Exasperated Democrats try to stamp out talk of replacing Biden
Senate Democrats are feeling exasperated by their inability to stamp out persistent speculation that party leaders have a Plan B to replace President Biden atop the Democratic ticket due to concerns about his age and weak poll numbers.
They’re tired of hearing about the hand-wringing of Democratic voters and donors over Biden’s age and electability and sick of reading about Rube Goldberg-like schemes, some of them pushed by Republicans or conservative media, to shake up the Democratic ticket.
One Democratic senator feigned putting a make-believe pistol to their temple when asked about the prospect of yanking Biden off the ticket before the Democratic National Convention in August or the general election in November.
The senator, who requested anonymity, said stories about replacing Biden on the ticket sound “juicy” but are nothing more than a sign that political pundits have “too much time on their hands.”
“There’s no way in hell that’s true, not a chance in hell that’s true,” the lawmaker insisted. “I don’t know what to say.”
The senator said Biden has seen a small bump in the polls since a Manhattan jury convicted former President Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
“The latest national [poll] has him at 50 [percent.] I think that’s real,” the senator added.
Biden and Trump are tied at 40 percent in a head-to-head matchup, according to the latest analysis of recent national polls by FiveThirtyEight.com, but Trump previously had a small lead over the president for months.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said stories about Biden dropping off the ticket this summer or fall are simply “bizarre.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also poured cold water on the speculation.
“I’ve heard no credible Plan B and I’m not counting on a Plan B,” he said.
The Democratic senator said the Thursday debate between Biden and Trump “will be a really critical point” in the campaign and would set the trajectory of the race.
“All of the questions that people are asking right now will have different answers after this debate,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be a choice between the two of them. I think Biden is so much sharper, quicker, knowledgeable than even Democrats give him credit for.
“We all have moments when we can’t remember a name but that’s not what’s important about being president of the United States,” he said. “I don’t have a Plan B, I’m not looking for a Plan B.”
Democratic senators have insisted for months that Biden will be their nominee for president in November, and they feel confident he will beat Trump in the general election.
But that hasn’t stopped speculation from bubbling up in the media that there could be a last-minute overhaul of the ticket.
One Democratic fundraising consultant said that Democratic strategists and donors sometimes ask whether Biden will still be the party’s nominee for president in November, but the conversation usually fizzles out pretty quickly.
“If people mention that, if it’s talked about in settings, even if somebody says we need to have an alternative, it’s not really taken as something that seriously could happen,” the strategist said.
“You’re in a conversation with somebody, somebody says, ‘Do we have a back up?’ Something like that. Because, honestly, [Vice President Kamala] Harris is not really seen as ready for prime time,” the source added.
The Democratic consultant said there’s “zero” chance of replacing Biden.
Business Insider earlier this month popped out a list of the “7 Democrats who could replace Biden if he drops his 2024 reelection bid.”
That was followed by “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade asking Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who was one of the names on Business Insider’s list, in an interview Wednesday if he would be ready to replace Biden. Moore quickly waved away the theory and declared Biden “the best candidate for the presidency.”
Politico published a piece Thursday reporting that Democratic voters are enthusiastic about Democratic candidates but not about Biden, citing it as “another ominous sign for the president.”
Politico Magazine published an analysis in February warning “Democrats might need a Plan B” and offering possible scenarios.
Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant for former Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, wrote an op-ed for The Hill last month declaring: “Democrats can still jettison Biden as an ‘August Surprise.’
The Boston Herald reported this week that “a number of Democratic consultants are speculating that top party officials could be very quietly looking to remove Biden from the ticket before the convention and find a younger, more dynamic leader” like Michelle Obama.
The paper asked if Hillary Clinton, who’s kept her name in the news, might be “paving the way for Democrats to pick her as the presidential nominee.”
Journalist Piers Morgan hosted a lengthy panel discussion on his show “Piers Morgan Uncensored” about replacing Biden atop the ticket after airing clips of Biden seeming confused during a fundraising event in Los Angeles with former President Obama.
The White House later slammed the video clip as selectively edited “misinformation” to make the president look bad while Trump shared it on his media platform, Truth Social, with the comment: “Is this really who you want to be your President?”
The media speculation about Biden dropping off the ticket has been fueled by polls showing that a majority of voters think he's too old to be an effective president.
A New York Times/Siena College survey of voters nationwide published in March found that 73 percent of voters thinks that, including 61 percent of voters who backed Biden in 2020.
Kathleen Parker, a columnist for The Washington Post, this month suggested that Democrats could address voters’ concerns about Biden’s age by replacing Harris with former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee.
“Biden’s steady decline the past few years — his stumbles, his search for words, his occasional blank stare — have been impossible to ignore,” she wrote.
She argued that Harris is a “significant obstacle” to Biden because independents and disenchanted Republicans might swing for Biden if it weren’t for the prospect of a President Harris.”
Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democratic leader, however, panned the idea of Clinton running for president or vice president as implausible.
“No, I don’t think she’s likely to run again,” he said.
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) acknowledged that Democratic voters are alarmed over polls showing Trump has a solid chance of beating Biden in the fall.
“Everyone’s seen the polls and I think people are so alarmed that we could elect someone who’s kind of revealed themselves to be a demagogue,” he said, referring to Trump.
“Maybe he’ll only be a dictator for a day … but he’s revealed himself and I think people are very, very concerned about that,” he said. “People look at those polls and they’re nervous and anxious, but I don’t think there are any other alternative plans.”