Again, I refrain from too much speculation about the process of replacement, but I solidly affirm my 3-year-old prediction that Biden was always going to be replaced. In this article, talking about the granular details of Joe Biden’s current tenuous status, the following lead paragraph indicates to me that Joe will soon be gone.
If it is now accepted that Hunter Biden and Jill Biden are the official gatekeepers for the White House and the office of the presidency, then that indicates no other White House officials or advisors are trusted to take that role.
If this is true, that means all of the professional political networks, the concentric circles that surround the Office of the President, have collapsed. That Occam’s razor of the current status seems to be corroborated by the fact that not a single administration official is on the Sunday talk shows defending Joe Biden. Let that sink in.
Here’s the lead from Axios:
We’re now in uncharted, historic waters: President Biden — backed by first lady Jill Biden and his convicted son, Hunter, who’s serving as de facto gatekeeper for longtime friends — says that nothing, besides an act of God, will persuade him to quit his re-election campaign.
But outside Biden’s protective bubble, a fast-growing number of Democrats are praying for —and plotting — a more earthly intervention. They want everyone from the Obamas to congressional leaders to beg Biden to drop out by this Friday. (read more)
Again, as a singular static datapoint, that Axios framework is tenuous. However, with the absence of the defenders on the Sunday talk circuit, that framework looks entirely accurate.
Joe Biden is alone.
There's plenty of video evidence that Joe Biden is senile, struggling with a steep cognitive decline that has accelerated over the last couple of years. You wouldn't need a second of it, though, to show how far gone he is in light of the president's latest move.
According to Axios, Hunter Biden is currently operating as a "gatekeeper" for his father. That follows reports that the president's convicted felon son has also been attending high-level meetings while controlling the flow of information within the administration. If elevating Hunter Biden to such a position of power is not proof that Joe Biden is completely gone mentally, I'm not sure what is.
We're now in uncharted, historic waters: President Biden — backed by first lady Jill Biden and his convicted son, Hunter, who's serving as de facto gatekeeper for longtime friends — says that nothing, besides an act of God, will persuade him to quit his re-election campaign.
In other words, Biden isn't going anywhere unless he dies, which is quite the position for him and his family to take given they claim Donald Trump is such a threat to democracy. You'd think if they meant anything they said, that the president would be willing to step aside to give his party the best chance to beat Trump. That's not happening, though, because it was never about "democracy." It was always about the grift, and the moment Biden leaves the White House, the gravy train stops. Jill Biden knows that, and Hunter Biden knows that.
Still, the president leaning on his degenerate son is exactly what you'd expect from someone so mentally deficient. We've likely all seen similar situations play out regarding people we know. Someone reaches an advanced age and is unable to make decisions for themselves so their overbearing children step in, taking advantage of them for personal gain along the way. It's a tale as old as time.
The ever-increasing insulation around the elder Biden is posing a problem for the Democrats. A near unquantifiable number of reports have expressed the discontent raging within the party, yet they can't make a move if Jill Biden and company are dead set on fighting until the bitter end. Time is running out, and it appears that Friday is the deadline that's been set. That's likely because of the timeline surrounding the nomination process regarding the DNC.
But outside Biden's protective bubble, a fast-growing number of Democrats are praying for —and plotting — a more earthly intervention. They want everyone from the Obamas to congressional leaders to beg Biden to drop out by this Friday.
Yeah, good luck with that. Biden isn't going anywhere, something he reiterated over the weekend. That means there's only one option, and that's open inter-party combat over the issue. Is that something Democrats are willing to engage in? I highly doubt it, which is good news for Republicans who are hoping to see the president remain in the race for obvious reasons.
That reality hasn't stopped the hand-wringing from continuing, though.
Democratic lawmakers have gone from shock, to sadness, to madness since the debate 10 days ago. These Democrats, further deflated by Biden's high-stakes ABC interview, believe there's nothing he can do to reverse the damage — or his aging.
This is all noise at this point, and it's a symptom of a far bigger problem for Democrats. Namely, that it is possible to paint yourself into a corner where there is no escape. The hardest thing for people to accept in life is when there's no good answer to a problem, and there's no good answer to the Biden problem. Even if the improbable were to happen, and he dropped out, there would be no clean slate. Kamala Harris lied to the American people about Biden's health multiple times. She would be eviscerated by the Trump campaign as complicit in a cover-up that put the entire nation in danger. Never mind her long-standing, general unpopularity.
There is no easy button here. Democrats created this mess, and they have no choice but to try to power through it. Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer, both of who would also be probable losers, aren't coming through the door.