How Biden could be forced off the 2024 ticket
Calls for Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race are mounting. But can Biden be forced off the campaign trail? Here are three ways this could unfold.
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00:00Everyone is talking about whether President Joe Biden can or should continue his presidential campaign.
00:05He just has to step down. He can't win.
00:08But can Biden be forced off the campaign trail? This is what would have to happen.
00:12One scenario is President Biden stepping aside voluntarily before the Democratic National Convention.
00:18The Democratic National Convention begins on August 19th in Chicago.
00:21Shortly after that date, the Biden-Harris ticket is set to formally accept the nomination as a Democratic ticket in 2024.
00:28Should Biden step aside, any potential nominee would have to win a majority of the delegates that he's already won in order to be the nominee.
00:35The nearly 4,000 delegates that he's won would be free to select another nominee.
00:40In this unlikely scenario of an open convention, there would likely be multiple candidates who would throw their hat in the ring to secure the Democratic nomination.
00:47No one has indicated that they're interested in such a move.
00:50I would never turn my back on President Biden.
00:53Joe Biden is our nominee. He's a good man. We trust him. We're behind him.
00:57Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina is one of President Biden's strongest legislative allies.
01:02However, should Biden step aside, Clyburn indicated that he would support a mini-primary.
01:07And he indicated that that form would likely boost Vice President Kamala Harris.
01:11In the past, a president has stepped aside before the party's convention.
01:15In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson was weighed down by the Vietnam War, and he declined to run for re-election as a Democratic nominee.
01:22Instead, Hubert Humphrey was a Democratic nominee, but he lost the election to Richard Nixon after deep Democratic divisions.
01:29This scenario remains unlikely, mostly because President Joe Biden has really dug in and said that he's committed to running for re-election.
01:36There's been a lot of speculation. What's Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race?
01:42Is he going to drop out? What's he going to do?
01:46So here's my answer. I am running and going to win again.
01:51On ABC News, Biden told host George Stephanopoulos that he was committed to the race and that he wasn't leaving.
01:57I don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or win this race than me.
02:01And recently, he sent a letter to House Democrats where he said that he was a nominee and that he wasn't going to leave the race.
02:08Should President Biden step aside voluntarily, it could wake up an electorate where a lot of voters were disenchanted with the choices.
02:14But it could also frustrate many of Biden's allies who wanted him to run for re-election.
02:19Another scenario is President Biden being challenged for the nomination.
02:22But at this point, it will likely happen at the convention.
02:25A range of donors are frustrated by President Biden's debate performance.
02:29And they're also unsure of whether or not he'll be able to serve effectively for another four years.
02:33This has caused a huge fervor within the party.
02:36Is everybody behind the president?
02:37It's a family discussion. I'm not going to say any more.
02:40Biden all the way.
02:42Joe Biden.
02:44And some are saying that somebody should step up to challenge President Biden at the convention.
02:48However, so far, no one has done so.
02:51It's unclear who would actually challenge President Biden at a Democratic convention.
02:55But it wouldn't be Vice President Kamala Harris, as she's on the ticket and she's been one of Biden's strongest allies.
03:00Democratic National Committee rules advocate for but don't mandate that delegates select the nominee that a particular state voted for.
03:08But party delegates generally don't diverge from the state results.
03:12President Biden overwhelmingly won nearly 4,000 delegates in the past election.
03:17A particular nominee coming along would basically have to flip the vast majority of those delegates in order to win.
03:24That's something that would be highly unlikely, given that most delegates are party loyalists.
03:29In the past, favorites to win nominations have been challenged by other candidates.
03:34In 1976, Ronald Reagan challenged Gerald Ford.
03:38On one side of the street, Gerald Ford's headquarters.
03:41And on the other side of the street, Ronald Reagan.
03:44And although Reagan came up short, Ford ended up losing the election to Jimmy Carter.
03:49In 1980, Jimmy Carter was challenged by then-Senator Ted Kennedy.
03:54I didn't ask for a challenger, but have no aversion to a campaign.
04:01Even though Kennedy lost, it basically divided Democrats and Carter ended up losing the general election to Ronald Reagan that year.
04:10Generally, intraparty challenges at the convention have weakened the party.
04:13As they did in 1976 with Republicans, and as they did in 1980 with the Democratic Party.
04:18At the moment, it remains unlikely that a Democratic candidate will step up to challenge Biden.
04:23But it could potentially still happen.
04:25Also, by mid to late August, sentiment against Biden would have to change drastically for a challenger to even have a chance in seating Biden.
04:33A Democratic challenger to Biden would mostly be concerned about down-ballot races, saying that Biden would weigh down House and Senate candidates.
04:41However, Biden has said that elites are trying to push him out of the party, and that could cause voters to rally to his side.
04:48In another scenario, President Biden would step aside as the Democratic nominee after the Democratic National Convention.
04:53There is no modern president for a presidential nominee stepping aside as a nominee after the convention.
04:59If that were to happen for Democrats, then the Democratic National Committee, in consultation with Democratic members of Congress and the Democratic Governors Association, would select a new nominee.
05:09One drawback of the DNC selecting the nominee is that it wouldn't be reflective of the Democratic primary electorate.
05:15A lot of people would say that it doesn't reflect the will of the voters.
05:18There are some issues that could arise if Biden steps aside as a nominee after the convention.
05:23The party would be running against some pretty strict ballot deadlines.
05:27So even if Biden wasn't the nominee, he could still be listed as the top of the ticket on ballots.
05:32Also, that particular nominee wouldn't have a lot of time to campaign.
05:36It would just be a matter of weeks before the general election.
05:39But we do have to note that the Democratic National Committee can tweak their rules.
05:43So a lot of these things aren't set in stone.
05:46There could be something that could be implemented, and that's where the nature of the race could take a new turn.
05:52If President Biden were to withdraw from the race, it would be something that hasn't happened in modern politics in a long time.
05:59Former President Donald Trump and Republicans are banking on President Biden being the Democratic nominee.
06:05Meanwhile, the radical left Democrat party is divided in chaos and having a full scale breakdown
06:12all because they can't decide which of their candidates is more unfit to be president.
06:19Sleepy crooked Joe Biden or laughing Kamala.
06:23But should he not be the nominee, they would have to recalibrate how they approach the election and running against another nominee.
06:29There are also some serious financial implications as presidential candidates have to raise lots of money to be competitive in those races.
06:36Should Vice President Kamala Harris be the Democratic presidential nominee,
06:40she would have access to the funds that were raised in both the primary and the general election.
06:45As of the end of June, the Biden-Harris ticket has about $240 million cash on hand.
06:50However, if Vice President Harris remains the vice presidential nominee,
06:55the Federal Election Commission would have to decide whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee
07:00if they would have access to the funds that the Biden-Harris ticket had raised.
07:04But if neither Biden or Harris are on the ticket, the new nominees would have to raise money from scratch.
07:10Right now, President Biden remains firmly committed to his reelection bid, and he says he's staying in the race.
07:16So most of these scenarios still appear to be highly unlikely.
07:20But Democrats on Capitol Hill remain pretty divided over the fate of his reelection campaign.
07:25Some feel as though he can win in the fall, and some of them still have concerns and questions about whether or not he can wage a successful campaign against former President Donald Trump.