House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks with the mother of vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Beverly, as Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump looks on and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum applauds, on Day 3 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, July 17, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Washington: It would have come as no surprise to political observers a few months ago to know that by the time the summer nominating conventions opened, one of the political parties would be deeply fractured over its standard-bearer and the other would appear unified behind its candidate.
What might have been surprising was which party would fit which role.
Even as Republicans meeting in Milwaukee put on a show of unity for former President Donald Trump, Democrats are still stewing over President Joe Biden's insistence on staying in the race and in some cases even plotting how to press him to step aside. The assassination attempt against Trump last weekend diverted attention from the Democratic discord but did not solve the problem.
Indeed, many Democrats are just as convinced as ever that Biden cannot beat Trump and should step aside in favor of a candidate who might have a better chance. The issue was brought back to the surface on Wednesday when Rep. Adam Schiff, who is poised to win a Senate seat in deeply blue California this fall, called on Biden to drop out. Schiff's decision was especially noteworthy because he is a close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Biden, who tested positive for Covid on Wednesday, clearly resents the internal dissent, increasingly snapping at anyone he perceives as challenging him. People close to his circle said he appeared to be in denial, digging in and refusing to listen. While most of the political world is focused on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and Trump's selection of Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate, the public fight about the president could reach the boiling point again as early as Friday after the GOP decamps.
The Republican unity parade, of course, is partly smoke and mirrors, a television spectacle meant to shroud the party's own deep divisions over Trump, a convicted felon who tried to overturn an election he lost in order to hold onto power. While Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and other vanquished primary rivals dutifully took turns paying homage, those who are not going along with his triumph have simply vanished from view.
Among those not in Milwaukee this week are Mike Pence, Trump's former vice president, who refuses to support him any more, the first time since 1940 that a onetime running mate opposed the man who picked him. Also not in attendance are multiple Trump Cabinet secretaries who concluded that he was unfit or dangerous; most of the Republicans who voted to impeach or convict him; and every other living Republican president, vice president or presidential nominee.
But the effort to keep Trump from representing the Republicans for a third straight election ended months ago when he crushed the last opposition in the party and forced Republican critics like Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and former Attorney General William Barr to swallow their criticisms and formally endorse him.
Rather than continue to agitate against Trump, most Republicans have simply resigned themselves to his dominance in the party and are trying to accommodate themselves to that reality or checking out. Biden's dismal debate performance and the failed assassination attempt have only energized Republicans with giddy confidence in victory.
Democrats, by contrast, had resigned themselves long ago to Biden, whose team effectively smothered internal opposition. Democrats did not harbor the same antipathy for him that many Republicans did for Trump, and they allowed themselves to be silenced despite their misgivings about his age and capacity.
That is, until the president's alarming performance at last month's debate with Trump suddenly opened the floodgates of doubt. Now what had been a settled issue has been reopened as Democrats fight among themselves over whether to stick with Biden or continue to push for someone else.
Biden seems to be feeling the pressure, and tempers are fraying. During a video call on Saturday with moderate House Democrats, he snapped at Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, who earned a Bronze Star in the Army in Iraq and raised questions about Biden's ability to reach voters.
"Name me a foreign leader who thinks I'm not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy," Biden said testily, adding, "Tell me who the hell that is."
Biden's exchange with Crow was reported earlier by Puck News.
While that was ostensibly a private call, Biden's irritation has been on display in public as well. During his interview with Lester Holt of NBC News on Monday, he scolded the anchor for his questions. "What's with you guys?" he demanded. "Come on, man."
During a speech on Tuesday to the NAACP, he recalled an old aphorism often attributed, probably wrongly, to President Harry S. Truman. "'You want a friend in Washington, get a dog,'" Biden said. "After the last couple weeks, I know what he means."
The exasperation in the Democratic Party, however, is a two-way street. The more-in-sorrow-than-anger stage of the uprising is over. While once Democrats felt bad for Biden even as they wished he would gracefully exit the stage, now they increasingly feel bitter toward him, complaining of hubris and selfishness from a president they otherwise have admired.
They feel that he is not only going to hand the White House back to Trump but take down the rest of the party's candidates as well, a danger that in their view he either does not realize or does not care about. And so they head to their own convention in Chicago next month deeply torn and resentful of their leader.
Unity, even faux unity as in Milwaukee, is a prized commodity in presidential politics, especially this deep into a campaign year. A party still fighting with itself over who will lead it in July is not typically successful in November. Three of the last four incumbent presidents defeated in the last half century had faced significant primary opposition -- the one exception being Trump, who lost in 2020 anyway.
That is the argument Biden and his allies are making to the rebels. No matter how they feel, the Biden camp maintains, the president has made clear that he is not getting out of the race, he is not changing his mind and so it is time to put that issue in the past and focus on stopping Trump from returning to the White House.
The insurgents, however, do not accept that. While it is true that other presidents managed to recover from debate setbacks, Biden's fundamental problem is not something that can be fixed with better talking points or clever ads. He cannot make himself younger, and he cannot erase the impression tens of millions of voters were left with.
When, how and even whether this internal debate will end is anyone's guess. The new positive Covid test may delay a reckoning as the president leaves the campaign trail and retreats to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the next few days.
In the end, Biden may yet gut it out. He controls the party machinery and still enjoys strong support from important segments of the Democratic universe like the Congressional Black Caucus. Democrats may decide that it is riskier to try an untested new candidate than to stick with him.
But the only thing that unites Democrats at the moment is their determination to defeat Trump. And what unites Republicans is that they don't think the Democrats can do that.