When Biden Returns To Center Stage - 5/19/25

Joe Biden’s first campaign for president took place, albeit briefly, in 1988. It represents an extraordinary twist of historical fate to think that forty years later he would still be in a position to have an outsized impact on the outcome of the 2028 race. But it appears that may be the case.

Biden will not be a candidate himself, of course. Even though the octogenarian former president still believes he would have beaten Donald Trump last year had he stayed on the ballot, his recent public re-emergence provides persuasive evidence to even his most loyal defenders that the once vital and energetic politician is a much diminished figure. By the time, the 2028 primaries kick into gear, Biden will be watching from a safe distance.

But his fellow Democrats who have chosen to seek the presidency will not be nearly as lucky. In addition to their abilities to take on challenging questions about immigration, trade, climate change, and most notably, the incumbent president, those seeking the party’s nomination will be forced to answer even more difficult queries about Biden himself. More specifically, they’ll need to figure out how to address the physical and mental decline he experienced throughout his presidency.

An explosive new book with the provocative and conclusive title of “Original Sin” examines Biden’s growing struggles with age and health in excruciating detail. In the days leading up to the book’s release, the political community was consumed by its detailed and damning facts about how a president no longer capable of fulfilling his duties was protected by a small cadre of aides and family members. 

Republicans pounced. Political journalists strained to explain their own complicity and/or lack of awareness. But the most interesting reactions were the awkward prevarications offered by the nation’s leading Democrats. Most of them had presumably had ample access to Biden long before the disastrous debate last June that essentially required his withdrawal from the race. Therefore, they would have been in a position to assess Biden’s capabilities long before the rest of the country saw him flailing in his faceoff with Donald Trump.

The obvious, straightforward, but unanswerable question that these Democratic leaders face is deceptively simple: why didn’t you say anything? There is no good answer for any Biden supporter, but the challenge for an aspiring presidential candidate is especially unforgiving: If you did see evidence of Biden’s deterioration, how could you be complicit in the cover-up? If you didn’t notice that anything was amiss, were you insignificant or just oblivious?

The real answer for most of Biden’s defenders is that they knew how diminished he had become but felt that a limited but protected president was preferable to a dangerous and vengeful one. That is an acceptable response for many Democrats, but for someone who aspires to the presidency, this would be seen as a tacit admission of a willingness to put partisan interests and party loyalty above the country’s best interests. For voters who felt misled by Biden’s health prior to his withdrawal, it would be all but disqualifying.

The misrepresentations and deceptiveness of Biden and his allies, no matter how well-intentioned, have already provided Trump with gifts of incalculable political value. Kamala Harris would have faced an uphill fight even under the best of circumstances: the tiny 107-day window of opportunity that Biden left her was an impossible obstacle for such a cautious politician. (“We got so screwed by Biden,” is the book’s takeaway quote from Harris strategist David Plouffe.)

But the more enduring legacy of Biden’s decision is the political cover that Trump’s advisors now use to protect their boss on the frequent occasions that he is accused of his own dishonesty. No matter the charge against Trump, they can easily pivot to Biden’s misleading behavior and the excuses that his own loyalists offered on his behalf. The voters’ likely takeaway is that all politicians—in both parties—lie when it suits their purposes, and that their partisan cronies—in both parties—are always happy to cover for them.

The next Democratic nominee, whoever she or he is, will need to convince the voters that Joe Biden’s past is not as important as their futures. An even more important task will be to convince a cynical and disillusioned electorate that they should be willing to risk placing faith in their leaders again.