Democrats were thrown into a complete panic after Joe Biden’s poor performance in the debate against Donald Trump, leading to talk of replacing the president on the ticket.
Biden, 81, faltered and faltered in the first presidential debate, sounding hoarse and fumbling for words as Trump rejected his arguments.
Top Democratic leaders reportedly holding talks over whether or not Biden should continue his campaign for the presidency. Others suggested he should be replaced.
And it wouldn’t necessarily be Vice President Kamala Harris who would get the nomination.
Replacing Biden would not be easy either. He has the delegates to win the nomination and the only person who can decide to drop out of the race is Joe Biden.
There are already rumors that a joint dialogue between top Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Chuch Schumer and Barack Obama would be necessary to get Biden to consider it.
Democrats panic over Joe Biden’s debate performance
It does not appear that Biden is considering that option. He also defended his performance in the debate and dismissed calls for his exit from the race.
Biden, along with his wife Jill, stopped at a Waffle House in Atlanta to pick up some food for the plane ride to Raleigh, North Carolina, where they have a campaign event on Friday.
“I think we did well,” Biden told reporters traveling with him.
Asked about calls to drop out and whether he has any concerns about his performance, Biden said: No. It’s hard to debate a liar. The New York Times noted that he lied 26 times.
But is it possible to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate?
Yes, but it is complicated by the fact that Biden already has enough delegates to have won the nomination.
He has 3,894 pledged delegates and only 1,976 are needed to be the nominee.
Under party rules, delegates allotted to a candidate based on his or her primary victories are tied to their candidate on the first ballot at the convention. And that first ballot typically ends with a nominee.
So legally, Biden’s delegates have to vote for him.
However, if Biden were to withdraw, that would mean the nomination would be decided at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Their delegates would become “unpledged” and could vote for any candidate they wanted.
Vice President Kamala Harris would not automatically be the nominee or have ownership of Biden’s delegates because she was not on any primary ballot. Biden yes.
But she would probably be the favorite given her status as a running mate.
Democrats, however, could pick any contender, including any governor like California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois’ JB Pritzker and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro.
Or one of the people running in 2020: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
Vice President Kamala Harris would not automatically win the nomination if Biden withdraws
Democrats could choose another option, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California (left) or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan (right).
The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22. Each state sends a certain number of delegates to the national convention.
If Biden were to step down, the party would have to hold a series of votes among delegates until one person had the 1,976 delegates to be the nominee.
This would likely lead to a massive voting fight that would last for several days and dominate news coverage.
The last one-story flight was in 1968 and was such a disaster that many new rules were added to the party platform to prevent such chaos from happening again.
That year, Democrats were concerned that their deeply unpopular President Lydon B. Johnson might not win another term.
Johnson, under pressure from the party, decided not to run, but the front-runner for the nomination, Bobby Kennedy, was killed by an assassin in June of that year.
Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, and Eugene McCarthy had also run. Neither man had enough delegates to win the nomination in the convention’s first vote, which took place in Chicago (the same as this year’s Democratic convention).
The fight began and Humphrey eventually won the nomination. It was a huge controversy and riots broke out all over the city. Humphrey ultimately lost the general election to Richard Nixon.
The last brokered Democratic convention was in Chicago in 1968 and caused riots.
Things would be easier if Biden dropped out of the race after the convention.
If that happened, the party’s main committee would choose the candidate, avoiding a fight at the convention.
Under party rules, the Democratic National Committee has the authority to choose a new candidate if either member of the ticket (the presidential or vice presidential candidate) retires or dies.
Party Chairman Jaime Harrison would consult with Democratic leaders in Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and report his findings to the committee, which would have the final say.
Harris would not automatically rise to the top of the list.
