After listening to Tuesday's episode I really wanted to write and thank you for what you do. As I listen to Sarah and Beth work through the issues of what is happening in the Supreme Court and with Trump in the courts and with Biden and his continued run for the presidency and the feelings you both have about these things, it helps me think through my fear and anger. I feel better informed and have new perspective on things I don't understand, and being better educated on these topics and thinking through things in a more complete way helps me have a more nuanced way of looking at things (see what I did there?!). I am in a profession that I work with and get a chance to talk to a large number of people that have a variety of viewpoints on politics. When Sarah mentioned the Democratic officials stating that Biden deserves better, she was speaking of those who think he should throw in the towel. What I hear the Republicans that I talk to (who are mostly people voting for the Republican party, not for Trump) saying is that they also think that Biden deserves better and what they mean by that is that here is our president who is clearly not up to the task of being president now, let alone for 4 more years, not being encouraged by Democratic officials and his family to make different choices right now. Biden may be stuck in a place of thinking he is the only one that can do this job, but the people around him are just as much at fault for not telling him it is time to go and I am just as upset with them as I am with Biden himself.
The other thing I have been thinking over since Tuesday's podcast is this place we have been stuck in and now are digging ourselves even deeper into which is the inability to talk with people who have other viewpoints. You mentioned the Supreme Court obviously not talking to each other as they go through the process of writing their opinions and Biden and Trump in the debate just being two angry men with opposing viewpoints and no one wants or needs that. And what I thought of is that this is the exact thing you two are proponents of-giving each other space to talk to each other and respecting each other enough to listen even if you don't agree, not just shutting the other person down or avoiding those conversations. I think maybe the Supreme Court and Biden and Trump and Congress and the list could go on should all read "I Think You Are Wrong But I'm Listening"!
Since it's the independents that need to be convinced to vote for one candidate or the other, I think this ship is doomed either way. The Democratic party, frankly, sucks at messaging. I don't think they can pull off a mid-season candidate switch,.and I also don't think they can convince the independent block that Biden can still be an effective leader. They may not vote for Trump, but they'll go third party, which can sink his campaign.
It was difficult to listen to the podcast, because I knew if Sarah was feeling this angry/disappointed/scared, the debate must have been truly disastrous (I had only seen clips, not the debate in its entirety). Our situation for this election feels bleak, full stop. So bleak, it’s difficult to look at it directly in the face. I appreciate that the two of you did that. When you mentioned the possibility of Biden stepping down, it felt scary, wrong even, but I also sensed in myself the teeniest bit of hope in the idea. It’s far from ideal, but riding this out with Biden at the helm isn’t ideal either. I would much rather see Dems be honest about what we see in front of us and honor Biden, his legacy, and the concerns of the voters by putting forth a new candidate.
I agree with you, Sarah. After reading your email, I wrote to the White House and told my mom, and she wrote to them, too. Let's keep those emails from average citizens coming! Thank you for all you do!
In response to yesterday’s power grab by the corrupt scotus:
Elie Mystal @@ElieNYC•15m
Every political discussion that isn't focused on HOW TO STOP THE UNELECTED PEOPLE from ruling over our politics is a sideshow and a waste of everyone's time.
I agree completely. If Biden is allowed to stay we are handing the election to Trump on a silver platter. As a life long democrat I am heartbroken. As someone who has lost family members to dementia I am frightened. I’m tired of being gaslight.
I agree with you completely. I’m trying to figure out what I want to say when I email my senators, the White House, etc. I’m not going to vote for Trump but right now, I don’t want to vote for Biden either and I know a lot of people in my position. Many who are feeling too discouraged to vote at all.
I am old enough to remember the disastrous 1968 convention. There was blood in the street, and blood from fighting on the convention floor. The guy who won the primaries was passed over for someone who didn’t run in them. Eugene McCarthy’s supporters stayed home. Richard Nixon won that election.
I remember when Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent Jimmy Carter. Reagan won that election and started the long decline of the middle class.
The 2000 election was close. Al Gore conceded rather than fight for the election he probably won because he wanted to be a gentleman for the good of the country. We would be 20 years ahead fighting climate change if he’d fought.
Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tape came out weeks before the election. if he’d been a Democrat they’d have been calling on him to step down. He brazened it out and won.
Bernie Sanders lost the primaries in 2016, but his supporters whined right up until the election and refused to vote for Hillary because it was somehow unfair. She lost.
Republicans brazen it out. Democrats fold at the first sign of dissent. Yet somehow people think that we can have a contested convention, and hundreds of delegates will all agree on a single nominee and magically get behind them. And who is this Johnny Unbeatable? Nobody wants to say. It’s obviously not Harris, who is never mentioned, and it’s never explained why her supporters wouldn’t be mad that she was ousted. A bunch of governors who haven’t yet raised a penny for a campaign, and whose names aren’t recognized outside their states by anyone but political junkies, would somehow get unanimous agreement and enthusiastic support? I don’t think so.
We’ve got the ticket we’ve got. I honestly think Biden is perfectly fine and got wrapped up in his stutter last week. But I would crawl over broken glass to vote for the urn containing his cremains to keep Trump out of the Oval Office. And I’m perfectly comfortable with the idea that Harris will take over if he can’t complete his term after he’s spent 4 years including her in every decision and meeting.
Thank you thank you thank you for this! I have been appalled at the outright disregard for history and for VP Harris in this conversation. For people forgetting who Biden is, his disability, and what all he his team has accomplished against such difficult opponents in 4 years. And for people to just completely forget 2016-2020 and not realize what is coming if we reelectTrump again. In all of this fervor I think people yearn for Obama. Or some 90s/early 00s wishcasting of some tv President. It’s beyond too late to change who is running and Biden’s age was known in 2020 and he won the primaries despite it.
Still waiting for the outage over Trump’s age, how own feebleness, and the amount of lies that come from his mouth. If anything I’m mad there was even a debate to begin with.
Sarah Kendzior is no fan of Biden but I’ve been begging people to read her books because she knows what his coming with another Trump presidency and if y’all enjoy authoritarianism, keep trying to replace Biden and see what we actually end up with.
I’ve been quite surprised by the way you’ve had to defend yourself, Sarah, after Friday’s episode. Perhaps it is because I feel so deeply the same way that the “shut up and back Biden” rhetoric feels hurtful and uncreative. It feels exactly like what the GOP did after Trump clinched the nomination in 2016 and I refuse to believe the Democratic Party would bend to that level of “party [or person] over country.” I, too, feel devastated, despondent…AND I believe the Democratic Party has enough talent, grit, intelligence, and creativity to find an alternative. Will it be hard? Absolutely. Will it be worth it? It has to be.
I just want to say thank you for so honestly sharing your thoughts about the debate & how the Democratic Party should move forward. I agree 100%. I have felt so gaslighted by Trump, the GOP, and all of my Trump-supporting relatives since 2016, and to feel it now from the democrats is just so demoralizing and infuriating. I so appreciate hearing from intelligent, thoughtful women who feel the same. Makes me feel less alone. :)
The idealism of the Democratic Party will give us Trump.
We need to wake up.
And with today's Supreme Court ruling, it is imperative that we elect a President who actually believes in democracy!
My husband is a Navy Vet and I served our country in the Peace Corps in a post-Communist society, and I'll tell you something that will actually devastate: autocracy, limitless power, and fear so deep you can't speak because they may take your only child away to be murdered while you sleep next door, just to keep you in line. This is no fiction, this is the reality of Putin and his predecessors (characters that Trump praised on the debate stage).
So cry and be sad (Sarah recently stated that 'feelings are true but not reality'), but we cannot forget one damn moment that if Donald Trump is re-elected, we will deserve the fury and devastation that he and his "lackeys" will bring.
I get that we're alllllll disappointed (me too!), and that we should do this so much better in the future. But here's the ugly truth: if we want democratic reform, we need a President who actually believes in democracy!
Please remember that a President is one person, but a "presidency" is filled with their Cabinet, clerks, aides, and all the invisible heroes that keep our democracy iterating. Joe's Cabinet are ninjas, and he actually believes in the GLORY of this country! We know what Trump does: fires anyone who disagrees or tries to temper his thirst for absolute power.
This election, we are fighting for: hope for a better future, freedom of democracy, and democratic iteration (more Supreme Court seats, age-limit on candidates, voting protections, etc.) but this will only come if our President believes in it!
Joe and his team have done well by us, and maybe we have gotten spoiled that we don’t wake up to insane tweets threatening nuclear war or photo-ops with foreign dictators, or people marching on our Capitol to overthrow an election! If Trump is elected again, he will have learned where he went wrong on his quest to absolute power, and trust me, maniacal narcissists don't self-regulate.
Let us mourn our choices, but we cannot let our disappointment paralyze us, or keep us from saying, "Trump is a liar, convicted felon, and doesn't believe in free elections. We must vote for Joe!"
Our choice is binary, and in a community where “nuance” is valued and deeply sought (praise God for all of you), we MUST make the best choice from the hand we have been dealt, and vow to do better in the future.
I honestly believe Joe will lose to Trump. This is about more than "idealism". He is loosing in all of the polls all of the time. And he is only getting older. The only people "with" him are the people who are so concerned about Trump that they would vote for anyone. It was close last time. Biden has only lost support in that time. Trump perhaps has lost some as well but not nearly as much as one would hope. I don't understand why people think Biden has the best chance at beating Trump.
Being the party of ideas and being the party of Biden are not mutually exclusive. We can be both. What is NOT possible is being the party of Trump and the party of ideas. I quit listening to the debate after only a few minutes because it was too painful to listen to BOTH candidates (though obviously for different reasons). An important difference between the two that I haven’t heard mentioned is that Biden will seek counsel and assistance from others, and Trump does his own thing, ignoring advice from others. I wish we were not in this situation, but I will take a decent and caring older person with some cognitive effects of aging who will have decent people backing him up over a self-focused dishonest older person—who also has cognitive impairments that are NOT just age-related. Remember that Woodrow Wilson’s wife essentially took over his responsibilities for most of his second term and kept the government running when he had health problems that rendered him unable to function. (So who would you rather see running the show—Jill or Melania?!? 🙂)
Wilson was president more than a century ago. Biden has a large cast of very capable advisors and a VP who has been involved in every meeting and decision from the beginning. Going back to a long-ago historical figure to imagine that Jill will take over the Oval Office - well, that’s not going to happen.
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment and also took a moment to see if I’d feel differently after a day or two, but nope - I don't. I also listened to a few other political voices (PSA, Ezra Klein) and you are in good company in terms of the “step aside” discussion. No one is saying he hasn’t done a good job, he’s been an amazing president and public servant. Thank you for your vulnerability, your thoughtfulness, and your earnest belief that we can do better than this.
And thank you for sharing some suggestions on how we can use our voices!
How did we get here? I’ve always trusted the people surrounding the president to ensure things are done right. The i’s dottted, the t’s crossed, and such. They ensure all needed facts and opinions are brought to the table. They ensure the role of the president is done well and limit harm. The president is the figure head. They are the speaker and the motivator. They are decisive when needed, but listen really well. They are representative of the people around them (process and order) and of the people they serve (ideas and needs). What has happened though? Something is not quite right. How did we get here and when did it happen?
I still trust the people around Biden to ensure a next presidency goes well, but I am so scared they won’t get a chance to support him through it. I don’t trust the people around Trump to ensure another presidency by him would go well. This is such an awful place to be in. I’ve not supported past republican presidents who became president, but I still trusted that with the people around them and with the feeling the president themself was not ill intended that everything would be alright. Really not sure about this now.
I don’t think Biden will step aside. I don’t know that there’s enough ingenuity and creativity present by the change makers to make it happen. I feel we are on a course that can’t be stopped. The best next option from here is to learn from what has occurred so we can move forward smarter.
Yes!! Someone should’ve stopped him a year ago. When Trump was elected I comforted myself by thinking he was just there for the figurehead and would surround himself (or someone would make sure he was surrounded) with good, patriotic, and competent people. What are the advisors saying to each other I wonder?
Ok. He’s still surrounded by the same good, patriotic, competent people. Why are you afraid that this team is suddenly incapable when they’ve accomplished so much over the last 4 years?
Oh, actually, I don’t know if I understood your question—my reference was to Trump, not Biden. I assumed he would surround Joseph with those people but he still went his own way…
The team isn’t the president. They’re doing great, but Biden himself has to appear competent and capable and he’s just not, unfortunately. His age was a concern in the last election and he said he wouldn’t run again (I googled this earlier to confirm). His team should’ve held him to that, had the hard conversation with him, as Sarah and Beth put it.
When people are reporting that Biden’s schedule has been limited to 10 AM - 4 PM because he gets fuzzy outside of that time, that his staff is trying to keep him from l meeting with world leaders, and seeing that he is not able to communicate extemporaneously to the American public, all of that concerns me. The president is not just a figurehead. There are certain things that only the president can do, and I don’t trust that Joe Biden will always be able to do those things when he needs to.
After listening to Tuesday's episode I really wanted to write and thank you for what you do. As I listen to Sarah and Beth work through the issues of what is happening in the Supreme Court and with Trump in the courts and with Biden and his continued run for the presidency and the feelings you both have about these things, it helps me think through my fear and anger. I feel better informed and have new perspective on things I don't understand, and being better educated on these topics and thinking through things in a more complete way helps me have a more nuanced way of looking at things (see what I did there?!). I am in a profession that I work with and get a chance to talk to a large number of people that have a variety of viewpoints on politics. When Sarah mentioned the Democratic officials stating that Biden deserves better, she was speaking of those who think he should throw in the towel. What I hear the Republicans that I talk to (who are mostly people voting for the Republican party, not for Trump) saying is that they also think that Biden deserves better and what they mean by that is that here is our president who is clearly not up to the task of being president now, let alone for 4 more years, not being encouraged by Democratic officials and his family to make different choices right now. Biden may be stuck in a place of thinking he is the only one that can do this job, but the people around him are just as much at fault for not telling him it is time to go and I am just as upset with them as I am with Biden himself.
The other thing I have been thinking over since Tuesday's podcast is this place we have been stuck in and now are digging ourselves even deeper into which is the inability to talk with people who have other viewpoints. You mentioned the Supreme Court obviously not talking to each other as they go through the process of writing their opinions and Biden and Trump in the debate just being two angry men with opposing viewpoints and no one wants or needs that. And what I thought of is that this is the exact thing you two are proponents of-giving each other space to talk to each other and respecting each other enough to listen even if you don't agree, not just shutting the other person down or avoiding those conversations. I think maybe the Supreme Court and Biden and Trump and Congress and the list could go on should all read "I Think You Are Wrong But I'm Listening"!
Since it's the independents that need to be convinced to vote for one candidate or the other, I think this ship is doomed either way. The Democratic party, frankly, sucks at messaging. I don't think they can pull off a mid-season candidate switch,.and I also don't think they can convince the independent block that Biden can still be an effective leader. They may not vote for Trump, but they'll go third party, which can sink his campaign.
It was difficult to listen to the podcast, because I knew if Sarah was feeling this angry/disappointed/scared, the debate must have been truly disastrous (I had only seen clips, not the debate in its entirety). Our situation for this election feels bleak, full stop. So bleak, it’s difficult to look at it directly in the face. I appreciate that the two of you did that. When you mentioned the possibility of Biden stepping down, it felt scary, wrong even, but I also sensed in myself the teeniest bit of hope in the idea. It’s far from ideal, but riding this out with Biden at the helm isn’t ideal either. I would much rather see Dems be honest about what we see in front of us and honor Biden, his legacy, and the concerns of the voters by putting forth a new candidate.
I agree with you, Sarah. After reading your email, I wrote to the White House and told my mom, and she wrote to them, too. Let's keep those emails from average citizens coming! Thank you for all you do!
In response to yesterday’s power grab by the corrupt scotus:
Elie Mystal @@ElieNYC•15m
Every political discussion that isn't focused on HOW TO STOP THE UNELECTED PEOPLE from ruling over our politics is a sideshow and a waste of everyone's time.
I agree completely. If Biden is allowed to stay we are handing the election to Trump on a silver platter. As a life long democrat I am heartbroken. As someone who has lost family members to dementia I am frightened. I’m tired of being gaslight.
Having a shovel fight and 200 ballots at the convention would hand the election to Trump.
I agree with you completely. I’m trying to figure out what I want to say when I email my senators, the White House, etc. I’m not going to vote for Trump but right now, I don’t want to vote for Biden either and I know a lot of people in my position. Many who are feeling too discouraged to vote at all.
I am old enough to remember the disastrous 1968 convention. There was blood in the street, and blood from fighting on the convention floor. The guy who won the primaries was passed over for someone who didn’t run in them. Eugene McCarthy’s supporters stayed home. Richard Nixon won that election.
I remember when Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent Jimmy Carter. Reagan won that election and started the long decline of the middle class.
The 2000 election was close. Al Gore conceded rather than fight for the election he probably won because he wanted to be a gentleman for the good of the country. We would be 20 years ahead fighting climate change if he’d fought.
Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tape came out weeks before the election. if he’d been a Democrat they’d have been calling on him to step down. He brazened it out and won.
Bernie Sanders lost the primaries in 2016, but his supporters whined right up until the election and refused to vote for Hillary because it was somehow unfair. She lost.
Republicans brazen it out. Democrats fold at the first sign of dissent. Yet somehow people think that we can have a contested convention, and hundreds of delegates will all agree on a single nominee and magically get behind them. And who is this Johnny Unbeatable? Nobody wants to say. It’s obviously not Harris, who is never mentioned, and it’s never explained why her supporters wouldn’t be mad that she was ousted. A bunch of governors who haven’t yet raised a penny for a campaign, and whose names aren’t recognized outside their states by anyone but political junkies, would somehow get unanimous agreement and enthusiastic support? I don’t think so.
We’ve got the ticket we’ve got. I honestly think Biden is perfectly fine and got wrapped up in his stutter last week. But I would crawl over broken glass to vote for the urn containing his cremains to keep Trump out of the Oval Office. And I’m perfectly comfortable with the idea that Harris will take over if he can’t complete his term after he’s spent 4 years including her in every decision and meeting.
Thank you thank you thank you for this! I have been appalled at the outright disregard for history and for VP Harris in this conversation. For people forgetting who Biden is, his disability, and what all he his team has accomplished against such difficult opponents in 4 years. And for people to just completely forget 2016-2020 and not realize what is coming if we reelectTrump again. In all of this fervor I think people yearn for Obama. Or some 90s/early 00s wishcasting of some tv President. It’s beyond too late to change who is running and Biden’s age was known in 2020 and he won the primaries despite it.
Still waiting for the outage over Trump’s age, how own feebleness, and the amount of lies that come from his mouth. If anything I’m mad there was even a debate to begin with.
Sarah Kendzior is no fan of Biden but I’ve been begging people to read her books because she knows what his coming with another Trump presidency and if y’all enjoy authoritarianism, keep trying to replace Biden and see what we actually end up with.
I’ve been quite surprised by the way you’ve had to defend yourself, Sarah, after Friday’s episode. Perhaps it is because I feel so deeply the same way that the “shut up and back Biden” rhetoric feels hurtful and uncreative. It feels exactly like what the GOP did after Trump clinched the nomination in 2016 and I refuse to believe the Democratic Party would bend to that level of “party [or person] over country.” I, too, feel devastated, despondent…AND I believe the Democratic Party has enough talent, grit, intelligence, and creativity to find an alternative. Will it be hard? Absolutely. Will it be worth it? It has to be.
I just want to say thank you for so honestly sharing your thoughts about the debate & how the Democratic Party should move forward. I agree 100%. I have felt so gaslighted by Trump, the GOP, and all of my Trump-supporting relatives since 2016, and to feel it now from the democrats is just so demoralizing and infuriating. I so appreciate hearing from intelligent, thoughtful women who feel the same. Makes me feel less alone. :)
The idealism of the Democratic Party will give us Trump.
We need to wake up.
And with today's Supreme Court ruling, it is imperative that we elect a President who actually believes in democracy!
My husband is a Navy Vet and I served our country in the Peace Corps in a post-Communist society, and I'll tell you something that will actually devastate: autocracy, limitless power, and fear so deep you can't speak because they may take your only child away to be murdered while you sleep next door, just to keep you in line. This is no fiction, this is the reality of Putin and his predecessors (characters that Trump praised on the debate stage).
So cry and be sad (Sarah recently stated that 'feelings are true but not reality'), but we cannot forget one damn moment that if Donald Trump is re-elected, we will deserve the fury and devastation that he and his "lackeys" will bring.
I get that we're alllllll disappointed (me too!), and that we should do this so much better in the future. But here's the ugly truth: if we want democratic reform, we need a President who actually believes in democracy!
Please remember that a President is one person, but a "presidency" is filled with their Cabinet, clerks, aides, and all the invisible heroes that keep our democracy iterating. Joe's Cabinet are ninjas, and he actually believes in the GLORY of this country! We know what Trump does: fires anyone who disagrees or tries to temper his thirst for absolute power.
This election, we are fighting for: hope for a better future, freedom of democracy, and democratic iteration (more Supreme Court seats, age-limit on candidates, voting protections, etc.) but this will only come if our President believes in it!
Joe and his team have done well by us, and maybe we have gotten spoiled that we don’t wake up to insane tweets threatening nuclear war or photo-ops with foreign dictators, or people marching on our Capitol to overthrow an election! If Trump is elected again, he will have learned where he went wrong on his quest to absolute power, and trust me, maniacal narcissists don't self-regulate.
Let us mourn our choices, but we cannot let our disappointment paralyze us, or keep us from saying, "Trump is a liar, convicted felon, and doesn't believe in free elections. We must vote for Joe!"
Our choice is binary, and in a community where “nuance” is valued and deeply sought (praise God for all of you), we MUST make the best choice from the hand we have been dealt, and vow to do better in the future.
We must choose Joe.
I honestly believe Joe will lose to Trump. This is about more than "idealism". He is loosing in all of the polls all of the time. And he is only getting older. The only people "with" him are the people who are so concerned about Trump that they would vote for anyone. It was close last time. Biden has only lost support in that time. Trump perhaps has lost some as well but not nearly as much as one would hope. I don't understand why people think Biden has the best chance at beating Trump.
Being the party of ideas and being the party of Biden are not mutually exclusive. We can be both. What is NOT possible is being the party of Trump and the party of ideas. I quit listening to the debate after only a few minutes because it was too painful to listen to BOTH candidates (though obviously for different reasons). An important difference between the two that I haven’t heard mentioned is that Biden will seek counsel and assistance from others, and Trump does his own thing, ignoring advice from others. I wish we were not in this situation, but I will take a decent and caring older person with some cognitive effects of aging who will have decent people backing him up over a self-focused dishonest older person—who also has cognitive impairments that are NOT just age-related. Remember that Woodrow Wilson’s wife essentially took over his responsibilities for most of his second term and kept the government running when he had health problems that rendered him unable to function. (So who would you rather see running the show—Jill or Melania?!? 🙂)
If Jill is going to be the de facto President, then I want Jill on the ballot.
Wilson was president more than a century ago. Biden has a large cast of very capable advisors and a VP who has been involved in every meeting and decision from the beginning. Going back to a long-ago historical figure to imagine that Jill will take over the Oval Office - well, that’s not going to happen.
I agree with every piece of this, with every single word.
I agree with you completely. Thank you for saying this, especially when there is so much pushback.
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment and also took a moment to see if I’d feel differently after a day or two, but nope - I don't. I also listened to a few other political voices (PSA, Ezra Klein) and you are in good company in terms of the “step aside” discussion. No one is saying he hasn’t done a good job, he’s been an amazing president and public servant. Thank you for your vulnerability, your thoughtfulness, and your earnest belief that we can do better than this.
And thank you for sharing some suggestions on how we can use our voices!
How did we get here? I’ve always trusted the people surrounding the president to ensure things are done right. The i’s dottted, the t’s crossed, and such. They ensure all needed facts and opinions are brought to the table. They ensure the role of the president is done well and limit harm. The president is the figure head. They are the speaker and the motivator. They are decisive when needed, but listen really well. They are representative of the people around them (process and order) and of the people they serve (ideas and needs). What has happened though? Something is not quite right. How did we get here and when did it happen?
I still trust the people around Biden to ensure a next presidency goes well, but I am so scared they won’t get a chance to support him through it. I don’t trust the people around Trump to ensure another presidency by him would go well. This is such an awful place to be in. I’ve not supported past republican presidents who became president, but I still trusted that with the people around them and with the feeling the president themself was not ill intended that everything would be alright. Really not sure about this now.
I don’t think Biden will step aside. I don’t know that there’s enough ingenuity and creativity present by the change makers to make it happen. I feel we are on a course that can’t be stopped. The best next option from here is to learn from what has occurred so we can move forward smarter.
Yes!! Someone should’ve stopped him a year ago. When Trump was elected I comforted myself by thinking he was just there for the figurehead and would surround himself (or someone would make sure he was surrounded) with good, patriotic, and competent people. What are the advisors saying to each other I wonder?
Ok. He’s still surrounded by the same good, patriotic, competent people. Why are you afraid that this team is suddenly incapable when they’ve accomplished so much over the last 4 years?
Oh, actually, I don’t know if I understood your question—my reference was to Trump, not Biden. I assumed he would surround Joseph with those people but he still went his own way…
The team isn’t the president. They’re doing great, but Biden himself has to appear competent and capable and he’s just not, unfortunately. His age was a concern in the last election and he said he wouldn’t run again (I googled this earlier to confirm). His team should’ve held him to that, had the hard conversation with him, as Sarah and Beth put it.
When people are reporting that Biden’s schedule has been limited to 10 AM - 4 PM because he gets fuzzy outside of that time, that his staff is trying to keep him from l meeting with world leaders, and seeing that he is not able to communicate extemporaneously to the American public, all of that concerns me. The president is not just a figurehead. There are certain things that only the president can do, and I don’t trust that Joe Biden will always be able to do those things when he needs to.
Exactly.