Last night, President Joe Biden refused to take a cognitive or neurological test despite widespread concerns over his physical and mental decline. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed the President on his low polling and efforts of Democrats to get him to drop out of the race. He specifically mentioned the effort of Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) to organize members to pressure him to end his campaign. Biden took a not-so-subtle dig at Warner. However, it was nothing compared to a curious posting by author and Democratic activist Don Winslow, who appeared to threaten Warner on X (formerly Twitter).
When the story broke in the Washington Post, Winslow posted a curious and ominous response:
It is not clear what Winslow meant by Warner knowing what he was talking about when asking if he was “sure you want to go down this road?”
The message has caused a bit of a stir on the Hill. For the denizens of the Beltway, it sounds extortive and threatening. The suggestion is that Winslow has something on Warner.
While some have asked whether this could be viewed as a threat criminally, it is clearly not sufficient for a charge. Warner is a public figure and this comment could just be a reference to political backlash or the lack of an alternative.
His asking Warner “Are you sure you want to go down this road?” could be a reference to the political implications of the resulting chaos, including making Kamala Harris the presidential candidate. Harris is even less popular than Biden according to some polls. While some polls show her doing slightly better than Biden against Trump, other polling shows that she would do considerably worse.
However, it is the follow up of “Think about it very carefully” that has got tongues wagging in D.C.
Whatever the intended meaning, the posting shows the depth of the division on the issue. Those divisions are only likely to deepen further after the refusal to take a test to put these concerns to rest.
Notably, Biden has insisted that the public can simply observe him. However, that position stands in contradiction to the frivolous privilege claims made by the Administration to withhold the audiotape from the interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. That was an interview that the President was prepared for in advance and held in ideal conditions with staff. It is an opportunity for the public to hear him under questioning to reach the very conclusions that Biden suggested in the interview.
As for Winslow’s posting, it may just be an incautious, poorly worded message rather than extortion or blackmail. We have all made postings that we regretted.
The real issue for Democrats is how to address this looming issue without tearing the party apart. I have tried to drill down on the legal implications of swapping out the top of the ticket or the entire ticket. It is uncharted territory when it comes to the federal election laws on the use of past contributions as well as some states with restrictive rules on ballot changes.
Its ‘the failing Chief Executive, the wretch of a V.P. who trashed him verbally in the debates, pulled the plug on her campaign before the primaries because, by her own admission, she lacked traction and funding, and yet was ‘DEI’d into being a heartbeat from the Oval Office with the help of a virtue seeking three time loser, and his adoring electorate. Couple that with an administration and its minions who are intent on perpetuating a laundry list of horror show policies with the likes of Alejandro Mayorkas leading the pack. They all must be swept out the door like the blood soaked sawdust on the butcher shop floors of yore.
The elephant in the room is Kamala. Her polling is actually worse than Joe’s, but the Dems fear that if they replace her, they will lose the black vote. Even though blacks don’t particularly like her, and don’t see her as “one of them,” the way they did with Michele Obama, they will nonetheless be offended if she is dumped from the ticket. So can the Dems win against Trump without a sizable percentage of the black vote? And when it comes down to the wire, will blacks vote for Trump or sit it out altogether, to spite the Democratic Party for dumping Kamala? I somewhat doubt that, but it makes for interesting political drama.
It isn’t just the black community that will feel slighted if Kamala doesn’t get to be the 2nd half-black president. She’s a chef’s salad of AAPI BIPOC Jewess. They’ll lose all of the classic identity politics. Can you imagine a convention of Democrats going with a whitemale and leaving Kamala as window dressing in the National Observatory? Anyway, another puppet is what’s called for and she’ll do just what they tell her, like Joe.
Imagine where we would be today if Donald Trump didn’t accept Joe Biden’s lopsided debate rules?
That dummy Trump accepted, “anytime, anywhere and any moderators” !
I want Trump to fix the border, economy, executive branch, military, world standing, education system, and to give hope to our grandchildren’s future.
“Nice little business you have here. Be a real shame if something bad happened to it. Capiche?”
I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.
Sadly, “uncharted territory” is not a problem for Dems. We all know like theives steps ahead of the law, they tend to be steps ahead with whatever it takes to TAKE what they want.
We don’t need to speculate on this as we’ve been down this path before. The democrats need to decide, as the republicans did in 1996 and 2008 when they nominated Robert Dole and John McCain, respectively, for POTUS, that they must give up a term before restoring their political status. Biden earned the nomination in 2020 for his half-century of service in the party – just as Dole and McCain had earned their nominations for their service to the party and the country. It was clear from the start that Dole and McCain were underdogs and they accordingly lost to powerful democrats like Clinton and Obama. Now it’s Biden’s turn to take one for the team and go silently into that quiet night. Millions of Americans who know quite well the progressive nature of one’s cognitive decline understand that chronic jet lag and summer colds are not the problem. What Biden has only gets worse, not better, with time and he must step aside. Right now, his biggest supporters may indeed be republicans who know he is easy prey in the fall election and doesn’t stand a chance. The cognoscenti in the democrat party know this but are flummoxed to do anything about it.
Some potential candidates may see the best option in seeing Joe lose in 2024 and letting Trump make the politically difficult decisions about negotiating a deal with Putin in Ukraine, resisting Iran, toughing it out with China, getting a grip on the national debt, curtailing the DEI, transgender and climate change insanity, restoring public order on the border and deporting Biden migrants, etc.
No, the Democrats could not care less about the country. They need to stay in power to keep the money flowing to themselves,
The sentiment of most writing on the Biden replacement issue is that the democratic party has procrastinated in having a reserve candidate. Biden no longer commands the respect of the democratic party and neither does his vice president. Find a Governor who is intellectually agile enough to defeat Trump one on one (that should not be a problem) and we can prevent the anticipated atrocities that Trump will bring to the presidency. Voters have given up on a qualified candidate because neither party has presented one. Like the commentator said on the Bulwark, Biden is better than Trump but so are the squirrels running across her deck. Place someone who has leadership experience ( a certain existing governor in an eastern state) and schedule a debate to show he can handle Trump or any other candidate the republicans have to offer. Has it ever occurred to anyone that the republicans may not eventually decide to nominate Trump? He does have his liabilities.
Sorry, did not mean to present as anonymous in the above comment. My name is Michael Weiser.
Hey Mike! I’m good friends with your brother Bud! Explains alot about the “atrocities “ Trump will bring comment !
Wiser than whom. You sound pretty dumb to me.
The Republicans will nominate Trump unless he is dead. That is a certainty.
Thank you Mr. Obvious
Andrew, so your cogent and inciteful comment is that the Republicans will nominate the healthy guy that won all of the primaries? Do tell why a party would not nominate the winner of all of their primaries and who doesn’t have dementia. I am sure you will say the “convictions”, but that would be disingenuous at best and in truth dishonest since the “convictions are an assault on our legal system and not really a conviction of a criminal.
Anticipated atrocities? There were no “atrocities” in his first term, where is the evidence that there will be in a second term? Leftist and “never Trumpers” (in my view…one and the same) are always crying wolf…but let us not forget the wide open border and the resultant lawlessness that resulted in the raping and killing of US citizens…under Biden; let us not forget the double digit inflation…under Biden. Let us not forget the BILLIONS of dollars wasted in Ukraine…under Biden in his attempt to keep his corruption under wraps there…Let us not forget veterans who are in desperate need of help, but can’t get it…under Biden. Let us not forget the demand that people can MURDER their children up to birth…under Biden.
At this point, Trump should refuse any further debates and let the American people remember the absolute train-wreck that Biden displayed in the first debate. Biden was the demoncrats choice in 2020…let them stew in it now…
What atrocities will Trump bring? My goodness, he was President for four years and the country was doing fine. The people who brought “atrocities” were the Democrats with their stupid witch hunts, like Hillary’s Russian Dossier falsehood, the persecution of Michael Flynn, the ridiculous impeachments, the cancelling of everybody, and the non-stop tantrums. Then, you have all the ballot box stuffing during 2020, and we get Biden. Biden actually does bring atrocities. He opens the borders so that Democrats can continue stuffing ballot boxes and he overdoes that to the point that the effete liberal snobs in Massachusetts call out the national guard to move them (NIMBY), he screws up the energy sector by closing the pipeline up north, and promotes electric vehicles which are pretty much impractical on a large scale, and the contemptible piece of crap even jumped on the child sexual mutilation bandwagon. Not to mention massive inflation.
You seem to be a Democrat, and I have seen over my 70 years that Democrats are a stupid group of people, who live in la la land. Before you erupt in denial – step back – take a breath and look where we are right now – we have a President who was showing signs of dementia back in 2020 and Democrats nominated him, and right now, that same person, who has only grown worse, is that party’s candidate for President again. And there are still Democrats who support him. Something is mentally wrong with Democrats.
I never voted for Trump and never will. OTOH, if it is true as AOC, Rob Reiner, Better Midler, Rachel Madcow, and other Leftists allege, that Trump will throw them into reprogramming camps, and pursue those who put him and the United States through the Hillary-Obama-DOJ Stalinesque reign of terror, then I would vote for him. My family, friends and pets will work every cemetery this side of the Mississippi to garner votes for Trump.
The Bidens are 100% selfish. They think only and exclusively about their profits. Adopting this viewpoint makes explanation of much of what they do.
And Hunter, now a trusted high level advisor to his father, relies on his dad’s stubborn, defiant and selfish refusal to leave the race to protect his criminal enterprise and his ability to be pardoned by the old man.
“how to address this looming issue without tearing the party apart”
Is that such a bad thing? America needs two viable, functioning parties to properly govern: A ruling party, and an opposition. Say what you want about the Republicans (and there is a LOT to say) but we cannot be governed by a secret cabal who’s primary task is to hide the infirmity of their figurehead. Particularly now there is too much at stake.
Let the Democrats, at least as they are presently organized, destroy themselves so they can get to the task of rebuilding themselves as an actual political party instead to a giant criminal conspiracy masquerading as a government.
The new pig would need more lipstick.
The idea the demoncrats will destroy themselves is the exacting neocon problem.
Time to fight their candles with a flameflower.
Expect to lose, again.
Even if you don’t they will steal it and most of you won’t believe that and twiddle your thumbs and rotate like you did in 2020, and people like Mr. Turley will calmly say the election was totally fair and square, which he has said over and over and recently.
No, the real issue is that the longer the democrats avoid invoking the 25th Amendment, the more the country is at risk. Who’s answering the 3am phone call? Jill? Hunter?
I’m loving it
The DEMS & Left Wing Radicals/Bernie Sanders people created this Mess and now they are in Panic in how to Fix it. they are stuck with the BIDEN’s, who don’t want to leave, especially Jill, Hunter etc. They don’t want to give up the Power/$$$. Meanwhile Joe thinks he is winning and last night said he is drawing Big Crowds, the size of a Small Bingo Hall or basketball court? Joe’s own pollsters, selected by Jill, tell Joe he is popular and winning. The DEMS deserve what they created and deserve the losses in Nov.
We had to destroy Democracy in order to save it should be the new party motto.
how about
We had to destroy Democracy to stop the Orange Hitler from winning and it’s all his fault.
Democrats and their brothers-in-battle media have a rattler by the tail, and it is one they opened the doors to. I doubt Obama will openly come to the rescue because, depending on how it came out, it could sully his historical record.
The party that tells us that it is the Defender of Democracy is about to invalidate all of its own primaries.
Winslow’s message was somewhat ambiguous. There was no ambiguity in Schumer’s message to the conservative Supreme Court justices: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the gifts that just keep on giving . . . but never underestimate Donald Trump’s ability to screw it all up!
Even if Warner and a few Senators call for Biden to drop out of the race it will make no difference. The only way to get Biden out is for Shumer, Jeffries, Pelosi and Clyburn to tell him he’s got to go, for no one important to continue to campaign for him and for most big donors to stop giving to him or any Democrats until he goes. If Obama were to come out against him that too might make a difference. Maybe all this will happen, but I doubt it.
Daniel, Biden could take the whole party down with him and not even care. The only way to get him out is for Garland, the FBI, the CIA and the IRS to tell him to get out. he is now hurting the deep state and we all know how that goes.
You might be right. And no doubt they have all the evidence we they need. That could happen.
Watch Biden’s dirty laundry about taking bribes from Ukraine and China to be aired. Schumer had it right; the intelligence community has seven ways to Sunday to get back at you. We know who is running the country and it’s the intelligence community working with big corporations and corrupt lawmakers.
Getting Biden out isn’t really the problem. Biden is a Howard Hughes president, he’s a puppet. Its clear that he isn’t running the country and hasn’t been from the beginning. The committee that is running the country is the real problem and they’re not that anxious to give up that power easily. Kamala might be the only acceptable choice. I think we have to assume that she is probably a member of this group and might not upset the apple cart. There is no reason for the Biden family to back removing Joe, their livelihoods would end overnight, unless they were paid off, and even then it would be a tough sell.
Obama coming out against Biden may make Joe dig in harder. VP can be the most demeaning job in the world especially for racist Joe.
I don’t think Biden would go even if all Dem leaders told him to. The only way he goes is he fails to wake up one morning. The CIA could arrange that with a new pandemic. I understand there is a really good version on Monkeypox circulating in the Congo, and the Olympics would make for a nice superspreading event. When it gets here, Hunter could give it to his dad.
Joe would resign in a minute if Zelensky would pass him a note that if he doesn’t Zelensky will release the dozens of secret tape recordings made while Hunter and brother Jim were bragging how Joe would do anything in exchange for some really big payments to his family.
The panic is palpable. Regarding the threat (or at lease one aspect of it), If a Representative (now there is an irony) or Senator breaks rank with the Democratic machine, they will lose much of their campaign funding. It is political suicide.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Too true.
Well heck, you gotta break a few eggs if you want to save Democracy!