Biden Will Stay In

Empty threats won’t convince the president to abandon his dreams

It’s been two weeks since President Biden’s disastrous debate performance, and the number of Democrats wanting a new nominee continues to grow. Both lawmakers and donors are organizing to tell Joe to step aside. The media continues to publish columns imploring the president to drop out. George Stephanopoulos essentially hectored Biden to get out of the race during his interview.

But all this will fall on deaf ears. No matter how many Democrats and media outlets beg for him to drop out, Biden will stay in the race. Only an incapacitating stroke will derail Biden’s ambition. People who bank on Biden dropping out don’t get Joe and overestimate the effect of the effort to push him out. The entire strategy is to politely ask Biden to drop out. Senile Joe has no reason to go, and it’s the last thing his family wants.

What people fail to realize is that Biden and his family are assholes. This was a well-known fact about Joe when he was a senator. When he was vice president, the media transformed him into a lovable uncle who spoke his mind and delivered hilarious sound bites. The Onion’s endearing “Uncle Joe” portrayal helped solidify this false depiction. This image occupied voters’ minds when they went to the polls in 2020. It still lingers in the public consciousness despite the undeniable evidence he’s an asshole. 

The Bidens' asshole tendencies are best exemplified in how they handled their dogs constantly attacking staffers. They did not give a shit that their dogs bit Secret Service agents and terrified White House employees. That was a problem for others, not for Joe and Jill. The president watched his dog attack multiple subordinates without any concern. The Bidens flipped out when people expressed worries about the dogs. The well-being of others doesn’t matter to them. They only relented and got rid of the dogs after the press shamed them.

Some say this proves the Bidens will drop out. They claim the Bidens caved after backlash, so they will do the same with the campaign. This is a wrong view. The dogs are nowhere near as important to them as the presidency. Jill knew keeping the dogs made her look like a terrible first lady. This sullied her White House image, which is the most important thing to her. Getting rid of the dogs upheld the Bidens’ identity as president and first lady. This is their everything. They will sacrifice their own dogs for it, and they are not going to abandon it to satisfy their critics.

The Bidens are white trash with elite pretensions. Hunter’s life story testifies to that, but he’s not alone. The 43-year-old Ashley Biden danced inappropriately for the whole world to see at the White House’s July 4th event. That’s not very classy. Jill Biden’s insistence on being called “Dr. Jill Biden” perfectly illustrates elite insecurity. 

While Biden brags about his working-class background in campaign speeches, he wishes he came from wealthier stock. As you can learn from Richard Ben Cramer’s famous account of the 1988 presidential campaign, What It Takes, Biden’s dad desperately wanted to be rich. He failed at it, and this shaped his son’s life. The modest circumstances humiliated Biden. He wanted to be elite, and he succeeded through the dumb luck of winning a Senate seat in 1972. He made his wealth and stature entirely through politics. 

His wife, kids, and grandkids owe everything to Biden’s political stature. If he steps away from the White House, all of that is threatened. The Bidens make money from the patriarch being important. Once he leaves the White House, all of that political power will be gone. He will be a frail, senile man that no one wants to hear from. The Bidens will not be able to follow in the steps of the Obamas and Clintons. Joe can’t give speeches now. Nobody admires Dr. Jill in the way they fawned over Hillary and Michelle. They’re not going to have any influence once they leave the White House. 

That lack of influence will impact the Bidens’ wealth. This family has no way of making money outside of trading on Joe’s power. When that power completely disappears, the opportunities dry up. 

Additionally, they have a legitimate worry that the authorities will investigate and charge them with crimes if Biden leaves office. Republicans promise to utilize the Justice Department against them if they win back the White House. The Bidens think only Joe can beat Trump. If you truly believe that and worry a President Trump will go after your family, then it’s logical to want Joe to stay in. Needless to say, legal troubles will hurt the family’s finances and what little power they have outside of politics.

Democrats don’t have real leverage to push Biden out of the race. Conservative pundits speculate that they could use the DOJ or even bribe the Bidens out of the White House. These extraordinary measures aren’t going to happen. A Democratic-run DOJ is not going to go scorched earth against their own president running against their worst enemy. The Bidens know this and aren’t worried about it. There’s also nothing Democrats can bribe Biden with. Nothing can make up for the White House and the power of the presidency. The Bidens are also obstinate assholes, so these overtures will only piss them off.

Democrats likely won’t attempt these maneuvers in the first place. They are suggestions that conservatives put forward to entertain their audience.

The more realistic scenarios can also be ignored by Biden. Right now, the  strategy among dissident Democrats is to get prominent lawmakers and donors to politely ask the president to step aside. There is zero chance in hell of that working. Not a single Biden wants to leave the White House. Both Jill and Hunter want Joe to stay the course. Biden cares far more about what his family thinks than what Chuck Schumer or Barack Obama thinks. Biden also has a Trump card: he can simply ask his petitioners what they will do if he doesn’t step aside. All of them will say they will still support him because they don’t want Trump as president. He will then laugh in their faces and tell them he’s staying in. 

Biden’s entire campaign pitch is that he is the only other option besides Trump. This works for both skeptical voters and powerful Democrats. They can only get another candidate if Biden steps aside–and he won’t do it. They are stuck with Biden since their polite request carries no stick. The New York Times Editorial Board admitted it would still endorse Biden if he stayed in the race–in the very op-ed calling for him to drop out. Biden is right to be unmoved. 

The Trump card also dissuades Democrats from pursuing more aggressive measures. Let’s say donors threatened to withhold their money unless Biden steps aside. The president will just tell them this will get Trump elected. Donors might not stop giving money for a little bit, but they will come back once they remember Biden is the only option. 

Democrats could try to eject Biden at the convention, but this is a very risky move. It will turn the convention into a disaster and help Trump regardless of the outcome. There is no agreed-upon challenger to Biden, so he could easily prevail due to a divided opposition. The opposition would need thousands of delegates to go along with this plan, which is a tall order under any circumstance. There’s also the issue of campaign money. Every cent donated to the Biden-Harris campaign is legally bound to Joe. It would be a complicated process to hand over the cash even if he did drop out. Experts say only Kamala Harris could access that cash. But if Biden is involuntarily replaced, you can bet he’s going to keep that money just to spite the Democrats. Remember, the Bidens are assholes. They would rather the Democrats lose then be magnanimous in defeat. 

The disastrous possibilities of a contested convention solidify Biden’s argument for staying in. 

There are two recent examples of a party freaking out and wanting to replace their presidential nominee. In the spring of 2020, there were serious calls to oust Biden over sexual assault allegations. (Hilariously, the favored person to replace Biden was then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who later resigned over MeToo allegations.) The story fizzled out, and Biden went on to become the 46th president. The calls to drop out weren’t near the level they are now, of course. But it does illustrate how Biden can ignore the noise of a news cycle and count on Democrats to return to his camp.

A more comparable situation is the one Trump faced following the release of the Access Hollywood tape a month before the 2016 election. Republican lawmakers, donors, and conservative pundits demanded Trump drop out after it was discovered he said “grab ‘em by the pussy.” Trump ignored the demands, positioned himself as the only alternative to Hillary Clinton, regained the support of many of these critics, and won the election.

Biden will do the same, except for the part about winning the election.

The question of whether Biden will drop out will be solved very soon. Democrats are set to host a virtual nomination of Biden later this month to meet Ohio’s ballot deadline. If Biden gets the nom, then the question is finally settled.

The only chance Democrats have of getting a different nominee is if Biden suffers a health episode and literally can’t function anymore. Outside of that, Biden will be on the ballot in November. There is no way Democrats can persuade him or his family to abandon their dream. The party will grudgingly accept this once the news cycle moves on.