How the Democrats CAN replace Biden after his disaster debate peformance

Democrats went into total panic after Joe Biden’s poor debate performance against Donald Trump, leading to talk of replacing the president in the vote.

Biden, 81, stumbled and stuttered during the first presidential debate, sounding hoarse and searching for words as Trump blasted his arguments.

Top Democratic leaders are reported to be holding talks on whether Biden should continue his presidential bid. Others suggested he be replaced.

And it wouldn’t necessarily be Vice President Kamala Harris who gets the nomination.

Replacing Biden would also not be easy. He has the delegates to win the nomination and the only person who can decide to leave the race is Joe Biden.

There has already been talk that a combined conversation with top Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama would be necessary to get Biden to consider it.

It does not appear that Biden is considering that option. He defended his debate performance as “good” and rejected calls to drop out of the race.

Biden stopped at a Waffle House in Atlanta with his wife Jill to get some food before the flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, where they have a campaign rally on Friday.

“I think we did a good job,” Biden told reporters traveling with him.

When asked about the calls to withdraw and whether he is concerned about his performance, Biden said: ;No. It’s hard to argue with a liar. The New York Times pointed out that he lied 26 times.”

But is it possible to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate?

Yes, but it’s complicated by the fact that Biden already has enough delegates to have won the nomination.

He has pledged 3,894 delegates and only 1,976 are needed to be nominated.

Under party rules, delegates assigned to a candidate based on their primary election win are tied to their candidate on the first ballot at the convention. And that first vote usually ends in a nominee.

Legally, Biden’s representatives must vote for him.

However, should Biden withdraw, the nomination would be decided at the Democratic National Convention in August.

His delegates would become ‘non-aligned’ and could vote for any candidate they wanted.

Vice President Kamala Harris would not automatically be the nominee, nor would she own Biden’s delegates, because she was not in the primary. Biden was.

But given her status as his running mate, she would likely be the favorite.

However, Democrats could choose any candidate, including any governor such as Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

Or some of the people who ran in 2020: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

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 resign, the party would have to hold a series of votes among delegates until one person had the 1,976 nominee.

This would likely result in a huge battle for votes that would last several days and dominate news coverage.

The last flight to the next level was in 1968 and was so disastrous that many new rules were added to the party program to prevent such chaos from occurring again.

That year, Democrats feared that their highly unpopular president, Lydon B. Johnson, would not win another term.

Johnson, under pressure from the party, chose not to run. But the frontrunner for the nomination, Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated by a hitman in June of that year.

Johnson’s Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy were also candidates. Neither had enough delegates to secure the nomination on the first ballot at the convention, which took place in Chicago (the same as this year’s Democratic convention).

The floor battle began with Humphrey ultimately winning the nomination. It was a huge controversy with riots breaking out all over the city. Humphrey ultimately lost the general election to Richard Nixon.

It would be easier if Biden dropped out of the race after the convention.

If that were to happen, the party’s main committee would choose the nominee, avoiding a fight on the convention floor.

Under party rules, the Democratic National Committee has the authority to choose a new nominee if one of the candidates — the presidential or vice presidential nominee — withdraws or dies.

Party Chairman Jaime Harrison would consult with Democratic leaders in Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and report his findings to the commission, which would have the final say.

Harris would not automatically reach the top spot.