Potential Biden replacement Gov. Gretchen Whitmer makes stunning U-turn after saying Joe CANNOT win Michigan
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has dismissed a new report that says she privately warned President Joe Biden’s campaign that he couldn’t win in Michigan.
The Michigan Democrat is seen as one of the leading contenders to replace Biden amid calls for him to be ousted after his disastrous performance in the debate against Donald Trump.
But a Politico report claims that Whitmer is denying behind the scenes that she is trying to get on the 2024 ballot. The same report, however, claims that she doesn’t think Biden has a chance of winning Michigan after the debate.
“Anyone who says I would say we can’t win Michigan is bullshit. Let’s go,” Whitmer wrote on X on Monday.
According to Monday’s report, Whitmer reportedly called Biden’s campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, to argue that her all-important swing state may no longer be in play after the president’s disastrous debate performances.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer doesn’t think President Joe Biden can win her state in November after his debate over a car crash
After a chaotic debate in which Biden stumbled over his words, lost his thread and was often difficult to understand, Democrats are left confused, with some calling for him to be expelled.
Whitmer’s name has been mentioned as a possible replacement on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, as has California Governor Gavin Newsom.
But Whitmer, according to Politicosaid during her phone call with Dillon that she was not comfortable with her name being put forward as a replacement if Biden is removed from the ballot in November.
Michigan is one of seven states competing in the 2024 election and is crucial for presidential candidates to win the battle for the 270 electoral votes.
In 2016, Trump won Michigan by a narrow margin of 0.3 percent. But the state flipped blue for Biden in 2020 by a 2.8 percent margin against Trump.
The Midwestern and Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are all battlegrounds for 2024. Between the 2016 and 2020 elections, the vote swung from red to blue.
The president was already losing popularity in Michigan during his re-election campaign among the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party and among Muslim and pro-Palestinian voters. In the primaries earlier this year, these voting blocs cast their ballots “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s policies in the Middle East.
Now, after his disastrous debate performance on Thursday, Whitmer, speaking to Dillon, warned that Biden is unlikely to win her state’s 15 electoral votes.
Whimer’s name is being mentioned as a leading candidate to replace Biden on the 2024 ticket amid calls to oust him after the debate
The second-term Michigan governor reiterated to Dillon her commitment to helping Biden in his re-election campaign.
The rumors about Whitmer as a replacement on the candidate list are likely being fueled by rivals seeking to hurt her, particularly given her intention to run for president in 2028.
Even Trump doesn’t think Democrats will actually replace Biden. On Friday, he argued at a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, that the left has no better choice and that no one is polling higher than the incumbent president.