Seriously, Joe, do you not know the stakes? “Sure, America fell to fascism, but I tried my best.” For fucks sake, Trump has straight up said he was going to be a dictator, and the Supreme Court will back him all the way. It’s unbelievable that all that stands between us and the fall of the republic is a man in his 80s who isn’t fully cognizant of the situation.

51 points
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Here we’ve been being lectured that we don’t understand the stakes if we don’t all line up behind Biden, rather than insisting we need someone else.

Turns out, we were right all along, and Biden doesn’t understand the stakes, and is totally fine losing so long as he ‘gives it his all’.

He won’t pack the court. He won’t do anything to forestall Project 2025. He’ll just pat himself on the back behind his lifelong Secret Service protection and tell himself there was nothing he could do but hand the country over to a dictator.

Edit: Polling - released by Biden’s campaign to try to prove his electability - shows other Democratic candidates right now performing just as well or slightly better than Biden with voters, and none of them have been running a campaign for the last year. In other words, without even trying, they are on par with Biden, and none of them have the baggage he does.

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44 points

What an incredibly misleading article. ABC asked a leading question about what happens if he loses, then Axios misquoted him. Watch the video. There’s nothing ‘at peace with losing’ about his words or his attitude.

This is a low-effort hit piece. Absolutely pathetic yellow journalism.

Biden is absolutely right that the press has been wrong about everything, and they still are. Polling is not an accurate measure of presidential races outside of exit polling. Debates are a media circus and do not determine elections, and it would be absolute madness to abandon an incumbent.

It’s increasingly clear that the press wants a second Trump presidency. Thankfully, they are far less relevant and far less competent than they’d like to believe.

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From the transcript:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And if you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you’re warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in January?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about. Look, George. Think of it this way. You’ve heard me say this before. I think the United States and the world is at an inflection point when the things that happen in the next several years are gonna determine what the next six, seven decades are gonna be like.

And who’s gonna be able to hold NATO together like me? Who’s gonna be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we’re-- we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s gonna-- who’s gonna do that? Who has that reach? Who has-- who knows all these pe…? We’re gonna have, I guess a good way to judge me, is you’re gonna have now the NATO conference here in the United States next week. Come listen. See what they say.

Even the full quote doesn’t fill me with confidence. Biden’s approval rating is about 37%, which is where George H. W. Bush’s was, and he didn’t get re-elected. You’d have to go back to Truman to find a president that got re-elected with a similar approval percentage. At this point, I don’t think the incumbent advantage will save us.

I really am absolutely terrified that my life might be riding on this election. Honestly, I’m at the point where I don’t really care what it takes, the fascists must not be allowed to prevail. If that means moving on from Biden, fine. If it means guilting freaking Michelle Obama into running, fine. But if Biden is going to stay the nominee, he needs to recapture the American people’s confidence somehow, and I’m not sure how he’s going to do it.

also, here’s where I got the approval ratings data from:

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/311825/presidential-job-approval-related-reelection-historically.aspx

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13 points
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I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but we should also be aware of how this is shouldn’t be the major discussion we are having. Whether Biden runs or not, it will be the same advisors, the same policies. We’re allowing the media to run with the “Biden is old is somehow more of a concern” talking point.

There’s many more reasons for Trump to be called on to drop out, yet everyone is focusing so hard on Biden it’s overshadowing the story of Trump’s Epstein activity among other things.

And while we are arguing about whether Biden should or shouldn’t, Trump and his supporters are getting away with all manner of evil shit. Even if the Democrats picked another candidate I’m sure the media would then focus on how Biden dropping out somehow meant the Democrats were bad etc. not saying it shouldn’t be discussed, just don’t let it be the only discussion.

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10 points

I don’t want Trump to be replaced with a “better” Republican candidate that is more likely to win, because I don’t want Republicans to win.

I want Biden to be replaced with a better Democrat candidate that is more likely to win, because I want Democrats to win.

There is also no world in which actual Republicans will demand Trump exit the race, so it’s silly to think Democrats demanding that would mean anything.

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I do agree with that. Trump should 100% drop out. Unfortunately, his base loves the evil shit, and he might still feel that getting elected will keep himself out of jail, so there’s no way he’s going to.

But, yeah, the media is absolutely screwing us here. They deserve all the condemnation we can give them. We understand that we’re voting for an administration, and not just one man, but does the country as a whole realize that? I doubt it. Civics education in the U.S. is abysmal.

I also kinda cynically think that maybe if we subbed in someone with high name recognition and at least decent favorability, that the media and the Russian disinformation engine won’t have enough time to hack together a hitjob on them. I don’t know, I’m just spitballing and huffing copium here, I think. Need to keep my hopes up somehow.

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8 points
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit

The press is being chicken little, and writing hundreds of articles about Biden sounding hoarse and none about the lies Trump spewed or the fascism that he’s promising.

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3 points

He really said goodest? Or is that transcript satire? Too much sarcastic cleverness in this thread for me to follow.

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4 points

Biden’s approval rating is about 37%, which is where George H. W. Bush’s was, and he didn’t get re-elected.

I wouldn’t say that I particularly “approve” of Biden, so I’m probably counted in the 63 percent. But I’m still going to vote for him.

Sure, I’d be more excited to vote for Michelle Obama or Josh Shapiro, but I’ll still vote for Joe Biden if he’s the nominee.

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1 point

Again, political polling is notoriously meaningless outside of exit polling.

This election the media is doing the same thing they do to make our bullshit exploitative economy seem like it’s healthy. They focus on measures that mean fuck all as if they were representative of something significant.

It’s smoke and mirrors.

Want to make sure we don’t get a fascist? Get poor people to vote. If the poor turn out to the polls, we can literally flip every single state.

Trying to talk the DNC into an absolutely bonkers gamble will not win the election. Mobilizing voters will

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This is anecdotal, but the vibes I’m getting in offline conversations make me think that his low approval rating is accurate. There’s a lot of “Biden is too old, and hasn’t done much(which isn’t entirely true), but I’ll vote against Trump.” That’s great and all, but I live in a deep blue city(Seattle) and, honestly, I am deeply concerned about people who are more moderate, who aren’t as vehemently anti-Trump. I think the disconnect here is that we differ greatly in our faith that the Dems will turn out. They responded well in 2020 to kick Trump out, but I don’t know how much that fire still burns in the voting populace. Some people respond better to carrots than sticks, and while the threat of Trump is a hell of a stick, Biden is not much of a carrot. Not to say that Biden hasn’t done some good things, but I feel that the media and Russia have hammered Biden enough that I think the damage is done.

That being said, however, I’m going to disengage here, and try to refrain from advocating that Biden step down going forward. Posting this thread was a mistake on my part, and I’ll take full responsibility for it. Anything that dampens enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee should be avoided at all costs, and by posting this thread and suggesting that Biden should be replaced, I was simply doing Russia’s job for them, and for that, I’m sorry. It’s not like we have any power over the situation to begin with. The party will decide whether to stick with Biden or not, and it’s our job to help make sure they defeat the fascists.

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32 points

A country born by old white men which will die by old white men. Begins with a revolution to sever ties with a monarchy, ends with a coup to bring it back. We are truly coming full circle. 🤡

Asked if anything could convince him that he was on track to lose to Trump and should step down, Biden responded with a smile: “It depends on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that.”

Sir, the Lord Almighty better come down and take you back with him. Take Trump too, while he’s at it.

After that debate and all the things he’s said since, Biden’s image is at an all-time low. As ableist and ageist as it is, people think he’s a senile old man in the late stages of cognitive decline, with no business running a government. I doubt he or his campaign are going to do what they need to do to overcome that perception, and I doubt the Democratic Party will make the right calls either. “Decades of civil service” and “somewhat better than Trump” etc. are not going to be enough.

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7 points

Strange, but when someone with brown skin says they are listening to god or obeying god’s will, they’re a terrorist.

We need to remove religious zealots (of any flavour) from politics.

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1 point
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Removed by mod
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25 points

Well yeah. He doesn’t have to live with the consequences 💀

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22 points
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It’s almost like he’s given up.

Personally I think they are both too old but the Dems should have put up somebody with a bit of fire in them. Really shown that they are serious.

Am from UK but taking a close interest here as it’s not just the US this will affect. It has repercussions around the world. The slimy git Farage got in here because of his trumpist views, and has emboldened him and his followers.

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9 points

The slimy gut Farage got in here because of his trumpist views

Well, that and Putin.

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