[WaPo] The top Democrats calling on Biden to drop out of the 2024 election

he is surprisingly thoughtful when he's not screaming

 

that's a great clip. That person would be a much more compelling candidate in 2024. Sadly that person is no longer here.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-trump-rally/#link-ZEJIEHPICNHDFPK6BAFJXTNFSM

35 min ago
Connecticut governor appears to back Rep. Himes’s call for Biden to step aside
By Maegan Vazquez
Politics breaking news reporter

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) responded Friday to the recent call by Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) for President Biden to exit the 2024 race, saying he and the congressman were “very simpatico.”

Himes called on Biden to drop out of the race Thursday night right after the president concluded his news conference held at the end of the NATO summit in Washington.

“We agree on an awful lot of stuff,” Lamont said of Himes. “Maybe we try and influence the decision in different ways, but I think we’ve come to the same conclusion.”

When asked to clarify if he’d like to influence Biden to step aside, Lamont responded, “I’ll leave what I said where I said it.”
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https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4770011-andrew-yang-joe-biden-historic-loss-2024-post-debate/

Andrew Yang predicts Biden heading for ‘historic loss’
by Lauren Irwin
07/13/24 1:05 PM ET

Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur who ran for president in 2020, thinks President Biden is heading toward a "historic loss" in the election, urging him to step aside.

Yang joined NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” Friday, where he said he thinks Biden needs to withdraw from the race before the Democratic National Convention kicks off on Aug. 19 in Chicago.

“I think he’s heading for a historic loss that is going to hand not just the White House but also the Senate and the House to Donald Trump,” Yang told host Dan Abrams.

Shortly after Biden’s poor debate performance sparked concern among Democrats about his ability to defeat Trump in November or serve another four years if reelected, a handful of Biden's 2020 challengers called on him to step down. Yang, who stumped for Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) in the 2024 race before he suspended his campaign in March, said the incumbent must withdraw from the race for “the good of the country.”

Yang's comments come after Biden held his first solo press conference of the year to conclude the NATO summit in Washington. During the presser, Biden said that his pledged delegates are “free to do whatever they want” at the convention, including nominate a new candidate, but maintained that he would stay in the race.

Yang said that was a “fascinating” development for Biden, since he has insisted that he is not dropping out despite the growing number of calls for him to do so.

“There’s been a lot of reporting that a lot of the delegates are like the general public and like voters at large who don’t think that Joe Biden can win,” he said.



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Yang is a classic Russian information operator

 

“ 'I think Joe Biden no longer has a path to victory and therefore if we want to win the election, Joe is not the guy to carry the ticket,' Walters said."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/biden-nomination-democrats-replacement/

Democratic executive committee member pushes plan to replace Biden
The proposal calls for a process for candidates to qualify as well as televised town halls before the August convention.
By Michael Scherer
Updated July 13, 2024 at 4:17 p.m. EDT
Published July 13, 2024 at 3:49 p.m. EDT

Former Oklahoma governor David Walters, a member of the executive committee of the national Democratic Party, proposed Saturday a process for replacing Joe Biden as the party’s nominee, if the president decides to step aside.

The plan calls for a 27-day process, beginning in the last week of July, that would require candidates to get endorsements from at least 40 members of the Democratic National Committee to earn a place in a set of nationally televised town halls. Those events would be held before the party’s Chicago nominating convention starting on Aug. 19. Convention delegates would then vote to choose the nominee, who would immediately announce a running mate.

“We do have the time to have a compressed certification process as is outlined in this and then have proper town halls to introduce these candidates,” Walters said about his plan, which he plans to distribute broadly. “I just think it would be an energizing opportunity to create a new narrative.”

Biden, however, has repeatedly said he will remain in the race, saying Thursday that he would only step aside if his advisers told him “there is no way you can win.”

Walters, who was governor of Oklahoma from 1991 to 1995, served on the Democratic nominating convention rules committee in 2008. He was elected by the Midwestern states to serve on the current DNC executive committee, a group of about 45 people who run the broader party business.

He said he drafted the plan with another DNC member, James Zogby, who put forward a proposal on July 2 for a similar mini-primary process that ended with a delegate vote at the convention.

Walters and Zogby both argue that Biden cannot win the general election and should step aside. They say he alone must decide how to proceed and this plan would not force him to drop out.

“I think Joe Biden no longer has a path to victory and therefore if we want to win the election, Joe is not the guy to carry the ticket,” Walters said.

“It’s entirely his choice, but this cannot go on much longer because the drip-drip-drip is hurtful to him, hurtful to the party, and hurtful to the future of the country,” Zogby said. “The dynamic is not going to change.”

“The primary is over, and in every state the will of Democratic voters was clear: Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for President,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “Delegates are pledged to reflect voters’ sentiment, and over 99% of delegates are already pledged to Joe Biden headed into our convention.”

The rules committee of the DNC plans to meet Friday to set a ballot for convention delegates, offering the choice of either supporting Biden or voting present, according to people involved in the planning. The committee is expected to set a date for that vote by early August, when a virtual meeting of the convention delegates would be held to officially make Biden the nominee weeks before the convention.

“I’d be surprised if they continue down that path,” Walters said. Zogby argued that even if that vote is set, the rules committee still can change direction if Biden announces he would not be the nominee.

Others have pointed out that DNC members have the power to name a new nominee even after Biden is nominated, in case he steps aside or is incapacitated.

Democratic strategists have argued privately in recent days that “earlier is better,” if Biden chooses to step aside to avoid a scramble at the convention and give time to vet a running mate. Many senior Democrats have also argued that the easiest path forward in that scenario would be a quick selection of Vice President Harris as the new nominee, though some have also argued that there should be some process to make clear that she was broadly selected by the party.

Because Harris is already on the ticket, she can directly take over the funds and operations of the Biden campaign, while other nominees would have to quickly build new operations.

Zogby said he has communicated with about 15 other members of the DNC who were supportive of his earlier plan for a quick and open nomination process to replace Biden. Under the new proposal by Walters and Zogby, the convention rules committee would announce a new process once Biden steps aside.

Candidates would have 10 days to get 40 endorsements from the roughly 450 DNC members, most of whom are elected by their state parties.

“[T]he 40 endorsements must include at least seven DNC members from each of the DNC’s four geographic regions,” the Walters proposal read.

Another 10-day period would follow, during which the national party would organize televised town halls for the approved candidates to make their pitches to the convention’s roughly 4,672 delegates. That group includes some party officials — superdelegates — who are barred from voting to nominate on the first ballot.

“Since it will require a majority of delegates to win the nomination, it is likely that more than one ballot will be required,” the document reads. “The excitement generated by this process and the attention it will be given would very likely provide a huge boost to the eventual nominee.”
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