Seymour Hersh posted an article on July 20 on his Substack platform, “A Presidency’s Bitter End,” on Biden’s (already obvious at that time) intention to drop out of the race. In it Hersh compares Biden to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who announced he would not seek another term on March 31, 1968.
Hersh wrote in his kicker that “Biden knows he has to go, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it.” Hersh talked with some of the major donors to Biden, who were angry and critical of the reasons for his decision. “‘Not one of the president’s key aides,’ he told me, ‘ever said one word to the donors’ about the extent of Biden’s disabilities prior to his revelatory debate with Trump last month. ‘It was as if the Democratic band was playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee” on the deck of the Titanic.’”
Hersh’s main point was the comparison with Lyndon Johnson, who, he writes: “who on March 31, 1968, told a stunned nationwide television audience that he would not run for re-election in November and would instead, eschewing domestic politics, focus on running the disastrous Vietnam war that he insisted at that late date, in what might charitably be called his own derangement, could still be won.” Hersh goes on with his point then, stressing: “The notion that Biden is capable of managing the disastrous American involvement in the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip until the inauguration of his successor next January 20 is just as far-fetched.”
