How Joe Biden handed the presidency to Donald Trump (1 Viewer)

[Mithrae]

Ask me if I care.



“Progressives” should be hanging their heads in shame - their hesitancy to vote for Clinton and then Harris has given us 2 terms of Trump.

Seems to me the clearest lesson to be drawn from the outcomes of the past three or more elections is that most Americans are desperate for change. The sentiments of mistrust in government and dissatisfaction with outcomes for the poor and middle classes (even if the causes are wildly misdiagnosed or used for scapegoating by many) has been a major political theme since the lies surrounding Bush's invasion of Iraq, the global financial crisis, bailouts for some of the companies which helped cause it and ongoing/worsening affordability issues in areas like housing and healthcare. 'Establishment' candidate Clinton lost to dark horse candidate Obama with his "hope and change" slogan in 2008, and his signature achievement was to help (somewhat) on that last issue which presumably helped him in 2012. But in general terms it seems most Americans are justifiably dissatisfied and disillusioned with their political system and economic outcomes. Trump in 2016 offered the rhetoric of change, claiming that he would "drain the swamp"; besides Obama, Biden in 2020 was the most 'popular' presidential candidate since Reagan, surely due less to his dubious charisma than to people's desperation for another change. But under Biden's administration the billionaires continued to see massive increases in their wealth - during a pandemic no less! - while the cost of living continued to outpace modest income gains for most others, and by 2023 he was polling barely neck and neck with (in fact slightly behind) the twice-impeached, four-times indicted treasonous pathological liar.

These facts aren't just fringe pet peeves of progressives, they are real issues affecting millions of Americans' quality of life. But it seems that instead of decisively responding to that fairly clear and widespread disgust with the status quo, Democrats' main strategy has been based on the sense of entitlement hinted at in your recent posts: The assumption that they simply deserve people's votes not because they are noticeably good but just because the Republicans are even worse. In at least one electoral cycle it was to the point that Democrats were actively supporting the greater evil, the lunatic far right, apparently under the assumption that if the lunatic far right were in opposition they would (instead of becoming even more normalized) make Democratic candidates the obvious choice by default!

The Democrats are purposely boosting far-right Republicans. This will backfire | Hamilton Nolan

Democratic strategists have spent millions of dollars to aid extremists, on the theory they’ll be easier to defeat in the general election. We will all live with the consequences

www.theguardian.com

I wonder how the Palestinians are feeling towards “progressives” in the US currently .

The Biden administration's almost unqualified support for Israel and Harris' failure to meaningfully distance herself made it clear that with regards to Gaza it was a choice between a slower genocide/ethnic cleansing or a faster one. And that's pretty much the case on most important issues, such as the increasing concentration of wealth and increasing extraction of fossil fuels over which Biden presided. Trump will be worse, but a choice between a walk towards the cliff edge and a gallop is not much of a choice to begin with. Why the hell haven't Democrats meaningfully turned those trajectories around?

In some cases these issues are even largely missing from their rhetoric, let alone their policies; 2016 held the (at the time unprecedented) distinction of being the third consecutive hottest recorded year in a row - 2014 having broken previous El Nino record-setters despite La Nina conditions - and yet climate change was completely ignored in the first two presidential debates and only passingly mentioned in the third. This is probably the defining issue of our times, with significant risks not just to America but to human civilization as a whole, but it's barely even an afterthought for Democrat politicians blithely assuming that being the lesser evil should be "good enough" for the plebs to support them... and then turn around and abuse the voters when it doesn't pan out that way

 

[SNOWFLAKE]

It’s interesting how you have gone from she lost because she was a black woman to her race and her gender may have played a roll in some people not voting for her.

That is what most people recognize as moving the goal posts.

Yet the fact remains that racism exists and because of that a black woman in America can't win an election. Denying that is like denying the Earth is round, and that Trump lost the 2020 election.......................... Oh wait!!

 

[BirdinHand]

Seems to me the clearest lesson to be drawn from the outcomes of the past three or more elections is that most Americans are desperate for change

Most Americans don’t pay attention to politics and probably couldn’t tell you who their Congressional representatives are. They probably couldn’t tell you who their state legislators that represent them are. And I highly doubt they know who their county and municipal elected officials are.

They want to be entertained and want someone to say something exciting from behind a podium that makes them feel excited. Or feel “good”. Or say something that they can “get behind”. They don’t recognize what is local jurisdiction, what is state jurisdiction and what is federal jurisdiction.

Actually taking the time to understand policies?

Project 2025 was PUBLISHED and because it was a big book…many were simply too lazy to be bothered to READ IT.

THAT is the fundamental problem - ignorance, apathy, being disengaged - but magically thinking that if they bother to show up once every 4 years (often having to be led there by the hand and begged to return ballots or get out and actually bother to vote)…they’ve “done something”.

Democrats aren’t perfect by any stretch, but they’re a world above today’s GOP.

Our problem isn’t the democrats. Our problem is Americans are an uninformed and lazy electorate

 

[Metric Mouse]

If Biden had genuine and serious cognitive impairment then he's pretty much the one person who really can't and shouldn't be blamed for trying to run.

Of course if he had genuine and serious cognitive impairment this would just be a conspiracy theory about those around him... trying to lose the election...? Besides perhaps (and it's a stretch even then) his family, why the hell would any Democrats want someone with serious impairment as their candidate? They would all - particularly Harris - have had overwhelmingly good reasons to pressure him to decline the nomination.

The most logical conclusion, consistent with the publicly-known facts, is that his decline was at most fairly mild and managed. His grasp on reality in 2024 was demonstrably better than Trump's was even in 2020! He definitely shouldn't have run, and as with most old people there doubtless was some cognitive decline, but this "Democratic conspiracy to lose the election" has always been rather suspect at best.

Seems rather worse than that...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/14/politics/biden-book-cabinet-emergency

 

[braindrain]

Yet the fact remains that racism exists and because of that a black woman in America can't win an election. Denying that is like denying the Earth is round, and that Trump lost the 2020 election.......................... Oh wait!!

Racism exists in every single country in the world
And you have exactly zero evidence proving that it was Harris being a black woman as the reason she lost the election.
And the fact that Hillary got more votes than the man she ran against and this country elected a black man twice and he is still very popular shows your claims to be the nonsense they are.
And that’s not even getting into the fact that had Michelle Obama run polls showed her defeating trump very convincingly.

But like I said previously it’s much easier to just pretend it’s a bunch of mean racist, sexist people that kept her out then admitting she was very unpopular with a lot of unpopular ideas, and Biden staying in so long meant she had to face a large uphill battle.
It’s what I would expect from you.

 

[Mithrae]

Our problem isn’t the democrats. Our problem is Americans are an uninformed and lazy electorate

With the Democrats by and large pursuing policies which among other concerns
- permit increasing concentration of wealth and oligarchs' power,
- fail to adequately support affordable housing and healthcare for many millions of Americans,
- continue and even increase fossil fuel extraction amidst definitive signs of climate crisis, and
- support and even bankroll genocidal actions by a tiny state on the opposite side of the world...
what difference do you suppose would be made if the electorate were, say, ten percent better informed and more energetic? Does it automatically follow that more informed and energetic people must vote for a 'mere' walk towards the cliff edge?

There's a case to be made that voting for a lesser evil is still voting for evil, and under that view more informed and energetic people would be just as likely to become private preppers and vote third party or not at all. Personally I would instead say that in 2020 and 2024 people definitely should have voted for the lesser evil... but prior to that, those in 'safe' Democratic areas especially probably should not have done so because lesser evil politics is a big part of why things have gone so far off the rails to begin with. However given the apparent lack of concern or decisive response by Democrats even over the past ten years when things have gone completely bonkers, it seems unlikely that some voters 'sending a message' in elections and regions where that privilege was available would have made any difference whatsoever; you'd need more like a hundred percent increase in voter education and engagement to replace or force the bought and paid for politicians towards more responsible policies.

But Americans are human, same as folk in any other country. If they're any more lazy or uninformed than others it's because they've been made that way by prior decades of a bland and uninspiring duopoly - a recognition suggested even in the mid-90s in The Simpsons' Citizen Kang and elsewhere - saturation with a myopic consumerist culture, and neoliberal policies upheld by Republicans and Democrats alike.

The whole point of representative democracy is that voters in the 1980s and 90s couldn't reasonably be expected to widely recognize the coming decades' trajectory, but the professional politicians and strategists in the Democratic Party certainly -ing should have, instead of fixating solely on the easiest path through the next electoral cycle. By the time we got to 2017 and onwards, thanks to those systemic issues you label as 'voter' problems it's not obvious that the Democrats actually could have turned things around by seriously and visibly adopting a more people-friendly rather than 'business-friendly' approach... but it's rather pathetic and emblematic of all those long-term issues that they didn't even try! Harris went out of her way to present herself as Republican-lite for Chrissakes.

It's all spilt milk now of course; all indications are that Trump will do his best, with zero opposition from Republicans and little from comfortable congressional Democrats, to carry through on his promise to 'secure' all future elections from any possibility of Democratic 'rigging.'

 

[SNOWFLAKE]

Racism exists in every single country in the world

I never said it didn't. SO, by YOUR logic, since it exists in every single country in the world, it's ok to exist in the US?

And you have exactly zero evidence proving that it was Harris being a black woman as the reason she lost the election.

Of course I don't have "proof" just like you don't have "proof" that the 2020 election was rigged. Some things are just understood, at least by most people. Others ask for "proof" for things like God exists or that racism still effects election outcomes. It is just understood that one of those two things is actually true. I could ask YOU for "proof" that racism didn't effect the election and I bet my bottom dollar you couldn't provide that "proof."

this country elected a black man twice

She lost because she is a black woman.

Michelle Obama run polls showed her defeating trump very convincingly.

Polls predicted Harris would win too. Look it up.

It’s what I would expect from you.

That I am THIS good at taking apart your arguments? Yes, you should expect that from me.

 

[JoeB131]

Claim to fame? Is that how we elect officials now? I suppose if you voted for the realty star you might think so.

Do Harris' three degrees and increasingly responsible political positions not count?

The key word there is "elected"

Harris wasn't "elected", she was "selected".

She washed out in the 2020 primaries, got picked by Biden, stabbed him in the back at the first opportunity, and then took the nomination. Then oddly, she wondered by 4 million Biden voters didn't show up and 3 million shrugged and voted for Trump, anyway.

 

[Mithrae]

Seems rather worse than that...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/14/politics/biden-book-cabinet-emergency

Could have been I suppose. Sometimes conspiracies do happen, even stupid ones, and enough Republicans flinging enough poo against the wall for enough years are bound to eventually get something that happens to stick They'd been on this one since at least 2020, and that's the first potentially-credible case I've seen.

 

[JoeB131]

I’m sick of this blame everyone BUT Trump voters for Trump game.

You know who is responsible for Trump?

Trump and MAGAs voters and the people that sat their asses at home or voted for a 3rd party because “she just wasn’t good enough on this one specific thing”

Not Biden. Not Harris. Not the tens of millions that tried to stop the bullshit that we are witnessing right now.

Those who voted FOR this and who were fine with this being the outcome of their 3rd party and/or non-vote.

I would agree that "sitting on your ass" was wrong, but then again, a lot of people just couldn't make the effort in 2024. They mailed in a ballot in 2020, but couldn't be bothered to find their way to a polling station when it counted.

So let's leave aside the people who didn't vote. Let's also not blame third parties, because less people voted third party in 2024 than in 2020. 2.9 million voted for third parties in 2024 compared to 2.92 million in 2020.

So let's look at the real problem, the 3 million people who voted for Trump in 2024 even though they voted for Biden in 2020. That assumes they all cast a ballot in 2020, and weren't new voters.

Ask yourself WHY they switched sides?

Because they were battered by inflation? Because they saw spikes in crime (real or perceived) due to lackluster law enforcement and illegal immigration?

The problem with your position is that Harris was entitled to those votes, rather than she had to earn them, and she did a poor job of doing so.

Maybe if she had more than 100 days to get her act together, she could have pulled it off. But the problem the Democrats had was they already had a huge lack of credibility with the electorate after lying for years about Biden's fitness.

What I think is most telling is where Trump gained votes.

He gained votes with people making less than 50K a year (a constituency Biden easily won).

He also gained with both Hispanics and Asians, while his support with blacks and white remained pretty much the same.

 

[Perotista]

How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump

At a fateful event last summer, Barack Obama, George Clooney, and others were stunned by Biden’s weakness and confusion. Why did he and his advisers decide to conceal his condition from the public and campaign for reëlection?

www.newyorker.com

Biden deserves to be completely condemned by history for all of this. As well as Jill Biden and the people in his orbit who let this go on and gaslighted everyone by saying "it's just a stutter" or that he was jetlagged during the June 27 debate. And the people in the media that ran interference for him.

Biden was elected in 2020 to bring back some sanity and normalcy to the office of the president which he did after the chaotic Trump’s first term. The fact most Americans thought Biden did a lousy job as president can’t be debated just as most Americans thought Trump did a lousy job during his first term. Trump’s first term on his overall job performance 41% approve, 56% disapprove. Biden’s presidency, 39% approval, 57% disapproval. Both pretty much match each other in how most Americans viewed their presidency.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/approval-rating-1st-term

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/joe-biden/approval-rating

This time around, in the eyes of most Americans, Trump has improved some over his first term, but is still underwater with more Americans disapproving of the job he’s doing than approving. 46% approve, 50% disapprove.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/approval-rating

Both presidents are seen wanting in the eyes of most Americans. But we’ve haven’t had a popular president in the 21st century. At least a president who overall job approval finished at above 50%. G.W. Bush had an average of 49% over his 8 years as president, Obama 48%. The last president that had over a 50% overall job performance in the eyes of most Americans was Bill Clinton at 55%.

https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

Using job approval/disapproval of how all Americans viewed these different presidencies, Trump and Biden were lousy or poor presidents, G.W. Bush and Obama, okay presidents, average. As for Trump in his second term, time will tell. But a 46% job approval is nothing to crow about so far.

 

[ataraxia]

It’s interesting how you have gone from she lost because she was a black woman to her race and her gender may have played a roll in some people not voting for her.

That is what most people recognize as moving the goal posts.

It’s not moving goal posts. It’s making a shrewd calculation between two different things. It’s the same calculus that the GOP been using since Nixon’s southern strategy. It admittedly works well- almost every time- even this many decades later.

“From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.[1]”
-Kevin Phillips, chief campaign advisor for Richard Nixon and GOP political strategist,1970

Southern strategy - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Perotista]

Should Joe Biden have dropped out of the race earlier? Absolutely. Did he hand the race to Trump? Perhaps, but the many voters who chose to stay home and sit on their asses also got Trump elected. They are in FAFO mode now.

I will remember Biden for all he achieved during his Presidency. Like the Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPS Act, lowering the price of Insulin and an economy that was the envy of the world. Simpletons will remember him in history for not dropping out of the race.

Biden should have kept his campaign promise of not running for a second term he made during the 2020 democratic primaries. A promise he quickly walked back. Did Biden hand last years election to Trump. In the sense due to his very poor overall job performance in the eyes of most Americans, perhaps he did. 39% overall job approval, 57% disapproval. No sitting president has won reelection nor has his replacement won the election when a sitting president overall job approval was below 50%. The list:

1952 Truman 33%, his replacement Stevenson lost to Eisenhower

1968 LBJ 43%, his replacement Humphrey lost to Nixon

1976 Ford 45%, Ford lost reelection to Carter

1980 Carter 37%, Carter lost reelection to Reagan

1992 G.H.W. Bush 34%, Bush lost reelection to Bill Clinton

2008 G.W. Bush 28%, his replacement McCain lost to Obama

2020 Trump 43%, Trump lost reelection to Biden

2024 Biden 39%, his replacement Harris lost to Trump.

Did those non-voters hand the election to Trump? No, they didn’t help nor hurt either major party’s candidate. You seem to be assuming those non-voters would have voted for Harris. An assumption I wouldn’t make. Especially when it comes to the percentage that disapproved of the Biden administration which Harris was a part of. Chances are more would have voted for Trump than Harris if they had voted or maybe voted third party against both since both wasn’t liked that much and unwanted as 6% did back in 2016 which included 12% of independents.

 

[lynnwinslow]

The key word there is "elected"

Harris wasn't "elected", she was "selected".

She washed out in the 2020 primaries, got picked by Biden, stabbed him in the back at the first opportunity, and then took the nomination. Then oddly, she wondered by 4 million Biden voters didn't show up and 3 million shrugged and voted for Trump, anyway.

Before I get too deep in the weeds here, who did you vote for during the last presidential election?

 

[The Populist Right]

Most Americans don’t pay attention to politics and probably couldn’t tell you who their Congressional representatives are. They probably couldn’t tell you who their state legislators that represent them are. And I highly doubt they know who their county and municipal elected officials are.

They want to be entertained and want someone to say something exciting from behind a podium that makes them feel excited. Or feel “good”. Or say something that they can “get behind”. They don’t recognize what is local jurisdiction, what is state jurisdiction and what is federal jurisdiction.

Actually taking the time to understand policies?

Project 2025 was PUBLISHED and because it was a big book…many were simply too lazy to be bothered to READ IT.

THAT is the fundamental problem - ignorance, apathy, being disengaged - but magically thinking that if they bother to show up once every 4 years (often having to be led there by the hand and begged to return ballots or get out and actually bother to vote)…they’ve “done something”.

Democrats aren’t perfect by any stretch, but they’re a world above today’s GOP.

Our problem isn’t the democrats. Our problem is Americans are an uninformed and lazy electorate

Maybe the Democrats next campaign message should be "vote for us you lazy bums".

Trump won Missouri by 18 points and the higher minimum wage/mandatory sick leave won by 8. But Democrats don't make issues like the center of their campaign because it might upset billionaires like Reid Hoffman or Mark Cuban. Being an economically centrist and socially liberal party when the median voter is center-left economically and center-right socially is not how you win elections.

 

[The Populist Right]

Yet the fact remains that racism exists and because of that a black woman in America can't win an election. Denying that is like denying the Earth is round, and that Trump lost the 2020 election.......................... Oh wait!!

Pick up to 2 of these statements to accept. You can't accept all 3.

1. Presidential politics is ghastly racist and a sexist.
2. Democracy was at stake in 2024 election.
3. It was a smart idea to have a WoC VP or presidential candidate.

For Biden's campaign it's most likely they accept 2 and 3. You can say that was a mistake, but they also have access to more polling data than the public.

Some people desperately want to invent some narrative that doesn't put a lot of responsibility on either Biden or Harris, but there are none that make sense.

 

[BirdinHand]

Maybe the Democrats next campaign message should be "vote for us you lazy bums".

Trump won Missouri by 18 points and the higher minimum wage/mandatory sick leave won by 8. But Democrats don't make issues like the center of their campaign because it might upset billionaires like Reid Hoffman or Mark Cuban. Being an economically centrist and socially liberal party when the median voter is center-left economically and center-right socially is not how you win elections.

Well, you’ve definitely highlighted the stupidity of Missouri voters, haven’t you?

Want higher wages - vote for someone that’s dismantling worker protections and social safety net programs

 

[DCCougar]

Biden deserves to be completely condemned by history for all of this. As well as Jill Biden and the people in his orbit who let this go on....

Kind of over the top there, PopRight. He made a regrettable decision to break his promise and run for a second term, thinking that since he beat Trump before, he's the one to beat him again. Not an entirely irrational thought. But "completely condemned by history"? LOL. No.

 

[DCCougar]

With the Democrats by and large pursuing policies which among other concerns
- permit increasing concentration of wealth and oligarchs' power,

Um, no, that would be the other party.

 

[DCCougar]

Ask yourself WHY they switched sides?

That's an easy one -- right-wing media propaganda. Goebbels would be proud of the disinformation campaign.

He gained votes with people making less than 50K a year (a constituency Biden easily won).
He also gained with both Hispanics and Asians....

And he kept his core voters -- the uneducated. What kind of "leader of the free world" crows "I love the uneducated!"

 

[DCCougar]

The fact most Americans thought Biden did a lousy job as president can’t be debated....

That's bullshit.

 

[Perotista]

That's bullshit.

Is it? The numbers speak for themselves.

President Biden overall job approval 39%/disapproval 57%

His handling of the economy, 38.8% approve/59.9% disapprove

On immigration, 33.5% approve, 64.8% disapproved

Inflation, 34.3% approved, 63.3% disapproved

Crime, 38.0% approved, 59.0% disapproved

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/joe-biden/approval-rating

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/joe-biden/issues

Now do those numbers show Biden doing a great job or doing a lousy job? Those are for all Americans. Of course democrats would give Biden high approvals strictly for partisan reasons, Biden was a democrat. Still, Biden averaged only a 83% approval from democrats which is a unheard of low for members of the president’s party. Usually members of the president’s party give their president around a 90% overall job approval. 93% of republicans approved of the job Trump did in his first term. 88% of democrats approved of the job Obama did, 90% of republicans approved of the job G.W. Bush did, 92% of democrats approved of the job Bill Clinton did. 90% of republicans on average approved of the job G.H.W. Bush did and so on.

So, you’re one of the 83% of democrats who think Biden did a good job along with 39% of all Americans.

 

[braindrain]

I never said it didn't. SO, by YOUR logic, since it exists in every single country in the world, it's ok to exist in the US?

Of course I don't have "proof" just like you don't have "proof" that the 2020 election was rigged. Some things are just understood, at least by most people. Others ask for "proof" for things like God exists or that racism still effects election outcomes. It is just understood that one of those two things is actually true. I could ask YOU for "proof" that racism didn't effect the election and I bet my bottom dollar you couldn't provide that "proof."





Polls predicted Harris would win too. Look it up.


That I am THIS good at taking apart your arguments? Yes, you should expect that from me.

That’s quite the strawman you just created. Where did I say anything about it being ok. The answer is I didn’t. You just made that shit up.

And another dishonest strawman from you. I have never said anything about the election was rigged and in fact have said the opposite. Can you ever discuss anything the honestly. And I am not the one making a definitive claim and saying Harris lost becashe is a black woman. That is you and it’s up to you to prove your claim.

Not by anywhere near the amount Michelle would win by. And that’s you don’t want to talk about a black man winning two elections or Clinton getting more votes then Trump is rather telling.

You haven’t taken apart anything. All you did was make up some dishonest strawman and doge any evidence showing you are wrong. But hey I don’t doubt you will continue to lie about your bs.

 

[vanceen]

Yet the fact remains that racism exists and because of that a black woman in America can't win an election. Denying that is like denying the Earth is round, and that Trump lost the 2020 election.......................... Oh wait!!

Lots of black women in America win lots of elections, claims about the shape of the earth notwithstanding.

 

[Jagged]

No, I didn't. Read it again - or not.

"She was only a candidate because she was V.P. She was only V.P. because Biden announced that he would pick a "black woman" to be his V.P. Both of his criteria had nothing to do with qualifications;"

That's both racist and misogynistic. What made Vance more qualified to be VP than Harris?