Reporter | Anjing
After the first televised debate with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the evening of June 27, 2024, US President Joseph Biden, who wanted to prove himself through the debate, suffered an unexpected crisis of confidence.
Pro-Democratic liberal media, including The New York Times and The New Yorker, took the lead in calling on Biden to withdraw from this year's presidential election for the sake of the United States. The Washington Post did not directly ask Biden to leave the race, but urged the 81-year-old president to "self-reflect."
A number of anonymous Democratic congressmen, financiers, and former White House officials took the initiative to be interviewed by the US media to complain about Biden's performance in the debate, believing that Biden should withdraw from the election for the sake of the Democratic Party.
Claire McCaskill, a former Democratic senator, said her phone was "blown up" by panicked Democratic lawmakers, staffers and financiers. Ted von Dyck, a former Democratic strategist, wrote in the conservative Wall Street Journal that not only Biden should withdraw from the race, but Trump should also withdraw from the race, "After years of anger and polarization, this country needs a fresh start." ”
In the face of the surging "persuasion" voice, Biden made it clear that he would continue to fight when he participated in the fundraiser last Friday. Last Sunday, Biden and his family gathered at Camp David, and people familiar with the matter revealed that Biden's family all supported Biden's continued candidacy.
Democratic Party core figures also expressed their support for Biden, and some big donors began to attack Biden's debate training advisers. And according to the rules of the Democratic National Committee, forcing Biden to withdraw from the election unless Biden voluntarily withdraws would trigger more serious turmoil within the Democratic Party.
Family members and top Democrats support Biden
According to NBC News and several other U.S. media reports, Biden went to Camp David last Sunday to gather with his family. Biden's family – wife Jill Biden, sister Valerie Biden and son Hunter Biden, as well as Biden's longtime friend and former Senator Ted Kaufman – are Biden's most trusted "think tanks." Biden decided to run in the 2020 presidential election after receiving support from his family.
According to people familiar with the matter, the entire Biden family agrees that Biden should continue to run and should not give up the "fight" because of a debate. Jill and Hunter have strongly called on Biden to continue running, and Biden's grandchildren are ready to participate in Biden's campaign through social media.
In addition, some family members expressed dissatisfaction with Biden's debate training advisers, believing that the advisers input too much information into Biden, resulting in Biden's poor performance in the final debate.
Democratic funder John Morgan directly posted on platform X, naming Biden's three advisers, Ron Klein, Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer, accusing Dunn and Bauer of cheating Biden for a long time and should be fired immediately.
Morgan described the trio's training of Biden as like putting a professional fighter who is about to compete in a major tournament into a sauna for 15 hours and then letting the boxer play. He believes that Biden's poor performance in the debate is entirely due to the overtraining of Klein and others.
Democratic bigwigs, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer, have also spoken out in support of Biden.
Both Clinton and Obama acknowledged that Biden did not perform well in the debate, while pointing out that the election is not just about the performance of the debate, but the idea of the candidates. Pelosi, for her part, said that it is almost impossible to have a normal debate with Trump, who is full of lies.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries also acknowledged that last week's debate was a setback for Biden, but believed that the setback was a setback for Biden's resurgence. Senator Rafael Warnock of Georgia and Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, both of whom are listed as potential Democratic candidates to replace Biden, supported Biden in interviews and argued that Biden should not drop out.
Senator Chris, co-chair of the Biden campaign, directly rejected calls for Biden to withdraw from the race, reiterating that Biden is the only person who can defeat Trump.
Biden himself also showed his intention to continue running at a fundraiser on Friday. Biden admits that he's no longer young, no longer a good walker, and doesn't debate as well as he used to, "but I know how to tell the truth, how to do the job." ”
It will be difficult to push back Biden
Although they have expressed unease in private, so far, the financiers have not publicly shown their intention to abandon Biden.
Last Saturday, the Biden campaign held a fundraiser in New York. The event was originally planned to host 100 people, but eventually more than 200 people attended. From the start of last Thursday's debate to Sunday, the Biden campaign raised $33 million, of which $26 million was donated to ordinary supporters, according to Biden campaign statistics.
While voters are unhappy with Biden's debate, there is no unanimous answer to who will replace Biden. A poll released last Sunday by consulting firm Morning Consult showed that 60 percent of respondents believe that Democrats should have candidates other than Biden in the general election.
But the poll also showed that the debate did not affect Biden's approval ratings, which are still slightly ahead of Trump's 44% with 45 percent. The Data for Progress poll also shows that only Biden is the only Democrat with a leading approval rating over Trump. Potential candidates to replace Biden, such as Vice President Kamala Harris and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, are all second to Trump.
The Democratic Party will hold a national convention in August to formally nominate Biden as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. If Biden voluntarily announces his withdrawal before the convention, any Democrat could be Biden's replacement, and winning the nomination would require the support of a majority of more than 4,000 party delegates.
This situation is bound to trigger a scuffle within the Democratic Party. Vice President Kamala Harris is currently seen as a hot replacement, but Harris is not doing well in the polls, and some Democrats are worried that her matchup with Trump is not a big deal. Conservative groups have also threatened to file a lawsuit against Democrats if they change candidates in violation of the results of the primary.
Democrats want to force Biden to withdraw from the election if he is unwilling to withdraw from the election, which will trigger more serious civil unrest. Theoretically, the Democratic National Committee could change the rules to force Biden out of the race. But neither party in the United States has ever taken action to force the party's candidate to withdraw from the election.
During the 2016 U.S. election, Democratic National Committee interim chair Donna Brazier considered forcing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the election. In his memoirs, Brazier said that Clinton's withdrawal was not only due to Hillary's poor health, but also because Clinton's campaign lacked the fighting power to deal with Trump.
But after careful consideration, she realized that it would be difficult to force Mrs. Clinton to withdraw from the election if she refused to leave the race, and that forcibly removing Mrs. Clinton would only make the Democratic Party more divided. Fearing serious damage to the Democratic Party, Brazier abandoned his plan to force Hillary Clinton back.