Do Democrats need a Nixon-like intervention with Biden?

The president was in deep trouble, and everyone seemed to understand it except for himself and a few zealous aides.

As the summer of 1974 wore on, it became obvious to all that the Watergate break-in and the subsequent widespread cover-up that followed had politically and legally ensnared President Richard Nixon in a trap from which there was no viable escape.

A growing number of senior Republicans feared Nixon was too isolated from reality and quite possibly misinformed by aides to rationally ascertain his dire predicament. For those reasons, and others, a few decided that an intervention at the White House was needed.

On Aug. 7, 1974, Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), House Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-Ariz.) and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) traveled to the White House to make it clear to Nixon that he faced all-but-certain impeachment, conviction and removal from office in connection with the Watergate scandal.

While Nixon may have been close to coming to that conclusion on his own, the intervention certainly accelerated the process. It was a process that ended with Nixon announcing his resignation the next night before the nation, effective noon on Aug. 9, 1974.

It is not uncommon for presidents to find themselves in untenable positions. Often, they can’t see the proper course forward because they are standing too close to the problem or are shielded from the negative fallout by overprotective aides.

This reality prompts the question: Has President Biden’s age and health put him in an untenable position regarding his 2024 reelection campaign?

While poll and poll shows that most Democratic voters don’t want Biden to run again, few elected Democrats will go on the record to say they believe Biden is too old to run.

That said, headlines like this one are becoming more common: “Senior Democrats’ Private Take on Biden: He’s Too Old.”

To that worrisome point, several Democrats I have spoken with recently (all former political operatives) feel the party has painted itself into a deep corner because many are now afraid to confront Biden even privately with the possibility that he may not be physically or mentally up to a very demanding reelection campaign.

It’s a campaign that starts with challenge from within his own party. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is beginning to grab the attention of more and more voters put off by the thought of a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024. A recent Fox News poll showed Kennedy already up to 19 percent support among Democrats. 

Like any challenger, Kennedy is already insisting that Biden agree to debate him. He no doubt sees such debates to his advantage. How many senior Democrats want Biden debating Kennedy, or anyone else for that matter?

For much of the 2020 campaign, Biden was kept out of sight and far from the prying eyes of the media and his political opponents. Will the Biden campaign try to replicate that strategy for 2024 by keeping the now four years older president hidden in the the White House basement? 

Any Biden challenger – whether in the primaries or general election – will demand that he debate. Even Trump, who seems inclined to skip any Republican debates, will demand televised confrontations with Biden.

Before such a headache-inducing scenario can become a national topic of discussion (fueled by multi-million-dollar ad buys from political action committees depicting Biden as too old), should a few senior Democrats travel to the Biden White House to stage their own intervention?

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) has been quoted saying: “He’s a president of great competence and success, I admire the heck out of President Biden. And if he were 15-20 years younger it would be a no-brainer to nominate him, but considering his age, it’s absurd we’re not promoting competition but trying to extinguish it.”

Indeed. All the more reason to stage that intervention — not to clear a path for Vice President Kamala Harris, but rather to give another strong democratic candidate the time to enter the fray before the cement dries on a Biden/Harris ticket.

Will such an intervention ever take place? We may never know until years from now. But if it does, history will remind us it wasn’t unprecedented.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He was special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.