Oh, to have been a fly on the wall with Donald Trump on Sunday night when Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the contest to be the Democrats’ presidential candidate. While most of us probably breathed a huge sigh of relief that Biden had, at last, recognised he was not an asset but a real impediment to the chances of beating Trump in November, The Donald must have been incandescent – and I’m not just talking about his permatan.
Just days after his near Messianic appearance at a rally following the assassination attempt, many of his faithful followers sporting ear bandages in some bizarre show of solidarity, Trump was a man reborn after a brush with death. God had saved him, he was all for unity (for about five minutes), he’d named his running mate and was energised while poor old Joe was isolating with Covid. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Biden did the sensible thing and left the stage, endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris to take the baton for the Democrats’ nomination.
Trump despises women, and he will particularly despise Harris despite the fact that back in 2011 he donated $5000 to her campaign to be re-elected as California Attorney General.
Since Sunday, more than $100million has been raised to support her – a record breaking $81m of that in just 24 hours. Democrats are excited, rejuvenated and energised because, assuming Harris gets the nomination, the presidential contest will be between an elderly, rather unhinged man who seems to believe Hannibal Lecter is a real person and a smart woman, at least 20 years his junior, with an impressive track record in public service. As Harris herself said, as a state prosecutor she’s dealt with people like Trump. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Harris doesn’t appear to believe she’s entitled to beat Trump and also unlike Clinton, she will appeal to a wider demographic of black, younger and female voters. Trump’s campaign and his supporters will be vile. There’ve already been a slew of fake stories about her ethnicity and nationality, the fact she doesn’t have children and that she’s been a lousy VP but unlike a previous holder of that role, Dan Quayle, she presumably can spell potato.
Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, Keir Starmer’s first PMQ’s was almost an exercise in courtesy and restraint despite the Labour rebels who voted against the government on lifting the two child benefit cap and a snarky question from a Reform MP. The leader of the Opposition, Rishi Sunak was conciliatory and polite. One can’t help wondering if he’s quietly relieved knowing that an end to trying to lead the dysfunctional and factional Tory party is in sight while Labour are dealing with the mess he and his predecessors left behind. And what a mess that is, in almost every aspect of life – public services, infrastructure, and fiscal responsibility the Tories not only failed, they simply didn’t care while families, businesses, industry, local government, education, health and criminal justice services have paid such a heavy price. Starmer and his team face a nearly insurmountable task to get things back on track but they’re moving swiftly, bringing in experts and knowledge, assessing the damage and, perhaps most importantly if not a little controversially, by suspending seven Labour MPs, Starmer has set boundaries of discipline early on.
Parliament goes into summer recess next week but the work of repairing the damage goes on and we now have a much more interesting power play to watch in America than we did a week ago.
