The Times stepped in it this morning when it reported that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, on “Morning Joe,” that the president should “reconsider” his decision to keep running. According to the paper, she said Joe Biden “should continue to weigh the matter, after he made it clear this week that he’s committed to staying in the race.”
“Reconsider” is the problem. “Continue to weigh the matter” isn’t. She said the latter, not the former. That’s a highly nuanced difference, obviously, but the Times decided to interpret the ambiguity in such a way that fits into its narrative about the president being too old to continue running for president, and the Democrats experiencing “deepening divisions” over the question of whether he should.
And for that, the Times earned this rebuke from Pelosi (per Jaala Brown, a Capitol Hill reporter for CBS News): “I think the president is great. And there are some misrepresentations of what I have said. I never said he should reconsider his decision. The decision is the president’s. I don’t know what’s happened to The New York Times that they make up news. But if that’s why you’re here, it isn’t true.”
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Still, for all that, what Pelosi said hit me harder than anything that any other Democrat has said, and, as you know, they have been saying a lot. For instance, Colorado Senator Michael Bennett got on the TV last night to say the way things are going, Republican nominee Donald Trump is going to beat Biden and he’s going to do it “in a landslide.”
“The White House in the time since that disastrous debate, I think, has done nothing to really demonstrate that they have a plan to win this election,” he said. In believing that Biden can’t win, Bennet is reportedly in agreement with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Montana Senator Jon Tester, both running for reelection in red states. Bennet is the only one so far who’s made his thoughts public, though.
Bennet stopped short of saying Biden should drop out, same as every other Democratic senator so far, as well as every Democratic governor. Just seven House Democrats have come out publicly in favor of his exit. By Monday morning, it seemed the president had quieted his clan with an open letter reaffirming his intention to be the nominee. The party had a week to squabble and now, he said, “it’s time for it to end.” By Monday afternoon, Democrats lined up to endorse him, including liberal Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said that the question of whether Biden should keep running had been “settled.”
But then came yesterday morning’s commentary by Nancy Pelosi and it hit me harder than anything that any other Democrat has said so far. “It’s up to the president to decide if he’s going to run,” she told Politico’s Jonathan Lemire. “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short. … He’s beloved. He’s respected. People want him to make that decision. … I want him to do whatever he decides to do. That’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with.”
Thing is, though, the president already decided. But here’s Nancy Pelosi, the greatest speaker of the 21st century, saying, well, maybe, as if the real decision is coming. Moreover, she hinted at a timeline.
Biden, Pelosi said, is occupied with leading the NATO conference. “I think it’s important to let him deal with” that, she said. “He is the host of it, and that means he’s not just hosting it, he’s orchestrating the discussion, and setting the agenda, and he’s doing so magnificently.”
Then came a doozy: “I’ve said to everyone: let’s just hold off. Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody in private, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
Let me translate as best I can.
Biden said he decided to stay in but he might be buying time while he thinks about dropping out. (Buying time, because he can’t rightly lead a summit of more than two dozen global heads of state with them thinking he doesn’t speak for America.) Pelosi seemed to suggest lots of Democrats, far more than the seven who have come out publicly, are ready to bolt. “Just hold off,” she said. Moreover, they should hold off until Biden is finished with the NATO summit. Meanwhile, she seemed to suggest, go ahead and say what you’ve got to say in private. Just don’t “put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
In other words, something big is coming.
And that something might be why so many Democrats are talking up the idea that the president has to prove he can beat Donald Trump. Many of them are demanding a plan of action. As Montana’s Jon Tester put it: “President Biden has got to prove to the American people — including me — that he’s up to the job for another four years.”
Biden has a plan. It’s right there for everyone to see. Democrats know it. As for “proof,” the idea is never challenged. It’s one of those things people think they understand but don’t. If Democrats are truly freaking out about Biden mental fitness, there’s probably no way an 81-year-old man, who really does lose his train of thought on occasion, is going to prove anything. This “proof” may be a rationale for what’s coming.
And it may be coming in the next week.
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