behind the scenes to push an incumbent president out of the race. It wasn’t exactly “Julius Caesar” in Rehoboth Beach. But it was a tectonic shift, and of course there would be serious repercussions. Even if it was the right thing to do, it was a stunning coup, as Joe Biden would be unable to campaign, let alone serve another four years as president.
But at some point, as the poll numbers plummeted, Democratic leaders decided to put the good of the party—and the country—above the president’s ego and stop indulging in his self-centered fantasy that he was the only one who could beat Donald Trump. And they all knew that Biden’s performance was slipping faster than he, his family, and his inner circle were letting on.
Biden initially looked forward to “getting back on the campaign trail,” but then he was gone in a weekend, with the handprints of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries on the president’s back. And as Kamala Harris deftly cemented her position as the nominee, a giddy sense of possibility erupted in the party.
How could it not hurt Biden that the Democratic Convention went from four days of “shiva sitting,” as James Carville put it, to a joyous romp with Kamala at the top of the ballot box?
One after another, Democrats who were close to Biden before he conspired to overthrow him, had to confess to news anchors that they had been unable to speak to the president, who sat sulking in his tent.
( Democrats return to Chicago as Kamala Harris tries to put the ghosts of 1968 to restOpens in new window. )
Party leaders whitewashed the coup by lavishing praise on Biden. James Clyburn told CNN that Biden had a record “that no president of the United States could ever match.” Pelosi suggested on CBS’s Sunday Morning that Biden’s face should be carved into Mount Rushmore. “Teddy Roosevelt is up there,” she said. “And he’s wonderful. I’m not saying get rid of him. But you could add Biden.”
Despite the grandiose flattery, Joe, Jill and Hunter were neither deceived nor appeased.
Even if the Democrats wanted to put their hostility behind them, the “Nasty Man” at the top of the Republican ticket will not let them forget it.
“Kamala wants NOTHING TO DO WITH FRAUDULENT JOE BIDEN,” Trump ranted on Truth Social on Thursday. “They’re throwing him off the Monday Night Stage known as Death Valley. He now HATES Obama and Crazy Nancy more than he hates me! He’s an angry man, as he should be. They stole the presidency from him – ‘It was a coup!'”
As much as she cared about the president, Pelosi would never choose the House’s support for Biden over the support of her beloved House. Their mutual affection was evident in interviews she gave to promote her new book, “The Art of Power.”
One of the most ruthless and successful tacticians in the history of Congress seemed embarrassed about stabbing her buddy and torn about whether to take credit for it. “Et tu, Nancy?” Biden must have thought.
When David Remnick asked Pelosi if her long-term relationship with Biden could survive, she replied, “I hope so. I pray so. I cry so.” She said, “It can keep me awake at night, yes.”
There was no kumbaya. Biden didn’t care about the “three generations of love” Pelosi told Jen Psaki about her family for him.
The president was already angry at Obama for pushing him aside in favor of Hillary, and he was angry at Hillary for blowing that chance and losing to Trump. Even though Obama was quietly trying to do everything he could to protect his saint status, Joe was angry that Obama pushed him aside twice.
Michelle Obama’s relationship with Biden soured when his family disfellowshipped Hunter’s first wife, Michelle’s friend Kathleen. This is one of the reasons why the popular Michelle did not campaign for Biden.
Kamala can’t be happy that Obama, Pelosi and Schumer were hesitant to endorse her because they wanted to let more moderate contenders run in an open mini-primary. And Biden and Harris’ staffs are also on edge as Kamala adds her own people.
Biden still believes he could have defeated Trump, so how is he supposed to accept being dethroned? On Wednesday, Ron Klain, Biden’s longtime adviser, expressed his feelings to Anderson Cooper Bidenworld about the jacquerie, which received worldwide attention.
“I think it was unfortunate because I think the president had won the nomination fair and square,” Klain said. “Fourteen million people had voted for him and the vice president for vice president.” He said, “I think, you know, the president was pressured by public demands from elected officials that he should resign and from donors who were calling on him to resign. And I think that was wrong.”
Those who ousted Biden from office can be proud. They saved him and their party from what was likely a crushing defeat and allowed Trump to return to power and tarnish democracy.
That would keep Biden off Rushmore.
