Trump swiftly reacted to President Joe Biden’s withdrawal
from the 2024 election, with typically nasty vitriol. Biden was “not fit to
run,” “he wasn’t capable of being President,” “the Worst President, by far, in
the History of our Nation,” who “just quit the race in COMPLETE DISGRACE!”
We all know that Trump projects himself onto his
opponents. It is Trump who is not fit to run, isn’t capable of
being president, is the worst president in the history of our nation, and is a
complete disgrace.
No presidential candidate in American history has ever
before rejected the outcome of an election on the basis of no evidence, or
sought to strong-arm state officials to change voting counts, or orchestrated a
violent attack on the U.S. capitol to overturn an election, or charged
prosecutors, judges, and juries seeking to hold him accountable with acting at
the behest of the president who replaced him.
No goal is more important than making sure Donald Trump
never again comes close to the Oval Office.
Now that Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris as the party’s
nominee, we must all unite behind her. She is the logical choice, given that
she is Biden’s vice president. If he were to become incapacitated between now
and January 20, she would automatically become president.
Trump and his Republicans already are claiming that
Biden’s endorsement of Harris violates democratic norms because voters in the
primaries chose Biden. Nonsense. For all practical purposes, voters chose the
Biden-Harris ticket.
Nor is Biden dictating to his delegates that they support
Harris. By endorsing her, he is showing his support for her. They may support
someone else, although I do not believe they should.
Besides, if any party has violated democratic norms it’s
the Trump Republican party, most of whose members of Congress continue to
support Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and who
voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.
Trump and Republicans can be expected to mount or
encourage legal challenges to Harris’s access to funds donated to the Biden
campaign, or independent expenditures made on behalf of Harris that had been
earmarked for Biden.
Democrats should not be sucked into this distraction. Nor
should the media. The litigation has no merit. Again, Harris was already on the
ticket.
Meanwhile, it’s vitally important that Democrats remain
united.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is reportedly talking
with Democratic donors and officials about re-registering as a Democrat and
running against Harris for the Democratic nomination.
Manchin is a man of no principles. He left the Democratic
Party in May to register as an independent. He refused to support several of
Biden’s key initiatives, especially on the climate. He announced in the fall
that he would not seek reelection to his Senate seat at the end of his term,
hobbling Democratic hopes of holding on to their Senate majority in 2024.
Manchin would be a disaster for the Democrats and the nation.
More to the point, this is no time for internecine
battles among Democrats. Precious little time remains between now and the
Democratic National Convention and between the convention and the 2024
election.
We must unite behind Harris so she has time to introduce
herself to the nation as the Democratic candidate for president, organize her
presidential campaign, and select a vice-president* — all the while mounting a
sharp and sustained attack on Trump.
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| Even Donald Trump knew she was good - here's his 2011 check for her re-election! |
This means that:
Democratic donors who withheld donations while Biden
remained the candidate must now turn on the spigots for Harris.
Chattering-class opinion writers whose columns and
punditry drummed Biden out of the presidency must now do what they can to
support Harris.
Activists who have devoted long hours to abortion rights,
voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, labor rights, fighting climate
change, fighting poverty, and seeking a more just and equitable society must
now unite behind Harris.
Others who have only occasionally and haphazardly been
involved in politics must now become activists — talking with neighbors and
friends, knocking on doors, putting up signs, passing out literature — on
behalf of Harris.
Now is the time for everyone who cares about the future
of American democracy to do whatever we can to elect the one person with the
best chance of keeping Donald Trump out of the White House. That person is
Kamala Harris.
* My recommendation for Harris’s Vice President is Mark
Kelly. Kelly is the perfect response to JD Vance. Kelly has served America as a
U.S. Navy combat pilot, a NASA astronaut, and now as a U.S. Senator for
Arizona. He is the son of two police officers. He attended public schools from
elementary school all the way through graduate school. His wife, Gabrielle
Giffords, was a rising member of congress when shot and almost killed by
someone who should not have possessed a gun, and she is now one of the nation’s
leading advocates for responsible gun regulation. Arizona is an important
battleground.