https://thespectator.com/politics/joe-biden-delivers-own-eulogy-white-house-address/
Joe Biden delivered a eulogy for his presidency and his political career from the Oval Office Wednesday evening. It was a sad, sluggish ending to a life in politics, decades in the Senate, two terms as vice president, and finally a single term as president.
President Biden needed to accomplish three things in the speech:
Explain why he decided to withdraw from the race after months of insisting he would stay in and after receiving 14 million primary votes;
Convince the country that he is still fit to serve the remaining months of his term; and
Promote the candidacy of his replacement atop the Democratic ticket, Kamala Harris
He certainly promoted Harris and indirectly attacked Donald Trump, effectively calling him a threat to democracy. But he did nothing to explain why he withdrew from the race and nothing to convince a worried country that he was still fit to serve as president.
He didn’t even try to explain why he withdrew. He simply quoted John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech that it “was time to pass the torch a new generation.” But quoting JFK doesn’t explain why Joe suddenly reached that epiphany last weekend, rather than a year ago, before he chose to run and cleared the field of other Democratic candidates. What changed? Biden’s speech evaded the question.
There are lots of plausible answers. It might have been his catastrophic debate performance, which convinced many Americans that he no longer had the cognitive capacity to lead the country. It might have been his dismal poll numbers, the lowest of any president since modern polling began (even before the debate performance). It might have been polling in swing states, which showed he was unlikely to win the electoral votes he needs. It might have been the intense pressure from elected Democrats and unhappy donors, some of it in public, much of it behind closed doors.
The best reporting says Biden didn’t jump, he was pushed. He was ousted in a back-room coup, led by Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.