While President Joe Biden’s decision to end his campaign was presented as a peaceful transfer of power, it was anything but. Now, he seems to want to have a few last words and, boy, is he having them.
First, he donned the MAGA hat at an event with firefighters for a 9/11 memorial. Granted, it wasn’t an endorsement at all, but rather Biden having fun with the crowd. Still, though, if Trump were truly the existential threat Democrats portray him to be, would Biden have donned what is essentially an SS-peaked visor cap?
Then, as Harris attempted to distance herself from the administration she is part of — her campaign is centered on offering “A New Way Forward,” after all — Biden began boasting that “she was a major player in everything we’ve done.”
For good measure, he threw Harris under the bus again when she claimed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hadn’t been answering her calls regarding disaster relief. Of DeSantis, Biden said, “The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said — no — you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well, and we thank you for it.”
There is also the fact that Biden, who promised to campaign for Harris, has not, in fact, been campaigning for Harris. Instead, he’s mostly been doing what he’s been doing for a large part of his presidency, which is staying out of the public eye and taking lots of vacations. For all the talk of ending his campaign to ensure his legacy, he certainly doesn’t seem to see a President Harris as part of that legacy.
While they project unity to the media, it’s no secret that there isn’t a lot of love between the warring leadership factions of the Democratic Party. Former President Obama and Biden don’t have particularly warm feelings for one another, nor does Biden feel particularly good about Harris, endorsement notwithstanding. According to an Axios report over the weekend, tensions are rising amongst both Biden’s and Harris’ staffs, leaving senior Biden aides feeling “wounded by the president being pushed out.”
The bonhomie is as much a show as is the vitriol displayed toward Republicans. In public, especially when there’s an election to win, Republicans and Democrats are bitter enemies. Once the dust settles, though, they tend to reveal they don’t hate each other that much.
That’s why Biden donning the MAGA hat, even if it was a moment of friendly retail politics for a campaign that was over, is telling, as is Biden’s seeming twists of the knife into Harris’ campaign. While elected officials will decry the other side as a threat to the nation, one that cannot be overcome if the wrong side loses the latest most important election in history, few of them seem to believe it.
Biden knows that Trump is not going to end the American experiment. As such, he may be ending his presidency not with an act of selfless service, but rather one of revenge.
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