298
submitted 4 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

Joe Biden has reportedly become more open in recent days to hearing arguments that he should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate after the party’s two main congressional leaders told him they doubted his ability to beat Donald Trump.

While continuing to insist he will be the party’s nominee in November, the president has reportedly started asking questions about negative polling data and whether Vice-President Kamala Harris, considered the favourite to replace him if were to withdraw, fares better.

The indications of a possible rethink come after Biden tested positive on Wednesday for Covid-19, forcing him to isolate for several days while curtailing a campaigning visit to Nevada that had been part of a drive to show his candidacy was very much alive.

It also coincides with fresh polling data showing that he now trails Trump by two points in Virginia, a state he won by 10 points in 2020.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 50 points 3 months ago

I'm really worried about his campaign and white house staff at this point. It seems like it took the in person interviewers telling him about the bad polling. Like he looked genuinely surprised to hear about it.

If that's true they need to go. We cannot have staff that lie to the president.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 months ago

Staff fudge the truth to bosses all the time. The issue doesn't lie with the staff because it is the boss' responsibility to understand the power disparity and do their best to mitigate it.

The way to do that is have a small contingent of 2-3 people who will ALWAYS tell the truth to the boss no matter what.

But again, that willingness to hear the truth and have those people around starts with the boss. And if they just want yes men around, that's what will happen.

[-] turmacar@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Not even counting the debate the man has straight up asked for people that have died during press conferences and mixed up Putin and Zelenskyy. I don't think it's out of line to question how much of policy and press releases he's cognizant of, much less staffing decisions. Even if they are updating him about polling data he may not be processing it. I have a 94 yr old grandpa with a live in nurse and a 80 year old aunt in hospice (different sides of the family) and the disorientation is disturbingly familiar.

It seems insane to bet that he will have 4 more high pressure years to give. Or betting on him making it long enough for a VP to take over. RBG should be a warning, not a template.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It appears at this point that US presidents have this problem more than half the Roman emperors.

(Just remembered reading about Julian)

EDIT: I meant - Julian had people follow him who'd tell him when he was making a mistake, and he'd always listen and take time to think. While for him it was more real than for other emperors (some of whom would still do the same), I even wonder whether jesters in European courts are some perverted continuation of such a tradition. Perhaps at some point pointing out mistakes came out of fashion, but scolding the monarch - still a tradition, and then it turned into a way of have fun, and such a follower, and not the monarch himself, took the role of the fool.

[-] clickyello@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

this was exactly the purpose of jesters. a link.

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 months ago

This is on Biden, not on the staff. The calls for him to drop out were ALL OVER the place, including popular media.

[-] Xanis@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

No. This is on the team, not just Biden. Being surrounded by people who won't tell you the actual truth would make most of us blind to real issues. As people on the left, as voters in general, we need to stop pointing fingers at a person and begin pointing fingers at the processes and issues that cause bad individuals to be placed in positions of authority, and the reasons why the teams behind even the good ones may not wish to speak out. This is systemic and mass recognition is the first step to a solution.

[-] Fades@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

it took the in person interviewers telling him about the bad polling.

lmao what the fuck? No it absolutely was not, it was all of the high ranking sitting dems like Schiff, Pelosi, Obama.

interviewers? polling?? Jesus fucking Christ.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Okay? The point is, why was this needed? What are the people around him telling him?

this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
298 points (88.2% liked)

News

23287 readers
3795 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS