Chuck Todd: Republicans are stuck with Trump’s obsessions
To say the current political environment is a moving target is an understatement.
To say the current political environment is a moving target is an understatement. A steady state through the first six months of 2024 has turned into anything but since that fateful debate night in June. And if you think trying to steer a presidential campaign in this unsteady environment is hard, try running a House or Senate race.
A month ago, it was panicking Democrats down the ballot who were pushing hardest to persuade President Joe Biden to drop out. Biden said so himself in an interview with CBS News over the weekend.
“Polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race; it would have been down to wire,” Biden said. “But what happened was a number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in their races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race that would be the topic.”
This was about as transparent as anyone has been about the process to persuade Biden to step down. But let’s explain more about what Biden meant by “that would be the topic.” What was made clear to him, during the three-week campaign to persuade him to step aside, was that every battleground House and Senate Democrat was likely to be forced into the uncomfortable position of tossing their presidential standard-bearer overboard. That’s because Republicans were telegraphing in the early aftermath of that June debate debacle that every Democrat was going to have to answer for “hiding” Biden’s diminished abilities.
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