President Joe Biden “doubted” whether Vice President Kamala Harris can defeat former President Donald Trump before he decided to step aside Sunday, three Biden aides familiar with recent talks about his plans told Axios.
Biden’s fear underscores the contrast between the lack of unity in the Democrat party compared to Republican Party unity heading into November.
The president endorsed Harris on his personal X account about 30 minutes after announcing he would step aside, which Republicans say is odd.
After his endorsement, it appears many party leaders are trying to coalesce around Harris, including the “squad.” Bill and Hillary Clinton and many Democrat state and federal lawmakers also endorsed Harris.
Those not immediately backing Harris include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and former President Barack Obama.”We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead,” Obama admitted in a statement. “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”
The four leaders – Pelosi, Jeffries, Schumer, and Obama – have not endorsed Harris because they “do not want to be seen as back-room party bosses engineering a Harris coronation,” Politico Playbook reported Monday.
Democrats are wary of being perceived as attacking democracy by removing Biden, who won about 14 million Democrat primary votes, from the ticket. Harris won no primary delegates in 2016.
Harris, the frontrunner to obtain the Democrats’ nomination in four weeks, is not very popular, with a 38.6 percent approval rating, according to FiveThirtyEight. Biden’s approval rating is 38.5 percent. Both approval rating marks are well below the 50 percent threshold that an incumbent typically needs to win reelection.
Additional Democrat nominee contenders include Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC), Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), and Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY).
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
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