Amid the ongoing media honeymoon surrounding Kamala Harris and the ridiculous attempts to “disentangle” her from Joe Biden’s (and her own) presidency, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s crucial role in forcing Joe Biden out of the presidential race has become almost a side issue for our supposedly intellectual superiors in the mainstream press.
In fact, it has been widely dismissed in elite journalistic circles as either a “brilliant” move to “save democracy” and/or as simply “business as usual” in Washington DC, although that is certainly not the case.
Although it was previously reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was involved in negotiations to get Biden to resign, Schumer’s role was portrayed as reluctant, as that of someone who genuinely did not want to get involved in the internal power struggles following Biden’s disastrous debate performance, aside from some sense of loyalty to his (former) longtime congressional colleague.
SEE ALSO: Jonathan Turley criticizes the Washington Post for delayed admissions of Biden’s decline and the White House cover-up
Except for a novel report from the New York Times This article, of all things, sheds more lithe on Schumer’s role, and as it turns out, he was a much more central figure in the decision to twist the dagger than previously thought:
When Senate Democrats met privately with President Biden’s top political advisers last month to assess Biden’s ability to remain the Democratic presidential nominee, the decision of the normally taciturn [Sen. Jack] That Reed was one of the first speakers was notable. What he said was even more notable, according to two attendees: If Biden wanted to stay in the race after his disastrous debate performance, which underscored concerns about his condition and mental health, he should undergo an examination by two independent neurologists who were prepared to announce their findings at a press conference.
For a Democratic loyalist, it was a remarkable position that underscored the near-unanimous opinion among Senate Democrats that Biden should not run as the party’s nominee. It was just one of several extraordinary moments during a closed-door session on July 11 that prompted Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, to arrange a face-to-face meeting with the president a few days later, during which he urged Biden to withdraw.
Efforts by Schumer and Senate Democrats to get Biden to resign played a more decisive role in the president’s exit from the race than previously thought, as he had little support in the chamber that had been his political home for 36 years.
Even earlier, at a Senate Democratic luncheon in early July, anger was palpable among the Democrats present, and very few (three of the twelve speakers, according to the Times) agreed with Biden remaining at the top of the ballot box.
According to the Times, the meeting between the senators and senior Biden campaign staff/advisers took place two days later. Schumer was convinced that the Biden camp would communicate to Biden the deep concerns of himself and his Senate colleagues, but was furious when he later found out that this was not the case.
From that point on, Schumer took matters into his own hands and met privately with Biden in Delaware that same weekend, where he asked him to consider withdrawing.
The novel details match a New York Post A mid-July report that argued that some sort of calculated “palace coup” to oust Biden from the race had been underway for weeks, but that it gained urgency after Biden’s performance at the debate.
This reads like a staged couphttps://t.co/TUz8LekdBM
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) 29 August 2024
It is well known that there are very few “real friends” among politicians on Capitol Hill, where knives are constantly being drawn and sharpened. Biden was reminded of this the strenuous way when the machinations of Pelosi, Schumer and Biden’s former boss Barack Obama began.
Still, I think what fascinates me is the fact that despite all the recent coverage of the behind-the-scenes events leading up to Biden’s brief announcement, there are still very few in the press who seem willing to ask perhaps the most significant question of all:
How much did these Democratic leaders know about Biden’s cognitive decline, and when did they first learn about it? That’s a very relevant question, and one that’s central to the even deeper question of how extensive the cover-up was – and how far up the chain it reached. And who was “leading” America on Biden’s particularly bad days?
Jill? Kamala? Ron Klein?
The media’s lack of interest is astonishing, especially considering how they would have reacted if this had happened during the Trump administration and President Trump had resigned to make way for Vice President Mike Pence, who could assume the nominating role under similar circumstances. It would have become a full-blown scandal, and rightly so.
The “move on, see nothing” mentality of reporters on this issue is an insult to the intelligence of the American people. And while we cannot rely on these media to ask the hard questions of who knew what and when, we can and should rely on Republicans all the way up to Trump and his vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, to address the issue, particularly in lithe of what Kamala Harris must have known about Biden’s suitability (or lack of suitability) to lead the country but kept serene in the interests of her own ambitions.
Related: Excuse me? Kamala Spox is jumping into the deep end with her reaction to the criticism of the joint interview between Harris and Walz
