I remember when I held a pastor’s breakfast in South Carolina during the 2020 campaign, Rep. Jim Clyburn leaned in and said he would support Joe Biden. Even then, many people looked down on Biden and said he was too old. That he wouldn’t be able to withstand competition or win an election. He defeated every other Democratic presidential candidate and defeated then-President Donald Trump. They said over and over again that Biden couldn’t get it done, and he did it over and over again.
In the coming days and weeks, there will be extensive analysis of Biden and Trump’s first debate on the 2024 campaign and its implications for each candidate and the election itself. Much of the reporting has already focused on Biden’s poor performance and whether he should drop out of the race. Not only is this premature, but it is deeply insulting to ignore the president’s entire history and platform because of the bad controversies of the last few months of November. Everyone is already calling for him to step down, but I would like to say that the only person who can even think of this is the president himself. The real question is whether Biden hasn’t earned the right to make this decision himself.
Watching the debate Thursday night, I was reminded of something I said 20 years ago at the Democratic National Convention. Our vote is soaked in the blood of martyrs, and it cannot be given away or bargained away. The people who get our votes will get our votes.
It was Biden’s leadership that rescued us from the disastrous Trump presidency and helped get our country on the right track. During a historic global pandemic (one that Trump ignored and completely mishandled), Biden stepped in and helped us recover. His policies have spurred job growth, creating nearly 11 million new jobs and putting more people in work than at any point in American history. Under President Biden, a recession was prevented and more people have health insurance than ever before. The President has delivered historic student debt relief, signed executive orders protecting reproductive rights, signed the Respect for Marriage Act protecting marriage for LGBTQ+ and multiracial couples, delivered the most aggressive climate and environmental justice agenda, nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, passed the Inflation Reduction Act, and more.
How can anyone honestly look at Biden’s presidency and list of accomplishments and call for him to be eliminated because of one bad debate performance? And what about all the lies Trump told last night? In about 90 minutes, he lied about the January 6 insurrection, immigration, the coronavirus response, the economy, abortion, etc. Are we really saying that showmanship is more important than substance? There is too much at stake for people to make such hasty decisions. Voting rights, criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, representation across the board, hate crime protections, democracy itself. The question is not what happens to Biden, but what happens to us.
As the convention approaches and the campaign season begins in earnest, the president can and must remind the nation of what he represents and what his opponents do not. He must speak to the needs of the people of this country and the best path forward for America: whether to move forward or back into an era of division, injustice, and inequality.
Have we forgotten Trump’s mishandling of a deadly pandemic that left over a million dead, the Charlottesville protests during his presidency, his Supreme Court nominees who have rolled back much of our progress, his demonization of marginalized communities, and the hateful climate that permeates our country?
Biden has been true to his vision and has delivered on many of his campaign promises. He is the only person who can say that he has been involved in two major recoveries, one as Vice President under Obama and the other in 2020. He helped America recover from the Bush recession and disastrous policies (both domestic and foreign), and then from the trauma of Trump and the disastrous state we are in. He has earned the right to decide where he will go, and we should give him more than 24 hours to make that monumental decision.
Twenty years ago, I ran for president. The country was still recovering from the worst terrorist attack on our soil and still reeling from the disastrous handling of the crisis by the George W. Bush administration, including its misleading us into an unnecessary war. Although I lost the Democratic nomination in 2004, I continued to support the Democratic candidate because I understood what was at stake and the importance of that election.
In 2004, I reminded everyone that we did not get here by playing political games. Today, I say that we will not get there if we get caught up in political theater. Did President Biden attend the debates like he did when he gave his 2024 State of the Union address? No. But as I have often said, he is the best comeback kid. I will not count him out yet, and no one who cares about this country can afford to do so.
