Here is How the Dems Could Replace Biden Through an Internal Coup And who could replace him. by Daniel Greenfield
https://www.frontpagemag.com/here-is-how-the-dems-could-replace-biden-through-an-internal-coup/
I spent years telling skeptical conservatives that, yes Biden was going to run for reelection. Many didn’t believe it until he filed, became the automatic frontrunner, and had no opponents to speak of.
And while public perceptions of his state keep dropping, the Democrats have few options.
Sure, rank and file Dems could shift their support to Rep. Dean Philips, who is in possession of his full faculties and actually campaigning, but there’s zero sign of that happening. Instead, New Hampshire Dems wrote in Biden after he refused to even compete in their state in order to score a big hand-delivered win in South Carolina. (With 4% turnout.)
But here are the four scenarios ranked in order of probability.
1. Biden is the nominee – barring a serious medical breakdown, the frontrunner becomes the party nominee. – Most likely
2. Biden resigns – significant pressure is brought to bear on Biden, his aides and family members to get him to drop out – second most likely
3. Philips beats Biden – panicked by Biden’s poor polls and deteriorating condition, Democrats ignore the party and switch to Philips – least likely
4. DNC removes Biden – that’s the interesting ‘X’ scenario.- third most likely
Even if Biden does drop out, the results will be messy. It’s too late for anyone else to file to run. The only other candidate on the ballot is Rep. Dean Philips who has few allies and the Dem establishment is not about to let a dark horse whom they piled on win. They’d rather have Trump than Philips. (If you’re skeptical, think of all the Republicans who would rather have had Hillary than Trump.)
But what if Biden doesn’t drop out?
Let’s go back for a moment to Hillary Clinton’s fainting incident which was publicly dismissed, but privately was taken very seriously.
Then-Democratic National Committee head Donna Brazile considered replacing Hillary Clinton at the top of the party’s ticket last year after the presidential nominee appeared unsteady and stumbled following a September 11 memorial service in New York, Brazile writes in her new book.
As rumors swirled about Clinton’s health and the future of her presidential campaign, representatives of Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley contacted Brazile, she writes, apparently to offer their services.
“Gee, I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about?” Brazile writes about Biden.
Brazile writes that she considered several potential replacements for Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the vice presidential nominee, and concluded Biden and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., would be the strongest combination to beat Donald Trump in November.
Brazile, who was abruptly brought on to replace former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz during the party’s convention last summer, did not have the power to unilaterally remove Clinton and Kaine.
But DNC rules give the party’s chairman the authority to set the ball in motion.
“In the event of death, resignation or disability of a nominee of the Party for President or Vice President after the adjournment of the National Convention, the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee shall confer with the Democratic leadership of the United States Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and shall report to the Democratic National Committee, which is authorized to fill the vacancy or vacancies,” the party’s Convention Call states.
Furthermore, the DNC bylaws state the chair is the one to call “a special meeting to fill a vacancy on the National ticket.”
So there’s a provision and while Hillary’s health care scare proved to be just that, Biden is clearly on the decline and likely in an irreversible way.
The current DNC president Jaime Harrison is seen as a Biden loyalist, but Brazile was seen as a Hillary loyalist. Politicians have no real loyalties though and Harrison is where he is because of the same guy who got Biden nominated and that’s South Carolina’s Rep. Jim Clyburn.
Had Rep. Clyburn gotten to name Biden’s VP, then Joe should be filing for retirement. Either way though an internal coup is possible. And if things get bad enough, it’s a viable scenario.
Just as challengers rushed to contact Brazile during Hillary’s incident, you can bet that some ambitious men and women have Harrison and Rep. Clyburn on speed dial. Brazile considered ousting Hillary and trying to bring in Biden and Sen. Cory Booker. You have to wonder who is on the list now.
Everyone would want to avoid a floor fight (as traditionally democratic as it may be) and that means a rapid coup in which a new nominee and veep are put in and rushed through the process, but there’s no way to organize something like that with the sheer number of delegates without tipping their hand.
Gov. Newsom has hung around obviously hoping to be that guy, but I’m skeptical he would be the insider pick.
So what are the possibilities?
1. Kamala – this one’s pretty obvious. The most legitimate way of pushing Biden aside is in favor of his No. 2. Kamala has a thousand negatives and polls badly, but she is the vice president.
2. Gov. Newsom – he’s been shamelessly campaigning for it, he has the money and the name recognition. But a lot of the party viewed him as undermining Biden and he isn’t personally well-liked. Apart from the money and name recognition, there’s not much of a selling point.
3. Hillary Clinton – a crazy and suicidal move, but the Clintons had a hell of a political machine and who else do the Dems even have who can be the public face a presidential campaign on short notice? John Kerry? Jimmy Carter?
4. A Senate Democrat who isn’t currently running, but has run before
5. Oprah – I know there’s an obsession with the idea that Michelle Obama will run. Nothing is impossible, but she’s not especially likable, a good campaigner or even interested. Oprah however actually was interested.
A new report says Oprah Winfrey pitched Utah Sen. Mitt Romney on a unity presidential ticket ahead of the 2020 election.
Axios reports that in the upcoming book “Romney: A Reckoning” by McKay Coppins, Romney recalls Winfrey saying they could join together “to save the country.”
Romney said he shot down the idea because he thought it would only help then-President Donald Trump win a second term.
Oprah denied the report.
“In November 2019, Ms. Winfrey called Senator Romney to encourage him to run on an Independent ticket,” the spokesperson says. “She was not calling to be part of the ticket and was never considering running herself.”
In the upcoming book Romney: A Reckoning, by veteran political journalist McKay Coppins, Utah Republican Romney recalls receiving a call from the media mogul, who is a Democrat, claiming that they should form a unity ticket “to save the country.”
Whom do you believe: Oprah or Romney? I’ll go with Romney because he has no reason to lie and Oprah does.
Why even mention this? A DNC coup would be really challenging because whoever the nominee is will need to secure the support of a very difficult electorate.
The delegates are going to be Biden people handpicked by his allies to prevent something like this from happening.
A coup will require courting some of these power blocs.
1. The Sanders/Warren mob or the DSA allied Left
2. The Clyburnites or the Congressional Black Caucus allies
3. Latino, Asian, Indian, and other minority blocs. Some of the Hamas caucus in Michigan is reserving likely delegates for just this kind of scenario.
4. Your run-of-the-mill delegate who is a Biden loyalist, but wants Democrats to win.
So the nominee needs to pivot Left, represent identity politics while at the same time emerges as an unambitious uniter doing this for the sake of the country.
The Oprah talk is likely a fantasy, but no one else is really positioned to bump off Biden at the DNC level.
If the DNC does stage a coup, they may well consider past opponents like Sen. Cory Booker who might be seen as being able to unite the various factions. There’s a reason Donna Brazile wanted him.
As mentioned, the likely replacement candidate would be a Senate Democrat who has run before. (The gubernatorial bench is even thinner than the Senate bench and who isn’t too off-putting or polarizing, who is not a hard leftist like Sanders or Warren, but is capable of cutting a deal with them.)
In this kind of scenario what’s really valuable is acclamation. And that’s hard to come by.
The public is generally in a dark state and politicians who used to be icons, like Obama or Bill Clinton, have quickly faded. Michelle Obama is not the transformative superstar some imagine her to be.
Dems have flirted with the idea of a celebrity, even one with no political experience at the top of their ticket, to take on Trump. Oprah has been one name, Dwayne Johnson another and there are plenty of other options. If that were to happen it would be one of the craziest things to happen in American presidential politics since last week. If this were 1992 or 2012, I would say it’s impossible, but we left impossible in the rearview mirror a while back.
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