The nation is still trying to wrap its head around the stunning turn of events that have rewritten the Democratic ticket for the Presidency. The speech Joe Biden gave in the Oval Office Wednesday night did little to assuage the confusion and disbelief people have experienced since he abruptly withdrew from the race on Sunday after weeks of steadfast denial that he would bow out. WOR White House correspondent Jon Decker has been covering Biden’s administration from day one; he appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to discuss the surreal feeling people- perhaps most notably, Joe Biden himself- seem to be having at the end of Biden’s time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“I thought it had to be one of the toughest speeches he’s ever delivered,” Decker told Berman and Riedel. “Think where we were exactly one month ago. It’s remarkable, the fact that, since that debate on June 27th, we’re at the point where he’s giving an Oval Office speech announcing, at least publicly for the first time after his bout with Covid and after that statement that he released on Sunday, that he’s dropped out of the race, he’s endorsed Kamala Harris, he’s moving off the stage, and this is the final six months of his presidency. Really remarkable what has happened just over the course of the past month.”
In the wake of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing Congress yesterday, Decker also expressed the uncertainty Americans now face as they become acquainted with the viewpoints of Kamala Harris and her nascent Presidential candidacy. “We don’t know her positions on a lot of different issues, and now is her time, in a very short period of time, just 100 days until the November 5th election, to find out if she has positions that are significantly different than President Biden, and [Israel] is one of them. Does she have a different position on the war in Ukraine? Does she have a different position as it relates to how to bring down the high inflation that we’ve seen over the course of the past few years? All of those things- she needs to provide that information to the public, and so does her eventual running mate, as well.”
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