The two powerful women keeping Joe Biden in the race
The power and influence of Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have increased dramatically in the wake of Joe Biden’s woeful debate performance, although for different reasons.
The power and influence of First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have increased dramatically in the wake of Joe Biden’s woeful debate performance, although for different reasons.
The two women hold the keys to the Democratic party’s immediate future amid growing calls from top Democrats and the influential left-wing media outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post for the president to drop out of the race.
Since the president’s frail, stumbling performance triggered a meltdown in the Democratic party, Dr Biden has emerged as her husband’s number one champion and perhaps the only person capable of convincing him to retire.
But the First Lady is not for turning.
The presidential couple arrived in the Hamptons on Saturday afternoon (Sunday AEST) for a series of fund raiser events at luxurious Long Island mansions, seeking to put a on brave face amid a deluge of demands from top media outlets including the New York Times for Mr Biden to step aside, a little over four months out from polling day.
After becoming an object of ridicule immediately after the debate on Thursday night – for publicly showering her husband with praise for his debate performance – Dr Biden, 73, doubled down on defending her 81 year old husband’s candidacy.
“Joe isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job,” she told donors at one of the donor events, according to US ABC.
“Anyone can tell you what they want to do, but Joe Biden can tell you what he’s done with his judgment, his experience, and his relationships with leaders across the globe.”
Dr Biden’s former husband Bill Stevenson – the pair divorced in 1975 – joined a chorus of condemnation of her on Saturday, telling the New York Post his former wife was “not the same person I married or that I recognise in any way”.
“I just don’t understand why she is so adamant about defending him and keeping him in the race since it appears that he’s struggling,” Mr Stevenson, who since married and has his own family, told the Post. “It appears that he’s struggling with everybody these days”
Vice President Harris, who has continued to publicly support the president, remains the most logical heir apparent should the president decide not to run for re-election, for all the chatter about replacing Mr Biden with a Democrat governor, perhaps California’s Gavin Newsom or Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer.
The Australian government is already doing its best to woo the rising governors. US Ambassador Kevin Rudd has met with both Mr Newsom and Illinois’s billionaire governor J.B. Pritzker.
And he’s met several times with Ms Whitmer. Only last month the ambassador and former prime minister was sitting down with the Michigan leader and getting happy snaps for his social media.
“In Lansing today for lunch with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, or ‘Big Gretch’ to Michiganders!
The trio of governors are getting a lot of attention from Dr Rudd and beyond because of Ms Harris’s unpopularity.
The president’s number two would lose an election against Donald Trump according to the two most recent polls that have canvassed the hypothetical match up, by six points according to the New York Times/Sienna poll in February, and five points according to a November Fox News poll.
That’s a bigger shortfall than between Trump and Biden, about three points apart in most national polls, but not as large as that between the former president and the other leading possibilities to replace Mr Biden.
But Ms Harris has a big advantage – money. US campaign finance laws would prevent those contributions being redirected to any other candidate selected by the party except for Ms Harris, who as Vice President is already listed on the Democrat ticket, putting any new candidate hundreds of millions of dollars behind the Trump campaign.
Mr Newsom, the second term governor the biggest US state, would lose to Mr Trump by 17 points according to a March Rasmussen Reports survey. A February Emerson College poll put him 10 percentage points behind. The other options, Michigan’s Whitmer or Illinois’s JB Pritzker, fair even worse
The Democratic Party has been plunged into crisis since the debate, torn between sticking with the incumbent president, whose campaign has already amassed almost US$200 million in campaign funds, or rolling the dice on a new candidate who could be selected at the party’s August convention in Chicago should Mr Biden step aside.
Based on current polling, It’s not clear whether Harris would prefer a greater chance of being vice president again for four years or a lower chance of being president in her own right..
Joe Biden’s chance of being re-elected president plunged from 36 per cent before the debate to 21 per cent on Saturday, according to an average of eight political betting markets tracked by RealClear Politics (compared with 55 per cent for Donald Trump).
It was the biggest sudden movement for any candidate this presidential election cycle, contrasting sharply with Mr Trump’s fortunes, who remains the favourite to win on 55 per cent according to the same source.
At a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina a day after the debate a defiant president Biden conceded his performance wasn’t ideal, but showed no inclination to become the third president since the Second World War after Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson not to seek re-election for a second term.
“I know I’m not a young man,” Mr Biden told cheering supporters. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth!”
Jill Biden will not be remembered kindly in American history.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) June 28, 2024
The First Lady has endured a wave of criticism on social media since the debate, triggered by her praise of her husband immediately after a debate performance even Democratic party loyalists conceded was terrible.
“Joe, you did such a great job answering every question. You knew all the facts,” she said.
Jill Biden just gave the most cringe intro for Joe Biden after the debate:
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 28, 2024
“Joe you did such a great job .. What did Trump do? LIE..†😳 pic.twitter.com/7Zhw6dMGBG
The former president was crowing about his debate win on Friday at a Republican rally in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, dismissing speculation his opponent would bow out of the race. “Many people are saying that after last night’s performance, Joe Biden is leaving the race,” Mr Trump told supporters, standing alongside the state’s Republican governor Glen Youngkin.
“The fact is, I don’t really believe that because he does better in the polls than any of the Democrats they’re talking about”.
Who is the Commander in Chief? https://t.co/zg7JBsf6d9
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) June 28, 2024
The First Lady was at his side at that rally too, despite having endured a wave of criticism on social media since the debate, triggered by her praise of her husband immediately after a debate performance even Democratic party loyalists conceded was terrible.
“Joe, you did such a great job answering every question. You knew all the facts,” she said.
Republican congressman Chip Roy, who on Friday filed a resolution in congress calling on Kamala Harris to convene the cabinet and invoke the 25th amendment to remove the president on grounds of mental incapacity, asked “who is the Commander in Chief?” on social media.
Joe Biden is the only person who can make way for an alternative candidate because the delegates he has already accumulated throughout the party’s primary process are legally obliged to vote for him at the August convention unless he releases them by stepping aside.
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