While President Joe Biden remains in COVID isolation at his home in Delaware and the White House communications staff struggles to understand why their friends in the mainstream media are suddenly treating them like they do conservatives, talk of the commander-in-chief withdrawing from the 2024 election continues to spread.
The latest Friday morning: the calls to step aside — or at least talk of what such a move would look like — are now coming from inside the president's inner circle of trusted family-turned-advisors.
A report from NBC News (pour one out for Andrew Bates who's apparently still struggling to understand why mainstream outlets are no longer working with the Biden communications team to craft coverage) cites "two people familiar" with Biden family member discussions about "what an exit from his campaign might look like."
"The overall tone of the conversations has been that any exit plan — should Biden decide to take that step, as some of his closest allies increasingly believe he will — should put the party in the best position to beat former President Donald Trump while also being worthy of the more than five decades he has served the country in elected office," NBC's report explained.
Potentially explaining why there's been such chaos among Democrats and within the White House, NBC News reported that "Biden’s family members have specifically discussed how he would want to end his re-election bid on his own timing and with a carefully calculated plan in place."
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Biden's "own timing," however, has wreaked havoc for his party. It's why knives are out — reportedly wielded by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama through proxies such as George Clooney and Rep. Adam Schiff. There just isn't time left for Biden to dilly-dally. The DNC is a few weeks away and there's no cohesive plan.
Within the president's family, NBC News said that concerns at the "forefront" of their talk about Biden stepping aside to allow another Democrat — not necessarily Vice President Kamala Harris — to take the top spot on the ticket challenging former President Donald Trump include Biden's "health, his family and the stability of the country."
"The prospect of Biden’s considering stepping aside, much less that his family is gaming out a possible exit plan, is an extraordinary development that comes after he has repeatedly said he would not relinquish his position as the presumptive nominee of the party," NBC News not-so-gently pointed out.
After seeing the GOP more unified, enthused, and committed to Trump (than maybe ever) at this week's national convention in Milwaukee, it's no surprise that Democrat worries continue to surge.
If the White House is to be believed (see also: a bridge for sale in Brooklyn), Andrew Bates insists everything is fine and there's nothing to see here. "That is not happening, period," he told NBC News when asked about the first family's reported discussions.
Bates can deny specific conversations as much as he wants, but he can't shut down the reality that "concerns have mounted among party leaders, donors and even officials who are part of [Biden's] re-election effort with every day that has passed since a devastating debate three weeks ago," as NBC News' report stated.
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