This week’s White House Report Card finds President Joe Biden battling through COVID-19 and ignoring media “experts” and jumpy Democrats in difficult reelection races who are calling on him to quit his reelection campaign because they fear he will drag the party down.
Team Biden has said firmly that he will not withdraw, arguing why should he? He was 81-years-old during the primaries and nobody challenged him. He was forgetful and unsteady on his feet before the primaries and nobody challenged him. The media never made a peep. Aides said he went through the process and won in a landslide fair and square.
The week belonged to his challenger, former President Donald Trump, who survived an assassination attempt and was then celebrated at one of the best-run Republican National Conventions ever held.
If Biden’s team is as good as Trump’s, then Biden should see his own celebratory convention week next month.
Both of our graders highlighted Biden’s troubles. Democratic pollster John Zogby graded the week a “D,” and said, “It was the worse of times, it was the worst of times.” Conservative analyst Jed Babbin gave the president’s week an “F,” and said, “It’s time to go, Joe. You obviously aren’t up to the job.”
John Zogby
Grade: D
It was the worse of times, it was the worst of times. President Joe Biden is facing rising public and private pressure to abandon his presidential campaign.
As of this writing, it looks like the end is near, perhaps this weekend. Despite his remaining obstinateness, it is clear that he simply cannot stay in the race both for health reasons but also for political reasons. How does he continue to run with over 30 Democratic members of Congress publicly asking him to step down? There is a vice president and there are other stars who can run effectively.
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Meanwhile, as Biden dithers, GOP nominee Donald Trump is widening his lead both nationally and in all of the battleground states. As I have said before, the president has a solid record domestically to run on, but he is the wrong messenger. If he recognizes this, he can at least salvage his legacy. But if he stalls as the newly-minted and modulated Trump makes his appeal to independents, the president will lose both the White House and Congress. I think he will be gone very soon but now it is only a matter of if he does it.
Jed Babbin
Grade: F
President Joe Biden was twisting slowly in the wind this week. He may quit his campaign for another term this weekend because of his obvious senility. The Democrats will be stuck with Vice President Kamala Harris. On top of it all, he has contracted COVID again. Which at least gives him an excuse for not working.
Meanwhile, back in reality, Biden has done more damage. He wanted to “forgive” another $1.2 billion in student loans until a federal court blocked him. It’s even money that he’ll ignore the court just like he ignored the Supremes when they told him he couldn’t do it. Gasoline prices have jumped about 18% in the past couple of weeks despite his releasing over a million gallons from the strategic reserves to keep prices down for his political benefit.
Biden also announced plans for national rent control, which would limit landlords from raising rents. That ain’t happening.
Biden, at various times, couldn’t remember that the Secret Service chief he appointed (apparently at first lady Jill Biden’s insistence) is a woman, he didn’t remember the name of the secretary of defense and when in a speech to the NAACP he referred to the civil rights group as the “NAAC.” No wonder Biden’s campaign contributions are drying up.
Biden now wants to impose changes on the Supreme Court to establish term limits for justices and do away with its presidential immunity decision. The problem he has is that it would take a major amendment to the Constitution to do that and it ain’t gonna happen either. For that alone, he earned this week’s grade.
It’s time to go, Joe. You obviously aren’t up to the job.
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John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Their firm polls for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on X @jedbabbin.
