This was the most momentous turn of events at 1:46 pm yesterday afternoon.
It was not written on official White House stationery. It looks to have been on his personal writing papers. That seems an odd choice to me.
I'm also not going to ping on signature (but there ARE questions) - my Daddy's writing deteriorated so badly thanks to arthritis over the course of just a couple of years, it was barely legible. And I'm assuming a certain amount of emotional distress came along with signing something like this. All weekend long, we heard nothing but that POTATUS was "mad as hell." That scribble could reflect his disgust with the entire evolution. This entire evolution is tin foil enough on its face.
So the "I quit" letter was followed shortly by a melancholy endorsement of Biden's pathetically inept and truly unlikable second-in-command.
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
All the weeks of kicking, screaming, internecine warfare, denials, and drama boiled down to an eventual surrender on a Sunday afternoon.
And yet?
Not a single spoken word from the supposed source addressed to the American people, less mind the almost 15M Democratic primary voters who were just technically disenfranchised. Not even a sighting on a balcony. No forlorn "adieu" wave.
Bupkiss.
Is POTATUS curled up in a fetal ball? Now recovering from both bruised ego and COVID? Ruptured eardrums from DOCTOR Jill's screaming invectives?
The official POTATUS schedule has literally been wiped clean through tomorrow, with everything up in the air - "details to be forthcoming" - into the rest of the week.
Don't you wish that on us...
— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) July 22, 2024
Where the hell is he?
Our President just made perhaps the most historic announcement of his presidency and we have yet to see or hear from him other than a tweet posted by an aide.
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) July 22, 2024
True madness.
Who in their right mind thought - not that anyone in this White House has ever evinced cogent processes, but honest to God, it ain't hard - that dropping this bombshell of the most consequential personal decision of his presidency without a peep out of the vegetable manipulated by handlers over his entire term was going to be accepted quietly by the mewling masses?
...Many Democratic lawmakers said they were stunned by Biden’s condition in the debate in part because their contact with him has been so limited over the past three years. “We would see him on TV or at a signing ceremony, even something like the White House picnic this year—you begin to think, well maybe he’s a little bit off, but not enough to take much notice,” Doggett said.
Senior officials at cabinet agencies have privately complained for years that they didn’t have enough contact with the president and his senior team, who centralized power in the White House and directed much of the administration’s policy activity.
While it’s not unusual for cabinet members to want more access to the president than they get, some officials described Biden as unusually removed from the rest of his administration—or, as one former administration official put it, not engaged in the “hands-on business of governing.” Some cabinet secretaries see the president as infrequently as once a month.
...For months before the debate, Biden’s advisers responded angrily to suggestions that Biden was deteriorating, telling critics in private conversations that their concerns were overblown and were playing into Republican critiques.
You know, a prime example of Biden being a non transparent president is when people are asking it you're even alive. Where's Joe? pic.twitter.com/EIuxz5iBFR
— TheÐogeGlory (@GloryDoge) July 22, 2024
Rational people, not the usual conspiracy hounds, are saying, "Um...NOT HOW THIS WORKS. Need more than this, hello."
One would think that a letter to the American people from the president announcing his decision to step aside would not be signed using a digital signature and would be accompanied by a photo op and a scheduled conference in the morning that followed.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) July 22, 2024
Instead we have a…
...Instead we have a digitally signed letter released on the president’s @X account, an account we know that is run by a staffer, no photo, and no live scheduled address to the American people. If I were China, I would invade Taiwan tomorrow.
Vurt da furk?
Does anyone even know if Joe Biden is alive?
— American (@Guy_JustaGuy3) July 22, 2024
I mean, holy smokes.
"Democracy is on the ballot"
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) July 22, 2024
(unless we are behind in the polls)
This is remarkably like the old Soviet photo of Stalin and peeps on the waterfront come to life—the one where Nikolai Yezhov is scrubbed out in the retouched picture.
If we see Harris acting - oh, God, perish the thought - in any capacity as a presidential stand-in and no sign of POTATUS, people are going to erupt.
Just to be clear...this is who Biden endorsed as the next presidential nominee. pic.twitter.com/PdcHOUX8Lw
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) July 21, 2024
Nothing is settled. Things couldn't be more unsettled.
FOX News now reporting that Kamala Harris is set to give public comments at 11:30 AM today.
— Mike LaChance (@MikeLaChance33) July 22, 2024
We're going to hear from Kamala before we hear from the president of the United States, who dropped out of the race and hasn't been seen in five days.
This is not normal.
I'm not so sure how serious the calls for Biden to resign are now. Are they just to muddy the water or will they crescendo as the Dems try to pull this coup off with as little damage as possible to their already miserable standing?
I don't know. But I can say that if there isn't a public sighting of a living, breathing POTATUS who speaks to the American people within the next 24 hours, not just clomps back into the White House?
Wowsahs.
Katy bar the door on the crazy.
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