Doubts over Biden: ‘The evidence was there,’ says Washington Post’s David Ignatius • FRANCE 24

Doubts over Biden: ‘The evidence was there,’ says Washington Post’s David Ignatius • FRANCE 24

[Music] hello and welcome to Ted France 24’s Flagship interview show our guest today is David Ignatius he is a famous colonist for the Washington Post and he joins us from Washington DC thank you very much for being with us thank you Mark in September of last year you wrote a column headlined President Biden should not run again in 2024 it didn’t go down well with the president and his Entourage but when you watch the first debate between the president and Donald Trump you must have thought I told you so so I I did didn’t think I told you so so much is that the evidence was there in front of everyone uh nearly a year ago my column last September summarized a poll that had been taken the previous month in August of last year that said that 77% of the American public and 69% of Democrats thought that Biden was too old to run for another term that was nearly a year ago the public view was clear rather than accept and deal with that public statement the Biden campaign chose to uh I think engage in a campaign of of denial uh the argument was no no no it’s not President Biden who has troubles with his memory his cognition it’s Trump uh and in our binary system it couldn’t be true that both Trump and Biden had problems that in my view should have disqualified both so we arrived at the debate um really with the Biden campaign having resisted uh this public judgment the evidence that was before I think everyone’s eyes for a year uh that Joe Biden will however f a president I I should I should say Mark to your viewers I think Biden has done a very good job in most respects but he is aging and the idea that four more years uh he will still be a strong and effective president I thought stretch credulity but the the message wasn’t received a year ago when I wrote it uh and I think people are finally with a sudden Stark realization understanding that it’s true so all of a sudden we’re seeing reports emerge that the president doesn’t work before 10:00 a.m. after 400 p.m. that he has tension lapses and so on as if this was a secret uh and it’s not coming out in the open and sending Democrats uh to worry Panic maybe find a solution so there there is a a sense of panic in Washington these days we’ll see how it plays out over over coming days the president is trying to convince people one last time that he’s he’s still sharp he can do it he’s surrounded by his family who were insisting that uh that the campaign advisers are to blame that the good old Joe is just fine uh but but I I personally don’t think this this will last I think this will lead to something different the question is whether vice president Harris will will be take over that in effect Biden will anoint her as a successor she’ll take the money the campaign has raised and and will become the nominee or whether whether we’ll have a more wide open process at the Democratic Convention in August I personally hope for the latter but at this point it’s very hard to predict what will happen so in your eyes clearly Joe Biden today is unfit for office so I think there’s enough sign of uh difficulty cognitive problems remembering things uh the the way in which he moves a number of doctors have told me uh is associated with significant conditions I’m not a doctor so I won’t I won’t name them but there are lots of reasons to be concerned I just have been doing some historical reading about what happened when woodro Wilson had a stroke in 1919 in in the tense bargaining over postor War I Europe and the White House was in a state of denial it refused to issue any statements whatsoever about wood Wilson’s condition other than cheery notes about the president is recovering from the severe stroke he was paralyzed on one side and the person leading that was his wife Edith she insisted that this be concealed similar reading about President Franklin D Roosevelt in in early 1945 before he finally collapsed it was clear to everyone who visited him that this was a dying man he couldn’t possibly continue uh much longer but again this was concealed from the public it was a shock when FDR was announced dead so there’s a there’s a tradition of keeping Health secrets of public figures this is true in France many countries not just the United States but I think we’ve been seeing some of that right you mentioned the wife of w Wilson let’s mention the wife of Joe Biden she reportedly was the most furious after you wrote the column last year and she said just at a fundraiser uh just a few days ago Joe isn’t just the right person for the job he is the only person for the job is she the one really pushing him to run again or is it because uh he doesn’t want to see Donald Trump back at the White House at all cost so the bidens Joe and Joe both have believed that Joe Biden is the person who can defeat Trump and that that’s his his mission in life he did it in 2020 he did it during the 2022 midterms so they’ve they’ve stuck by him I wrote in in my recent column that loyalty is an admirable quality except when it deserves the people that we love there is a kind of loyalty that suppresses the truth uh about about the situation for the the person we love you stand so close that you almost prevent the the person from admitting and accepting uh the situation I worry about about that here the the people around Joe Biden Mark have for many years believed that Biden was always viewed as inadequate that every time people underestimated him every time he came back from from what looked like it was going to be defeat so they say here we are again people are are are doubting the strengths of the of the president they’re insisting that he can’t do it but we’ve shown in the past that that’s wrong so there some of that Biden Underdog Spirit chip on the shoulder we say uh I think is is part of the situation now right I mean in addition maybe uh to some pressure from Democrats openly or privately uh there could be another element uh the polls I mean some polls are showing already that the gap between Trump and Biden is widening it was around 3% % now it’s 6% this maybe could be the decisive Factor don’t you think so I think for politicians is for everyone self-interest in the end prevails if Democrats see um Biden U growing significantly weaker politically they’re going to think not simply about his defeat but about the the prospective loss of the house and the Senate and total Republican control of Congress along with conservative to control the Supreme Court and I think that will add to the panic and will be be a reason to make changes the Democrats desperately want to hold the house uh I have heard house me several house members have called me saying we can’t keep silent much longer we’re going to have to speak out we’re going to have to to tell the truth about Biden’s weakness uh be because of our own political uh needs as house members running for reelection obviously you mentioned Cala Harris she’s the vice president president uh she’s not popular some are saying this is because Joe Biden made sure she wouldn’t be popular is she the only other uh option uh some names have been banded around in the last few days Michelle Obama and so on I mean do you see any other realistic option that could uh make Biden accept uh to uh pull back and have a chance against Donald Trump so I think there are many options uh in the Democratic party and I think Comm Harris is one of the weaker options she she was not a successful candidate in 2020 she has not really succeeded as vice president in getting traction with the American public she has been less popular than Biden that may be changing now as the president’s numbers fall but we have many other very talented politicians the governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer has brought together a what we call a purple State mixed to blue and red and done a very good job as as as Governor the Commerce Secretary Gina rundo is one of the most effective cabinet secretaries we’ve had in years she’s jump started our program to manufacture the most advanced computer chips in the US um have done that almost single-handedly the governor of of Maryland uh a young man West Moore uh extraordinary record he began at a community college he went to John’s Hopkins was 58 Kappa won a road scholarship study in Oxford became an Army Ranger and fought and commanded in Afghanistan in in in severe combat came back ran a huge nonprofit remarkable person by every measure I when I think about Governor West Moore debating Donald Trump West Moore would eat Donald Trump alive so there are all sorts of people in in the party who could run what what’s needed is a decision that there are two months remaining that a wide openen campaign won’t be destructive but will be healthy for the for the Democrats will wake the country up to all the possibilities personally I think that’s a preferable course than just hunkering down in the white house either with Joe Biden or vice president Harris just as a conclusion uh this clearly makes Donald Trump the favorite no question the Don if you had to bet today you’d say Donald Trump trump will be the next president of the United States I I personally sh to think what that means I’m sure our European allies must must think person who seems to have limited commitment at best to Nato becoming president quite disturbing possibilities uh we’re going to need good leadership in our military and our intelligence services at every level of our national life to get through another four years of trump if that’s what the public decides David ignaas that’s all we have time for I want to thank you very much for appearing here on France 24 from Washington DC and I want to thank you all for watching this show [Music]

FRANCE 24 spoke to David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post. In September of last year, he wrote an opinion piece entitled “President Biden should not run again in 2024”. The 81-year-old Biden’s performance in last week’s presidential debate against Donald Trump, described as the worst by a candidate in recent history, is now triggering panic and replacement talk – including among his own Democratic Party loyalists. “The evidence was there in front of everyone, nearly a year ago,” Ignatius said. “People are finally, with a sudden, stark realisation, understanding that it’s true”. 

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