Back in 2020, there was a lot of speculation about Joe Biden's candidacy because of his advanced age and tendency to make gaffes on the campaign trail. Despite his mental and physical shortcomings, the media dubbed him a centrist candidate and a unifier and propped him up as the best-positioned candidate to defeat Trump. Was he the best Democrat to go head-to-head with Trump? Probably, but that doesn't exactly say much.
Still, it was practically an open secret that Joe Biden was just a Trojan Horse and that after serving for a few months or a year, he was supposed to resign for health reasons. But then Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate, and she ended up being more like an insurance policy for Biden to stay in office than a motivation for him to pack up and go home to Delaware after securing a modest presidential legacy. So the question went from "Will Biden resign?" to "Will he run again?" Early on, even Biden gave himself an out not to run again when he conceded that his health would be a factor in that decision: “If I’m in the health I’m in now—if I’m in good health—then, in fact, I would run again.”
Of course, Biden decided to run again. According to reports, he still believes that no other Democrat can beat Donald Trump. It's a fair assessment, considering the Democratic benchwarmers who are waiting for their chance to run. But four years later, all the concerns about Biden's age, physical health, and cognitive decline have only gotten worse, and upon his announcement, Republicans noted that given those factors, it was highly improbable that Biden would serve a full second term and that a vote for Biden was in effect a vote for Kamala Harris.
Republicans made the same case in 2020, but the potency of this claim is much, much stronger heading into 2024. Not only is Joe Biden four years older, and not only have his health problems been on full display rather than concealed with the help of a basement campaign, but Kamala Harris is the most unpopular vice president in the history of polling. Harris's polling has been so bad that some left-leaning outlets were begging for Biden to ditch her from the ticket and replace her with someone who, at the very least, has a charming personality or can formulate a coherent sentence.
The Kamala factor is a very big deal, and for months now, Nikki Haley has made "a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris," somewhat of a campaign slogan. Others haven't been shy to point it out, either. But Joe Biden literally handed this talking point to the GOP on a silver platter Tuesday night when he admitted he likely wouldn't have sought a second term if Trump wasn't running again.
"Folks, this is a big deal, this election. We’ve got to get it done—not because of me, and I mean that. If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win, for the sake of the country."
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It is incredibly rare for an incumbent president to choose not to seek reelection. The last time it happened was when Lyndon B. Johnson chose not to seek reelection, and he was only the sixth president in history to make that choice. This admission implies that Biden is very much aware he is not capable of handling the demands of the presidency and is only pursuing it again because that he believes he has to, to keep the White House in Democratic hands. Consequently, the concerns about a Trojan Horse candidacy, initially raised four years ago, now carry even more weight, reinforcing the argument that a vote for Biden is, in fact, a vote for Harris. If Biden wasn't sure about running before, why would anyone believe he'd want to finish a second term — assuming he even can?
Biden has enough problems going into 2024 without having voluntarily breathed life into the accusation that voting for him is a vote for Kamala Harris.
