Interesting exchanges on Pod Virginia yesterday, following the Biden-Trump debate and what was widely viewed as a not-at-all-great performance by President Biden (although, obviously, Trump substantively just lied and lied and lied, said crazy/extreme stuff, etc., and by any other measure than *style* should have lost the debate). Asked whether they were a “Buy,” “Sell” or “Hold” on “replacing Biden on the ticket.”
Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington): “The debate was last night. I am a Sell on replacing the president of the United States who has had an incredible, some would say historic record of achievement post-COVID and…keeping the economy going with regard to everything he’s done in terms of the ARPA and…the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. And I think people should remember that Kerry won one of his debates, Barack Obama’s first
debate was not so great. And I would like to measure a man by the record of achievement that they’ve done while President the United States versus an opponent who, let’s be very clear, was lying every chance he could, sometimes two or three times in response to one question that he wasn’t really answering. And so, to say that from a stylistic perspective one person won and that should carry the day versus a substance perspective is problematic for me. We’ll see what happens over the next several months, but I am a Sell on replacing president of the United States.”
Del. Marcus Simon (D-Fairfax): “So I’m going to say for the record, because I got in trouble last time I took some controversial takes and I got in a little bit of trouble on Twitter – not that much trouble – so sometimes…it’s boring if we all say the exact same things…I’m going to be a little controversial here and…I’ll take the social stigma, but I’m a Hold…I’ve got to be honest with you, what we saw last night was not an
acceptable performance for the president. I don’t know what was going on. I don’t know if he had a cold, if he had the flu, if he wasn’t feeling 100%. And maybe his folks thought it was worse to try and cancel than to try and let him perform. But I mean, the eye test is the eye test; we all saw what we saw and there’s no use pretending that. Now that doesn’t take anything away from his record of accomplishments, but running a presidential campaign is not reading a list of accomplishments. And I think that this is something that Democrats sort of get sucked in this trap – we want to read a list of all the great things that we’ve done. Voters don’t respond to lists, they want to hear a story – and the story right now that is running about that debate is he did not look like someone who was up to the task. And whether that’s true or not, whether that’s a true story or not, that’s the story that’s in people’s minds. And if we can’t get that story out of people’s minds, we need to be open to the possibility – if he doesn’t recover, if he doesn’t get better; I mean, 80-year-old people sometimes get sick and they don’t bounce right back. So I’m I’m going to be a Hold. I love President Biden, love everything he’s accomplished. But he’s got to be able to do better.”
Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News): “Yeah, I don’t care if I get booed, I’m also a Hold…And it’s for very similar reasons [as Del. Marcus Simon]. But I think to be very specific, this answer is not directed at the president necessarily as the campaign. And so the president has a job of running our nation. I was just at the White House and we had a convening of state legislators on the things that we’ve been able to do in order to reduce gun violence across the nation. Amazing things. The man has done more than 40 executive orders, and this is a an issue that is near and dear to my heart. And I do believe that the future of the United States as far as gun violence prevention, civil rights, people being being able to have autonomy over their own bodies, all of that is it stake, so I’m not taking any of that away. But if we as Democrats cannot come together in order to sell that message, sell the truth of what has happened and the vision of what can happen with President Biden in the next term, then we are failing the country. And because there is so much at stake. And you guys know my story – I am youngish, Black, queer, neurodivergent. I do not know that I sleep more than three hours a night thinking about everything that is at stake. Congressman Scott was just talking about how if we lose this election, we’ve lost the Supreme Court for 20 years. Like this is not a joke. But if the people that we’re asking to vote are basing it off of yesterday’s performance, then we’re in trouble. If we’re able to come back and tell the story of what that man has done, what we as Democrats have done and what we will do, then OK, cool. But it hadn’t even been 24 hours, I’m not sure where we are as a party, as a nation, what the voters are saying just yet. So I’m going to stand on my Hold.”
P.S. For the record, I agree almost completely with that Delegates Simon and Price are saying. In fact, we most *definitely* need to be concerned – VERY concerned – given how much is at stake. We also need to have this conversation, even if it’s a difficult one, because the consequences of getting this wrong would be unimaginably bad. As for Del. Lopez’s comments, I understand where he’s coming from, but…nope, I’m much more with Del. Simon and Del. Price right now on this topic.
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