CNN Guest Slams Biden for ‘Defiantly Destructive’ Dare for Dems to Challenge Him at DNC: He’s ‘Playing Chicken’
Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols blasted President Joe Biden for “playing chicken” with congressional Democrats over his “defiantly destructive” dare that they “challenge” him in the convention if they want him to step out of the presidential race.
Biden sent a letter to Democratic lawmakers on Monday, reaffirming his commitment to continue his re-election campaign despite concerns about his CNN debate performance and capability to serve as president. He warned that discussions of replacing him undermine his strength in defeating Donald Trump.
In an impromptu phone call to MSNBC’s Morning Joe in the hour after the letter was made public, Biden signaled his frustration at talk he should drop out of the election race: “Challenge me at the convention.”
Reacting to Biden’s letter and interview, Nichols appeared on a panel alongside media commentator Brian Stelter on CNN Newsroom with host Jim Acosta.
Acosta asked the guest how a brokered convention, optioning new candidates to replace Biden, would help the Democrats “put the pieces back together again.”
The host said: “One of the things that I have been wondering all weekend long is if you do try to go to a brokered convention, if you do have a fractured convention, how does that help the Democrats at the end of all of that? And the president sounds as though, and he just said a short while ago, on one of the other networks: ‘Hey, okay, challenge me at the convention’. What are your thoughts on that? Could that possibly blow up in their faces? I suppose there’s another sign of thought that says, you know what, maybe it will invigorate the Democratic party and produce a candidate that can beat Donald Trump. What do you think?”
Nichols replied by unpacking the challenge laid out by Biden, accusing the president of “making it all about himself” and trying to “head off” his critics.
NICHOLS: But that’s what I mean about making it about himself. I mean, nobody wants to challenge. Again, I’m not privy to the conversations and the halls of the Democratic party, but I doubt that anybody in the Democratic party really wants to go and try to take down Joe Biden in the middle of a convention. You know, go to 3am with roll call votes and all that. That’s Joe Biden playing chicken and the letter that he sent this morning…
Look if things were going well and he really thought that he really had the support of the party, you don’t send out a Monday morning letter at 9am as everybody’s coming back because you think things are going well. That’s meant to head off all of the people that you think are about to call you or come to your office or send you mail. And the thing about a brokered convention, like I said, it’s just playing chicken. There are many other options.
If Biden decides that he really can’t carry the campaign or that he’s lost the confidence of his party, there are other options. There is running the country being president and deciding to open it to Kamala Harris and a future VP. There’s an open convention without Biden. There’s other ways to do this, but that was a non-starter. And, again, kind of a mean… I won’t say mean, but kind of an almost defiantly destructive thing to say. ‘Take me on at the convention.’ I mean, that’s not where we should be right now.
Acosta, laughing, replied: “I think we could all agree. He does sound feisty this morning.”
Watch above on CNN.
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