According to a Biden insider, the Democratic Party’s plan to force Joe Biden out of office has been in the works for a long time.
That plan became a reality on Sunday when the 81-year-old president dramatically announced the end of his campaign and then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
However, a source close to Biden’s family says the party has staged a “palace coup” in recent weeks, with the president resisting it to the point of being forced out.
The insider says the disastrous debate with Donald Trump on June 27 — the first presidential debate in history — was part of the strategy, despite Biden openly asking for it on social media.
“That debate was intended to convince Democrats that he couldn’t run for president,” the source told the New York Post.
The Democratic Party plot to force Joe Biden out of office has been a long time coming, Biden insider claims
The 81-year-old president dramatically announced the end of his campaign before endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday
Biden was often seen in split screen with his mouth open and his gaze blank during last month’s confrontation with Trump, which immediately caused panic among Democrats.
While most of the left publicly continued to support Biden, the party’s power brokers privately threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Section 4 of the amendment allows a president to be removed from office if he becomes unable to discharge his duties due to illness, injury, or mental disability.
One of the few Biden trusted and felt like he was being voted out: his troubled son Hunter, who became his father’s gatekeeper after the debate.
“Hunter felt like he was being set up and he was very concerned about his father. These people, these officials, were not on Joe’s side,” the source alleged.
They also said Harris’ nomination might not be as fast as it could be despite Biden’s support.
The source claimed that Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly could be a popular choice among delegates, though the former astronaut had already endorsed Harris.
When Biden was finally officially convinced to leave, things happened very quickly.
An insider says the disastrous June 27 debate against Donald Trump — the earliest presidential debate in history — was part of the strategy, despite Biden openly calling for it on social media
Jill Biden was with her husband Joe Biden in Rehoboth as he made his decision on the 2024 presidential election — above the couple at their beachfront home in February
He was isolating because of COVID at his $3.4 million vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when his shrinking circle of friends gave him polls showing he could no longer beat Donald Trump.
Then they wrote him a letter telling him it was time to step down, for the sake of the future of the Democratic Party.
Donors had raised millions of dollars, the list of Democrats calling on him to withdraw grew longer by the day, and polls showed his chances of beating Donald Trump were shrinking after his disastrous debate performance.
Biden had previously insisted he would only step aside if he was shown polls proving Kamala Harris would outperform him against Trump, or if he developed a “medical condition.” Ultimately, it was the first of those developments that sealed his fate.
Biden went to bed at the beach house on Saturday night knowing he would announce his surprise the next day.
On Sunday at 1:45 p.m., he began calling his White House staffers and the campaign.
By then, he had already told Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
At 1:46 p.m., he posted a letter from the president to his campaign account announcing his decision, while he was still in talks with his staff.
Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to Jill Biden, and Annie Tomasini, deputy chief of staff, are leaving the White House together in February — he leads the East Wing; she leads the West Wing
Biden announced his historic decision to step aside in a one-page letter he sent to X, promising to finish his term, but he only fully endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement in a follow-up social media post.
Most of his aides — both in the White House and on the campaign trail — were shocked. They heard the news online and got the message when the @JoeBiden account posted the president’s letter.
It was the cap to a chaotic 48 hours for the Biden family, who had hunkered down behind their patriarch with a small, intimate circle of longtime aides who supported them, some even reporting to Jill Biden about aides they saw as disloyal.
Meanwhile, Biden had gone from being angry about the pressure his party was exerting to accepting the situation.
And once he made his final decision on Saturday night, the rest happened quickly.
Biden called Harris directly to tell her the news.
He also reportedly had one-on-one meetings with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. He is also expected to speak with his cabinet, members of Congress, governors and supporters.
But it all happened so quickly that many employees felt hurt by the way they heard the news, even though they were not surprised by it.
Harris subsequently announced that she was running for the Democratic presidential nomination.