He resisted as they tried to force him away. He showed his defiance. Then, after a struggle, he gave in and was removed.
That could be a description of the near-assassination of Donald Trump last weekend. Or the words might equally apply to Joe Biden’s experience since his abysmal debate performance last month.
There’s a curiously asymmetrical relationship between the two old men now. Whereas Donald Trump, 78, survived his brush with death, Joe Biden’s political career died on that debate stage in Atlanta, Georgia. He staggered on for almost a month but, as leading Democrats queued up to tell him to go, his position was untenable.
Now that Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential election we’ll hear a lot in coming days from senior Democrats about what a noble leader he is to have fallen on his sword for the greater good. ‘A patriot of the highest order,’ Barack Obama called him last night.
The truth is that Biden wasn’t really fit to lead, even before he took over the White House in January 2021.
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