Even as President Joe Biden and his campaign continue to insist that he's not going anywhere, that hasn't stopped the president's fellow Democrats and leftists from calling on him to step aside. Top Democrats in Congress, as well as those vulnerable incumbents running for reelection, like New Mexico's Sen. Martin Heinrich and Montana's Sen. Jon Tester, have just recently issued calls. The Biden campaign now has to deal with radical climate change activists as well.
Levon Satamian at our sister site of RedState wrote about what the Climate Defiance folks were up to on Friday. Via a post from their X account, the group provided a "MAJOR UPDATE" late on Friday morning to share that they had barricaded themselves at the Democratic National Committee headquarters to demand that Biden step aside.
"Party elites in hiding - sneaking in through back doors or staying home. The old guard is falling. The people are rising. Buckle up," the post also read.
They also held up saying declaring "BEAT TRUMP REPLACE BIDEN."
MAJOR UPDATE: we have blockaded the main entrance to the Democratic National Committee to demand the President step aside. Party elites in hiding - sneaking in through back doors or staying home. The old guard is falling. The people are rising. Buckle up. pic.twitter.com/fhJz51Eglg
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) July 19, 2024
The post is actually part of a longer thread calling out not just Biden, but also DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, who is tagged in the thread.
"This is urgent. This is do-or-die," a subsequent post read, referencing a plan to nominate Biden before the convention on August 19. "This heavy-handed power move would betray the trust of the party FOREVER. We can stop this. We will!!," the Climate Defiance post continued.
Another area where Democrats have been in disarray is not merely whether Biden should remain the nominee or step aside, but whether to rush the virtual convention to formerly nominate him. As Spencer covered on Wednesday, the DNC scrapped rushing that plan. It now looks to be happening in August.
DNC Chair @harrisonjaime is making up excuses, claiming the rushed vote is designed to meet the Ohio ballot deadline. But Ohio changed their deadline to after the convention, and, in any event, Democrats' path to winning the White House doesn't run through Ohio.
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) July 19, 2024
No matter how insistent top Democrats may be on replacing Biden, the party could very well be stuck with him as their nominee. The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project responded to the thread with a reminder that they have drafted a memo about how that would work out. Following Biden's disastrous debate performance on June 27, they also further detailed their plan to sue to keep Biden on the ballot if need be.
Not so fast! https://t.co/j6si2IkwDH
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) July 19, 2024
Those affiliated with Climate Defiance also spoke with The Guardian, as Satamian also highlighted.
That piece speak about Climate Defiance and other groups willing to speak to the desire for Biden to drop out. The panic from these climate change protests is off the charts, as evidenced in the following excerpts and statements:
Several dozen protesters are planning to blockade the DNC in Washington on Friday morning to call for a freeze on Biden’s nomination, in favor of another candidate who could prevent Donald Trump becoming president and tearing up Biden’s climate policies.
“Nominating Biden is a recipe for electing Trump,” said Michael Greenberg, founder of Climate Defiance, a climate group known for its attention-grabbing actions. “For the sake of the climate and our democracy we need to choose a nominee who can win in November. That person is not Joseph Biden.”
...
“They are cowards,” Greenberg said of the other climate groups. “We need progressives to be bold on this, we need more voices on the left and the climate movement to do the same. The most important thing for the climate is to beat Trump.”
The Sunrise Movement, the influential youth-led environmental justice group who helped Biden draft his climate agenda in 2020, last week did also call for Biden to “pass the torch” to protect his “climate legacy”.
The group was initially “hesitant” to make such a statement, but ultimately decided the stakes of the election were too high, “especially on climate” and “especially for youth”, said the group’s communications director Stevie O’Hanlon.
“What we’re hearing from young people around the country is that excitement about Joe Biden is at a historic low,” she said. “So yes, we’re really worried that the Democratic party is not putting forward the best possible candidate to take on the threat of Trump this November.”
She said she would welcome other groups to join Sunrise in calling for Biden to drop out: “The more climate organizations that are making that case the better.”
...
A senior staffer at one green group who spoke under the condition of anonymity said: “Biden has got to go – like, yesterday.”
They said they are “honestly not sure” why their group has not publicly made such a statement, but that the decision may come from the desire to not alienate “some of our supporters who may still be fully behind the president”.
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Aaron Regunberg, who sits on the steering committee of the Pass the Torch campaign, which is calling for Biden to end his candidacy, said he has been “disappointed with the with the refusal to engage in this urgent conversation” by progressives, including climate groups.
By exiting the race to make space for a “stronger candidate”, Biden could “give the country a better chance of preserving a livable climate”, said Regunberg, who by day works on climate litigation efforts.
“The thought of Trump winning is horrifying,” he said. “It’s something the planet can’t afford.”
Biden has made climate change activism a hallmark of his presidency in many ways, even if Americans overall aren't on board with the level of alarmisn and the desire to make it such a priority. Biden himself earlier this month thought it fitting to insult people who had differing views on climate change by calling them "really, really dumb."
Polls continue to come out showing former and potentially future President Donald Trump ahead of Biden. As of Friday, RealClearPolling has Trump up +3 against Biden.
The DNC has not just had to deal with their own base with regards to climate protesters, but also pro-Hamas protesters over what support the Biden administration has dared to show Israel, as was the case last November.
While Republicans appeared to be unified at the RNC for their convention this week that just wrapped up on Thursday night, we could see plenty of mayhem disarray at the DNC next month in Chicago. "Buckle up" indeed, to quote that Climate Defiance post.
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