A Biden loyalist has laid out a case for why the president will not be replaced, despite a popular belief that his age will force him to resign before the presidential election in November.
Politico's senior columnist Jonathan Martin argued that Biden is being buoyed by fear of Donald Trump and liberals' lack of confidence in Kamala Harris.
Democrats are spiraling after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur's report, which described Biden as an "elderly man with a poor memory" and cited Biden's mental decline as a reason not to charge him with mishandling classified information.
Biden's indignant response at a press conference just sowed further doubts about his fitness.
But as usual, Biden is being buoyed by a lack of alternatives. His immediate successor, Kamala Harris, is widely seen as a bumbling incompetent.
In a column for Politico, Jonathan Martin dismissed the abiding belief in Biden's removal, noting that he remains generally popular with Democratic voters and has faced, so far, no resistance from within the party's upper echelons.
"He’s an incumbent president who is broadly supported by his own party’s voters and the deadline to run in most state primaries has passed," Martin wrote.
Since 2020, Biden's main selling point to supporters has been that he, and only he, can defeat Trump.
With Trump having locked down his party's nomination for the presidency, Democrats are in no mood for dissent, with Biden casting the upcoming election as an existential battle for American democracy.
Trump "effectively controls both parties," Martin wrote, noting the Democratic party has become rigidly hierarchical in reaction to the Trump "threat."
“This centrality of Trump — and Democrats’ determination to block his return — is what insulates Biden within his own party,” Martin wrote.
Martin also observed that, despite being seen by many as senile, Biden has coveted the presidency his whole life - and no one in his party has the courage to tell him to give it up.
Martin acknowledged the stakes are high and that the results of the 2022 midterm elections, in which Democrats avoided a red wave, may have given the party false confidence in their leader.
"If Biden loses to Trump this fall, it will be in part because Democrats were lulled into security, or denial, by an electorate which favors their coalition more in midterms than in presidential elections," he wrote.
