What we must do now

Robert Reich

Friends,

Trump swiftly reacted to President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign with typically nasty vitriol. Biden was “not fit to run,” “he wasn’t capable of being President,” “the Worst President, by far, in the History of our Nation,” who “just quit the race in COMPLETE DISGRACE!”

We all know that Trump projects himself onto his opponents. It is Trump who is not fit to run, is not capable of being president, is the worst president in the history of our nation, and is a complete disgrace.

No presidential candidate in American history has ever before rejected the outcome of an election on the basis of no evidence, or sought to strong-arm state officials to change voting counts, or orchestrated a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to overturn an election, or charged prosecutors, judges, and juries seeking to hold him accountable with acting at the behest of the president who replaced him.

No goal is more important than making sure Donald Trump never again comes close to the Oval Office.

Now that Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee, we must all unite behind her. She is the logical choice, given that she is Biden’s vice president. If he were to become incapacitated between now and January 20, she would automatically become president.

Trump and his Republicans already are claiming that Biden’s endorsement of Harris violates democratic norms because voters in the primaries chose Biden. Nonsense. For all practical purposes, voters chose the Biden-Harris ticket.

Nor is Biden dictating to his delegates that they support Harris. By endorsing her, he is showing his support for her. They may support someone else, although I do not believe they should.

Besides, if any party has violated democratic norms, it’s the Trump Republican party, most of whose members of Congress continue to support Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him and who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.

Trump and Republicans can be expected to mount or encourage legal challenges to Harris’s access to funds donated to the Biden campaign or independent expenditures made on behalf of Harris that had been earmarked for Biden.

Democrats should not be sucked into this distraction. Nor should the media. The litigation has no merit. Again, Harris was already on the ticket.

Meanwhile, it’s vitally important that Democrats remain united.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is reportedly talking with Democratic donors and officials about reregistering as a Democrat and running against Harris for the Democratic nomination.

Manchin is a man of no principles. He left the Democratic Party in May to register as an independent. He refused to support several of Biden’s key initiatives, especially on the climate. He announced in the fall that he would not seek reelection to his Senate seat at the end of his term, hobbling Democratic hopes of holding on to their Senate majority in 2024. Manchin would be a disaster for the Democrats and the nation.

More to the point, this is no time for internecine battles among Democrats. Precious little time remains between now and the Democratic National Convention and between the convention and the 2024 election.

We must unite behind Harris so she has time to introduce herself to the nation as the Democratic candidate for president, organize her presidential campaign, and select a vice president* — all the while mounting a sharp and sustained attack on Trump.

This means that:

Democratic donors who withheld donations while Biden remained the candidate must now turn on the spigots for Harris.

Chattering-class opinion writers whose columns and punditry drummed Biden out of the presidency must now do what they can to support Harris.

Activists who have devoted long hours to abortion rights, voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, labor rights, fighting climate change, fighting poverty, and seeking a more just and equitable society must now unite behind Harris.

Others who have only occasionally and haphazardly been involved in politics must now become activists — talking with neighbors and friends, knocking on doors, putting up signs, passing out literature — on behalf of Harris.

Now is the time for everyone who cares about the future of American democracy to do whatever we can to elect the one person with the best chance of keeping Donald Trump out of the White House. That person is Kamala Harris.

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*My recommendation for Harris’s vice president is Mark Kelly. Kelly is the perfect response to JD Vance. Kelly has served America as a U.S. Navy combat pilot, as a NASA astronaut, and now as a U.S. senator for Arizona. He is the son of two police officers. He attended public schools from elementary school all the way through graduate school. His wife, Gabrielle Giffords, was a rising member of Congress when shot and almost killed by someone who should not have possessed a gun, and she is now one of the nation’s leading advocates for responsible gun regulation. Arizona is an important battleground.

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