While President Joe Biden insists he's staying in the race, even as an increasing amount of his fellow Democrats are calling on him to step aside, it's crucial to remind how there's the factor of how First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden won't let him quit the race. Vice President Kamala Harris would likely be his replacement, as she would have access to his war chest. And the first lady can't have that.
In a report from Friday, the Daily Mail offered quite the revelations:
When Kamala Harris took to the stage during a Democratic primary debate before the 2020 election and implied that Joe Biden was racist, his wife, Jill's, response was crystal clear.
'Go f**k yourself,' the then-future first lady vented, as she allegedly admitted during a conference call with supporters.
And the relationship between the two women – that began badly enough during that contentious battle for the presidential nomination – has only gone downhill from there.
Now, political insiders have told DailyMail.com that Democratic advisors are struggling to push past the powerful role that Jill Biden's loathing of Harris, 59, is playing in Joe's resistance to pass the mantle to his VP as pressure ratchets up for him to step down as presidential candidate and allow another Democrat tackle Donald Trump.
According to one former Democrat operative in Jill's circle, the women's long-seated animosity is 'one hundred per cent' part of Jill's resistance to having her 81-year-old husband step aside.
Because the truth, according to a source who knows the First Couple well, is that Jill's is now the only voice to which the 46th president listens.
And as far as Jill, 73, is concerned, the only thing worse than her husband stepping down would be Kamala stepping up to replace him.
The piece is full of sources and insiders speaking further to the feud, one that is well-known and for reasons that have been talked about for years. Harris, who didn't even make it to the primary contests when she ran for the 2020 nomination, got into quite the memorable feuds with Biden during the debates they participated in.
That Harris went after Biden when discussing race and busing didn't sit too well with Jill Biden.
Harris is plagued by poor favorable ratings and doesn't fare well in the polls against former and potentially future President Donald Trump, though that hasn't stopped the Biden campaign from poll-testing a Harris-Trump matchup. Democrats are likely stuck with her, though, not merely because she would be the one to benefit from Biden's war chest, but because they can't very easily get rid of their black vice president as their replacement if Biden does step aside.
That being said, Biden picked Harris specifically because she was a black woman. Not even his wife looked to be too thrilled, though, with being stuck with such standards.
As the Daily Mail also mentions:
The bad blood between the First Lady and the Vice President, a feeling so strong that one source described it as, 'hatred,' dates to June 2019, when Kamala was running against Biden and condemned him during a televised debate for opposing aspects of mandatory busing for school desegregation.
'Jill holds grudges,' one Democrat insider revealed. 'She doesn't let things go and she has never forgiven Kamala for comments that some took to be allegations of racism.'
According to one insider, that was the reason she never wanted Kamala to be her husband's number two in the first place.
They said, 'Jill was trying to stop Kamala joining the Biden ticket in 2020. She has hated her ever since the school bus thing.
'But she bit her tongue because Biden boxed himself into a corner by saying he would pick a black woman for his running mate.'
During Thursday's press briefing following the NATO summit, Biden tried to offer praise for Harris, though it certainly didn't help that in answering the very first question about Harris' ability to beat Trump, he referred to her as "Vice President Trump."
"Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president. So, let’s start there. Number one," Biden offered, when he clearly meant to say "Vice President Harris."
Joe Biden's brain breaks as he claims he chose Donald Trump to be his Vice President. pic.twitter.com/MMyBuJKGJQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 11, 2024
Later in the press briefing, Biden offered some more defenses for Harris. "First of all, the way she’s handled the issue of freedom of women’s bodies--to have control over their bodies," he said, focusing on an issue that is quite the obsession for the Biden-Harris ticket and congressional Democrats, but not many others. "Secondly, her ability to handle almost any issue on the board. This was a hell of a prosecutor. She was a first-rate person in--and in the Senate, she was really good," he went on to say, despite how she's so clearly failed on the immigration issue as "border czar."
"I wouldn’t have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president from the very beginning. I made no bones about that. She is qualified to be president. That’s why I picked her," Biden went on to also offer.
Biden on Kamala Harris: "She's qualified to be president!" pic.twitter.com/OhHc8BhuW0
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 11, 2024
As insistent as the first lady may be in Biden remaining in the race, the Daily Mail piece also gets into the 'what ifs' if Biden does step aside, as well as what could get Jill Biden to counsel her husband to step aside:
It all comes down to "legacy" for the first lady:
Now, according to one, 'It's not about Kamala and it's not really about Joe. It's more about her holding on to her status as First Lady. She doesn't want to give that up.'
Another voiced the way that Jill is 'absolutely unwavering about Joe staying [in the race] but if he is forced out or opts out, she would be fully opposed to Kamala replacing him.'
One insider revealed, 'Kamala never runs competent organizations. Every office, every campaign, devolves into toxicity. And Jill is keenly protective of Joe's legacy.'
Still, one former Democrat insider familiar with the players said that they believed Jill's 'pragmatism' may ultimately hold sway.
And some say it is precisely her prioritizing of her husband's legacy that could convince Jill to flip and counsel her husband to step aside.
According to one well-placed source, as more and more party faithful voice their belief that Biden will lose to Trump, even Jill will be forced to admit that the most likely outcome of her husband's candidacy is one that will 'throw his legacy in the trash'.
And not even her hatred of Kamala can trump that.
The president continues to insist he's still in the race, though attempts to reassure his fellow Democrats look to be amounting to little to nothing. Given how that Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) call went, which Matt covered earlier on Friday, it's worth wondering if such attempts may even backfire.
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