New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argued that the fallout from President Biden withdrawing from the race has only been worsened by reports that indicate the president’s health may have been concealed by close advisors and family members.
“It’s possible, depending on Biden’s true capacities, that by rights he should have resigned and Harris should be president already — which probably would have put her in a better position to win the election even than her current honeymoon does,” Douthat wrote in a column on Saturday headlined, “There is still a Biden scandal.”
Biden has held only one public event this past week despite growing tensions between Iran and Israel and a global market sell-off on Monday, signaling turmoil on Wall Street.
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“It’s also possible that there will come a crisis in the next few months that will make the Democrats wish that he’d resigned, rather than staying and then seeming overmatched,” Douthat wrote.
The columnist said that increasing calls for Biden to step down from the race after his debate performance have also revealed reports that the president’s inner circle may have “encouraged the president to run for re-election and practiced deception amid his obvious decline.”
“The potential scale of that scandal has diminished now that the country is no longer being asked to entrust the Oval Office to Biden for another four years,” Douthat wrote, adding that the age of former President Trump, who is 78, are “naturally going to claim more attention now that they’re contrasted with a younger rival.”
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“But Biden is still the president — albeit with a ‘scaled-down schedule’ for his last six months,” Douthat wrote. “The people who readily signed up for another four years of a 10-to-4 presidency are still running the government around him. And since things keep happening in the world — for instance, this week, the nation that we’ve been arming for a defensive war decided to invade Russia — it seems like America could stand to learn a bit more about how the White House has been working recently, and what a perceptive observer (say, someone like George Clooney) might notice if he were to observe Biden consistently over a few days or just a full 24 hours.”
But instead of serious questions about Biden’s ability to serve out the remainder of his presidency, Douthat wrote, voters are being treated with an image of Biden as a paragon of “self-sacrifice.”
That “bargain,” Douthat continued, “is so far working out so well for his anointed successor, who is surrounded by positive coverage and leading in some polls, the incentive structure for anyone who wants to see Trump defeated seems to favor not talking anymore about the cover-up of the president’s deterioration.”
Biden’s choice to withdraw from the presidential race has seemingly boosted his vice president, Kamala Harris, in the polls.
A survey conducted by Ipsos found that Trump and Harris are in a tight race for seven swing states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
