US President Joe Biden attends CNN’s first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on June 27, 2024.
Marco Bello | Reuters
President Joe Biden’s hoarse, unfocused, often inarticulate and rambling debate performance sparked deep concern among Democrats – and led some commentators and fundraisers to openly call for a new candidate to take on former President Donald Trump.
But replacing Biden as the party’s favorite less than five months before Election Day carries enormous political risks and would be difficult, if not impossible, to pull off.
At the moment, Biden could only be replaced if he voluntarily ends his campaign.
And Biden’s advisers and top Democratic officials say the 81-year-old incumbent has no plans to do so.
If he leaves, Democrats will still need to identify a clear alternative candidate to take over.
But panic among donors and party officials after watching Biden falter in his debate against Trump on Thursday night has led some of them to take steps to knock Biden out of the race.
There is already discussion among Democratic fundraisers about persuading top congressional leaders – particularly Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – to push Biden to announce his withdrawal, according to people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity and spoke freely could.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (L) to the press after meeting with the Senate Democratic caucus during the Democratic luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2021 Winning support for its infrastructure and economic investment goals Washington, DC, July 14, 2021.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Schumer, D-N.Y., is a top target for donors making this pitch because he has privately expressed concerns about Biden’s ranking in presidential election polls, these people said.
Schumer was concerned before the debate that Biden and Trump were statistically tied nationally, despite the Republican challenger’s conviction in his hush money trial in New York.
A spokesperson for Schumer declined to comment to CNBC, but pointed to a social media post the majority leader made after the debate.
Schumer wrote in this X post: “Tonight’s debate made the choice clear: four more years of progress or four more years of attacks on our fundamental rights and democracy.”
“We must vote for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and a Democratic Senate and House!” the post said.
That turn of events did not ease the post-debate fears of some of the president’s top fundraisers.
Some of these wealthy donors have lost confidence in Biden’s team because they believe they were given false assurances about Biden’s ability to take on Trump.
And some of the donors who had already planned to attend a high-dollar fundraiser in Long Island’s Hamptons neighborhood on Saturday said they were attending the event to judge for themselves whether Biden can continue to be a viable candidate.
“Democrats are in a very difficult situation because the campaign for change is late,” Meena Bose, director of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University, said in an interview with CNBC.
The only possible path for Bose would be for Biden to throw his full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the new nominee.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about conflict-related sexual violence at an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC on June 17, 2024.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Otherwise, Democrats would have an open nomination fight just months before the Nov. 5 election, she said.
Bose called it a “catastrophic” prospect.”
“Vice President Harris is a risky choice but definitely has the visibility and is the logical choice,” Bose said.
“It’s hard to imagine how you can open the Democratic presidential nomination now and find a unified path to victory in November,” she added.
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But even if Biden supports Harris to replace him before the Democratic National Convention in August, there is no guarantee that the delegates he has won so far will transfer their support to her.
Biden has won almost all of the approximately 4,000 delegates pledged by the Democrats, far exceeding the threshold for the party’s nomination.
If Biden refuses to drop out before August, the only way to remove him as a candidate would be at the Democratic National Convention this month.
It’s technically possible that Biden’s delegates could then abandon him en masse and open the convention to the nomination of another candidate.
Some Democrats who want an alternative to Biden but are concerned about Harris’ relatively low polls and rocky campaign history include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker , and others considered as possible candidates.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) reacts as he speaks to members of the press on the day of CNN’s first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 27, 2024. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Marco Bello | Reuters
However, it is highly unlikely that Biden will be barred from the nomination as delegates are typically strong supporters of their chosen candidate.
“That’s probably the worst-case scenario,” Bose said. “If Democrats want change at the top of the agenda, President Biden will have to endorse it and, frankly, probably initiate it.”
DNC rules allow the party to select another presidential candidate, but only in “the event of death, resignation or disability,” leaving the position vacant.
At a rally in North Carolina on Friday afternoon, Biden acknowledged his subpar performance in the debate but defended his ability to win and serve as president.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden told a cheering crowd. “I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as fluently as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to.”
“But I know what I know: I know how to tell the truth, I know what’s right and what’s wrong, I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done,” he said.
“I know, as millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up,” he said. “I give you my word as Biden, I wouldn’t run again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job because, frankly, there’s too much at stake.”
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2024-06-28 20:04:18
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