Rick Wilson’s Churchill-esque plea to Democrats about Biden's debate performance and beating Trump!

NEVER SURRENDER!

“Hold the line!” urged Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson on my SiriusXM show Friday in response to the calls for President Biden to step down as the 2024 presidential nominee.  A clearly worked up Wilson noted that many Democrats wonder how Republicans win?  Wilson—a former GOP strategist—explained, “Well, they hold the goddamn line. They hold the line!” (You can watch the entire interview below.)

What a contrast to the professional pundit and corporate media class demanding Joe Biden must drop out—and drop out now!  We saw that from the NY Times’s editorial board’s opinion piece Friday titled, “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race” to CNN pundits to some progressive political figures who I personally admire a great deal. 

No one is saying Biden did not struggle on Thursday. But the idea of in essence surrendering because of one bad debate is appalling.  And I say “surrender” because in our conversation on Friday, Wilson cited British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s famous “never surrender” speech to the British House of Commons on June 8, 1940.  At that time, France—along with Belgium and The Netherlands—had just been taken by the Nazis.  But as Wilson stated, “No one said, ‘Let's fire Churchill now because France got invaded and we're not going to be able to defeat Hitler.’”

That is when Churchill delivered his iconic speech telling the nation, “we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end.” The Prime Minister continued, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills,” building to a crescendo as he declared, “we shall never surrender!”

That is what Wilson is urging now against Trump, declaring in a very Churchillian manner, “You've got to never stop waging this war against Donald Trump. You've got to never stop fighting against Donald Trump”, adding, “If you stop for a minute, he regains his strength and will destroy this country!”

Wilson shared as a lesson for Democrats what if it was the other way around and Trump had a bad debate. Wilson explained, “If Donald Trump had gone out last night and crapped his diapers.  The Republicans would have said ‘this was the greatest debate in all time. Nothing has ever been more powerful than this debate.’” Adding, “They would have stood shoulder to shoulder, locked arms” in defense of the GOP nominee.

Wilson—as a person motivated by one thing which is winning—made a very practical point as someone who has worked on countless campaigns: “I love me, some Aaron Sorkin, and I love me some “West Wing.” But it’s fantasy land to think you can just change Joe Biden out for “Candidate X,” the charismatic, wonderful young leader.”  He added, “Oh, yeah. How's that? How are you going to do that? Show me how you do it, because that sort of thing is a lovely fantasy.”

However, Wilson—again who is solely motivated with defeating Trump--did note that it will be up to the Biden campaign to dispel concerns that the base and other voters may have in response to the debate. You can’t simply ignore what happened.

To that very end, Wilson explained that Biden took a big step in that very direction on Friday afternoon with his fiery speech at a large rally in North Carolina. The President was on fire as he acknowledged his struggles in the debate but told the boisterous audience, “And I know like millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up!” The massive crowd roared with approval.

I will also add that every single caller to my SiriusXM show on Friday—and I took a lot of calls—were 100% backing Biden. Their ire was reserved for the CNN debate moderators for failing to fact check on any one of his more than 30 lies.

But I caution my fellow Democrats to not attack other Democrats who are calling for Biden to step down. We all share the same goal of defeating Trump. Let’s not cannibalize our base. Obviously, it is ultimately Biden’s call to stay in the race or not.

However, as I wrote about on Friday, we will win in November because this campaign is not actually about Trump versus Biden. Rather the road to victory is framing the choice this November as Trump versus abortion, Trump versus democracy, Trump versus freedoms, etc.  

Wilson’s tweet on Thursday night sums it all up well: “Biden had a bad night. Also, Trump is an existential threat to democracy, the Republic, the Constitution, and our most fundamental liberties, in addition to being a fraud, a liar, a felon, a degenerate, a global embarrassment, and an ally of evil.” He closed, “Toughen up. Fight's on.”

Amen.

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