Is this the letter that convinced Biden to step aside?

There are rare few quiet days in politics and lately we’ve had none of them. President Joe Biden has abandoned his campaign to win a second term in the White House, writing that “it is in the best interest of my party and country” to stand down. President Biden has been fast to endorse his current running mate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, for the nomination — calling his decision to pick Harris as his second in command “the best decision I’ve made.”

The president has faced growing calls from across his own party to step down after a series of suboptimal public appearances — but what finally convinced Biden to go? Well, Cockburn would point to a rather interesting letter from Congressman Jamie Raskin, published this week in the New York Times. In a rather public manner, the House member called on his leader to duck out gracefully, writing that “there is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics.”

Lauding Biden’s history in politics, Raskin went on:

You are a great politician, in the finest sense of the word. You know that politics in a democratic society is a place where nobility is a product of character and life choices, not of money, celebrity and social class or heredity and blood. As a great politician, you listen carefully to your fellow politicians and, most of all, you listen carefully to the people. Common sense, Tom Paine taught us, is the sense we have in common when we speak and listen and rigorously reason together. Common sense is the sixth sense we acquire together in strong democracy. And it is through the exercise of careful common sense you can empower us again to have faith in our capacity to carry on the great work you have begun.

And Raskin didn’t beat around the bush with his observations on Biden’s “mental and physical stamina” either, adding:

The hard questions that have been raised about your mental and physical stamina are not just medical and scientific questions now. They are also political questions because both political leaders and tens of millions of voting citizens have formed judgments based on the events of the last few weeks.

Strong stuff. Concluding, Raskin pleaded with the president to listen to those around him, writing: “Caucus with the team, Mr. President. Hear them out. You will make the right decision.” How curious. It seems something in Raskin’s words may have got through to Biden in the end after all…

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.