Joe Biden decided to throw in the towel on Sunday, after months of doubts about his ability to stand for re-election. His calamitous debate with Donald Trump on 27 June, his state of health, his memory lapses and his frailty had led many of his supporters to call more and more openly for him to step down. In the end, the US President bowed to the pressure and lived up to the hype. In his letter, Biden states: “Although it has been my intention to stand for re-election for another term, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country that I step aside and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

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Tributes are pouring in, first from the Democrats, then from the rest of the world, because of the magnitude of Biden’s gesture, the colossal stakes for his country and for humanity, because opposite Donald Trump seemed to be heading straight for the White House, especially after the assassination attempt on him. The former President, who miraculously escaped the tragedy, is reinforcing his aura in his camp, and the photo showing him fighting while his face is bloodied in the middle of a swarm of Secret Service agents, contrasts with the feverishness of a Biden with a slow pace, inaudible diction and incomprehensible words. America, built on the image of a powerful and unsinkable country, has looked more like Trump in recent weeks than a weakened Biden.

Recently, I was explaining to a journalist friend, who asked me to comment on the rumours of Biden’s retirement, my refusal to discuss these subjects relating to age, even for public figures, and the physical decline that goes with it. It was with great sorrow that I read the mockery of Biden’s age and his blunders, such as calling the Ukrainian President ‘Putin’. That’s not my idea of political commentary, or of life at all. Also, I’ve always had a certain esteem for Joe Biden, his career, his seriousness and the tenacity of his battles despite the dramas that have punctuated his personal life. In 1972, having just been elected to the Senate and before even being sworn in, he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. For 36 years, Joe Biden returned home almost every evening on the Washington DC-Delaware train, to be with his two boys. The station where the train stopped in Delaware was renamed ‘Joe R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station’. In 2015, he lost his other son ‘Beau’ Biden, who died of brain cancer at the age of 46.

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Biden is a decent man, a progressive democrat, rigorous and open-minded, and a fighter for the progressive wing of his party. After four years in office, his record is considered positive by many informed observers. For example, Biden has supported higher wages for the middle classes and launched a vast green reindustrialisation plan. In this respect, he brought the United States back into the Paris Climate Agreement, which Trump had denounced. He managed to stem the tragic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, which was handled rather disastrously by his predecessor.  Biden has also succeeded in returning America to a form of serenity in its relations with the world. Unlike Trump, who, among other racist and xenophobic comments, considered African states ‘to be shithole countries.”

What I will remember most about Joe Biden’s historic decision is the responsibility expected of a statesman, who also heads the world’s leading power. He knew how to surpass himself, to go beyond his own idiosyncrasies to put his country’s destiny above all else. Aware of the danger to America and the world that a return to power by Donald Trump would represent, Biden decided to act. All the studies showed him losing out to the Republican candidate, a particularly dangerous man who was unfit to govern. Biden did not want to be a stepping stone for fascism and decided to be a bulwark against it. These words by the African-American actor Wendell Pierce express precisely what I think of Biden’s decision: ‘President Biden’s historic decision today was a selfless act of patriotism. He did what he thought was best for his party and his country. He saved this Nation four years ago, in the midst of a pandemic, an economic crisis and a constitutional crisis after an insurgency against the government. Today, we are stronger than we were then. President Biden’s legacy will be to save democracy from American fascism. For that I will be eternally grateful.’

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If Trump, enraged and more worrying than ever, is once again defeated, this time in November by Kamala Harris, we must not forget the historic decision on Sunday 21 July by Joe Biden, a respectable and estimable statesman. Whenever fascism is on the prowl, the Democrats see their responsibility indexed. They choose to collaborate or to face up to it. Biden has shown the way in the face of the fascist threat, and his side must be worthy of his sacrifice. In Africa and everywhere else, Joe Biden’s gesture must also inspire us to always be on the front line when it comes to fighting fascism, whose ultimate aim is to promote civil war.

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH