America's Talking - Biden Explains Why He Dropped Out of Presidential Race

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

President Joe Biden explained to reporters Tuesday in more detail his rationale for suddenly ending his reelection bid earlier this year. Biden told reporters that his race against former President Donald Trump would have been close and that he “could have won.” Biden said he wasn’t “that far behind” but that he was worried that he would hurt Senate and House Democrats running for their seats. “What have happened though, if the discussion had been, was I going to cost seats for Democrats, that would have been the whole subject matter for the remainder of the campaign,” Biden told reporters at Chicago O'Hare International Airport before boarding Air Force One. “You'd have to cover it, that would be the issue, and it would give him an advantage.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. President Joe Biden was largely absent from the Democratic National Convention that just concluded in Chicago. He was the keynote speaker Monday night, but he didn't take the stage until after 11.30 p.m. Eastern Time and immediately left for a California vacation,

not sticking around for the rest of the rest of the time, remaining three days of festivities. Joining me to discuss, this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, Biden remains president for four-plus months, but it seems at times like he's almost an afterthought. What's your take on President Biden's remaining time in office? Well, I'm not convinced he's going to get those four months, personally. I think there's a strong incentive within the Democratic Party to promote Harris and have her finish this race. from the White House as an incumbent.

But, you know, it will be hard to push Biden out of his fought or have him step down. He could be, you know, the man who got the first woman president in office. I think if he's thinking about his legacy. You know, this week at the Democrat National Convention was very interesting. Biden received, you know, broad applause. Harris has gone out of her way to thank him gratuitously in front of everyone for his work. but it's just there's still kind of an awkwardness in the room and everyone knows what happened is that you know just a few weeks ago that Biden was adamant and defiant that he would not step out of

this race getting angry when reporters asked him about it and now he's all smiles handing it off to Harris and so um i think that the the party is trying to reward him for putting Harris up because Harris is polling much better than he was against Trump. I mean, Biden was on all accounts losing this race to Trump. And now Harris has brought it to essentially a tie. She's beating him nationally, but Trump is still winning in the swing states. And we could talk about that if you want. But, you know, he tried, I think, you know, when a famous Democratic leader once said that about post-birth abortion, that they just try to keep the baby comfortable until they decide what to do with it. And I think that's what the Democratic Party is doing here with Biden.

They're just trying to keep him comfortable until they decide what to do with him. He's essentially been neutered in office. And it seems like he's not really in control. It feels like the Obamas and Pelosi and others behind the scenes are really running things. And Biden is sort of a manager. And reports inside the White House indicate that Biden doesn't really have the capacity to do much managing or work long. hours. And so he's basically a figurehead at this point. And all attention is on Harris and Trump. And I think they just want Biden to not make any big mistakes, to not make any gaps and let Harris have the spotlight.

Well, that's a bit concerning to me, Casey. There is all kinds of things going on in the world. You've got the Israel-Gaza War. You've got the Russian-Ukraine war. The economy is still sort of teetering. You don't know which way it's going to go after, you know, 40-year high inflation earlier in the President Biden's term. The U.S. and the world needs an American leader who's strong and can make decisive decisions. But if everything you say is the case, and man, you're your thought up front that Biden could actually maybe step down in this current term so Kamala Harris could be elevated to the presidency and be the incumbent in November, that would be, I mean, that would be here. huge news. And I don't know that. Would the voting public buy it that it's that it's all legitimate or if it's just a puppeteer who's pulling the strings for the Democrats? Well, the, you know, puppeteer is an interesting word, but those who are sort of making a lot

of these decisions behind the scenes, I do think they think they can get away with a lot. I'm not sure they have a very high view of the American public's ability to see what's really going on. So I think they're willing and bold enough to try anything if they think it'll fit their needs. As far as, you know, Biden being in such rough shape and running the country as we have two wars and economic distress and everything, the thing that might cheer you up, Dan, is he's actually been in this condition for a long time and we've made it this far. So what's a few more months, I guess, you could be optimistic in that way. I mean, despite what Democrats have seen, Democrats have acted as if Biden has been totally fine this entire time. And then just in the last

couple of months, he's needed to step down. But everyone's known that this has really been going on for years and gotten worse and worse. And finally, Biden couldn't hide it anymore. And so there are people in the White House, and you see reporting about this who are making the decisions for Biden, It is definitely scary, though. And I think what's scary about it, beyond the question of competency and security, is a question of democracy in that, you know, voters elected Biden. But it's clear that Biden hasn't been making many of the decisions or some unnamed staffers who are running the country, some cabinet heads, too, I suppose. And now a Biden won the Democratic primary. But all those votes are basically thrown out in favor of Harris.

And so you have a Democratic nominee who didn't receive any votes. And so that's just kind of an interesting. And all this talk about democracy. And I think there's a good reason to talk about it. We've seen that now this is the second time because remember Democrats, they basically threw Bernie Sanders under the bus a couple of times to get their candidate. And now they've totally just chosen, handpicked a candidate, basically Obama and Nancy Pelosi picked a candidate. And so the Democratic primary process to me seems not very democratic anymore.

Casey, I want to stick with Biden, but in the brief time we have left, the House Ways and Means Committee released a report this week that said President Biden committed impeachable offenses over his family's business dealings overseas. Just briefly tell us what's in the report. Yeah, it's kind of amazing news cycle when a report about the president's impeachment offenses doesn't even last more than a day. but you're right. There's a lengthy, you know, nearly 300-page report laying out in detail the alleged offenses committed by the president, which the committee members say, the Republicans say, warrants impeachment. You know, we've talked a bit about this in the past, but essentially nearly $30 million, according to the report, was raped in by Biden's family in this network of business interests in countries like China, Romania, Ukraine, where they use the Biden brand, They is by President Biden's family members, maybe most notably Hunter Biden, his son, used the Biden brand to make promises of various nature, of influence. And they even say that President Biden knew about it and was involved in it, something he is definitely denied.

And so this influence scheme has been going on around the world. It's unclear to what degree that Biden and his family was really committed or what promises they made or anything. But the report lays out just millions of dollars from countries of questionable sourcing. Will this actually go to impeachment? I think there's no chance. But, you know, when we talk about Biden and his legacy, it is interesting that the week he hands off the torch to Harris, an impeachment, a 300-page impeachment report lays out all these offenses.

Casey, it's going to be a crazy next few months, not just until the election between Harris and Trump, but also what happens with President Joe Biden. Thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep off with all the news related to President Biden at thecenter square.com.