By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
President Joe Biden won nearly 4,000 delegates in Democratic primaries and the backing of at least 14 million registered Democrats. But party elites, who often clamor in public about “protecting democracy,” subverted the will of their voters and ousted the sitting U.S. president from the race for reelection. On Sunday, the palace coup came to fruition: Biden dropped out of the race and quickly endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, both moves via social media. Over the past month, numerous reports have surfaced, most of them citing Democratic Party and Biden administration insiders, which confirm that Sunday’s events were an engineered coup.
The Debate
Although conservatives have spent the past three years raising concerns over Biden’s age and clear cognitive decline, it wasn’t until Biden took the debate stage on June 27 that Democratic voters were forced to agree. Next to former President Donald Trump, Biden’s frailty was undeniable, and his hoarse voice, rambling statements, and mumbled answers to questions could not be glossed over. Biden’s already-shaky popularity among Democratic lawmakers, executives, and voters began cratering and while some Democrats rallied around their president, a clear and concerted effort began to take shape calling on Biden to retire his reelection campaign.
Largely-left-wing Hollywood stars united quickly in calls for Biden to drop out, seemingly led by actor George Clooney, who had hosted a lavish fundraiser for Biden just weeks before the debate. Reports at the time suggested that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was encouraging congressional colleagues, especially those in vulnerable districts, to call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
The disastrous debate was held earlier in the election season than any prior presidential debate. The New York Post reported on Monday afternoon that Democratic Party leadership (which apparently does not include the sitting president) actually arranged the debate so early in order to give voters time to turn on Biden and coalesce around a new candidate. A Democrat insider close to the Biden family told the Post, “That debate was a set-up to convince Democrats that he couldn’t run for president.”
It worked. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey found that a majority (56%) of Democratic voters wanted the president to discontinue his run following the debate. Mainstream media outlets, which had long defended Biden and excused his dementia-like symptoms as nothing more than the results of a childhood speech impediment, suddenly turned on the incumbent and began asking what possible chance he could stand in a head-to-head matchup against Trump.
‘Purgatory’
A major concern for Democrats was how Biden, leading the Democratic ticket, would dampen voter enthusiasm and negatively impact down-ballot candidates. In the days and even weeks following the debate, Biden insisted that he would continue his campaign, claiming that he was the only Democratic candidate with the experience and charisma necessary to bring down Trump.
Biden’s own former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, described the weeks following the debate as “purgatory.” No matter the “contingency plans” in place, Democratic Party candidates could not — for the most part — openly deride Biden, in case they ended up stuck with him leading the ticket in the end. But neither could they encourage him to continue his run or support his candidacy too enthusiastically, given the negative impact he would likely have down the ballot. In short, Democrats needed Biden to drop out as quickly as possible.
According to a Politico report published early this week, Pelosi was among those who finally forced Biden to hang up his campaign spurs. “Senior Biden aides were bracing for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi … to go public this week and possibly even disclose Democratic polling clarifying Biden’s dire political straits,” the outlet reported. “Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way,” one Democrat told Politico. “She gave them three weeks of the easy way. It was about to be the hard way.”
Referring to Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, one House Democrat told Politico, “He got the message.” Referring to Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Democrat added that “the message” “was from Chuck, Hakeem, Pelosi.”
The New York Post reported that Biden was outright threatened: he was told that if he did not abandon his reelection efforts, Kamala Harris would lead a call to invoke the 25th Amendment, effectively removing Biden from the White House. Republicans had been calling for such a measure for weeks and would not be likely to object. In fact, it was at least implied that enough Democratic legislators had been marshalled to oust the president if the 25th were invoked.
The Inner Circle
The New York Post confirmed what conservatives have long suspected: Democratic Party insiders have known of Biden’s cognitive decline for years. One source told the Post, “When I saw him a couple of years ago, it was frightening. He was just repeating slogans and had no idea who I was.”
It has been suggested that First Lady Jill Biden and the president’s son, Hunter, have been softening the seriousness of the president’s condition in his own eyes in an effort to pressure him to continue campaigning. Following the debate, for example, the First Lady joined her husband on stage and cheered him on after his disastrous performance. “You answered every question, you knew all the facts,” she beamed. She immediately directed attention away from her 81-year-old husband, pivoting to accusations that Trump lied throughout the debate.
Hunter reportedly predicted a coup attempt of some kind and began attending both official and unofficial meetings alongside his father. Some Democrats have referred to Hunter as an “acting chief of staff” and “gatekeeper” due to his involvement in the White House and constant proximity to his father. “Hunter felt he [Joe Biden] was being set up and he was very concerned about his father,” the Post was told by its Democratic source. “These people, these officials were not on Joe’s side.” Politico corroborated, writing, “Jill Biden and son Hunter Biden in particular seethed against the top Democrats — including some longtime friends — who they felt were betraying a loyal party leader and public servant.”
Biden’s senior staff were also insular, convinced that the president could still win reelection. Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, senior adviser and campaign consultant Mike Donilon, and former Chief of Staff Ron Klain reportedly convinced Biden that he could still beat Trump. “Much of the campaign’s rank-and-file staff had grown frustrated with the senior officials leading the effort, especially Donilon, who kept a tight leash on the polling operation in particular and was seen by many staffers, not to mention donors and operatives, as shielding the president from bad data,” Politico reported. “When senior staff met to go over the new campaign’s new battleground polling at the end of this past week, there was no sugarcoating the results. Several aides suspected that Biden’s closest aides, in focusing primarily on national polls, had sought to avoid swing state data.”
Crowning Kamala
Even before Biden withdrew from the presidential race, top Democrats “had already begun working on contingency plans, aware that they would need to move with alacrity in the event of a change atop the ticket in order to comply with party rules and state laws around ballot access,” according to Politico.
That “change atop the ticket” was Kamala Harris. On Tuesday morning, Axios reported, “The Democratic establishment, with breathtaking speed, pushed a struggling President Biden out of his bid for reelection. Now they’ve virtually locked in Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee.” The outlet added, “Harris’ rollout was as well-choreographed as it was stunning, involving hundreds of phone calls by Harris’ team to senators, House members and governors.”
Politico noted that, in the letter withdrawing from the presidential campaign posted to Biden’s social media, there was “no mention of endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor as the party’s nominee.” But “a flurry of panicked texts and calls” resulted in “a second message clarifying that [Biden] was indeed backing Harris.” Politico continued, “Democratic lawmakers rushed to signal their support for her as the party’s presidential nominee. Speculation turned to a potential running mate. And after more than three weeks as the biggest story in American politics, Biden was already being relegated to playing a supporting role.”
According to Axios, 186 House Democrats, 43 senators, and 23 governors have already endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee. The vice president also spent hours, immediately following the announcement posted on Biden’s social media, phoning Democratic delegates. Axios wrote, “That push to gain commitments from a majority of the nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates across the nation quickly became a formality,” noting that Harris has locked in enough committed delegates to “clinch” her party’s nomination — all without winning or even running in a single primary. Axios pointed out that some Democrats had pushed for an open nomination process, but “Harris, Biden’s designated heir apparent, moved quickly to shut the door.” The New York Post noted that there had initially been a plan, after forcing Biden out, to rally delegates behind former astronaut and current Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and one source said that delegates will still be encouraged to back Kelly.
Now What?
Biden retired to his house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday night, after reportedly testing positive for COVID-19, despite having had a half dozen shots supposedly inoculating him against the virus. He had not been seen in public since then, leading many to worry even further about the 81-year-old’s health. At a campaign event on Monday, Kamala supposedly spoke to Biden over the phone. The Associated Press noted that his “voice sounded a touch gravelly.” During the event, Harris began to refer to Biden’s voice as a “recording,” before correcting herself.
On Tuesday afternoon, Biden’s presidential social media account announced that the president would be returning to the Oval Office to “address the nation … on what lies ahead” on Wednesday night. Also on Tuesday afternoon, video was released showing Biden boarding Air Force One in Dover, Delaware, en route to the White House.
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
