Prominent Democrats spent the weeks before Biden’s official withdrawal from his reelection bid predicting that Vice President Kamala Harris would replace him atop the ticket.
Democrats, with many reactions ranging from forced enthusiasm to begrudging acceptance, insisted for weeks that Harris must replace Biden should he step down.
Although the process ahead is uncertain, her seeming inevitability – which many Democrats begrudgingly acknowledge, puts any challengers at a disadvantage.
Rep. Rho Khanna (D-CA) told ABC Sunday morning, hours before Biden’s announcement, that if Biden stepped aside and a convention contest took place that Harris would win.
“The vote is on August 7th,” he said. “I believe that the vice president would win that vote. I don’t think you’re going to see many people challenge her. I mean, these are Biden-Harris delegates. It’s not an open primary. I think if it were an open primary, there should be many candidates.
“But the idea that in two weeks someone not on the national stage is going to be able to put together a majority of Biden and Harris delegates I just think is unrealistic.”
Longtime Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said July 3 on CNN that he would support a “mini primary” at the Democratic National Convention because the frontrunner to replace Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, needed a “strong running mate.” Clyburn said:
There will definitely be other the candidates. My understanding is they’re 700 and uncommitted delegates and of course their delegates who declared. It would seem to me that any one of these people who aspire to be president who would like to see a contest take place, look at those 700 delegates who are now uncommitted and get into the action. I do believe all the delegates are committed only for the first round. So you can actually fashion the process that is already in place to make it a mini primary. I would support that absolutely.
He previously told MSNBC, “We should do everything we can to bolster [Harris] whether it’s in second place or the top of the ticket.”
James Carville, the iconic Democratic campaign operative, said on July 3 that Biden stepping down would require Harris lead the ticket — although he did not relish that fact.
“Kamala Harris is more threatening to those swing voters than a dead Joe Biden or a comatose Joe Biden,” James Carville countered on a private call with fellow Democrats, Semafor reported. “So, if Joe has to go, it’s gonna be Kamala, and if it’s Kamala, it’s gonna be harder.”
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said July 4 on CNN that if President Joe Biden drop out of the race it is already “cooked” that Vice President Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee.
“It’s going to be Harris. That’s just the way it is,” he said, continuing “There’s some financial reasons for this. Harris is a signatory to the Biden-Harris campaign so the money can go to her. It can’t really go to whoever else might end up in front. There’s just not going to be a bloodbath. There’s not enough time for there to be a bloodbath. There isn’t a single candidate other than Harris who can muster the organizational ability to run a presidential campaigns because she’s already got that ability, because she’s been in running in this campaign for months.”
Hollywood and liberal elites have called for Harris as well.
Rosie O’Donnell on July 12 endorsed a piece by Ezra Klein arguing that Harris was more than qualified and prepared to take over for Biden but since she is not well liked by the voters (and she polls worse than Biden) that Biden must bail from reelection as soon as possible to give party leaders the time to present alternatives to the voters.
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley joined the chorus too, calling for Biden to resign on July 11 on CNN and to endorse Harris:
There’s no history repeating itself like that ’68 if Biden tomorrow said, “I’m stepping down and Kamala Harris is president, I’m going back to Delaware and I’ll be giving her my advice. I’m the highest thing there is in the land, a private citizen,” that’s the kind of thing Jefferson would say. That’s the kind of thing Theodore Roosevelt would say, he would look good, Biden. And he would have put the first woman president of the U.S. in, and then Chicago would be about who’s running with Kamala Harris. And Kamala Harris is the easiest person to inherit those delegates and to assume the donor money.
Bill Maher said on July 13 that Harris would receive Biden’s campaign money and therefore be Democrats’ “Plan B.” As Breitbart reported:
Maher then turned to potential replacements for Biden and stated that Harris “will get all of Biden’s campaign money, and on the Democrats’ best issue, abortion, she’s a walking reminder to women that Republicans are coming for the abortion pill. … She is Plan B. And, as a former prosecutor, Kamala was putting criminals in jail back before liberals decided that was a bad thing, and now that CVS is locking the shaving cream behind plexiglass, Democrats are coming around to her again.”
Maher added, “[F]or whatever reason, Harris has never been popular. … It’s not fair that she’s not popular. She’s intelligent and accomplished, and, in fact, was put in charge of the border, and look at how — okay, bad example.”
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
