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I am going to go ahead and posit that Joe Biden – the so-called leader of the free world – isn’t in sufficient possession of his faculties to have beef with anybody. Unless, of course, we’re talking about the sort of angry, dementia-induced, name-calling beef senile people get when it’s time for someone to change their soiled Depends.
If Biden has beef with anyone, it’s only going to last until he forgets who they are. Which probably won’t be long.
Biden certainly isn’t savvy enough to time his media appearances to deliberately sabotage the candidacy of his own vice-president… or is he?
That’s a question Washington, D.C. is increasingly wondering aloud after a bizarre few days in which the current president did his second-in-command – who is just 26 days away from an election in which she is seeking to succeed him – absolutely no favors. Like, zero.
Biden’s cognition during the 2024 election cycle has been a definitional moving target for Democrats. First, they maintained he was in full possession of his faculties – and that anyone who suggested otherwise was guilty of “deep faking.” When a June debate with former president Donald Trump exposed Biden for the quasi-vegetable he actually is, Democrats changed their tune on a dime. After the debate, they launched a soft coup – and then a full-on rock hard rager – against their former standard-bearer, ultimately resulting in him stepping down and endorsing Kamala Harris as his replacement on the ticket.
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So yeah… it’s hard to believe anyone (Republican or Democrat) would believe Biden has now become some sort of “undermining mastermind.” And yet… over the last few days he has seemed intent on needling his No. 2 with the sort of precision he never seemed capable of mustering against Trump.
What’s going on?
Context matters here: Biden getting bounced from his own reelect was especially bittersweet given his history with Harris – who basically accused him of being a racist in a June 2019 Democratic primary debate in Miami, Florida. Prior to the debate, Harris’ campaign had leaked information regarding Biden’s opposition to desegregation (or at least busing) and then – in a premeditated move to knock him off his frontrunner perch – Harris slammed him on the issue once she took the stage.
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris famously said. “And that little girl was me.”
Biden was completely blindsided. First he flubbed, calling Harris’ attack “a mischaracterization of my position across the board.”
Then he popped Harris for her own less-than-stellar record on civil rights, saying “if we want to have this litigated on who supports civil rights, I’m happy to do that.”
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Next, after the cameras cut to commercial, he told his future transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg – who was standing at the podium to his right – that Harris’ attack was “some bullshit.”
Finally, his campaign went nuclear.
“Two days after the debate, Biden’s campaign reached out to an opposition researcher and bought all the files on Harris,” Edward-Isaac Devore reported for Politico.
By December, none of it mattered. Harris had abandoned her candidacy. And by August 2020 – with Biden having miraculously rebounded to claim the Democratic nomination – he followed orders and chose Harris as his running mate. It’s no secret Biden didn’t want to pick his former primary rival. He wanted Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer instead. But the party told him to pick a black woman and he did exactly what they said – just as he did in stepping down in July.
With nothing to lose anymore, though, Biden isn’t going gently into that good night. He’s clearly sabotaging the candidacy of Harris – who has sought (ineffectively) to distance herself from the administration she has been an integral part of for the past three-and-a-half years.
You know, including that lengthy stint as border czar…
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Last Friday (October 4, 2024), Biden surprised reporters by making an unexpected appearance at the daily White House press briefing. The president entered the briefing room at the precise moment Harris was taking the stage at a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan – causing television networks to shift their coverage.
When he began speaking, Biden completely undercut Harris’ recent claims – saying her staff and his staff were “interlocked” on all major policy decisions made by the administration.
“I’m in constant contact with her,” Biden said. “We’re singing from the same song sheet. She helped pass all the laws that are being employed now.”
“She was a major player in everything we’ve done, including passage of legislation, which we were told we could never pass,” Biden continued.
Ouch…
The needling continued this week when Biden praised Florida governor Ron DeSantis for doing a “great job” ahead of the impending arrival of Hurricane Milton, basically implying the two were best buds all of a sudden.
“I talked to him again yesterday,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday. “I literally gave him my personal phone number to call.”
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RELATED | THE 2024 KEYSTONE
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DeSantis echoed this spirit of cooperation with Biden.
“Everything that we’ve asked for the administration has approved,” he said. “There’s not anything that we’ve asked for that they haven’t. If there’s something that comes up, you know, I said I would not hesitate to get on the phone and call and ask directly on behalf of the people of Florida.”
What made this bipartisan détente so extraordinary? It occurred literally hours after Harris attacked DeSantis for allegedly refusing to take her phone calls ahead of the storm.
“Playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship,” Harris told reporters, referencing DeSantis’ alleged refusal to speak with her.
“I didn’t know that she had called,” DeSantis fired back. “I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me.”
Appearing Monday evening on Fox News, DeSantis said Harris has “never contributed anything” to storm preparation or recovery, and that he didn’t need to speak to her because he had already spoken with Biden.
“She has no role in this,” DeSantis said. “She’s the first one who is trying to politicize the storm. And she’s doing that just because of her campaign.”
Will Biden continue to undercut Harris over the next three-and-a-half weeks? And while his apparent kamikaze campaign do any damage to her White House prospects? We shall see..
As of this writing, all seven battleground states are incredibly tight with Trump leading in Arizona (+1.4 percent), Georgia (+1.5 percent), Michigan (+0.5 percent), North Carolina (+0.6 percent) and Pennsylvania (+0.2 percent) and Harris leading in Nevada (+1.1 percent) and Wisconsin (+0.5 percent).
Keep it tuned to this media outlet as we are now just 26 days away from the election…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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10 comments
lol you’re so desperate. Speaking of feuds, got anything on why Trump isn’t running with Pence?
Last I heard, Mike didn’t like the tie Trump and friends tried to get him to wear about 4 years ago.
Trump gave Putin covid testing equipment that should have been used to help Americans. Trump cost American lives with that move.
And we find out Trump has been exchanging private phone calls with Putin since leaving office.
MAGA is a Russian operation, through and through.
Now, what silly gossip were you blogging about again?
It’s going to be nice to have President Trump back in the Whitehouse.
Yes, it would be nice! Please, PLEASE, vote many times, patriot comrade!
Yes it is! Trump 2024.
As Elon Musk said, “If Harris wins, this will be the last election we have in America”, and it’s true. I challenge ANYONE to tell me one reason they are voting for Harris, without mentioning Trump? Harris supporters are not dumb, not stupid, but totally ignorant about how the United States and the World works. These Harris voters care more about which bathroom a boy can use, or about males playing sports with females, Woke, DEI, and Trans genders, than they do Iran getting a “Nuke”! They was no idea what it would mean if Russia, China, N Korea and Iran attack America and Israel in a coalition, bring on WWIII, and that’s a war we can’t win. Trans people make up .52% of Americans, less than one percent, and we change laws and generational normality to “protect” them, ridiculous! And for the idiotic posts above about Russia, Putin and Trump, how stupid do you have to be, how many reports have to tell you that the Russian BS was what Trump said it was from the beginning, a HOAX! So for you dems who would vote for Harris, you better find out what Marxism, Socialism, and Communism is, because you WILL be living it!
Define Marxism, socialism, and communism please. You use those words, but I don’t think you know what any of them mean, let alone whether Harris is even close to any of them.
The only people acting hysterical and are constantly obsessing over trans folks are you and the other MAGA weirdos.
You don’t feel like a weirdo when you are obsessing over strangers’ private parts? So much so, you take time the type paragraphs about your obsession with trans people and bathrooms.
I’m voting for Harris because she is qualified. She’s been part of a successful administration. She isn’t beholden to Putin and other despots. She isn’t a mushed brained, felon and rapist.
Why would you vote for some super-old fart who can’t make a coherent point to save his life?
This blog reads more and more like a tabloid every day.