Still the likely nominee.
President Joe Biden speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Last Thursday the political world was rocked by a one-two punch delivered by Special Counsel Robert Hur who investigated the mishandling of classified documents by Joe Biden – mishandling that dates as far back as 1977 when Biden was a senator.
In his report, Hur said:
Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”
But he then dropped an election year grenade. He declined to recommend prosecution because of what Republicans have been saying out loud and what many Democrats have been saying behind closed doors. The president is in a state of serious cognitive decline. Here is one passage from Hur’s report:
He [President Biden] did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?”), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still Vice President?”)”
The report triggered an attempt at damage control in the form of a hastily called press conference. The presser only made it worse. Here is one passage in which the president couldn’t remember that it is Hamas against which Israel is fighting.
There is some movement and I don’t wanna… I don’t wanna… [long pause] [mumbles] …choose my words. There’s some movement… there’s been… a response… from… the, uh… the… the… there’s been a response… from… the opposition… but uh… it uh… [voice off camera suggests, ‘Hamas’]… yes, I’m sorry, from Hamas…”
Last week’s events have renewed discussions as to whether Biden will be the party’s nominee in November.
The short version is that unless Biden steps aside on his own, it is, as a practical matter, close to impossible for the Democratic Party to replace him.
In her memoir, former DNC chair Donna Brazile recalls that in 2016, following Hillary Clinton’s physical collapse at a Sept. 11 memorial event, she considered replacing Ms. Clinton on the Democratic ticket. She ultimately concluded, “I could not make good on my threat.”
Filing deadlines for most of the remaining Democratic primaries have passed. The primaries that are still open for candidate filing don’t hold enough delegates to make a material difference.
Changes to the DNC’s nomination rules would have to go through the party’s Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is heavily stacked with Biden allies. Current DNC chair Jaime Harrison is a longtime Biden ally who, for practical purposes, serves at the pleasure of the president.
To quote a story published at nbcnews.com:
…there is no mechanism for the national party to replace a candidate before the convention and certainly no way for them to anoint a chosen successor.
We must disclaim that it’s a long time until the Democratic National Convention in August. But at this writing, it appears that diminished or not, Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party nominee.
