>Top aides to Joe Biden “aggressively” warned Democratic donors last summer that if the then president was forced out of the 2024 election over concerns about his age and fitness, the party would inevitably make the “mistake” of running the vice-president, Kamala Harris, against Donald Trump, a new book says.
>“One donor on the receiving end of an electronic message summed up the sentiments of Biden’s top aides: ‘They were aggressively saying that we would wind up with the vice-president and that would be a mistake.’”
>Amid calls for Biden to withdraw, the authors write, aides to Biden “frantically push[ed] back in phone calls and in text messages, accusing donors of promoting their own agendas at the expense of Biden, the party, and the country”.
>“It all sounded like a serial killer’s conspiracy theory. Donors want to scrap Biden so they can get his wannabe replacements – the governors, with power over state decisions – to beg them for cash, Biden aides argued.
>“This isn’t fucking Wall Street financiers versus Ivy League presidents. Our guy isn’t scared of your money. We have grassroots donors. We have the support of the voters. We have the nomination in hand. All you’re doing is fucking yourself and the president. We will remember this. Capisce?
>**“The last threat, the ace in the hole, was Kamala Harris. Even if Biden did drop out and you got your dreamed-up open convention, you would only succeed in nominating the vice-president. Is that what you want? You want her? Look at her polling. No one wants her. Forget it. It’s never gonna happen.”**
>Entreaties fell on deaf ears. Donors “cut off hundreds of millions of dollars”. On 21 July, Biden dropped out.
>Obama endorsed Harris and campaigned for her. So did Pelosi, who spoke of her “immense pride” in doing so.
PM_ME_QT_TRANSGIRLS on
Oh so that’s why he endorsed her and cleared the field. Wait, what?
UUtch on
Many loose thoughts from reading the article, among them are, “staffers really deserve more blame than the public gives them for officials holding on to office” “Wow everyone important hated Kamala” “I guess Obama taking like a week to endorse was due to actual disapproval of the choice” “No wonder officials like AOC talked about the behind the scenes being as back-stabby as it was”
Devils1993 on
These aides are being ridiculous. Listen, I like Joe Biden and I think his presidency is absolutely better than what the median voter thinks. However, the reality is this approval rating was below 40% since like spring of 2023 and approximately 80% of Americans thought he was too old after his debate. Biden would have almost certainly lost even worse if he had remained the candidate
stav_and_nick on
They needed someone outside of the white house to have any chance, and it still wouldn’t have been good
Because you had two major issues, Biden’s age being concealed from people, and inflation. You needed someone who could say “inflation bad” without being asked “but you were there bro lol” and also someone who wouldn’t have the attack of “other members of the government saw someone who couldn’t string sentences together, looked at her, and said old guy please!”
Kamala couldn’t have done either
Okbuddyliberals on
Harris didn’t run a great campaign but it was miles ahead of anything the senile and fucking *useless* Biden was capable of doing
I won’t even feel that bad if Harris gets the nomination again. While I’ll hate Joe Biden for the rest of his pathetic little life
unoredtwo on
The plain reality is that Biden was about to lose by enormous margins. Polls were pretty accurate this cycle and his numbers were just stunningly bad with no path out. The aides were correct that Harris was a weak candidate, but she was the shot in the dark. Didn’t work, but all other choices were worse.
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>Top aides to Joe Biden “aggressively” warned Democratic donors last summer that if the then president was forced out of the 2024 election over concerns about his age and fitness, the party would inevitably make the “mistake” of running the vice-president, Kamala Harris, against Donald Trump, a new book says.
>“One donor on the receiving end of an electronic message summed up the sentiments of Biden’s top aides: ‘They were aggressively saying that we would wind up with the vice-president and that would be a mistake.’”
>Amid calls for Biden to withdraw, the authors write, aides to Biden “frantically push[ed] back in phone calls and in text messages, accusing donors of promoting their own agendas at the expense of Biden, the party, and the country”.
>“It all sounded like a serial killer’s conspiracy theory. Donors want to scrap Biden so they can get his wannabe replacements – the governors, with power over state decisions – to beg them for cash, Biden aides argued.
>“This isn’t fucking Wall Street financiers versus Ivy League presidents. Our guy isn’t scared of your money. We have grassroots donors. We have the support of the voters. We have the nomination in hand. All you’re doing is fucking yourself and the president. We will remember this. Capisce?
>**“The last threat, the ace in the hole, was Kamala Harris. Even if Biden did drop out and you got your dreamed-up open convention, you would only succeed in nominating the vice-president. Is that what you want? You want her? Look at her polling. No one wants her. Forget it. It’s never gonna happen.”**
>Entreaties fell on deaf ears. Donors “cut off hundreds of millions of dollars”. On 21 July, Biden dropped out.
>Obama endorsed Harris and campaigned for her. So did Pelosi, who spoke of her “immense pride” in doing so.
Oh so that’s why he endorsed her and cleared the field. Wait, what?
Many loose thoughts from reading the article, among them are, “staffers really deserve more blame than the public gives them for officials holding on to office” “Wow everyone important hated Kamala” “I guess Obama taking like a week to endorse was due to actual disapproval of the choice” “No wonder officials like AOC talked about the behind the scenes being as back-stabby as it was”
These aides are being ridiculous. Listen, I like Joe Biden and I think his presidency is absolutely better than what the median voter thinks. However, the reality is this approval rating was below 40% since like spring of 2023 and approximately 80% of Americans thought he was too old after his debate. Biden would have almost certainly lost even worse if he had remained the candidate
They needed someone outside of the white house to have any chance, and it still wouldn’t have been good
Because you had two major issues, Biden’s age being concealed from people, and inflation. You needed someone who could say “inflation bad” without being asked “but you were there bro lol” and also someone who wouldn’t have the attack of “other members of the government saw someone who couldn’t string sentences together, looked at her, and said old guy please!”
Kamala couldn’t have done either
Harris didn’t run a great campaign but it was miles ahead of anything the senile and fucking *useless* Biden was capable of doing
I won’t even feel that bad if Harris gets the nomination again. While I’ll hate Joe Biden for the rest of his pathetic little life
The plain reality is that Biden was about to lose by enormous margins. Polls were pretty accurate this cycle and his numbers were just stunningly bad with no path out. The aides were correct that Harris was a weak candidate, but she was the shot in the dark. Didn’t work, but all other choices were worse.