Opinion: Biden was deliberately pressured out of the 2024 race

Kevin J · 2024-08-22T00:20:06.004012+00:00

With Biden having dropped out of the 2024 Presidential race, there is some disagreement as to whether Biden dropped out of his own accord or if he was forced out by the Democratic leadership. I think "forced" is maybe a strong word, but I believe there was a deliberate campaign of pressure mounted by DNC leadership to leave Biden feeling like he had no choice but to drop out. Let's work chronologically through the events: June 27: Biden and Trump debate on CNN, Trump leads in the polls by about 0.2 points July 1: Trump's lead has grown to 1.4 points July 2: Rep. Lloyd Doggett releases a statement saying Biden should withdraw July 3: Rep. Raul Grijalva calls for Biden to "get out of this race" in an interview with the New York Times July 4: Rep. Seth Moulton said in a WBUR interview that Biden should step aside and "let new leaders rise up" July 5: Rep. Mike Quigley calls for Biden to "step down and let someone else do this" in MSNBC interview July 6: Rep. Angie Craig releases a statement saying she "[does] not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump" July 8: Biden sent a letter to congressional Democrats that he is "firmly committed" to staying in the 2024 race Rep. Adam Smith told CNN that Biden should "step aside" July 9: Rep. Mikie Sherrill released a statement asking Biden to "declare that he won't run for reelection" July 10: Nancy Pelosi says "it's up to the President" to decide whether to stay in the race, after Biden had already firmly declared his intention to stay in the race July 10: Rep. Pat Ryan, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, and Sen. Peter Welch all say in statements or interviews that Biden should drop out of the race July 11: Rep. Eric Sorensen, Rep. Scott Peter, Rep. Jim Himes, Rep Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Rep. Ed Case, Rep. Greg Stanton, Rep. Brad Schneider, and Rep. Hillary Scholten all call for Biden to drop out July 12: It is reported that major donors to Pro-Biden Super PACS are withholding donations totaling roughly $90M Rep. Brittany Pettersen and Rep. Mike Levin both call for Biden to drop July 13: Donald Trump survives an attempted assassination July 17: It is reported that Chuck Schumer had a private conversation with Biden urging him to drop out Rep. Adam Schiff released a statement that it is time for Biden to "pass the torch" July 18: Obama reportedly told Democratic allies that Biden should "seriously consider the viability of his candidacy" Sen. Jon Tester, Rep. Jim Costa and Rep. Zoe Lofgren call for Biden to withdraw July 19: Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Martin Heinrich, Rep. Gabe Vasquez, Rep. Sean Casten, Rep. Jared Huffman, Rep. Marc Veasey, Rep. Chuy Garcia and Rep. Mark Pocan all called on Biden to withdraw from the race July 21: Biden drops out of the 2024 Presidential race I think there are two clear observations here; There was a campaign from congressional Democrats to make public statements requesting a Biden withdrawal. Exactly how coordinated this was is up for debate, but I think the spacing of the statements suggests a level of coordination. We started off on July 1 with essentially one statement per day, with the number of statements per day growing as time went on. There were almost zero days without such a statement, aside from the few days after the Trump assassination attempt. I may have missed a few, but in total I'm counting 32 Democratic members of Congress publicly urging Biden to drop out. The Democratic leadership deliberately did very little to back Biden. In particular the refusal of Nancy Pelosi to confidently assert that Biden was staying in the race, only two days after he wrote a letter to Democrats announcing his firm intention of staying in the race, must have felt like a slap in the face to Biden. In addition, Obama having meetings with top Democrats and slipping quotes to the press about his concerns for Biden's candidacy were well placed to mount maximum pressure, the Obama story from July 18 was the nail in the coffin for Biden IMO. So... conclusion? I don't know if I have one really. If we decide to take for granted that this was in fact a coordinated effort from DNC leadership to oust Biden as the candidate, I am undecided on how unethical I think this is. I think there simply was a clash between the facts that (1) Biden stubbornly believed he was the best candidate to beat Trump, and (2) most congressional Democrats didn't agree, and this made it difficult for an open dialogue to exist about whether Biden might reconsider his candidacy, and the only option left from their POV was to mount pressure on him in a very public way. In hindsight I think we can say this was a good choice from the Democrats, given how well Kamala is polling.

Opinion: Biden was deliberately pressured out of the 2024 race - Citeful

Opinion: Biden was deliberately pressured out of the 2024 race

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