The ongoing in-life eulogies of President Joe Biden, in the wake of his announced decision to not seek re-election, have veered into the ridiculous. A prime example is CBS’s John Dickerson’s lionization of Biden.
From listening to Dickerson, one would think he’s talking about George Washington in 1796, and not Joe Biden in 2024:
JOHN DICKERSON: You’ve gotta also create the conditions for the party and everyone to celebrate Joe Biden, who has just done something that the more they celebrate what he's done, the more of a contrast they draw to Donald Trump. As Liz Cheney said, here is somebody giving up power, okay, somebody who their whole career was counted out, so it's giving up power and moving against personal instinct, which is “I'm going to show ‘em when they count me out” and it's worked for him. And that's quite a contrast to Donald Trump, who was so desirous to hang on to power that according to the leaders in his own party, he inspired an attack on the Capitol. So to the extent you celebrate this decision by Joe Biden in this period of time and don't immediately get on to Harris, it actually works to the Democratic party’s benefit.
NORAH O’DONNELL: It’s an excellent point. John Dickerson, thank you.
This vomitous hagiography omits the fact that Biden did not voluntarily give up his campaign for president. Rather, he was ignominiously forced to step aside in a slow-rolling coup and leak campaign orchestrated between senior Democrats and the media, which began in earnest after the catastrophic June 20th debate.
Were it not for that debate, and for its painful exposure of the terrifying decline in Biden’s cognitive capabilities, there would not have been the public outcry for removal that led to today’s announcement.
You’ll recall that the media were echoing The White House’s “cheap fakes” talking points just a week and a half prior to the debate. In fact, the debate forced the media to end the collective vow of cognitive omertá, taken immediately after Biden secured the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Tonight’s beatification of Joe Biden into patriotic sainthood was expected, ahead of the coronation of Kamala Harris. That doesn’t make it any less savory.
