WASHINGTON: Secluded at his home in Delaware recovering from Covid and increasingly isolated in his own party, US President Joe Biden is grimly hanging in for the November 2024 election even as Democratic operatives who profess love and admiration for him are trying to prise the party nomination from him.
Biden is “absolutely” staying in the presidential race, the Democratic campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon insisted on MSNBC on Friday, calling him the “best person to take on Donald Trump.” The assessment is shared by very few people, and surveys and opeds are starting to point otherwise, causing more and more lawmakers and party operatives to urge the beleaguered President to bow out.
On Friday, four more lawmakers, including Congressman and constitutional scholar Jamie Raskin from Maryland and Sean Casten from Illinois (both heavily Democratic states from where they will get re-elected comfortably) urged Biden to stand down, their appeal prefaced by copious praise for his service.
Contrasting Biden (“a fundamentally kind, empathetic and decent human being”) with Trump (“a twice-impeached convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who has promised to be a ‘dictator on day one.’”) Casten nevertheless urged Biden to “manage an exit with all the dignity and decency that has guided his half-century of public service.”
“Politics, like life, isn’t fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation,” Casten wrote in an oped.
But with no strong alternative emerging and little public confidence in his vice-president Kamala Harris taking on the mantle, a stalemate has ensued in the party, with first indications of fissures that could result in an open primary at the party convention in Chicago next month, the first such free-for-all since 1968.
In fact, some lawmakers, notably Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, fear that if Biden is ousted from the nomination process, some of her colleagues would seek to jettison Kamala Harris too from the ticket. The Congressional Black Caucus and most Latino lawmakers remain strongly behind the Biden-Harris ticket.
If Biden decides to bow out, then his own preferred choice is Harris. He has implicitly endorsed her, saying several times that he wouldn’t have picked her as his vice president “unless I thought she was qualified to be president from the very beginning.”
But the handover is far from guaranteed. Unlike a resignation or departure during term from the White House, which automatically promotes the vice-president to the post, giving up the nomination (which in any case has not been formalized) does not automatically confer it on the running mate. The party will have to go through the political process that involves voting for by more than 3000 delegates to choose a nominee.
That process was expected to be a formality to nominate Biden. But if he drops out, then party stalwarts can first try and coalesce support around Harris, or someone else acceptable to a majority of delegates, before the DNC that begins on August 19 in Chicago.
If there is no consensus, then it will result in an open convention in Chicago where an actual, truly democratic process could unfold. In either case, there is plenty of backroom intrigue and drama in store for the party.
Biden is “absolutely” staying in the presidential race, the Democratic campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon insisted on MSNBC on Friday, calling him the “best person to take on Donald Trump.” The assessment is shared by very few people, and surveys and opeds are starting to point otherwise, causing more and more lawmakers and party operatives to urge the beleaguered President to bow out.
On Friday, four more lawmakers, including Congressman and constitutional scholar Jamie Raskin from Maryland and Sean Casten from Illinois (both heavily Democratic states from where they will get re-elected comfortably) urged Biden to stand down, their appeal prefaced by copious praise for his service.
Contrasting Biden (“a fundamentally kind, empathetic and decent human being”) with Trump (“a twice-impeached convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who has promised to be a ‘dictator on day one.’”) Casten nevertheless urged Biden to “manage an exit with all the dignity and decency that has guided his half-century of public service.”
“Politics, like life, isn’t fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation,” Casten wrote in an oped.
But with no strong alternative emerging and little public confidence in his vice-president Kamala Harris taking on the mantle, a stalemate has ensued in the party, with first indications of fissures that could result in an open primary at the party convention in Chicago next month, the first such free-for-all since 1968.
In fact, some lawmakers, notably Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, fear that if Biden is ousted from the nomination process, some of her colleagues would seek to jettison Kamala Harris too from the ticket. The Congressional Black Caucus and most Latino lawmakers remain strongly behind the Biden-Harris ticket.
If Biden decides to bow out, then his own preferred choice is Harris. He has implicitly endorsed her, saying several times that he wouldn’t have picked her as his vice president “unless I thought she was qualified to be president from the very beginning.”
But the handover is far from guaranteed. Unlike a resignation or departure during term from the White House, which automatically promotes the vice-president to the post, giving up the nomination (which in any case has not been formalized) does not automatically confer it on the running mate. The party will have to go through the political process that involves voting for by more than 3000 delegates to choose a nominee.
That process was expected to be a formality to nominate Biden. But if he drops out, then party stalwarts can first try and coalesce support around Harris, or someone else acceptable to a majority of delegates, before the DNC that begins on August 19 in Chicago.
If there is no consensus, then it will result in an open convention in Chicago where an actual, truly democratic process could unfold. In either case, there is plenty of backroom intrigue and drama in store for the party.