History will likely remember only a few things about President Joe Biden: His gaffes, his son Hunter, and his place in history as a bit of a political stop-gap. But, perhaps we should try to remember his utter reluctance, for no other reason than to recognize it any potential future candidates that we come across.
Biden didn’t want to run for President…not in the least. He was ushered into the fray late in the race, long after the Democrats had already had their semi-annual fight about Bernie Sanders.
And, to be fair the left didn’t really want a Biden presidency, either. They just wanted someone who could steal away enough midwestern, moderate voters from Trump as to make the contest at least competitive.
Now, a new book claims that getting Biden to run was a bipartisan effort.
On the night of the 2018 midterm elections, as a wave of anti-Trump sentiment swept Democrats to take control of the House, top Republican Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president.
“You have to run,” said Romney, the Republican presidential nominee Biden and Barack Obama defeated in 2012, speaking to the former vice-president by phone.
The same night, Romney was elected a US senator from Utah, a post from which he would twice vote to convict Donald Trump in impeachment trials.
Romney’s exhortation to a man then seen as a likely challenger to Donald Trump in 2020 will probably further enrage the former president, his supporters and the Republican party they dominate.
Romney has been a constant and consistent voice in the anti-Trump GOP, and it’s not surprising to see him beseech his own party to quash The Don.
