Liberal Biden Skeptics Mock His Mumbling Response to Question About His Mental Fitness: ‘Like Han Solo Responding to Chewbacca’
President Joe Biden’s answer to NBC News’ Lester Holt’s final question during their conversation on Monday evening is doing anything but assuaging the concerns of Democrats who fear Biden is no longer a viable general election candidate.
“If you were to have- continue to run and be officially nominated, what happens if you have another episode like we saw during the debate?” asked Holt while Biden gave a broad smile and rolled his eyes to indicate his annoyance with the question.
Here’s how the rest of the exchange unfolded:
BIDEN: What happen- [inaudible]
HOLT: Yeah, what happens if you have another performance on that par, on that level?
BIDEN: I don’t plan on having another performance on that level
HOLT: Alright. Mr. President, it’s always good to talk to you, good to see you, thank you for making some time for us.
BIDEN: Sometimes come and talk to [inaudible] about what we should be talking about.
HOLT: Alright.
BIDEN: Okay? The issues.
HOLT: Always happy to talk.
The react to the clip was not one of relief in liberal circles.
“Want everyone who is mad at me for talking about the Biden nomination still to sit with this clip,” posited The Bulwark’s Tim Miller alongside the clip. “This is the gamble you want to take? With the stakes as great as they are? The risk is astronomical.”
“Lester Holt very smoothly interprets the guttural sounds as if they were coherent, kind of like Han Solo responding to Chewbacca,” observed New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, testing out some gallows humor.
Lester Holt very smoothly interprets the guttural sounds as if they were coherent, kind of like Han Solo responding to Chewbacca
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) July 16, 2024
“A complete pro,” agreed The Atlantic‘s Tyler Austin Harper. “He didn’t even twitch.”
In a pair of separate tweets, Chait called the interview “a good performance by Biden 2024 standards, which is to say, a D- by normal presidential candidate communications standards.”
“Asked what would happen if he gave any performance like the debate, Biden immediately uttered a string of nonsense syllables,” he noted.
Meanwhile on Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after Biden’s sit-down with Holt, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) shared a column from Chait headlined “The Democratic Party’s Strange Attraction to Defeatism.”
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SheldonforRI) July 16, 2024
In the piece, Chait excoriates Democrats from abandoning their effort to get Biden to step aside even though they believe he’s destined to lose to Donald Trump this fall.
“There’s no theory of national unity that requires Democrats to stand behind a president disliked by the entire Republican Party and most independents, unless the theory is to give up on trying to win the election and let Trump have it,” wrote Chait.
Watch above via MSNBC.
