The forces looking to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee are getting increasingly vocal. Democratic strategist James Carville, who has been sounding the alarm for months about a problem with the 2020 coalition, penned an op-ed on Monday for The New York Times not only discussing how Biden will drop out, but also calling on former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to assist in finding a replacement.
That Biden should drop out is regarded as a given to Carville, who believes that he will, though it should happen sooner rather than later. "Biden Won’t Win. Democrats Need a Plan. Here’s One," his headline reads.
As Carville begins by writing:
Mark my words: Joe Biden is going to be out of the 2024 presidential race. Whether he is ready to admit it or not. His pleas on Monday to congressional Democrats for support will not unite the party behind him. Mr. Biden says he’s staying in the race, but it’s only a matter of time before Democratic pressure and public and private polling lead him to exit the race. The jig is up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better. We need to move forward.
But it can’t be by anointing Vice President Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive Democratic nominee. We’ve got to do it out in the open — the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants us to do.
While Harris may be facing poor favorable ratings and poor poll numbers against former and potentially future President Donald Trump, she's also the one who would be able to benefit from Biden's war chest. Further, it would be a bad look for the Democratic Party, as it can't afford to skip over the black vice president, which is the very reason Harris was selected for the role.
From there, Carville engages in some ranting and raving about Trump, before mentioning the most recent former Democratic presidents as well as the idea of selecting the nominee through town halls:
I want to see the Democratic Party hold four historic town halls between now and the Democratic National Convention in August — one each in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. We can recruit the two most obvious and qualified people in the world to facilitate substantive discussions: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. They may not represent every faction under our party’s big tent. But they care as much about our democracy as our nation’s first president, they understand what it takes to be president, and they know how to win.
Town halls — high-stakes job interviews for the toughest job in the world — would surely attract television and cable partners and generate record numbers of viewers. Think the Super Bowl with Taylor Swift in the stands. The young, the old and everyone in between will tune in to see history being made in real time.
How will potential nominees be chosen to participate in the town halls? There is no answer here that will satisfy everyone, but hard choices must be made, given the tight timetable, and I think leaning on the input of former presidents makes good sense. So I would advise Presidents 42 and 44 to select eight leading contenders out of the pool of those who choose to run, with Ms. Harris most definitely getting a well-earned invite.
I believe the vice president would be a formidable opponent for Mr. Trump. She has spent the past four years crisscrossing the country and the globe, serving the American people. She has a hell of a story — one that more people should know. She stood up for ordinary Americans against big banks. She locked up sexual predators. You want the prosecutor, or you want the criminal? Not the worst question to put to the American public this November.
Maybe Presidents 42 and 44 can make the candidate selection even more democratic by consulting the nation’s 23 Democratic governors in the town hall selection process. Governors deal in the practical, not the theoretical. But I’m not a details guy. I say we leave it up to 42 and 44.
To be clear, we have a lot more than eight Democrats who could beat the pants off Mr. Trump. But if we don’t limit the town halls to a manageable number of people, we’ll get sound bites, not substance.
Town halls will give Americans a fresh look at Ms. Harris and introduce them to our deep bench of smart, dynamic, tested leaders. In addition, Democratic delegates will get to further grill and stress-test these leaders in public and private meetings before a formal vote of all the delegates at the Democratic convention.
Carville refers to Harris as "a formidable opponent for Mr. Trump," though he doesn't see her as the automatic replacement. That's telling, even if he won't speak to her poor chances against Trump.
And, while Carville believes there are "a lot more than eight Democrats who could beat the pants off Mr. Trump," Democrats may still be stuck with Biden as the nominee. There's the pesky issue of state laws, as well as how Biden would have to withdraw himself, and it doesn't look like First Lady Jill Biden or Hunter Biden will let him do that. Since Harris doesn't seem willing to heed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-TX) call to remove Biden using the 25th Amendment, it looks like they have to rely on waiting around to see what the Biden family will do.
Since Carville wrote his op-ed, George Clooney has called on Biden to exit the race. Former Obama aides and advisors are also insistent on him doing so as well, and it certainly looks like Obama is working behind the scenes to get it done.
While, as Carville referenced, the private meetings congressional Democrats are holding don't look to be going in favor of Biden staying in the race, the president will do a "big boy" press conference later on Thursday.
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