New Delhi: The performance of US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Thursday in the debate against his Republican Party challenger former president Donald J. Trump has sent the Democratic Party into a panic. A halting and meandering performance by Biden has reinforced the image of a candidate too old to lead the world’s largest economy.
Going into the debate, polls indicated that for voters, Biden’s age is his biggest liability vis-à-vis Trump. One poll, by Gallup indicated that Americans would twice as likely believe that Biden is too old to lead, in comparison to Trump. Biden is currently 81 years of age, while Trump is 78.
Either candidate that wins, will become the oldest elected president of the US, and also the oldest to leave office.
The convention in US politics is to never run against an incumbent, one that both parties have tried to maintain for years.
In the Democratic primary contests earlier this year, Biden had at best a token opposition from within the party, with Marianne Williamson, Jason Palmer and Dean Phillips being his only opponents. The three candidates combined won less than 5 percent of the total votes amongst Democratic primary voters, indicating unanimous support for Biden.
But statements from members of the Democratic Party right after the debate with Trump hint at a fractured unity, though no demand for his removal has publicly been voiced by party colleagues yet.
“Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight and he did not do it. He had one thing he had to accomplish and that was to reassure America that he was up to the job at his age and he failed at that tonight,” Claire McCaskill, a former Democratic Senator from Missouri told MSNBC, after the debate.
But removing Biden from the Democratic Party ticket at this time in the election cycle is almost impossible, unless he himself withdraws from the race or declines the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, scheduled to be held from 19 August to 22 August in Chicago.
ThePrint explains the process by which the Democratic nominee for President could potentially change.
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Biden dropping out of the race
The easiest option for the Democrats is if Biden decides to drop out of the race — an option Biden himself indicated minimal interest in choosing after the debate, during a campaign stop in Atlanta, Georgia. “Let’s keep going,” he said, with his media spokesperson Lauren Hitt making it clear that Biden will not withdraw from the race, according to media reports.
If he did withdraw from the race, for whatever reason, it would not be the first time an incumbent president from the Democratic Party would do so. In 1968, then President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite winning the first state primary (New Hampshire), decided to withdraw his candidature.
“I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office–the Presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President,” said Johnson on 31 March 1968, as the country was wracked by anti-Vietnam war protests.
His withdrawal, however, was much earlier, with multiple primary contests still remaining, before the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Chicago in August 1968.
The difference, this time however, is the fact that Biden ran and won a majority of 3,900 odd delegates that will participate in the Democratic National Convention this August.
If he does withdraw from the race or decline the nomination, it would essentially throw open the votes of the delegates pledged to Biden to any other Democrat seeking the nomination.
Uncommitted delegates & selecting a new candidate
Delegates are party officials selected to represent the will of the party at the National Convention. Each state pledges a number of delegates to a candidate according to their performance in the primary votes.
According to the rules of the Democratic Party, specifically Rule 13 (J) “Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”
In the event of a Biden withdrawal, these delegates are now uncommitted, no longer beholden to the results of their state primary results and are allowed to pick a candidate of their choice.
This scenario would set up a situation reminiscent of the 1968 Democratic Convention or even the 1960 convention, where John F. Kennedy was picked as the party’s candidate for the election.
The new candidates who have decided to seek the nomination, would have to go hotel by hotel, or send their surrogates to convince the necessary number of delegates from the 3,900 odd to select them as the candidate, explained Elaine Kamarck, an author of a book on presidential primaries, to The New York Times.
Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the US and Biden’s running mate, would not automatically get the delegates pledged to the President, if he decides to withdraw from the race.
Therefore, while Harris may have his support, or his political machine behind her, in the event that Biden drops out, she would have to seek the delegate votes in a similar fashion to other interested candidates.
That might, however, be difficult given that Harris’s approval ratings are at a dismal 39.4 percent currently, according to FiveThirtyEight.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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