Democrats and Biden’s team are freaking out in response to Joe Biden’s implosion during the debate on Thursday.
I wrote earlier about how the Biden staffers are freaking out about how bad it was. Even the NY Times Editorial Board is saying that Biden should step aside for the good of the country.
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STUNNER: NY Times Editorial Board Calls on Biden to Leave Presidential Race ‘to Serve His Country’
The real question is why are any of them acting like Biden’s incoherence is something new when it’s been ongoing for a long time. They just can’t deny it anymore, when it was on display for what has to have been one of the most high-profile and watched debates of all time.
But some Democrats are trying to circle the wagons and not dealing well with Biden’s performance.
Perhaps the worst reaction so far belongs to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).
She was at the airport in Detroit going up an escalator, when a man asked her whether Biden should step down.
“Should Joe Biden step down?” the man asks. “Congresswoman, why has the White House been lying about Joe Biden’s declining cognitive abilities?”:
She doesn’t say anything but shoots him with a bizarre look, and then appears to grab his phone.
That’s not a great look for a member of Congress, so the guy has a follow-up question, “Congresswoman, why did you take my phone like that?” He tells her she can’t grab people’s personal property like that. Someone else says, “Because she’s rude and disrespectful.”
That’s when it gets truly creepy. Kaptur turns around and starts circling him, “Who are you? Where are you from? What is your name? What is your name? Where do you live?”
He asks why she’s asking the personal questions; she responds because he’s asking her questions.
“Where do you live, what town?” she persists.
He says he doesn’t have to tell her, so she responds, “Then, I’m not answering you.”
But she does ultimately say, “No,” when he continues to ask if Biden should step down.
Then she asks him, “Who owns you?” and seems disturbed that he has questions written on a sheet of paper.
“Nobody owns me,” he replies. “
“They own you,” she insists, as she walks out the door.
Now, that’s truly a bizarre exchange. I get you may not like someone asking you questions, but when you’re a member of Congress, it’s part of the job. He doesn’t say or do anything offensive or threatening, and she shouldn’t be grabbing his phone because he dares to ask her questions. It’s a little scary when she’s trying to figure out where he lives.
In a statement, her campaign spokesperson Alexandra Wilcox said, “Itâs one thing to ask a question but an unknown man refusing to identify himself, forcing a camera in the Congresswomanâs personal space is another thing entirely.”
Wilcox claimed that he “still [did] not identif[y] himself or the organization for which he works.”
Kaptur has been in office for 41 years, since 1983. Maybe she doesn’t want to answer the question about Joe Biden because it hits home for her. Tough, that’s part of the job–not being creepy and grabbing someone’s phone.
She’s facing a tough reelection race, which Cook Political has deemed a “toss-up.” So, she likely doesn’t want to be put in the box of having to defend Biden. She has to fish or cut bait. If she thinks he should stay, then she deserves to be voted out for her poor judgment.
