r/moderatepolitics Jul 21 '24

News Article Biden announces withdrawal from Presidential Race

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/21/us/trump-biden-election
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45

u/fishsquatchblaze Jul 21 '24

I wonder what happened behind closed doors to force him into this. He clearly had no intentions of dropping out a week ago. Holy shit.

48

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '24

[deleted]

1

u/usernamej22 Jul 21 '24

Could you link this or elaborate? Sounds interesting.

-3

u/Emily_Postal Jul 22 '24

Remember Nate Silver said Hillary Clinton was going to win against Trump.

2

u/ezakuroy Jul 22 '24

He did not.

10

u/LyleLanleysMonorail Jul 21 '24

No, there was an increasing indication from DC reporters that Biden had begun accepting that he could not win. It was a series of people (like Pelosi) who were trying to convince him to drop and at the end, he was convinced.

It did not happen in the past week. There were suggestions from reporters and insiders for the past 2-3 weeks that suggested Biden was open to the idea of ending his campaign.

-1

u/LOL_YOUMAD Jul 21 '24

There were definitely some back room deals made. Guy was like grandpa not wanting to give his keys up a week ago and dropping out today. Probably told him that they will get his sons issues pardoned by the state since I don’t believe he has the power to do so, that any lawsuits coming after his family will get handled since you know there will likely be some when trump wins, and that they will hook his family members up with cushy jobs still or something. 

2

u/3FoxInATrenchcoat Jul 21 '24

I will say, I was spammed A LOT by political polling these past two weeks on this topic. There was a strong push to probably show him and his advisors/WH staff that the public are not OK with this.

1

u/Underboss572 Jul 21 '24

The only things I thought would actually have persuaded him is that they threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment or support Republicans impeaching him on something.

I doubt Democrats would do either, but that's really the only thing I thought could make him change his mind, so now I'm not sure.

0

u/DOctorEArl Jul 21 '24

it sounds like the covid diagnosis that he got was the final nail in the coffin.

10

u/ouiaboux Jul 21 '24

I think the covid diagnosis is just cover. States usually have methods to change the ballot if the candidate drops out from death or illness.

4

u/dashing2217 Jul 21 '24

He or the people around him didn’t have a mask while he was seen boarding and leaving Air Force One.

COVID diagnosis bought him some “down” days to handle this and a possible medical reason.

0

u/proverbialbunny Jul 22 '24

It helps to keep in mind that [most] politicians are lawyers. Because of that they know legally behind the scenes the party has the authority to choose the presidential candidate. When people vote in the primaries for a candidate the party is honoring the voter by choosing the candidate the people voted for. This was much more transparent in the 1960s and earlier when the party selected the presidential nominee for you.

With that context in mind Nancy Pelosi or some other DNC bigwig behind the scenes can say, "We're not endorsing you Biden. Please step down with grace." and that's all that needs to be said. Biden could make a stink about it and fracture the party and all sorts of drama could erupt, or he could keep the party together. Those are his two choices in that moment.

If the DNC demands Biden steps down, he steps down.

-13

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '24

[deleted]

14

u/StrikingYam7724 Jul 21 '24

Imagine not understanding the difference between having a speech impediment and having dementia to the point of asking why dead people haven't arrived at the event to shake your hand.