Would Getting Rid Of Joe Biden Be Worth The Chaos For Democrats?

Following President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance on Thursday night, a number of prominent Democrats are privately hoping he withdraws from the presidential race and gives the party a chance to nominate someone younger who may have a better chance of beating Donald Trump.

But the logistics of any hypothetical attempt to replace Biden are complicated.

Things are different now. At this stage, Biden has locked up enough convention delegates to clinch the nomination, and party elders have no mechanism for forcing him out. He would have to voluntarily withdraw from the presidential race.

Neither Biden nor his campaign has shown any sign of openness to stepping aside. He spoke with defiant exuberance at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday. “I might not debate as well as I used to,” he said. “But what I do know is how to tell the truth.” Former President Barack Obama offered words of support in a social media post linking to Biden’s campaign website.

But i f Biden were to change his mind in the coming weeks, it would be simpler if it happened before the Democratic National Convention in August, when his status as the presidential nominee will be official.

If the Aug. 19 convention convenes in Chicago without a presumptive Democratic nominee, the nearly 4,000 pledged delegates would be free to pick a different candidate on the first ballot. And, thanks to reforms passed in 2018, if no candidate achieved a majority on the first ballot, the group of 749 unpledged delegates known as “superdelegates,” which includes all Democrats in Congress and other party dignitaries, would only be able to cast votes on the second ballot.

In the scenario of such a contested or brokered convention, rival candidates for