Why WAS Gavin Newsom conveniently front and center before AND after the debate defending Joe Biden?

After President Joe Biden struggled through the first presidential debate, California Governor Gavin Newsom stood at the front to defend the sitting president. He denied that Democrats wanted to replace him.

Biden, 81, stumbled and stuttered during the first presidential debate, losing his train of thought, sounding hoarse and searching for words as a composed Donald Trump blasted his arguments.

Newsom, 56, told DailyMail.com that claims he could replace Biden, 81, in November were “ridiculous.”

After the debate, the Democrat said on MSNBC: “We’ve got to go in there, we’ve got to hold our heads high and, like I said, we’ve got to have the support of this president,” Newsom said. “You don’t turn around for one performance. What party does that?”

But his performance has led to claims that the governor appeared before the cameras as part of a plan to replace Biden.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said: ‘What we saw tonight was not an accident, it was deliberate. Get ready for a wild 5 months.’

Ramaswamy has been floating the theory since the Republican debates last November that the Democratic Party was planning to replace Biden.

He told the Democratic Party at the time, “End this farce today.

“Joe Biden is not going to be your nominee. We know he’s not even the President of the United States. He is a puppet of the managerial class.

Biden, 81, stumbled and stuttered during the first presidential debate, lost his train of thought, sounded hoarse and searched for words as Donald Trump pressed his arguments

‘Have the courage to step up and be honest about who you are actually going to hang so we can have an honest debate. Biden needs to step aside now so we can see if it’s Newsom or Michelle Obama or whoever.

“Just tell us the truth.”

Many have even theorized that the Democratic Party wanted Biden to perform poorly all along in order to create an exit strategy that would see Newsom become the nominee.

Hedge fund manager Rod D Martin wrote: ‘1. Insiders knew Biden was like this.

‘2. They did not have to agree to any debate at all. They certainly did not have to make a proposal and appear before the earliest debate in history.

‘3. So they humiliated Biden on purpose, but only after primary voters have no say, but early enough before the Convention so that insiders can choose his successor for the fall campaign. This has been the plan for a long time.”

Progressive Bloomberg columnist Erika Smith argued Newsom is running a shadow campaign as a backup for Biden. He refers to his debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

“He’s doing what all presidential candidates do: He’s working on his memoirs,” Smith argued.

As DailyMail.com previously reported, senior party leaders are privately urging Newsom or Michelle Obama to intervene after Biden’s disastrous performance on Thursday.

Biden rejected calls to leave the race last night – insisting the debate with Trump “went well” – but behind the scenes, Democrats are in chaos and many are hitting the panic button.

Ramaswamy has been floating the theory that the Democratic party was planning to replace Biden since last November’s Republican debates

Progressive Bloomberg columnist Erika Smith argued that Newsom is running a shadow campaign as a backup to Biden, citing his debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping (pictured)

It is possible to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, but that is difficult due to time constraints and the danger of a civil war within the party.

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 leave office, the party would have to hold a series of votes among its delegates until one person would win the 1,976 candidates and become the nominee.

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

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

Under party rules, delegates assigned to a candidate based on their primary wins are bound to their candidate on the first ballot of the convention. And that first ballot usually results in a nominee.

Legally speaking, Biden’s delegates must therefore vote for him.

However, if Biden were to drop out, it would mean the nomination would be decided at the Democratic National Convention in August.