As calls grow louder for President Joe Biden to step aside in his run for re-election, ceding the path to Vice President Kamala Harris or whomever the Democrats might nominate in his place, many members of his party are staunchly refusing to abandon ship.
In the 11-minute video below, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed what she characterizes as the machinations of Democrats who think switching Biden would be effective — or easy to do.
If you haven’t seen this, you need to. It validates what a lot of us have been saying.@AOC lays flat her backroom deal colleagues who want the President to step aside, but have no coherent plan to make it work after that. She also puts members of Congress on blast who’ve leaked… pic.twitter.com/aFXRfOxcab
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) July 20, 2024
The cratering of the Biden campaign — with people from Dem fundraising king Ari Emanuel to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to movie star George Clooney publicly calling on Democrats to replace Biden — began with his woeful debate performance on June 27.
That debate night blew up previously quiet concerns that Biden isn’t still able — consistently, at least — to effectively counter the fact-challenged narratives of his Republican opponent Donald Trump. (Data portray Trump as vulnerable and the least popular candidate in history to hold a lead over an incumbent at this juncture of a race.)
But despite the subsequent pile-on, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s loaded suggestion that BIden should consider his alternatives, the Biden ship-jumpers still only amount to about 20% of elected Democrats in Washington — and these 20% aren’t jumping across the aisle to Trump, just jumping up and down in fear that Biden can’t win in November.
Numerous big name Democrats remain publicly aligned behind Biden and notably no one from his inner circle or his cabinet has so far asserted publicly that Biden is a compromised candidate.
The Democratic bloc that continues to support Biden’s candidacy does so on the reasoning expressed succinctly by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Bill Maher’s show this week, when Buttigieg said simply: “The thing about Joe Biden is that he is really good at being president.”
BREAKING: On tonight’s *Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Maher challenged @SecretaryPete to join others in urging President Biden to step down. Pete Buttigieg’s response was resolute and passionate: “NO. I’m here because I believe in Joe Biden.”
Secretary Pete continued,… pic.twitter.com/qqKoggYvXC
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) July 20, 2024
It’s a small world at the top of the business-political pyramid, where money talks, and the Watergate whistleblower’s timeless advice (“Follow the money”) is a good way to find out who’s on what side of the Biden debate. (See a tweet about Hollywood mogul Tom Strickler below.)
But for all the suspicions about the motivations of those who want to move Biden out, they generally share a history of promoting Democrats and the Democratic agenda and they are, whatever AOC and Buttigieg believe, genuinely spooked by the debate version of Biden, and the likelihood it’s not the last time Americans will see the President stumble.
Bill Maher has just signed with WME (which was co-founded by Tom Strickler, who’s one of the mega-donors that is trying to get Joe Biden to step down).https://t.co/ExIwNnRc2G
— Atsilv (@ShadowN8V) July 20, 2024