JOE CUNNINGHAM: The question Democrats won’t answer.

If President Trump were this existential threat and our democracy hung in the balance with the 2024 election, why did the party and its leaders continue to back such an unpopular sitting president most of the country thought should not have run in the first place? What does it say about a party if it knew ahead of time the consequences of a Trump election yet backed candidates who were almost predetermined to lose? Why, in the face of such peril, would no leader stand up earlier and ask, “Are we sure we are putting our best foot forward?”

The answer is simple but comes in two parts:

1. Trump was never an existential threat.

2. Having a meat puppet in the Oval Office suited Democrats just fine, each one figuring they could get whatever they wanted from the autopen.