National Democrats are preparing for the very real possibility of swapping out President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee if he crashes and burns at next week’s first debate against former President Donald Trump.
Such a scenario remains unlikely, though not far-fetched, according to top Democratic insiders who spoke anonymously with the Daily Mail. As it’s told, President Biden would have to have a disastrous performance in the first debate, which his team has deliberately scheduled early in a bid to tamp down fears that the 81-year-old incumbent is not up for another four years in the job. If negative feedback from the debate reaches a fever pitch within their party, it would be up to some of Democrats’ top leaders to collectively force the president out of the race.
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“The only people who could force him out would be Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” one Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com. “It would have to be the four of them collectively.”
Other Democratic consultants, including Mark Penn and former Obama advisor David Axelrod, said it’s up to Biden’s team to follow through on their commitment to an early debate with a standout performance by their man. “They have deliberately thrown down the gauntlet for an early debate,” Penn said, “and I think that’s gonna be the point at which Americans judge: is he ready for another term or not.” Axelrod, who earlier this year publicly urged Biden to consider not seeking reelection for the good of the country, was sharply rebuked by the president in private.
One advisor told the Daily Mail that changing the Democratic Party’s nominee this late in the game is akin to trying to change the trajectory of the massive container ship that decimated the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The accident left six dead and several others unaccounted for.
Other observers said Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, and Schumer might be able to pull off the maneuver if they coordinate Biden’s stepping aside with a smooth Democratic National Convention in August and an elevation of an attractive alternative nominee.
“[A] vigorous young candidate — don’t ask me who — could win over the country with a single convention speech’ in August,” political columnist Joe Klein told the Daily Mail. In his scenario, this new savior would need to deliver a rousing speech similar to President Obama’s 2004 speech at the party’s convention, a moment that positioned him to run for the mantle four years later. Democrats’ shared hatred for Trump would be the glue that pulls in other party activists who may be disappointed by a plan to push Biden aside, he added.
So far, the individuals who could remove Biden from the race are doing just the opposite. Presidents Obama and Clinton have held joint fundraisers with Biden while Pelosi and Schumer continue raising money to win control of Congress next year in support of a Biden agenda. But every trip, stumble, misstatement, and other senior moments by Biden puts pressure on the four to consider the reality that their leader simply doesn’t have what it takes to avoid similar embarrassments when pitted against Trump on stage.
Charlie Spiering, the Daily Mail reporter who scooped the plan, joined Steve Bannon’s “War Room” to discuss the “Great Joe Biden Replacement Theory.”
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