Originally published at: Schiff Makes It Public - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Over the weekend, shortly before a gunman fired on former President Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told a crowd gathered at a New York fundraiser that if President Biden remained at the top of Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the party would suffer significant losses down-ballot. The fundraiser, which was in East Hampton, was private and the…
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Schiff: “I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump”
Shorter: “I’m not certain Biden will win.”
That is a phantom fear. Biden already won once, and now he’s the incumbent. Biden will win unless we cock it up.
If Schiff thought Biden couldn’t govern, that would be worth considering. But he didn’t say that.
There is no candidate on Earth who can satisfy the requirement of “knowing ahead of time that victory is assured.” None. It is the height of folly to push out the only person who has defeated Trump, who currently enjoys an incumbency advantage, who has spent the last 3.5 years fighting for every constituency in a way that will pay off at the ballot box.
If we lose, it will be because asshats like Schiff let their fears, their rich donors, and the chattering class trick them into fumbling the ball at the 1-yard line.
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I am so pissed off. The Democrats in the House and Senate had one job, and many of them can’t manage it. Their job was to back Biden and Harris and defeat TFG. And they are blowing it and playing into the hands of the TFG campaign. The campaign WAS an old guy vs. a moron. Now many Democrats are saying, yup, our guy is too old. Not worried about the moron winning at all.
Harris is a presumably competent choice for VP. The only job description for VP is to cast votes to break a tie in the Senate, go to funerals and be in reserve in case the President dies.
Look at LBJ. Vietnam may have been a disaster, but the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid. Truman. When he came into office he did not even know about the Manhattan Project. “Excuse me Mr. President, we are working on this weapon…” He made the difficult decision to use it. He desegregated the Armed Forces. He fired MacArthur.
The Representatives and Senators had one job, and they are blowing it!
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Schiff 's concern trolling is a serious mistake for his own political future.
Schiff may think that Plan B is a better option that Plan A but unless there is some way to reach Plan B without causing immense damage to our chances that is irrelevant.
So far all that these ‘allies’ who wish to dump Biden while showering him with praise have accomplished is to conduct a circular firing squad to the vast amusement of the GOP.
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Remember that our enemy knows that people like Schiff command a lot of respect. Organized Money knows it can get a weaker opponent if it tricks ~15 high-profile Dems into shitting the bed publicly. Schiff is in the crosshairs of a sophisticated influence campaign to trick him and others into bailing on Biden so that Dem voters won’t have the chance to support Biden.
Schiff got suckered. Maybe they appealed to his vanity, or his fears, or his campaign war chest. There are a ton of hooks. They just need one from each of a dozen people, and it’s over.
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As a relative tyro in this game I hate to accuse an accomplished pol like Schiff of misreading the room but honestly I believe he is.
I’m sure he knows what the Democratic big shots are thinking but they’re not the ones who are going to decide the election for POTUS: Biden has the requisite funds/organization and a few thousand people in each of four or five swing states are going to decide this (and a lot of them are not Democrats).
It makes me wonder if the main fear is actually downballot, that Biden has no coattails, but if so I can’t think of anyone that might replace him that could hope to do better. A kind of long-winded way of saying I guess that I am genuinely confused about where Schiff et al are coming from.
Not a good way to feel four months out I can say that for sure at least.
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What next, you ask?
Better link: Biden tests positive for COVID-19 in Las Vegas | AP News
Tested positive this afternoon, already had first dose of paxlovid.
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I thought Schiff was more judicious than this, it is disappointing.
I just don’t know what these people are thinking. Did they expect to steamroll Republicans when Trump was again made the nominee? No candidate is going to do that. Biden has some serious negatives. But, other candidates would too. If any of them expected an easy walk into the White House, they are not paying attention.
Not strictly applicable, but I put it here because it was always uncertain;
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Okay, now that there’s an Evening Memo thread, I’ll post this here:
I’m extremely disappointed in Schiff. This was not the act of a leader. This was the act of a saboteur. There’s a way to express doubts about the head of the party, and that’s privately with the head of the party.
Airing dissent in public, let alone dissent coupled with doomsday predictions, is divisive, feeds the opposition, and wrecks the party’s morale. And, unfortunately, it’s such typical behavior of Democratic leadership.
If we win in November, and I still strongly believe that we will no matter who our nominee is, so long as we put in the effort, it will be DESPITE Dem leadership, not because of Dem leadership.
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I was thinking about TV shows and movies about sports and their depictions of locker room speeches. They’re always melodramatic, but they do get one thing right: as a leader you have to remain positive for the sake of those you’re leading. Even when things are bleak, even when you’re facing impossible odds, you have to be a cheerleader. Current Dem “leaders” never learned that lesson.
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Joe will be OK. He has had covid before and done ok.
I had it back in May and did OK and I’m an old guy.
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How many do reckon will come down with COVID at the Republican Convention? How many will issue press releases?
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I understand the frustration, and outright anger. And I know this is an unpopular opinion here.
But keep in mind – None of this would be happening if Biden had not delivered (regardless of the cause) a masterclass performance in “how to fully embody your opponent’s primary attack against you” … for 90 minutes, in front of over 50 million Americans.
I saw an opportunity this year to persuade those in my sphere of influence in the red (used to be purple) state in which I was born to ditch Trump in this election, after voting for him in 2016 and again in 2020. That chance evaporated following the debate, regardless of what I say or point out now. I hear the same from others … people who put in the time and money and would crawl over broken glass to vote for Biden.
That isn’t Schiff’s fault or any other Democrat who has spoken out since. I don’t think they sold out … I think they have genuine concerns. I know I do, and I didn’t feel that way at all before.
There are a lot of mushy middle voters who have now checked out on Biden. Bluster and insistence that they ignore what they saw isn’t going to win them back, at least in the numbers needed to win this election. Another poll today bears that out, with upward of 80% of voters, including a majority of democrats, saying they don’t think Biden can function as President for another term.
It gnaws at my gut to feel that way, but I just don’t see how this plays out well. I would love for the next 3 1/2 months prove me wrong. I’ve never wanted to be wrong on anything as much as I want to be on this.
But I don’t think I am.
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Folks these days don’t seem to take precautions seriously. Covid can still kill, It’s a serious disease, I fould nothing pleasant about it when I got it in May. And I use a mask and Purell hand gel.
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I am among the shrinking minority (along with my wife and my sister) who have never come down with COVID. My daughter had it, as did my mother (who was 92 at the time) and I pulled nurse duty for both of them without getting it. Apparently, there’s a gene…
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It is fine to have this opinion. Your position is very different than Schiff’s position. Schiff is a Democratic leader, and Biden is almost certainly the nominee.
The fact is, Biden has negatives. He does not have a relatively high positive rating for an incumbent President from the public. It makes him vulnerable. That said, I do not see these Democratic leaders evaluating why with any clear precision. They seem to think if just some other person was there, it would be better. I can pretty surely tell you that is wrong. I just cannot figure out how they are so oblivious on this point.
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It’s amazing to me how many people (including Democratic office holders, the political press, and those posting here at TPM) launch endless missives trashing President Biden, perpetually batter his electability, and hammer on his image, reputation, and credibility nonstop – and then try to magically wave away all the lasting harm they’ve done to his re-election chances by uttering the magical incantation…“Well, of course, I’ll vote for him over Trump.”
As if that somehow takes back all the damage they’ve inflicted with their attacks.
(And if, G-d forbid, he ends up losing, they’ll be the first to self-righteously shriek, “I told you he couldn’t win!” – without the slightest bit of self-awareness about their own poisonous contribution to the outcome.)
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I called Schiff’s office for all the good it’s going to do. What I can’t believe is that they can’t see that this in house effort to attack the president is dragging him down in the polls. And the reason he’s not 10 points ahead is because republicans have gotten behind their guy and are not sabotaging his campaign. I’m not suggesting that his cult is that big but the mere fact that even the never Trumpers are silent is propping him up. You don’t see Mitt Romney, or George W Bush calling for him to step down. These Dems that are calling for him to step aside are doing Trumps work for him. I get it- they’re worried about the big donors. Once upon time Dems didn’t raise as much money as Republicans and we still won. If they would just shut this down, they’d see Biden’s numbers go up and the money will come back.
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