Douglas Brinkley: Biden Should Resign, Pass the Torch to Kamala Harris

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Thursday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that President Joe Biden should step down from his reelection campaign.

Brinkley said, “There’s no history repeating itself like that ’68 if Biden tomorrow said, ‘I’m stepping down and Kamala Harris is president, I’m going back to Delaware and I’ll be giving her my advice. I’m the highest thing there is in the land, a private citizen,’ that’s the kind of thing Jefferson would say. That’s the kind of thing Theodore Roosevelt would say, he would look good, Biden. And he would have put the first woman president of the U.S. in, and then Chicago would be about who’s running with Kamala Harris. And Kamala Harris is the easiest person to inherit those delegates and to assume the donor money.”

Host Jim Acosta asked, “Is that what you think you should do?”

Brinkley said, “I think he should.”

Acosta said, “You think he should step down?”

Brinkley said, “Yes, I do, because how do you win when your entire party is pleading with you to step aside? Yes. There are groups particularly, you know, a certain, you know, AOC I know is sticking by him and some labor people are, but it’s dividing the Democratic Party to split and get like a coconut in half. How do you go in to Chicago that divided? And it’s already going to be hurlyburly in Chicago because the anti-Gaza-Israel protests will be back. He needs to streamline the party, and by writing the letter that I’m stepping back due to health. Do a cognitive test first. And if you do the cognitive test, if you pass, it may be different. But if you have trouble with it in any way, say, ‘My time’s up. I’ve served my country. But here you have an incredible person in Kamala Harris. America at long last, the land of liberty and democracy and equal rights. We finally have a woman president,’ and she comes to you from Joe Biden.”

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