Democrats publicly said that Trump was goaded into the June debate. Biden issued an “anytime, anywhere” challenge to Trump, and did so while Trump was on trial in New York. Joe said, “I understand you’re free on Wednesday,” which was an insult line written for him. Trump’s trial had an off day on Wednesday. The challenge was best remembered for multiple cuts. Apparently, it took Biden five takes (edits) to get a 14-second challenge. But he got it right. Sort of. 

Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate.

Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again.

Well, make my day, pal. pic.twitter.com/AkPmvs2q4u

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024

Trump accepted. The stage was set and the rules agreed to. What we got was Biden turning into the old man who fell asleep at the bingo game. Everyone saw it happen.  

A Democrat media hack named Jonathan Alter saw it too. He wrote about it in Vanity Fair, and in a coming book. Most of his family couldn’t bear to watch as the Biden train went off the tracks and went careening over the cliff.  

My family couldn’t bear to watch the debate to the end. I did, and I stayed up until 2 am writing the first of three New York Times Opinion pieces advocating an open audition process for a new nominee. 

Alter was told 11 days before the debate that if Biden performed badly, the Democrat machine would move to replace him.  

Biden tried to rehab with willing and sycophantic pseudo-journalists, but the fix was in. Biden had a rally with the puppet-master Barack Obama, and Biden froze like the retirement home resident who forgot where his room was. Biden was led off stage. The fix was definitely in. But Biden is the president, and he had all the delegates. And, he had a wife who desperately wanted to stay in the White House. How do you get rid of a sitting president who doesn’t want to leave? 

“It’s up to him.” Biden had to be gently cajoled in private and pushed harder in public, so that he would finally realize there was “no path,” as political strategists say. 

It wasn’t easy. Bess Truman in 1952 and Lady Bird Johnson in 1968 both thought it sensible for their husbands to stand down and said so early in the election season. (When an exhausted LBJ announced he wasn’t running, he was fifty-nine, the same age as Kamala Harris.) By contrast, Jill Biden was all-in on Joe seeking reelection. Hunter Biden, too. 

Everyone knows that Jill was the one clinging to power. Hunter wanted his dad to stay because Hunter hoped Dad would pardon him.   

Alter wrote his New York Times op/ed calling for Biden to step down. But other willing media comically tried to tell America, “Don’t believe your lying eyes” - Joe didn’t freeze. Behind the scenes, the fix was in.  

I really didn’t anticipate that Biden would auger in with such conviction, or that the debate date was picked so the real power behind the throne could "off” the president, but that is precisely what happened. Power politics was about to get bloodier.  

The power behind Biden was Barack Obama. It's always been Obama. Everyone knows that. The other power brokers include Chuck Schumer and Bill Clinton, but the real driving force was Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has been in the game since the 1980s. Although her “district” has changed four times she is in the bluest of blue area of Blue California. Anything done on the left side runs through Pelosi. She knows where all the skeletons are and what buttons to push.   

Pelosi and the rest of the Roman Senate started to plot the end for Joe. We don’t know all the specifics, but Pelosi led the coup. With 40 years of institutional politics, she knew exactly what to do. Publicly, she said it was  "up to the president.” What she didn’t say is, “he’s our nominee.” That was intentional. Joe was being pressured from all sides. Inside the White House, it was a different story. Jill was demanding he stay. 

No one outside the family knows anything about the conversations Biden held in the final four days. He cut off staff, and it’s not clear if he spoke at the end to Pelosi, who told intimates that she would take her conversations with Biden to the grave. 

Pelosi was the public face. The Brutus of the Roman Senate. She was the good friend who stuck the knife in and twisted it. Alter wrote:  

Pelosi expected that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill would stage an intervention. “But the men were MIA,” one insider told me. “She wasn’t happy that the only bloody fingerprints on the knife were hers.”

What conversations were had may never be known, but we can reasonably assume that Biden was threatened with something pretty damning. Jill wouldn't leave without a push. 

Perhaps Biden insisted on Harris being the nominee, or maybe it was Jill, but Democrats subbed out a doddering old man with a bumbling dolt. If Harris loses, Joe and particularly Jill will be smiling with delight. Jill might even pick up the phone and call Pelosi on election night to say, “I told you so.”