OPINION:

Much like the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump just eight days ago, the announcement Sunday that President Biden is withdrawing from his reelection campaign was as shocking as it was unsurprising.

Indeed, these are tall times in which we live. For history’s sake, everyone should be keeping a good journal because you don’t want to rely on the political press to tell the actual truth about all this.

Here are the most pressing questions the White House must answer:

Who made the decision for Mr. Biden to withdraw from the race? Has he been informed? What guarantee do we have that Mr. Biden will not wake up in the morning having simply forgotten that this decision was made?

Who wrote the letter posted online announcing the decision? Is that his signature or an automated signature?

Why have no photographs of Mr. Biden writing or signing the letter been released? Why has the American public not been allowed to see the president at this momentous time in our nation’s history?

How severe is Mr. Biden’s purported illness? Why not release the actual result of his COVID test? Is he conscious? Is he cogent? What is his mental condition? These questions, of course, take on perilous importance given the recent revelations that the Biden family, the entire Biden administration and all the highest-ranking members of the Democrat Party have been lying to the public for years about his true mental condition.

How is Mr. Biden too enfeebled to run for reelection, yet still capable of being president? What proof can you share to demonstrate that Mr. Biden has the mental capacity at any moment to make decisions about nuclear war? Or arming our allies in Ukraine? Or assisting our allies in Israel? Does he, alone, have the capacity to make important decisions about the border or our economy?

If Mr. Biden made the decision on his own to quit the race, who convinced him? What changed his mind from just Saturday when he and his staffers were adamant that he would not bow out? What was the pressure these people used to convince him to suddenly change his mind?

If it was, as we have been told, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who directed Mr. Biden to quit, what other decisions are these people making on behalf of Mr. Biden? Are they also making decisions about foreign policy, the border and the economy here at home?

What has Mr. Biden or the Biden family been promised in return for his dropping out? Have any additional supporters stepped forward to pay the family’s legal bills beyond Hunter Biden’s so-called “sugar brother”? Is the “sugar brother” still paying the first son’s legal bills? How much has he covered for the younger Mr. Biden? What discussions were had between members of the Biden family and Democratic donors about bankrolling some kind of Biden foundation or any future Biden presidential library?

Democrats claim to care about “democracy,” yet have just forced out the clear choice of voters in the Democrat primary. What is the real reason for this dramatic repudiation of “democracy?” Is it because polling shows Mr. Biden would lose to Mr. Trump? Is it because polling showed the party’s down-ballot candidates would lose so badly in the House and Senate that Democrat Party leaders would lose all political power in Washington? Or, was it because Mr. Biden is too mentally enfeebled to run a campaign, let alone run the White House?

What will be the process for picking a replacement?

If Vice President Kamala Harris assumes the party’s nomination as appears to be the wishes of Democrat Party leadership, will she be allowed to pick her own running mate? If not, who will make that decision for her?

If, as polling now suggests, Ms. Harris does just as poorly against Mr. Trump after she snags the nomination, will she be forced out as well and replaced with another candidate?

Mr. Trump posted a good question of his own on Truth Social Sunday night: “Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin’?”

At least somebody around here actually cares about democracy.

• Charles Hurt is opinion editor.