San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday)
Biden dilemma echoes Feinstein situation
Democratic angst over President Joe Biden’s electability is echoing the struggle many wrestled with when Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s mental acuity was failing in her final years in office: How to humanely manage a respected party elder’s aging.
“Joe Biden just had his Dianne Feinstein moment,” one Newsweek headline declared following the presidential debate last month.
Only this time, in Biden’s situation, the stakes are astronomically higher.
In both cases, Democrats felt “a deep reluctance to challenge somebody or undermine somebody that they had affection for and thought had been important people in the party for some time,” said Eric Schickler, a professor of political science at UC Berkeley.
But now, Democrats are breaking ranks and speaking out about Biden “in a way that’s much more dramatic than what we saw with Feinstein, because the stakes are so much higher,” Schickler said.
In light of these two situations, Democrats may rethink how deferential they are to longtime candidates, Schickler said.
“Democrats have had the tendency to think, ‘Well, we owe it to the person. They’ve been good to the party, they’ve fought for the right causes over the years. Therefore, it’s kind of up to them to decide when to step aside,’ ” said Schickler, who is co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. “But a well-functioning party should also be thinking, ‘Is this person the best standard bearer for the party?’ ”
Here’s a look at the similarities and differences.
What’s similar
Anonymous concerns: Even in the last months of Feinstein’s life, when her physical abilities were visibly compromised — she often required a wheelchair and was flanked by staffers at all times — those who
spoke out about her declining faculties mostly did so anonymously.
The Chronicle’s blockbuster account of concerns about Feinstein’s health, as well as similar accounts in the New Yorker and elsewhere, were driven largely by parties who declined to speak on the record, denying the public the ability to fully vet the situation.
Similarly, a New York Times account of Biden’s recent lapses is attributed to “current and former White House aides, political advisers, administration officials, foreign diplomats, domestic allies and financial donors” — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A Semafor conversation published Friday aired concerns about Biden attributed to “a government official with regular access to the West Wing” who declined to disclose “the specific policy area they’d work on, no gender, age, or sexual orientation.”
The lack of details and context surrounding these accounts makes it difficult for voters to understand whether
they’re accurate, complete and/ or politically motivated.
In the case of Biden, however, some current and former politicians are beginning to openly call for him to leave the race, including Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Raúl Grijalva and former Rep. Tim Ryan. Their statements, however, have focused on the viability of his candidacy, and not on personal interactions they’ve had with the president.
In Feinstein’s case, Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna, Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called on her to resign after she had missed months of Senate business battling illness. Her extended absence, along with that of Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, made it more difficult for the Senate to confirm Biden’s nominees and pass legislation.
Discussion about their aging:
Calls for both politicians to step down weren’t the first time concerns about their ages were
nd aired.
A 2017 Berkeley IGS poll found that 56% of respondents
would support Feinstein’s reelection, but that dropped to 50% when they were told of her age. Her 2018 Senate challenger, however, then-state Sen. Kevin de León, rarely brought up age directly during the race.
Discussions over Feinstein’s mental acuity began during her last reelection campaign in 2018 and spilled out into public view beginning in 2020, first with a New Yorker article about her cognitive decline, and later in 2022, when the Chronicle reported that her memory was rapidly deteriorating. Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and a California Democratic House member said it appeared she could no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California.
Concerns about Biden’s age aren’t new. Polling has shown for months that Democrats, as well as independent voters, want someone else to be the party’s nominee, in part due to concerns about Biden’s age.
Just like de León was the only significant challenger to Feinstein in her last run, the party quashed any potential Biden challengers in 2024, except for the long shot Phillips.
Discussions about how age was affecting their job performance, however, hit a fever pitch after two clear incidents: For Feinstein, it came when the shingles virus sidelined her for several months in 2023, preventing her from doing her job, and for Biden, it was the dreadful performance during last week’s debate.
What’s different
The stakes: Perhaps the biggest difference between Feinstein and Biden’s situations is the risk inherent in a decision to step down.
If Feinstein had resigned from office, her replacement would have been appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. With the race to succeed her already underway when her illness was at its worst, Democrats had a breadth of candidates to choose from and a seat that hadn’t been held by a Republican in 30 years.
There’s no such assurance for Biden. The heart of the tension Democrats are grappling with is which path presents the least risk among many risky options — replacing the nominee at the eleventh hour for another candidate who themselves might not succeed, or sticking with a candidate many voters have lost faith in.
The impact on other candidates:
Though many politicians had opinions on Feinstein’s situation, whether she remained in the Senate didn’t have much impact on other races.
But many of the Democrats fretting over Biden’s viability aren’t just concerned about the presidency; they’re worried about their own futures. Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin decided not to campaign with Biden on Friday during his visit to the state, and many of the loudest concerns are being aired by House Democrats
whose success could turn on the top of the ticket. The battle for the House majority is expected to be extremely competitive, and Democrats will need to turn out voters if they want to take control — something that could be more difficult if Biden is still
running. Democrats are already facing a tough election in the Senate. Republicans only need to win an additional one or two seats to flip control of the chamber.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s handling: Pelosi was very protective of Feinstein, her longtime friend and Pacific Heights neighbor. When the Chronicle asked her for comment
in its 2022 story about Feinstein’s declining mental acuity, Pelosi said it was “unconscionable … she is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held.” Later, she said that attacks on Feinstein
nd had a sexist twinge, noting that elderly male senators rarely face similar scrutiny.
But Pelosi, who rarely publicly calls out fellow Democrats, has been more pointed toward Biden, a sign of how high the stakes are. After the debate, Pelosi said she thought it was “essential” that Biden do interviews with prominent journalists to allay fears.
Pelosi, the two-time speaker of the House, realizes that — unlike the Feinstein situation —
winning the White House and Congress are on the line in Biden’s case.