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I have defended this man. If he's still the nominee in November I'll still vote for him. But god dammit this is fucking terrible.
I do not have hope for him being replaced but I sure think he should be. Whoever is telling him that he should keep running is guilty of elder abuse.
I do not have hope for him being replaced
Congresscritters, even just a few, coming out for him to step down is massive. It might happen.
While I disagree, I both respect and envy your optimism. I'm feeling defeatist today. Maybe tomorrow I'll share your view but today I'm going to drink and brood.
If it's any consolation, Congresscritters coming out against the presumptive nominee WHO IS ALSO THE INCUMBENT sort of thing is fucking unheard of. That this is happening in public is very much indicative of heavy fucking gears moving behind the curtains. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.
Honestly, that this is the headline from the meeting is kind of ridiculous.
I absolutely think Biden should step down and hand the torch to whoever is best able to make the case for their beating trump between now and the convention.
But he was always slipping up with word switches over his career.
He was actually very on top of the policy nuances in this Q&A - 1,000x better than Trump could have dreamed of being.
The one word switch in an hour of nuanced policy discussions as the headline is more a failure of the media than Biden.
Even though he def should be making way as his decline is going to get worse and more info is going to come out.
The one word switch in an hour of nuanced policy discussions as the headline is more a failure of the media than Biden.
This a million times over. He did a great job the whole time and had one weird slip up, and all the media cares about is the slip up.
Fuck the media. Focus on the substantive part of the meeting, not the one meaningless gaffe. I say stupid shit all the time by accident, it doesn't matter. It's not even a sign of age, people just do this kind of thing because we're human.
The media was seething because they can't just run another word flub every day. Biden turned their repeated questions about minor misstatements into a policy discussion.
They don't want to run the story "NATO meeting a success" because it doesn't get as many clicks as "Biden secretly nuts". They've become tabloids.
This is legitimately scary. Trump does this every second, now Biden is doing it every other conference. 4 years ages anyone, let alone the man in charge of NATO, the biggest economy, and running for re-election.
I am genuinely starting to be at a loss. I understood the life long stutter, I understood people age differently, I understood that soundclips and sneaky edits can make things look bad, but Jesus Christ. Is this the same day as the "President Putin"?
This is sad.
Brutally awful. I am heartbroken that this is happening; to him and this country.
He is doing this to himself, and his hubris is dooming the country.
He is the newest RBG. Not letting go of any of it to try and save America, when it just delays and makes the problem worse because they didn't listen to fellow polticans or the public.
Precisely.
Great we're going to be set back hundreds of years because an old Democrat refused to step down...
AGAIN.
The way media works, any good he might have gotten out of the speech or question and answer session is going to be completely overshadowed by this flub.
I completely got what he meant. But it's another bad moment.
Overall, the whole impression I got was grandpa Joe giving storytime. I just don't think that's what we need at this time.
He needed a home run to have any chance of unfucking this. He's hitting a single. He's a detriment to the ticket from here on out, I think.
Straight up witnessing elder abuse. My grandfather was getting so old that he was making basic mistakes while driving. We took the keys away because he could hurt someone.
The fact that they're allowing this man to humiliate himself and this country over and over again speaks to the cruelty of the people who are still covering for this.
Literally sickening. I've had this happen to family members and neighbors. It's always the easist to abuse those who can't even see they are being played.
Sigh... Well, that's it. I think he's done.
For the last five years, Republican attacks on Biden's age and health have been continuous and stupid. For 4.9 of those years, they've been clearly and utterly baseless, which is what makes this doubly infuriating.
He's had good moments since the "debate," several of which were good enough to make me think he was fine and this was just more Republican bullshit. And even the debate itself, I thought he warmed up after the first twenty minutes or so, and was happily willing to believe he really did just have a cold + jet lag + the general lack of resilience that comes with very old age. Hell, get me sick and then hopped up on cough medicine and I become completely incoherent.
But this... This is two weeks later, and he still couldn't hold it together. He still seemed listless and intermittently uncertain what was going on.
Maybe this is old age catching up to his speech impediment. Maybe it's not an actual decline, it's just the stress of the job and a lapse in his ability to make his mouth do what his brain wants it to do. Maybe.
But even if that's the case, even if that's all it is, communication is a core responsibility for the President of the United States of America. And for whatever reason, be it cognitive issues or just an inability to clearly talk, he simply isn't communicating well anymore.
I hate saying this. I really do. He's been a very good president. But he should step down and let Kamala Harris take the reins. It's time.
Your comment is the one most in line with my thought process.
I thought he did just fine in the debate other than having the cold. I've defended him since then both here, and to people in my real life. I still think he may be the best president in my life (since first term Reagan), and I was hoping he had a great time at NATO and was going to crush this press conference.
But while I was waiting for it to start, I saw the Putin flub. Then he comes out, sounds tired, sounds hoarse and keeps coughing, keeps pausing, keeps getting names wrong. We got creepy Whispery Joe again. It was so awkward and I felt so bad for him. He's done a great job, but it looks time to throw in the towel on this campaign.
I'm in an important state for presidential elections. If they keep him upright through November, he's my guy. If they put in another Dem, I'm with them. But I'm disappointed now it seems too late for him to leave with dignity. He deserves a good legacy, but now he's going to be Sleepy Joe, especially if he drags this out.
What happened with RBG was a tragedy for me and the country, but this could be apocalyptic for our democracy. I'm so mad that a felon is the solid choice for near half the country. I can't trust Biden to be our champion in this fight.
To anyone that didn't watch the conference, watch it. I don't know how anyone in good conscience can say pressing him to continue is for the best.
This was surreal. To his credit he eventually got into his groove as he moved through his list of approved journalists.
He's still going and he's not doing great...
Like, he is saying a lot of words, and they do seek to connect with the ones right next to each other most of the time. But it almost never has anything to do with the question after the first sentence or two
I can't tell if he's pretending to talk to people or actually talking to people in the audience. Like I think he sees journalists making comments or reactions and addressing them.
Edit:
When asked if his delegates could vote for someone else if they don't want him he said:
That's the Democratic process
Then leaned in all creepy and whispered
That's not going to happen
Edit 2:
Fucking hell...
They asked about "VP trump" at the end and said trump had already latched into it.
When asked for comment Biden said:
Listen to him
Like? Listen to trump?
Then did his best Monty Burns walk off stage.
As with everything Biden, I highly recommend everyone watch it when they can.
It went on too long, he started to lose his train of thought a few times. The end was weird too. I'm not sure "listen to him" meant what he thought it meant.
The feeding frenzy at the end definitely confirmed that questions were pre-approved and they had to stick with them.
He was hours late because he was cramming the answers for what he was knew was coming.
Nothing about this was unscripted
He also referred to Zelenskyy as "President Putin"
Sooo Trump has been doing this for years too... can we just kick them both out the race and do-over please?
And here come the sound bites.
This is the problem. I don't want to excuse Biden, but even if 95% of the speech is fine, the 5% is all 99% of readers will ever see.
Apparently we didn't watch the same speech cuz not even 5% of it was fine
Then he said he was going to defeat VP trump...
And.i honestly don't know if he meant he'd beat Kamala and be the candidate in the general or if he meant he'd beat Trump in the general?
At least he tried his Best!
This is getting kinda sad, bro should be sitting at home.
omg, this guy has to be finished. He cant even hold it together this long. wow
Eh, if you actually watch the video and don't take it out of context you realize he meant Harris, bcz he later refers to how they can beat trump. Sometimes you say the wrong thing, I've done it before and I'm barely into my 30s, and nobody accuses me of being senile.
To be clear, he should have stepped down a long time ago, and I'm not really a fan of Biden. But he's been making mistakes in speeches like this his entire career. It wasn't until he became president that everyone started losing their mind over it.