'Backroom coup': Scathing editorial hammers years-old Biden flub that cripples replacement

President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance was made much worse by another catastrophic decision he made years ago, according to a scathing rebuke from the Wall Street Journal Monday.

The conservative newspaper first hit out at media coverage, accusing the columnists now demanding Biden step aside of shrugging off the president’s problems for months.

But it then took aim at Biden’s own judgment, which it claimed has left the Democratic Party in a much deeper hole if the decision is made that Biden step down.

The signs of Biden’s decline have been obvious long before his stumbling performance against Trump Thursday, the Journal's editorial board wrote.

“The Democratic press barely questioned Mr. Biden’s limited workday, his reliance on a teleprompter, and his rare unscripted media interviews," it wrote.

“'Eighty is the new 40,' press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last year. 'Didn’t you hear?' Ms. Jean-Pierre said in 2022 that Mr. Biden displays such stamina that she, not yet age 50, 'can’t even keep up with him.' Conservatives mocked this but the press laughed it off.”

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But the editors added, “So it is with the new establishment chorus after Thursday’s debate that President Biden should withdraw his candidacy for a second term. Suddenly, the columnists and editorial pages that denied the truth are sounding like these columns.”

“The problem is that Democrats are now left with a likely nominee who is in obvious mental decline, and a Vice President in Kamala Harris who is even less popular than Mr. Biden.”

The editorial launched into a relentless attack on Harris, and on Biden’s judgment for choosing her as his vice president — and making his chances of stepping down much more difficult.

“The path out of this nightmare might be easier if not for another problem the press refused to recognize — that Kamala Harris wasn’t remotely qualified to be Vice President when Mr. Biden chose her,” it wrote.

“He had promised to pick a woman as his Vice President, and Mr. Biden selected Ms. Harris because she was a woman of color, not because of her qualifications.

“Ms. Harris had bombed as a presidential candidate, washing out after she couldn’t defend her own Medicare plan at a primary debate. She had risen to the Senate based on patronage. Yet she was hailed by Democrats and the press as the first woman of color on a national ticket, as if this were more important than someone who could do the job. Criticism of her failures on immigration, or of her frequent word salads, was said to be racist or sexist.

“... The press is now reporting that one reason Mr. Biden chose to run for re-election was fear that Ms. Harris couldn’t defeat Mr. Trump.”

Now, the editorial concluded, if Biden steps down and the Democratic Party scramble to find a replacement who could beat Trump, it leaves itself open to, “Appearing to bypass the first minority woman Vice President in a backroom coup.

“This is what happens when a party puts identity politics above governing experience and political skill.”