The Wall Street Journal
President Biden explained his abrupt departure from the presidential campaign in a speech to the nation the evening of July 24 … actually, no he didn’t. He delivered an address from the Oval Office saying it was time to “pass the torch to a new generation.” But why was he all-in for re-election five days ago but all-out now? He didn’t say.
Did he have some sudden health setback that forced the decision? Or was it a gradual recognition of his growing inability to do the job that finally took hold and he was forced to admit? Or, more likely, was he pushed from the race by fellow Democrats who had concluded that he was a sure loser to Donald Trump and had to go, or they would all say so in public? Mr. Biden explained nothing.
“The defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think is more important than any title,” he said, without saying why he could no longer do the defending. He could have reassured Americans that he is still capable of doing the job for another six months, while warning adversaries not to take advantage of his remaining lame-duck period in office.
Americans were left instead to infer the reasons as Biden said his accomplishments had earned him a second term but he would no longer seek it. His speech will do nothing to dispel the view that this was a coup by Democratic power brokers, and that he and they and his aides had been hiding the truth about his decline from the voters for months, if not years.
We wanted to give Biden the benefit of the doubt for making the right decision to withdraw, and a gracious farewell would have enhanced that decision. He owed the country more than the self-serving, non-campaign campaign speech he chose to deliver.
