Here’s how we would know. Biden cheerleaders, echoing his peevish attacks on “elites,” would be stridently jumping on the honest New York Times corrected mistake to downplay the situation.
See:
How does The New York Times handle corrections?
Actual corrections are here, and I believe you can see the headlines of all corrected articles even without a gift link:
Yeah, that was my experience. She didn’t even have dementia, but she just got totally helpless with… pretty much everything.
No, the politician would first publicly deny the truth of the NYT article.
Thus far, I don’t think a single politician has denied the words attributed to them on this issue, regardless of medium making the claim.
So, it has been only today. And I wasnt talking about the actual quote- the NYT is not gonna change the words. But the NYT can miscategorize or take out of context. In fact I gave a couple examples that were more in the “concern” than “drop out” category.
That’s fine, but it seems like splitting hairs at this point.
Not at all. “Concern” is something we should all have. Is Bidens health okay? HIs poll numbers could be better. etc etc. I am concerned. Everyone should be concerned.
And no one expressed concern about his ability to be President.- Altho that seems to be something CoolHandCox made up. Also he seems to have made up the idea of adding the two categories together.
The NYT is not gonna make up a quote. But they could easily take a sorta nebulous quote and miscategorize it- and in fact they did.
I documented one of them, that seemed to literally be a call to resign, in an earlier post.
To further vindicate New York Times characterizations your post challenged, I’ll now address another one, you earlier quoted, that not only is a clear call to drop out, but also expresses concerns about Biden remaining in office:
I’d rather see Gretchen at the top of the ticket.
It remains a mystery though why the billionaires have suddenly turned on Biden, who is clearly able to lead a comeback, especially the scum Clooney who should stay out of offering any political opinion, who just recently helped raise $28M for the Biden campaign? What has Trump offered them, or have on them? And they don’t want Harris but in favor of whom? Why?
And why are the secret lizard people okay with this!?!
They’re not; they just don’t know about it. They were distracted by that $600,000,000 wedding in India. Seriously, they were all there:
Back in the USA, Biden reportedly will ignore the promised Monday pile-on of Dems asking him to pass the torch, because Netanyahu is arriving Wednesday to humiliate him, and he doesn’t want any additional humiliation:
These are all unique quotes from different politicians from Friday alone asking him to step aside:
“I think the President should end his campaign.”
"I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside.”
“It is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders.” x 7 different politicians
“It is time for President Biden to step aside and allow us to nominate a new leader"
“President Biden should step aside”
"should not be our nominee in November.”
It goes on and on like that, and these also express concern (obviously, that’s why they are asking him to drop out) and some of those reasons are due to his mental ability and some are not.
Here is other politicians “expressing concern” (but not asking him to drop out):
"serious concerns about whether he is our strongest candidate to win in November and his ability to serve another term.”
“The President did not just have one ‘bad debate.’ The reality we saw with our own lying eyes is evidence of a deeper challenge.”
“we need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate on the campaign trail in the very near future in order for him to convince voters he is up to the job.”
“Completely out of touch with reality and insulated from truth."
“We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness” x 4
Those go on. They also don’t all express concern about his mental ability, but his ability to win, etc. as I mentioned. Maybe we are splitting hairs on what “ability to be President” means. It means, to me, he can’t win and should not even run to try. Why? For various reasons, some of which include his mental ability.
Late: I don’t mean to get hung up on the reasons. They don’t really matter to the R’s. It’s the public revolt that he should step aside. These are direct quote public statements that will be used against him should he decide to stay (ie, his own people don’t want him as President). Or maybe, and I mean this seriously, I’m overreacting to all this. It’s possible but I have never seen anything like this before.
Bibi should be careful in what he wishes for. President Harris will still be a friend of Israel but definitely not a friend of Bibi.
I am a bit confused how to characterize this.
On the one hand, Democrats sincerely do not want to force him out. Those who want him to drop out want him allowed the choice.
But on the other, it has gotten to the point where it is almost inconceivable that Joe stays in the race. Only a small proportion of Democratic members of congress have called for him to drop out, but we all know they are saying what others more cautious are thinking. And if Joe stays in the race, can you imagine what Trump would do with statements Democrats made, about his cognition, in GOP advertising, and in the September debate? It is getting hard to deny that Biden was (I think properly) pushed out, and just hasn’t acknowledged it yet.
What has happened is truly sad — and also shows how much more responsible the Democratic Party is than its opponent.
I say who cares? Dearest Joe: Netanyahu is going to show up with an attitude either way and wouldn’t it be nice if you could throw it right back in his face because he’s now officially someone else’s problem? Why go through another week of trying to pretend you’re his friend? Tell him you’re out and if he doesn’t like anything you have to say he should address his concerns to deez nuts. Advisors and functionaries can privately tell him you’ve gone senile if he takes more offense than he usually does.
They say that, but here’s what it’s sounded like consistently;
Democrat X: It’s Biden’s decision whether or not he stays in the race
Biden: I’ve made my decision
Democrat: We trust him to make the right decision
Biden: I decided I’m staying in
Democrat: Whenever he makes his decision we’re going to respect it
Biden: OK, I just told you I’m staying, please respect that
Democrat: HE’S GOING TO DECIDE
I’d put this in the past tense now. Those Democrats were hoping it would be relatively easy and painless. At this point, though, many of them would be happy to force Biden our.
Re the last two posts, I agree that arguing against the idea that Biden is being forced out is too narrowly legalistic to be worth insisting on.
Instead I would say that the Democrats were correct to force out a candidate who started showing strong signs of cognitive decline only after the primary filing deadlines. When Republicans say that the Democrats only did it when Biden polled poorly, I would show evidence that Biden was behind in swing states long before the debate, and did not get much worse right after it. The difference was that Biden actually became less qualified for high office.
And I’d also point out that when confronted with something worse – an isolationist primary election winner who rejects the basic lessons World War II, the GOP rallied around him.
Should I stay, or should I go now?
Should I stay, or should I go now?
If I go, there will be trouble
And if I stay, it will be double
Himself, sure - the most beatable candidate of all time, however, he does have in his corner the Supreme Court, gerrymandering on blast (much more so than Dem attempts, anyway), Russia’s interference/propaganda machine, goofy electoral college, by far the most-watched news network backing him, as well as almost half of the US…I’m sure missing a bunch…
Anyway back to normal scheduled proramming…
Let’s put those 40 or so Democratic lawmakers to the test by having them introduce a resolution to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
(Emphasis mine)
Congress could pass a law either making Congress itself, or a select committee, to recommend to the Vice President to invoke the 25th Amendment. No, I don’t think Kamala Harris would pull the trigger, but let’s see how many Democratic incumbents are ready to hand her the gun.
I must be missing something.
The House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans. They cannot be trusted with this responsibility.
Democrats who are gradually increasing the pressure on Biden are doing it that way to minimize the humiliation of a man who is a friend of many. This is the correct way to proceed in a take-away-the-keys situation.
Re “such other body as Congress may be law provide,” one might consider a non-partisan committee, such as the chairpersons of the neurology departments of all civilian medical schools in the metro D.C. area. I like non-partisan committees. But I fail to see how this will be better than what is going on now. The situation is inherently messy.