US President Joe Biden reacts as he attends a press conference during NATO's 75th anniversary summit, in Washington, July 11, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
A rare, if not unprecedented, moment in US politics is unfolding. Just months before the presidential election, an ageing president with apparent cognition difficulties is being urged, not by rivals, but by supporters, friends, and colleagues in the Democratic Party to step aside after a disastrous first-round debate with his Republican Party opponent Donald Trump. They want him to quit in the best interests of the party and democracy. His insistence on staying on as he is “most qualified” to defeat Trump has only intensified the appeals. Senior Democrats and donors are said to be rallying behind Vice-President Kamala Harris as a replacement candidate with the best chance of winning. A press conference Biden addressed after the NATO 75th anniversary summit turned into a global examination of his mental faculties. He was determined to demonstrate that he had what it takes to win against Trump, and do the job of the world’s most powerful man for the next four years. But his hour-long performance, during which he took unscripted questions without aides standing by, has not quelled the concerns. He mixed up Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s names at the NATO meet, and at the press conference, referred to Harris as “Vice-President Trump”.
Unless he makes a dignified exit, he could be forced to go. The party convention is where a presidential candidate becomes official. The Democrats will hold their convention in August, and if Biden has not quit by then, he may face humiliation. It is fascinating to watch a democracy in action in this way — a party wrestling with its chosen leader openly, and the media pillorying him with questions about his capability to lead a superpower. It certainly does not happen in the ‘mother of democracy’ where the prime minister never answers an unscripted question even from friendly media, let alone face a press conference.
Beyond the spectacle, what happens in the US also affects the rest of the world. A Trump presidency would give authoritarian leaders everywhere their perfect self-justification. But even authoritarians may not want to deal with the uncertainty of a Trump presidency. For India, despite the Modi-Trump chemistry, the Biden presidency saw a substantive jump in ties, the Pannun case and other pinpricks notwithstanding. New Delhi should be wary of a Trump rerun and the uncertainty he would bring to bilateral ties and geopolitics, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. New Delhi’s vibes with Harris are not the best, but if she is the Democrats’ best bet against Trump, at the very least she will bring continuity to ties.