In the ranks of the Democratic Party, ever since Joe Biden’s embarrassing and sad debate performance, there has been a whole lot of whistling past the graveyard going on. Not least among the whistlers is Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) who is now insisting that Joe Biden will surely be the keynote speaker and central figure at this year’s Democratic National Convention, regardless of whether he’s the actual nominee or not.
That’s quite an admission:
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Sunday said the Democratic Party will need President Biden to play a vital role at the Democratic National Convention in August, regardless of whether he will be the party’s presidential nominee.
“So, we’re having a serious conversation about what to do. One thing I can tell you is that regardless of what President Biden decides … our party is going to be unified, and our party also needs him at the very center of our deliberations in our campaign,” Raskin said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Velshi.”
“And so, whether [Biden’s] the candidate or someone else is the candidate, he is going to be the keynote speaker at our convention. He will be the figure that we rally around to move forward and beat the forces of authoritarianism and reaction in the country.”
That’s a lot of cognitive dissonance. Interestingly, Rep. Raskin thinks that Joe Biden is capable of making such a decision, or indeed any decision more consequential than what flavor of pudding cup he wants before his afternoon nap. But to be fair, this is something that he’s expected to say at this juncture; they can hardly just come out and admit that the president and the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer is so befuddled as to be incompetent.
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It’s also interesting to note that he thinks the party will be surely unified, when or if they try to remove Biden, by persuasion or by coercion, it will almost certainly kick off a thunderous rift in the Democratic Party ranks. And keynote speaker? It seems the president’s condition is worsening, and any attempt at a keynote address may well be just, well, sad.
But here’s where that whistling past the graveyard kicks in: Raskin, speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in February 2023, claimed that the criticism of the president’s deterioration is just “age-based cheap shots.”
Rep. Raskin: I just spent an hour with President Biden where he regaled the entire Democratic caucus. All these age-based cheap shots at President Biden show you how desperate they are, while Donald Trump is fumbling around every day pic.twitter.com/F6uVrlirYe
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 9, 2024
Now, though, Raskin is telling MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Democrats are having a “serious conversation” as to what to do about the befuddled president.
NEW ON MSNBC: Rep. Raskin tells @AliVelshi that Democrats are “having a serious conversation about what to do” following Biden’s debate performance. pic.twitter.com/XJXZx1X8Sw
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 30, 2024
Raskin adds that “there was a big problem with Joe Biden’s debate performance,” but “there’s also a tremendous reservoir of affection and love for Joe Biden in our party.So, this makes it a difficult situation for everybody….it is a political party, and we have differences in point of view.” Then he went on to attack the Republican party as supposedly being the opposite when it comes to the presumptive nominee, former President Donald Trump.
There are few Democrats more unapologetically partisan than Jamie Raskin. His insistence that Joe Biden still holds a prominent place in the Democratic Party’s 2024 electoral efforts despite his sadly obvious mental and physical deterioration, is difficult to explain until one realizes that Raskin is not about the country or the people – he’s all about the Side.
The DNC doesn’t need Joe Biden. Indeed, they’d be better off right now without him in office or involved with the party. Smart money says that by the time the Democratic National Convention rolls around, even Jamie Raskin will be admitting that truth.
