SAUNDERS: Biden’s exit comes too late. Democrats are stuck with Harris

WASHINGTON

President Joe Biden’s letter announcing that he is standing down from the general election documented all the reasons the incumbent had to go.

But it’s too late, Joe.

Your legacy is lost.

Biden should have announced he was not running for re-election a year ago — or, at the very least, before he blew the June 27 debate with Donald Trump.

Instead, the 81-year-old clung to power in defiance of calls, even within his own party, that he step aside. Now that he has announced he is not running for re-election, Biden nonetheless apparently plans to stay in office. Tell me how that works.

Biden’s actions have shown the world that he himself is every bad thing he has said about his 78-year-old Republican rival — unwilling to let go of power, uninterested in putting the country first, and not even remotely up to the job.

Biden, who tested positive for COVID in Las Vegas last week, seemed unaware of recent polls that showed Trump ahead, often beyond the margin of error. That is, the letter inadvertently put the spotlight on the president’s alarming state of denial.

On Truth Social, Trump opined, “Does anybody really believe that Crooked Joe had Covid? No, he wanted to get out ever since June 27th, the night of The Debate, where he was completely obliterated. That was the big moment in Joe Biden’s demise.”

In his letter, Biden gave a nod to Kamala Harris, 59. She may be a walking word salad, but she’s his walking word salad, the very individual he chose as his running mate in 2020.

When Biden chose the then-California U.S. Senator, he made no secret of the fact that the former San Franciscan’s race and gender were prime reasons behind his choice. Now she’s the country’s first female Vice President, and also the first Black and Asian American to serve in that office. There’s no way Biden can abandon her now.

And really, for all that talk from self-styled insiders that Democrats might hold mini-conventions that could select Harris or another Democrat, how exactly would that work?

In politics, there are times you have to gut out a bad decision. In 2020, party leaders and primary voters decided that Biden was the only Democrat who could beat Trump. Sure, he was old, they told themselves, but he’ll just serve as a placeholder. One term.

And then Biden became the guest who wouldn’t leave.

This idea that he can remain president when he hasn’t even spoken to the country about why he isn’t running for re-election, it’s not going to fly.

As House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement, “The Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election. Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite.”

Now Harris will have to defend not only Biden’s bad policies, but also his selfish decision to hang on past his due date.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.