The fallout from President Joe Biden's poor debate showing on June 27 continues as Democrats consider replacing him before November's election, Tulsa World reported. Former Obama White House Van Jones said discussions are underway behind the scenes that could put Vice President Kamala Harris in Biden's place.
Jones spoke to CNN’s Jim Sciutto Wednesday in the aftermath of the president's first debate with former President Donald Trump, Fox News reported. The former Obama adviser said there is "full-scale panic" now that it's clear Biden is unfit to run for reelection.
"I just got to be honest, everybody comes on the air and says all this great stuff, but behind the scenes, it’s full-scale panic. People are passing around legal memos, PDFs are flying back and forth on WhatsApp, trying to figure out, what are the options? How can you replace Biden? How do you get him to do it in a way where he feels respected, as he should be respected?" Jones said.
Van Jones on CNN: “Behind the scenes, it’s full scale panic. People are passing around legal memos trying to figure out what are the options. How can you replace Biden? The conversation on air and the conversation off air are completely different.” pic.twitter.com/umvvvgVD7b
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 4, 2024
Jones said that many are suggesting Harris should replace Biden on the ticket. "Who should Kamala Harris’s vice president be? The conversations on air and the conversations off-air are completely different," Jones went on.
"We have a great candidate, we have a beautiful man, we have someone who loves this country. We have someone who has given his all – I mean, his all, to the last drop – for this country, but he may not be able to get across the finish line," Jones said.
"And a mature party has to take that into account, and that is what’s happening," he added. What even Jones is afraid to say is that Harris is no better than Biden when it comes to electability.
It's true Biden has slipped three points since before the debate in The New York Times and Siena College poll. Trump is now leading Biden 49% to 43% among likely voters, which spells trouble for the Democrats.
However, things go from bad to worse with Harris as the alternative. Earlier this month, Politico admitted that two-thirds of voters didn't believe Harris could win the election if she were the nominee, while only three out of five Democrats believed she could, and just a quarter of independents were convinced of her electability.
As pundits discuss the challenges of a Harris candidacy, it seems they're looking at the problem all wrong. Even the ones who admit she's problematic blame it on her gender instead of the fact that she's supremely unlikable and comes across as unintelligent and unserious.
"She’s done an admirable job on reproductive health and issues important to the Black community and related to youth. But at the same time, she’s falling into the same spot that many vice presidents fall into, which is that she doesn’t have a very public role outside of her lane," RL Miller, a climate activist and former Democratic National Committee member, explained.
Miller is a "longtime fan of Kamala Harris," but she admits that Harris's chances of getting elected are slim. "I am afraid Democrats have internalized the Hillary Clinton lesson: That a woman can’t win," Miller said.
"And I think it’s sad," she added. What's sad is that they learned the wrong lesson after running an equally unlikeable and radical candidate in 2016 with the former Secretary of State.
Democrats have a major problem on their hands with Biden's cognitive decline. What's worse for them is that there's nobody in the Democratic Party able to take his place who won't get pummeled in the general election by Trump.
