{"id":2177748,"date":"2024-02-16T03:43:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T08:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-hur-report-kneecaps-the-biden-campaigns-2024-basement-strategy\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T03:43:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T08:43:41","slug":"the-hur-report-kneecaps-the-biden-campaigns-2024-basement-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-hur-report-kneecaps-the-biden-campaigns-2024-basement-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hur Report undermines Biden&#8217;s 2024 &#8216;Basement Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-hur-report-kneecaps-the-biden-campaigns-2024-basement-strategy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2177748&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>If Democrats were hoping to replay the 2020 \u2064&#8221;basement&#8221; strategy to get President Biden reelected this year, that\u200d hope\u200d is gone.<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>If Democrats\u2062 were previously hoping\u200d to replay the 2020\u200d &#8220;basement&#8221; strategy to get President Biden reelected\u200c this\u2063 year, that hope is gone. It vanished with the \u200brelease of Special Counsel Robert Hur&#8217;s\u2063 report on Biden&#8217;s criminal mishandling of highly classified documents.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To be sure, the immediate, short-term consequences of Hur&#8217;s report\u2064 are bad \u2064enough for Biden. The report officially \u200bconcluded\u2062 that\u2063 Biden suffers from diminished mental capacity at least\u200b in the colloquial, if not strictly legal, sense. Hur pointed specifically \u2062to Biden&#8217;s diminished mental state \u2062as\u2063 the reason for his\u200c decision not to prosecute. On top\u2062 of that, the report forced Biden\u200c to respond in a hastily assembled, same-day press conference. Biden&#8217;s performance in that press\u2062 conference\u200c only raised more \u200dalarms \u200cabout his mental faculties.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-582878620\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3feb0b2ecbe342ff03ec5d4d5992c5e7 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3feb0b2ecbe342ff03ec5d4d5992c5e7\"><\/div>\n<p>Yet the \u2064indirect consequences of Hur&#8217;s report\u200b may be even more difficult\u200d for \u2063the Biden team to deal with \u200bover the long term. In \u2063particular, the Hur report ended any chance that\u200b the Biden \u200bcampaign had of successfully deploying the\u200c &#8220;basement&#8221; strategy\u200d that hid Biden from \u2063the public&#8217;s view in 2020. Needless to say, \u2062the \u2064Covid\u200c excuse gave the\u200b Biden team the perfect cover \u2064to deploy that strategy last election. It won&#8217;t work now.<\/p>\n<p>Even before Hur&#8217;s\u2062 report \u2064was\u2063 released, the American \u200bpublic had been expressing an unusually \u200bhigh level of concern \u200dabout Biden&#8217;s fitness for office. A recent NBC News poll\u2062 found\u2062 that more than\u200d three-quarters, 76 percent, of American voters are concerned about Biden&#8217;s physical and mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Probably \u2063for this reason, the\u2063 Biden team had already \u2063begun to show signs that it was\u200d set on pursuing, \u2064at least to some extent, the &#8220;basement&#8221; strategy\u200b again this year. The most recent example was declining the traditional\u200c Super\u2062 Bowl\u2064 interview. Giving up free \u2063airtime to \u2062speak directly \u200bto an audience of 120 million voters\u200d is not something politicians running for reelection tend to \u200cdo. So of course \u2062there were \u200dmurmurings that Biden&#8217;s team declined the\u2062 interview because of Biden&#8217;s diminished state. But such murmurings were manageable then. \u200cNot anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Consider\u2062 the \u2064presidential debates. Prior to Hur&#8217;s report, Biden \u2063plausibly\u200c could have mitigated the \u2062usual negative perceptions associated\u2062 with debate avoidance with \u200brhetorical justifications such as: &#8220;We won&#8217;t give\u2064 Trump a\u200c platform for lies,&#8221; &#8220;Trump denigrates the debate process,&#8221; &#8220;Trump\u2063 wouldn&#8217;t give Haley debates,&#8221; and the like.\u2063 Even that strategy would not have been without hiccups. But Biden and his media allies probably could have managed to\u2064 keep any negative fallout from \u2062avoiding debates to a minimum.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1218ae552d14b98958941c39ca72531a fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1218ae552d14b98958941c39ca72531a\"><\/div>\n<p>Now employing that strategy would only\u2063 put \u2063the mental capacity issue front and center. Americans will conclude that Biden is \u2063avoiding the \u200bdebates \u200dbecause\u200b he is not mentally up to\u200c the challenge\u200c no matter \u2063what Democrats \u200dsay. It\u200b would confirm the view already held\u200c by most Americans that Biden \u2062is a feeble-minded old man.<\/p>\n<p>Biden&#8217;s team is in a lose-lose situation. Putting \u2062Biden\u2064 on\u2063 stage \u2063for a rigorous debate \u2063is virtually certain to \u200bexacerbate the public&#8217;s \u200bview \u200bof his diminished faculties. Not putting Biden on\u2063 stage for a\u200b debate\u200c also is virtually certain to exacerbate the public&#8217;s view of his \u200cdiminished faculties.<\/p>\n<p>Mental \u2062incapacity is\u200d a <em>suis generis<\/em> political issue. A president can have all kinds of other weaknesses and still survive\u200c politically by\u200b relying on other strengths. Mental incompetence is not one of those weaknesses. Biden&#8217;s team can&#8217;t\u2063 say, &#8220;Yeah, he&#8217;s mentally diminished but&#8230;&#8221; Biden \u200cand his allies must confront this issue by <em>emphatically denying the\u2063 issue exists<\/em>. Unfortunately for him,\u2062 Americans have already decided the issue does \u200cexist. \u200cAnd the Hur report confirms it.<\/p>\n<p>The only way \u200cfor the Biden team to\u2064 change public perception is to affirmatively demonstrate \u2062Biden&#8217;s mental \u200cfitness to handle the most difficult and demanding job in the world. The Biden campaign&#8217;s \u200bnew tactic of\u200d releasing short, prerecorded Biden clips\u2063 on TikTok simply won&#8217;t \u2064cut it. At this\u200d point, only\u200d repeated, lucid, rigorous, unscripted \u2064public performances by Biden\u200d can turn this issue around.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2e8b3c67cb697c55abf983e33680ce2e fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2e8b3c67cb697c55abf983e33680ce2e\"><\/div>\n<p>Quite frankly, watching\u200b Biden, that seems beyond impossible at this point. And the problem for Biden&#8217;s team \u2063is\u200c magnified because we are dealing \u200cwith&#8230; Biden. Biden has always been prone to bizarre \u2064behavior (e.g., \u2063sniffing hair) and verbal gaffes, even in his political\u200d prime. Now all these things, including\u2063 ambiguous behavior, will be construed against Biden&#8217;s mental capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Some\u200d Democrats undoubtedly\u200c believed their best campaign \u200cstrategy was to let Trump talk and to keep Biden quiet. Special Counsel Hur&#8217;s \u200breport buried \u200dthat \u2062strategy in the basement.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-cb6c42ce4f6969157c46734432b6ae9b fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-cb6c42ce4f6969157c46734432b6ae9b\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> How has the release of Hur&#8217;s\u200c report impacted the perception \u200cof Biden&#8217;s mental capacity?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  D mental capacity. On the other hand, avoiding debates altogether would only\u2064 further \u200breinforce the\u200c perception that Biden is unfit \u200bfor office.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the release of Hur&#8217;s report has shattered any hope the\u200d Biden campaign had of successfully deploying the &#8220;basement&#8221; strategy again. This strategy, which involved keeping Biden out \u2063of the public eye, worked in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Biden team used the pandemic as an excuse\u200d to limit\u200d public \u2064interactions and avoid scrutiny. However, with the pandemic situation improving and the \u2062release of Hur&#8217;s report, this strategy is no longer viable.<\/p>\n<p>The American public has already expressed their\u200b concerns about Biden&#8217;s fitness for office. A recent NBC News poll revealed that 76 percent of American \u200bvoters are worried about Biden&#8217;s physical and mental health. This level of concern is unprecedented and cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n<p>The decision\u200c to decline the traditional Super Bowl interview was seen as a potential indication of the Biden team&#8217;s intention to \u2063pursue \u200cthe &#8220;basement&#8221; strategy again. However, with the release \u200dof Hur&#8217;s report, the\u2062 murmurings about Biden&#8217;s diminished state are no longer\u2063 manageable. The public \u200dwill \u200cnow view any attempts to avoid public appearances, such as debates, as a confirmation of Biden&#8217;s mental\u2064 incapacity.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Hur&#8217;s report, Biden could have justified avoiding debates with rhetoric and political justifications. However, now any attempts to avoid debates will only put the mental capacity issue front and center. Americans\u200b will see it as a confirmation that Biden is unfit\u2062 for the challenge and incapable of \u2063engaging in rigorous discussions.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden team now\u200b finds themselves in a lose-lose situation. If Biden participates in debates, his diminished mental capacity will be\u2064 exposed. If he avoids debates, it will further reinforce the perception that he is unfit for\u200b office. Either way, the public&#8217;s view of Biden&#8217;s mental capacity will be \u200dexacerbated.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, the release of Special \u2063Counsel Robert Hur&#8217;s report has effectively\u200b ended any hopes \u200cthe Democrats had of replaying the &#8220;basement&#8221;\u200d strategy \u200dto \u2062get President Biden reelected. The report&#8217;s \u200dfindings of Biden&#8217;s diminished mental capacity have\u200c cast \u2064serious doubts on his ability to serve as president. With the American public\u2063 already expressing concerns about Biden&#8217;s fitness for office, the Biden team is now faced with a\u2064 challenging situation. Avoiding \u2063public appearances, including debates, will only confirm the public&#8217;s view of Biden&#8217;s mental \u2063incapacity. Participating in debates will expose his limitations. Regardless of their decision, the Biden team must address the public&#8217;s concerns regarding his mental capacity if they hope to secure his reelection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Democrats planned to use the 2020 &#8220;basement&#8221; strategy to reelect President Biden, that hope is lost. Special Counsel Robert Hur&#8217;s report on Biden&#8217;s mishandling of classified documents ended that. The consequences of Hur&#8217;s report are already negative for Democrats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2785,"featured_media":2177749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/53495171932_030fc4375c_o-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2177748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/53495171932_030fc4375c_o-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2785"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2177749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}