Joe Biden’s disastrous performance against Donald Trump on Thursday fueled speculation about the possibility that the 81-year-old Democratic president, a candidate for re-election in November, would throw in the towel.
This scenario, currently very unlikely, would plunge the United States into a period of great uncertainty.
Explanations.
– For what? –
Joe Biden, the oldest sitting US president, missed a crucial opportunity to reassure millions of voters of his vitality and health in the first debate of the campaign.
On stage, the Democratic leader often appeared confused, mincing his words and getting confused.
Calls to step down from anonymous Democrats spread through the press as soon as the show ended.
Joe Biden regularly says he is the best-qualified candidate, despite polls that show his age is turning off voters.
At a rally in North Carolina on Friday, he reiterated that he plans to “win” the November election.
“I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he acknowledged, but “I know how to do the job.”
– Comment? –
If Joe Biden were to throw in the towel, however, the process to replace him would be a bit technical.
The president has already been named as the Democrats’ presidential candidate in a series of primaries, which were held from January to June. He must therefore, in theory, be inducted at the party convention in Chicago.
If Joe Biden were to drop out of the race before this big gathering, scheduled for mid-August, the final word would go to the party delegates, 3,900 people with very varied profiles, most of whom are completely unknown to the general public.
This would then be “the kind of convention where anything goes,” with each side trying to push for its candidate, predicts Elaine Kamarck, a researcher at the Brookings Institute, in a recent note.
A roughly comparable scenario presented itself for the Democrats on March 31, 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson publicly announced that he would not seek a second term, in the midst of the Vietnam War.
What if Joe Biden were to drop out between the convention and the election? It is then the party’s “national committee” which, in an extraordinary session, would nominate the candidate.
– Who? –
Joe Biden has already designated Vice President Kamala Harris to campaign with him, but there is no rule that the running mate automatically replaces the incumbent candidate.
Sent to put out the fire after the Democratic president’s poor performance, the fifty-year-old conceded that Joe Biden had been “slow to start” but that he had “finished strong”.
At no time did she mention the possibility of replacing him.
Kamala Harris, the first woman and first African-American to serve as vice-president, could also face competition from other members of the party’s young guard.
Like California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is on the rise among Democrats.
The latter, however, felt that this type of “conversation” was “not good for our democracy”.
The names of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro are also being bandied about.
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