DEMOCRATS PRAISE BIDEN AS THEY PUSH HIM OUT THE DOOR. President Joe Biden‘s half-century career in electoral politics comes to an end Monday night in Chicago. It won’t be voluntary. The 81-year-old president had planned for this week to be the moment he accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for reelection. Instead, party insiders muscled him out of the race. He’ll get the gold watch on the first night of the Democratic National Convention and then be escorted off the stage.

All this will be done amid lavish tributes to Biden. The more central the insider’s role in pushing the president out, the more florid the praise. Eighty-four-year-old Nancy Pelosi, who told Biden he could either leave the easy way or the hard way — his choice! — is actually suggesting that Biden’s likeness be added to Mt. Rushmore. Others are falling over themselves to testify to what a great president Biden has been.

But if he’s so great, why did his party hustle him out the door? You won’t get the straight story from the podium in Chicago. In fact, the only safe bet about the convention is that no one will publicly tell the assembled delegates why the president they all voted for in the primaries is not the Democratic candidate. Yes, they’ll say things like Biden is “passing the torch” or that he is taking “selfless” action for his party, but they’re not going to say why Pelosi and others pushed him out. Indeed, in the month since it happened, neither Biden nor anyone in a high position in his party has leveled with the public about his forced exit from the race. 

At this point, it is important to say that it is quite clear Biden is not mentally or physically up to serving a second term, which would keep him in office until he is 86. Majorities of voters have said that in polls for quite some time. But the Democratic leadership, including Vice President Kamala Harris, strongly supported Biden despite those obvious concerns. They were OK with a man in Biden’s condition serving as president of the United States — OK, that is, until polls showed that Biden could not defeat former President Donald Trump. Then, something had to be done.

The best version of facts we can gather is that even before the disastrous June 27 debate, many powerful people in the Democratic Party were convinced, based on extensive polling data, that Biden would lose to Trump. They wanted to dump Biden, but the president was resisting furiously. The anti-Biden forces held off in the face of lingering Democratic loyalty to the president and because of uncertainty about who might become the party nominee were Biden forced off the ticket.

Then, to show his macho energy, Biden foolishly challenged Trump to a debate — his “Make my day, pal” moment was perhaps the most insanely wrong-headed taunt in American political history. And then came the debate. To say Biden appeared old and out of it would be an understatement. The contrast with Trump, who was alert and ready to debate, was striking. 

The Biden reelection bid did not last even a month. He became weaker with each new poll showing Trump leading not only nationally but in the swing states. So Pelosi and other top Democrats, such as former President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), moved in. 

Biden announced on Sunday, July 21, that he was withdrawing from the race. A few days later, on July 24, he made a televised statement to the nation. He did not concede that he was too old and infirm to serve another term. He did not concede that anything in his record would make reelection impossible. He said nothing about Pelosi, Obama, et al., twisting his arm.

So why did he quit? Biden suggested it was because of intractable opposition inside his party, which seemed a clear reference to the Pelosi faction. Maintaining that saving democracy is the great issue of this election, Biden said, “You know, in recent weeks, it’s become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing — nothing — can come in the way of saving our democracy.”

Was the Democratic Party really not united on the issue of saving our democracy, which most Democrats define as “beating Trump”? Was it so divided on the “saving democracy” question that only Biden stepping down would unite it? That seems hard to believe. In any event, Biden caved to Pelosi, Obama, and the others. “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said. “That’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. But there is also a time and place for new voices, fresh voices — yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”

Read carefully, Biden’s statement said: I’m in good enough shape to serve another four years. I deserve another term. But the group of party bosses determined to push me out cannot be moved. Therefore, I have reluctantly decided to pass the torch — not because of any problem with me but because a small group of insiders are dead-set on it.

Pelosi, Obama, and the others had to know that forcing Biden out of his reelection bid would inevitably raise the question of whether Biden is fit to serve as president right now and until Jan. 20, 2025. Indeed, it has. Perhaps Democrats hope heaping praise on Biden will somehow paper over the matter of Biden’s fitness to serve. But it won’t. Instead, it will intensify it: They’re ushering this man out of the reelection race, but he’s still fine to be president of the U.S.? There will be no explanations from the stage at the convention.

There are reports that Biden is still angry over it. How could he not be angry? What happened to him has never happened before. And it was done by people who supported his run for office for months and years when they knew full well he was losing cognitive ability by the day. It was perfectly fine with them until it wasn’t.

For her part, Pelosi knows Biden is furious. In an interview with the New Yorker, she talked around the question of whether she believes her relationship with the president will survive. “I hope so,” she said. “I pray so. I cry so. I lose sleep on it.”

Isn’t that touching. On Monday night in Chicago, the result of Pelosi’s work will be on display for the world to see. The sitting president of the U.S., under intense pressure from his party’s bosses, will forgo a run for reelection. Democrats will cheer and cheer and then quickly move on to Harris, the president’s instantly anointed successor as Democratic nominee. And no one will fully understand how it all happened.