Biden’s supporters plot to fast-track nomination
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Joe Biden was facing fresh pressure to stand down on Tuesday night after it emerged his supporters were plotting to bring forward his confirmation as the Democrat’s presidential candidate in a virtual vote.
Party chiefs were plotting to secure Mr Biden’s place on the ballot to quash mounting calls for the 81-year-old to step aside for a younger successor, following a string of embarrassing gaffes and his disastrous debate performance last month.
The move is understood to have prompted some critical House Democrats to reignite their campaign to urge Mr Biden to stand down as the party’s nominee.
“People are back to being angry at Biden and a push to sign on to this letter is going around ... the ‘replace Biden’ movement is back,” one House Democrat told Axios, the American news website.
The online system would allow delegates to vote for Mr Biden ahead of the Chicago convention on Aug 19, locking in his candidacy weeks before he was expected to be officially crowned the party’s nominee.
The plan to nominate Mr Biden early involves training state party chairmen on how to hold the online vote securely, with delegates expected to be able to cast their votes from July 29 to Aug 5, sources told Axios.
It would mean Mr Biden would only have to bat away calls for him to step aside, which have largely fallen quiet in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, for two more weeks.
The US president made further gaffes during an interview on Monday when he misgendered the head of the Secret Service and struggled to remember his last conversation with Barack Obama.
‘Working to put in the fix’
Some of Mr Biden’s delegates criticised the move to expedite the nomination, accusing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) of trying to “shut down the process”.
“Behind the scenes, people at the Biden campaign and DNC are working to put in the fix,” Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a delegate from Maryland, emailed other state delegates last week, according to Axios.
“Put simply, they are trying to shut down the process earlier. We can’t allow it,” she wrote. “I am asking you to ask the DNC to stop pushing for an early vote.”
Lloyd Doggett, the Democratic congressman who led calls for Mr Biden to step down, told the website: “Those so eager to overly protect President Biden ignore his own words inviting anyone questioning his nomination to do so at the convention.”
A letter circulating among House Democrats states there is “no legal justification” for the early vote, arguing that the “extraordinary and unprecedented action” could be “perceived as curtailing legitimate debate.”
The document, obtained by Axios, warned that “prematurely shutting down any possible change in the Democratic ticket” by holding a roll call as early as July 21 would be a “terrible idea”.
The DNC initially announced plans to hold an earlier online vote because of Ohio state’s early August deadline for ballot access. The deadline has now been pushed back to Sept 1.
‘Not getting the honest truth’
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said Mr Biden’s team was attempting to “run out the clock, but it’s not going to necessarily take away the discussion” about the 81-year-old’s competence.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are growing concerned that the president is not being briefed by his aides on polls that show him trailing Trump.
“He is not getting the honest truth,” one House Democrat told The Washington Post.
On Monday Mr Biden made another embarrassing gaffe when he misgendered the head of the Secret Service.
The Democrat leader rejected claims he had not been in contact with Kimberly Cheatle, the agency’s female director, since would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a volley of bullets at Trump.
“Oh, I’ve heard from him,” Mr Biden said. NBC News host Lester Holt quickly corrected the president, saying: “You’ve heard from her.”
Ms Cheatle, 53, is the second woman to lead the presidential protection agency and is now facing calls to resign over the security lapses that allowed the 20-year-old gunman to graze Trump’s right ear with a bullet, kill a spectator and wound two more at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
During the 20-minute interview, Mr Biden also hit back at criticism about his age, saying his “mental acuity has been pretty damn good”.
However, he later stumbled when asked if he had recently had a conversation with Mr Obama.
Asked whether he had spoken to the former president since the debate, he said: “I don’t think – I may have, I don’t think so.”
Mr Biden also dug his heels in with regards to staying on to face Mr Trump in the November election.
“The job’s not finished,” he said. “Fourteen million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic Party, OK? I listen to them.”
Jamie Harrison, the chairman of the DNC, confirmed the committee was planning to hold a virtual vote to nominate Mr Biden, but did not confirm the scheduling.
Democrats are “not going to leave the fate of this election in the hands of MAGA Republicans in Ohio that have tried to keep President Biden off of the general election ballot”, he said.
