With the November presidential election just a few months away, many well-connected Democrats are banding together to oust President Joe Biden from the ticket.
The group of Democrats, who reportedly worked on previous campaigns as well as the Obama and Clinton administrations, was dubbed the unofficial Committee to Deselect the President by the founders of Axios.
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As Biden endured several tumultuous weeks after his first debate with former President Donald Trump, the founders have been speaking with key players in the Republican and Democratic parties for their “Behind the Curtain” column.
Although Biden and Trump remain fairly close in the polls, the incumbent has faced calls to resign as his age and ability to win have caused some concern.
On Friday, Axios founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen revealed that a group of “very connected Democrats” are trying to prevent Biden from being named the party’s nominee during the Democratic National Convention in August.
The unofficial deselection committee is trying to get Biden to withdraw from the race as quickly as possible.
To ensure this, the group of Democratic members is reportedly taking five steps:
- Commissioning surveys
- Lobby of former presidents
- Channeling Democratic Leaders
- Organizing donors
- Publicly pressuring Biden
These efforts appear to be widespread, with anti-Biden Democrats made up of former Obama administration aides, Clinton administration advisers, Democratic members of the Senate and House, high-profile donors, late-night talk show hosts, prominent opinion columnists, as well as Biden White House aides.
A key participant on the unofficial committee told Axios that there is no higher command in the efforts to remove Biden, as everyone involved has deep ties to former presidents.
“No one is more than one person away from everyone else,” the source said.
As part of this pressure campaign, sources told Axios that some major donors are trying to divert their funds away from the president and toward congressional elections instead.
Other measures included speaking on television or social media, as well as speaking to journalists or columnists, according to the report.
Actor and longtime Biden supporter George Clooney recently made a public call for Biden to resign, writing in the New York Times that the party needed a new candidate.
“I consider him a friend and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. Over the past four years, he has won many of the battles he has faced,” Clooney wrote of Biden.
“But the only battle he can’t win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the “big deal” Joe Biden of 2010.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Pick-up calls
While a group of key Democratic players banded together to keep President Biden off the ticket in November, many high-profile names have publicly called on the president to step aside from the race.
George Clooney
- “I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As vice president and as president,” Clooney wrote to The New York Times. “I consider him a friend and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. Over the past four years, he has won many of the battles he has faced. But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of we can.”
James Carville
- Former Clinton aide recently said CNN that keeping Biden as a candidate would be “a stupid choice for the future of this country”.
David Axelrod
- “President Biden is a historic figure, and a lot of that will be tarnished if he persists and loses this race,” Obama’s former chief strategist told Axios.
Stephen King
- “Joe Biden has been a great president, but it is time for him – in the interests of the America he loves so much – to announce that he will not run for re-election,” King said he wrote in X.
NYTimes Editorial Board
- “President Biden clearly understands what is at stake. But he seems to have lost track of his own role in this national drama,” the editorial board said. wrote earlier this week. “As the situation became more dire, he began to consider himself indispensable. He doesn’t seem to understand that he is now the problem — and that the best hope for Democrats to keep the White House is for him to step aside. “
George Stephanopoulos
- “I don’t think he can do another four years,” Stephanopoulos said on the streets of New York
Some also pointed to the lack of comments from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton as a pressure point.
Both former presidents issued a statement of support for Biden immediately after the debate, however, they have not reiterated it since.
“Silence is a very loud form of speech,” Clinton’s top strategist James Carville told Axios.
“No one is saying ‘come hell or high water’.”
At the same time, reports indicated that Obama expressed concerns about Biden’s ability to beat top Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
GROWING CONCERNS
News of this growing group of Democrats seeking to impeach Biden comes just one day after the president made several jaw-dropping gaffes during the NATO summit in Washington DC.
Speaking to a large crowd on Thursday, Biden began to introduce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky but accidentally called him by the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been terrorizing Ukraine for more than two years.
“Now I want to give the floor to the President of Ukraine, who has both courage and determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said.
The president tried to recover by saying: “I will defeat President Putin, President Zelensky”.
Later that same day, Biden confused the name of his vice president, Kamala Harris.
How could Biden be removed from the race?
Calls for Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign have increased since his poor performance on the night of the presidential debate on June 27.
After the debate, concerns about the 81-year-old president’s cognitive health were once again a pressing topic among the media and his allies in the Democratic Party.
What did Joe Biden say about his future in the race?
- Biden has remained defiant and rejected calls for him to step aside in the upcoming presidential election.
- The Biden administration was forced to deny reports that the president confided in a close ally that he was considering withdrawing from the race.
- In a July 5 interview with ABC News, Biden said that “no one is more qualified” to win the race than him, adding that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to resign.
- On July 8, Biden sent a scathing letter to DNC members of Congress who called on him to resign.
- “I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to defeating Donald Trump,” the president wrote.
- Biden began attacking “elites” in a live interview with MSNBCdaring any challenger to run against him.
How could Joe Biden be removed from the vote?
- Since the June 27th debate night, a growing number of congressional Democrats have called on Biden to end his re-election campaign.
- So far, five of the DNC’s 213 members of Congress have publicly called for Biden to drop out of the race.
- As Biden continues to emphasize his status in the upcoming election, many question whether the 25th Amendment should be used to remove him.
What is the 25th Amendment?
- The 25th Amendment to the Constitution states that the vice president will replace the president if he dies in office or resigns or if members of the president’s cabinet declare that the president is unable to discharge the duties of his office.
- Labor Secretary Julie Su, who would need to invoke the 25th Amendment, called the idea “absurd.”
When speaking to a journalist, Biden said, “I would not have chosen Vice President Trump to be vice president if she was not qualified.”
The mistakes went viral on social media, causing many to speculate whether the president would actually withdraw from the race.
But some experts say Biden needs to be replaced even sooner.
Former British Army colonel Richard Kemp exclusively told The Sun that Biden needs to be replaced in the role as soon as possible.
“He is not fit to lead the greatest superpower in the world, perhaps the only superpower in the world.”
For weeks, Biden has insisted he has no plans to step down in the race against Trump.
On Thursday he stated that he believes he is the “most qualified” to face the former president.
However, Biden said he would step aside from Harris to replace him if his team told him he could not fail to win.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
