If the Michigan governor’s remarks were conveyed accurately, she is the first major Democratic figure to inform Biden’s campaign that it’s already over.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer is standing behind Joe Biden — where she is apparently eager to drive a knife in between his shoulder blades.
Politico reporter Jonathan Martin revealed the details on Monday morning of a call the Great Lakes State executive made to President Joe Biden’s campaign chairwoman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, over the weekend in which she attempted to convey her undying loyalty to the embattled incumbent. Whitmer reportedly expressed her distaste with a nascent whisper campaign aimed at boosting her profile in the event Democrats throw both Biden and Kamala Harris overboard in favor of an entirely new presidential nominee.
And yet, as Martin notes, that call was brought to his attention by what he describes as “a potential 2028 Whitmer rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.” In it, Whitmer apparently informed the president’s campaign “that Michigan, in the wake of the debate, was no longer winnable for Biden.”
All the backbiting is noteworthy as palace intrigue goes, but Whitmer’s contention that Michigan is off the board for Biden (if that is what she conveyed to the president’s campaign) is far more remarkable. If Michigan is unwinnable for Biden, then so is the presidency. Indeed, the conditions that would deliver that state’s electoral votes to Trump almost certainly prevail in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and half a dozen other swing states. If Whitmer’s remarks were conveyed accurately, she has become the first major Democratic figure to inform the president’s reelection campaign that it’s already over.
Martin’s report is devoted primarily to the fascinating dynamic emerging within the party as both Biden and, increasingly, his running mate deflate before our very eyes. But the reporter couldn’t quote any Democratic source willing to refute Whitmer’s alleged assessment of the state of play in Michigan. Indeed, her allies are eager to reinforce the perception that “no one knows and understands” Michigan voters the way she does.
If Whitmer is right and there is no coming back for Joe Biden following Thursday’s unmitigated debacle, that should compel Democrats to take a leap into the unknown. The party would be diving into uncharted waters if it abandoned its presidential nominee at this late date, but the unfamiliar is surely preferable to all but certain defeat.