Democrats are discussing a potential loophole that could be used to kick Biden out of the presidential race if he refuses to drop out.
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention are toying with the options they face if, by the time of the August convention, Biden has not already stepped aside or dropped out of the race altogether.
Politicians are considering a “loophole of good conscience” that would allow them to vote for a new candidate.
DNC delegate and political scientist Elaine Kamarck spoke with her fellow delegates on a Zoom call Friday morning.
She informed them of the “loophole” that would allow them to dismiss Biden if they do not have a “good conscience” about the promised election determined by primaries and caucuses.
Democrats are discussing a potential loophole that could be used to remove Biden from the presidential race if he refuses to withdraw.
Kamarck has been a member of the DNC Rules Committee for decades. She told the 50 delegates: “There is no such thing as Joe Biden releasing his delegates. And Joe Biden understands that.”
She said: “I don’t know why the rest of the press doesn’t get it,” according to The charge.
According to Kamarck, the previous rules required delegates to vote for whomever they had committed themselves to.
However, after the 1980 convention fight between Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, who was president at the time, the rules changed and now Democrats can rebel at any time.
Part of the rules, Kamarck said, is that the delegates chosen reflect the views of those who elected them, so they could break the rules if Biden no longer represented the people’s choice.
“We’ve never had a situation like this, where the primaries were over. The winner was very clear. And yet, something unfinished, whatever you want to call it, was discovered after the end of the primaries that made people seriously doubt whether their candidate should go ahead or not,” Kamarck said.
Kamarck is part of a new group, Delegates Are Democracy, and led Friday’s delegate call on behalf of the group.
The ‘loophole’ discussions come as a stream of prominent Democrats are calling on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
Calls for President Joe Biden to step down have reached so close to his inner circle that some in the White House know he “cannot” run in 2024 and want to grant him the “grace” to step down, top Democrats say.
Key figures in the 81-year-old president’s party want a new candidate on the ticket to avoid an electoral bloodbath against Donald Trump in November 2024.
More than 30 Democrats have called on him to resign and have begun making startling claims about his cognitive decline.
The West Wing is under enormous pressure to find a way forward and is now “divided” over whether Biden should step down, confidential sources say.
“Most people know. Some will say, ‘Calm down.’ But most will say, ‘He can’t do it, just give him a break,'” said Johanna Maska, a former White House press director under President Barack Obama.
“It’s very divisive. It must be difficult for everyone at the moment,” he told DailyMail.com.
On a day when 11 House Democrats and a growing number called on Biden to step back, she referenced a longtime aide who asked to “just give him the grace to make the decision himself instead of everybody coming out like that.”
It was unclear to whom delegates would shift their allegiance if Biden were removed from the list.