New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd slammed high-ranking Democrats for pushing President Joe Biden to exit the 2024 presidential race in what she dubbed a “coup” — and likened the machinations to the assassination of Julius Caesar.
In her Saturday column called “The Dems are delighted. But a coup is still a coup,” Dowd wrote ahead of Monday’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago where Dems are set to make their nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris official.
Dowd singled out former President Barack Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as part of the powerful coterie who played a major role in Biden’s decision to drop out.
She claimed prominent Democrats put on a display of “grandiose flattery” of Biden after “knifing” him and claimed that First Lady Jill Biden and scandal-scarred son Hunter Biden were “not fooled or appeased by” any of it.
Dowd also opined that Pelosi was wary to partake in the “bloodletting” but had no choice with the polls indicating that Biden would be crushed by former President Trump in November.
“As much as she cared for the president, Pelosi would never choose helping the House of Biden over helping her beloved House of Representatives. Their alienation of affection was clear in interviews she did to promote her new book, ‘The Art of Power,’” Dowd wrote.
“One of the most ruthless and successful tacticians in congressional history seemed sheepish about knifing her pal, and conflicted over whether to take credit. Et tu, Nancy? Biden must have thought,” Dowd concluded.
The journalist wrote that in July as the media reported that top Democrats were urging Biden to exit the race, a plot unfolded to convince the president to abandon his reelection bid – which he did on July 21.
“At some point, when the polls cratered, Democratic mandarins decided to put the welfare of the party — and the country — ahead of the president’s ego, and stop catering to his self-regarding fantasy that he was the only one who could beat Donald Trump,” Dowd wrote.
Dowd skewered Democrats for experiencing “euphoria” and “ecstasy” ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
“It’s going to be a glorious coronation — except that everyone’s mad at one another,” she wrote. “Top Democrats are bristling with resentments even as they are about to try to put on a united front at the United Center in the Windy City. A coterie of powerful Democrats maneuvered behind the scenes to push an incumbent president out of the race.
“It wasn’t exactly ‘Julius Caesar’ in Rehoboth Beach,” Dowd added. “But it was a tectonic shift and, of course, there were going to be serious reverberations.”
She added: “Even though it was the right thing to do, because Joe Biden was not going to be able to campaign, much less serve as president for another four years, in a fully vital way, it was a jaw-dropping putsch.”
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