Replacing Joe Biden is a fantasy Democrats must abandon

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

President Joe Biden’s debate performance was deeply unsettling. Democrats nevertheless need to calm down, take a deep breath, and figure out what matters. Biden is the same man he was before Thursday night’s debacle: solid on policy but short on style.

The president has never been a slick debater, and a lifelong stutter has burdened him with a halting speaking style that makes him prone to repeating sentences and phrases. Age has also taken its toll — as Biden himself admits. But there is ample evidence that he has been doing the heavy lifting day in and day out in one of the toughest jobs in the world and logging campaign miles and events at an impressive rate.

Americans have a serious choice ahead of them. Will they be swayed by a charlatan carnival barker hawking lies? Or will they look beyond to the man who speaks truth and facts, albeit in a whisper?

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who twice supported Bernie Sanders for president, told me Friday that politics has become far too celebrity-centric, and he’s right.

“We want someone who’s an entertainer,” Ellison said. “But at the end of the day, all I care about in a president is that they’re trying to make an economy that I can thrive in, that they’re protecting my rights, and, if we disagree, we can have a conversation.”

Could another Democrat step in to replace Biden? Yes, it’s possible. But the reality is that the process for switching candidates at this late date — the convention is nine weeks away — is excruciating and filled with logistical landmines. A fight among top contenders that stretches over the summer could be a far bigger catastrophe than one bad debate. Trump and his supporters would be gleeful.

Vice President Kamala Harris is among the likeliest candidates to step in for Biden. Harris has grown far stronger in office but remains a controversial figure in her party. Should Biden withdraw and release his delegates, Harris would have no automatic claim to them.

And, any effort to bypass Harris, the first Black woman to fill the role in a party already struggling to retain Black voters, is sure to divide Democrats. Any of the contenders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, would face the most daunting of tasks: uniting a badly fractured party in late August, going up against the best-known figure in Republican politics, and managing what only Biden has actually pulled off — victory against Trump. And accomplishing it all in about 10 weeks.

By Friday, Biden was back at it, attending a midday campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he summoned the Joe Biden of the State of the Union address. “I know what millions of Americans know. When you get knocked down, you get back up!” Biden told the crowd, his voice strong and at full volume.

Then, it was on to the Stonewall National Monument Visitors Center in New York to commemorate the beginnings of the LGBTQ movement, before an evening campaign reception. It was, Ellison said, the mark of a leader.

To the extent that Biden’s debate performance can be seen as an indication of his ongoing ability to withstand and excel at the rigors of his office, there should be searching, honest conversations about his capabilities going forward. Coming events should bring clarity because the race only gets more intense from here.

Even after the convention, after the nomination, there is a fallback plan in the event of what the DNC might call an “emergency.” In that case, Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as head of the Democratic Governors Association, would make the pick. That would avoid the chaos of an open convention and months of jockeying by candidates but would leave even less time to campaign against a rival who has shown he will stoop as low as he needs to to win.

Democrats are in this predicament partly because Trump constitutes such a threat to democracy itself. Had it not been for the danger of a second Trump term, Biden might have contented himself with just four years. Instead, he, like all of us, has witnessed Trump increase and consolidate his grip on his party. No matter the felony convictions, his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, his pilfering of classified documents, or his multiple trials, the cultists stand behind him.

On Friday, during an appearance on Fox News, Walz said, “I think we could learn something from Republicans. Republicans will not abandon President Trump through indictments, through whatever it may be.”

But all that “whatever” should matter deeply to Democrats, non-MAGA Republicans (yes, they still exist), and anyone who cringes at the notion of a country under the thumb of this petty, vengeful man who talks openly of retribution and has the potential to reshape this country in his own image.