The Bidens do not let themselves be forgotten. “This nonsense really frustrates people.”
Jill Biden's surprising revelation this week that she thought her struggling husband had had a stroke on the June 2024 debate stage was a sharp contrast to her positive portrayal and staunch defense at the time. It reopened barely healed wounds from the Democrats' disastrous attempt to retain the White Housesparking a new wave of retrospective self-blame less than a week after the party's botched analysis of the 2024 presidential election.
Top Democrats say it's an unnecessary distraction at a time when they're trying to focus the entire party on the crucial midterm elections — and what voters really care about.
“I don't need to be distracted by anyone's book,” Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democratic governor of New Mexico, told reporters Thursday in Washington on the sidelines of a meeting of the Democratic National Committee. — I need to focus on changing people's lives for the better. And I think that's the bullshit that really frustrates them. Honestly, I don't think the average Democratic voter, especially in New Mexico, cares about this book or debate anymore.
Lujan Grisham, who served on the national advisory board of the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign, emphasized that she meant no “disrespect” to Jill Biden, and later added that she was a “huge fan of Joe Biden.”
Meghan Hays, Joe Biden's former White House special assistant who left ahead of his 2024 re-election campaign, warned that the timing and context of the release of the former first lady's memoirs threatens the Democrats with defeat at a time when they are on a good electoral streak.
“I think they need to sell books, and I think Dr. Biden wants her story to get out into the public eye,” she said on C-SPAN's “Ceasefire,” hosted by POLITICO's Dasha Burns.
—Democrats are not thrilled about this. We're having a great time right now… and when will we get into the age debate again? [Joe Bidena, który według przeciwników był zbyt “stary” na drugą kadencję jako prezydent] and the 2024 elections. [Biden miał wtedy 81 lat]then it will never be good for the Democrats. “I think it's a difficult situation,” Hays said.
Hays is not the only person in the Biden administration to express frustration.
— My reaction was basically, “Welcome to the club.” Every person in America and in the administration was wondering the same thing, and instead of admitting it, we were told for days to [nieudany występ Bidena w debacie wyborczej z Trumpem] they ignored — that it was just a bad night, an anomaly,” another former Biden-era White House staffer said anonymously.
Hunter Biden in 2024Jim Watson/AFP / AFP
Still, several prominent Democratic strategists, former party leaders and former officials in the Biden and Harris administrations [Kamala Harris była w tamtym czasie wiceprezydentką] downplayed the importance of this latest wave of 2024 election reconsideration, treating it as nothing more than background noise that will have little impact on the party's prospects in 2026 or 2028.
“Let everyone pour out their grievances about 2024 now and let it out,” former congresswoman Susan Wild, who narrowly lost re-election this year, said in a text message to POLITICO, adding that “voters won't remember this in 2028. [kiedy odbędą się kolejne wybory prezydenckie w USA]”.
But she added: “I'm a little dissatisfied with the Democratic National Committee's delayed release of its 2024 failure analysis report. We don't need these written reminders, and we certainly don't need to give Republicans another reason to remind voters of everything we did wrong in 2024.”
A spokesman for Biden declined to comment. A former White House and Biden campaign staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity wrote in a text message that the party as a whole has put the defeat behind it.
“Although it is painful and traumatic for those who had to deal with it at the time, the public is focused on the current president and the issues related to him: high gas prices, immigration problems, [Jeffreyu] Epstein,” he said.
The new storm over the debate from two years ago comes at a time when other moves by the Biden clan have already forced Democrats to face defeat again.
Joe Biden is suing the Trump administrationtrying to block the release of recordings of conversations with the ghostwriter that the Justice Department obtained during a now-closed investigation into whether he mishandled classified information. But his attempt to stop the recordings and transcripts from being made public brings to mind another painful event that dashed his hopes for a second term.
Hur decided not to indict the president in that investigation because he believed jurors likely viewed Biden as an “older man with a poor memory,” which sparked a political firestorm. This was confirmed by recordings of Hur's interviews with Biden, published last year.
While Biden tries to keep these recordings under wraps, his son has recently taken steps to draw more attention to himself and his family.
Hunter Biden has sparked a flurry of headlines in recent days after recording a podcast with Candace Owens, a conservative influencer who has repeatedly attacked the Biden family and the former president's mental abilities. In the interview, Owens promised not to disparage Joe Biden and even praised Hunter Biden for defending his father. However, widespread media coverage continued to provoke negative reactions within the party.
Some Democrats are even willing to relegate the Bidens to the dustbin of history so that their party can move forward.
— No one wants to revisit the worst debate performance in recent memory [starożytnej] Hellenic Republic. Why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about Hunter Biden? Why is Hunter Biden talking about Hunter Biden? said Pete Giangreco, a longtime Democratic strategist who worked on Barack Obama's campaigns but was not involved in Joe Biden's or Kamala Harris' campaigns.
— Your time has passed, move on. …Republicans and all their super committees will spend three or four times more than we do [na kampanie wyborcze przed wyborami uzupełniającymi do Kongresu USA, które odbędą się w tym roku] — that's what we need to focus on, he added.
But the Bidens — and Harris — show no signs of wanting to return to the shadows. Harris, who last year published a book criticizing the president she worked with, has hinted that she may run for president for a third time in 2028. Joe Biden, for his part, has started supporting former officials of his administration who are running in the midterm elections; one of his candidates, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, won last week's primary for governor in the key swing state of Georgia. Jill Biden goes on a promotional tour for her book.
Other Democrats say they are less frustrated with the Biden family themselves than with the party's most staunch factions, which descend into recriminations with each new piece of information about 2024.
— I'd rather not talk about it. But both of them [Jill i Joe Biden] they have the right to do what they do,” Maria Cardona, a prominent Democratic strategist who supported Biden's re-election bid, told POLITICO. — But we also have control over how we respond to it. So let them do their thing. They no longer control the party. We don't have to think about every word that comes out of it, she concluded.
