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Republicans Prepare for a Biden Ouster
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Republicans Prepare for a Biden Ouster
The GOP faces an uncertain contest in November.
Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
George Clooney, matinee idol and Democrat megadonor, has taken a turn at opinion-writing. In a Wednesday New York Times essay, he hailed President Joe Biden as a “hero” who “saved democracy in 2020.” But the actor has turned on the incumbent Democratic president. Per Clooney, to save democracy, Biden needs to bow out so party elites can hand pick his replacement—Democratic primary voters be damned.
And Clooney is not alone. For the last two weeks, a slow drip of prominent Democrats have called on Biden to withdraw from the race, such as Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Angie Craig (D-MN), and Jerry Nadler (D-NY). Others who once denied Biden had any cognitive difficulties seem to be warming to the idea.
But Biden replacement theory isn’t just causing panic among Democrats. Republicans have also been sent scrambling to prepare contingencies lest Democrats actually go through with removing the incumbent president from the ballot.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told The American Conservative that, since returning to Washington, the Senate GOP conference has spent a considerable amount of time speculating “about who would replace him and how Dems could elbow out Kamala.”
Johnson says he’s bought into Biden replacement theory for quite some time. “I’ve been saying I doubt Biden will be their nominee since Summer 2023,” Johnson told TAC.
Johnson isn’t alone. “Democrats are belatedly admitting what Americans have seen for years: Joe Biden is not fit to be president, and his sadly confused state is an embarrassment to the nation,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) told TAC.
Just north of the Capitol complex, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project also had early premonitions that Democrats would attempt to ditch Biden. Four months ago, Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell and his team began researching how state statutes limited Democrats’ ability to replace Biden as the nominee.
“If the Biden family decides that President Biden will not run for re-election, the mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary by state,” read an Oversight Project memo circulated prior to the debate obtained by NOTUS. “There is the potential for pre-election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful.”
Howell told NOTUS that statutes in major swing states would make replacing Biden “extraordinarily difficult” for Democrats. Ironically, if Democrats follow through, it might be conservative organizations going to bat for Biden’s candidacy. In the Oversight Project memo, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin are listed as states where legal challenges might force Biden to remain atop the Democratic ticket. “We’ve zeroed in on a few states that we think are the best case,” Howell told NOTUS, though he refused to go further into detail.
For now, Republicans are in a holding pattern, unsure of who will square off against former President Donald Trump come November. They are preparing for several scenarios and candidates.
“If Biden has declined too much to run, win, and serve another term, he is unfit to protect America now—if he steps down from the Democrat ticket, he should also resign for the good of the country,” Lee told TAC. “I would not hold my breath waiting for him to do the right thing, however.”
On X, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) suggested that, if Biden refuses to run, he should also resign the presidency. “The Stephanopoulos interview has made one thing clear: Joe Biden is completely unfit to serve as president for the next 6 months, much less the next 4 years,” Scott tweeted. “This is exactly what the 25th Amendment was meant for.”
If they help Democrats send Biden into an early retirement, the danger for Republicans is Harris gaining some of the advantages of incumbency before the election, not to mention a further shift leftward for the Democratic party writ large. For Democrats, handing the party over to Harris all but ensures she is the nominee—and she might not be the Democrat’s best shot at winning. Most Republicans seem to believe it’s Michelle Obama.
Johnson told TAC he thinks Harris will get the nod if Biden steps aside “unless they can convince Michelle Obama.”
“Anyone the Dems crown will be heralded as the next Messiah by the media,” Johnson continued, “but I think Michelle Obama would be the most difficult to beat.”
“I think there’s two options. It’s either Kamala Harris or Michelle Obama,” Vivek Ramaswamy told TAC. “The reason I say that is they have an identity politics issue, they have a Kamala Harris problem. They only nominate her because she’s a black woman. If they don’t nominate her—they skip over her—they’re burned by that same identity politics problem, and it’s now a trap they created for themselves. And so I think Michelle Obama could represent their way out of it. The thing that going against them for that is that supposedly she doesn’t want to do it, but that assumes that her desires are relevant.”
But before anyone else runs, Biden has to agree to step aside. Johnson expects Biden to fight to the bitter end. “He sure sounds determined to [run],” he claimed. “Hard to believe he’ll be able to now that the media has turned on him.”
“It is impossible to say what will happen, with Biden digging in his heels even as the New York Times editorial board and more congressional Democrats ask him to get off the ticket,” Lee told TAC. “But their lack of viable candidates underscores how deeply unpopular leftist policies are: whether it’s Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, or even Michelle Obama, they would still represent the party of open borders, banana republic prosecutions, high crime, and unaffordable inflation.”
“Democrats are ideologically incapable of doing the one thing that could save them: running a candidate who actually wants to secure the border, rejects extreme abortion-up-to-birth, celebrates America’s history, and condemns the woke Hamas sympathizers in their party,” Lee continued. “That’s why Donald Trump is going to win in November, no matter who the Democrats pick to sell their failed policies.”
Johnson agrees. “Anyone they pick to replace Biden will promote the exact radical left ideology and policies that are destroying America,” the Wisconsin senator asserted.
Despite Biden’s apparent resolve to stay in the race, Ramaswamy told TAC, “I don’t think he’s the candidate.” Nor does he think it is terribly relevant: “He’s a puppet for propping up for the managerial class underneath him. And I think Republicans understand it’s the managerial class we’re running against.”
With the Democratic party in chaos, Ramaswamy fears Republicans are counting their chickens before they hatch. “There’s a real risk that we see a repetition of 2022—the red wave that never came,” Ramaswamy warned.
“That new candidate will be in the honeymoon phase. The same attitude that a tortured prisoner has towards their liberator will be the attitude that much of the Democratic Party and even independents have towards whoever’s next,” he continued. “And so while they’re in the honeymoon phase, before the scrutiny phase, November comes around.”
If Republicans are caught flat-footed, the end result could be disaster. “We’ve had complacency. We’ve lost in ’18, ’20, 2022, ’23,” Ramaswamy said. “We have to focus on what we stand for, and without that, I think we’re at risk of disappointment yet again.”
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