Behind the Curtain: Committee to Unelect the President
Axios - Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen
July 12, 2024
President Biden beat back the initial public campaign by Democrats to oust him from the party's presidential ticket, swiftly and decisively. But very-connected Democrats, mostly veterans of the Obama and Clinton administrations, are plotting hourly to get him to withdraw quickly.
They're commissioning polls, lobbying former presidents, back-channeling Democratic leaders, organizing donors and taking the fight to Biden in a very public way.
They're the unofficial Committee to Unelect the President. The mission: Push Biden out of the presidential race — the sooner, the better.
Why it matters: This loose anti-Biden network is growing by the day — and is circulating polls showing Democrats would shoot from sure losers to big winners with a new ticket. Some donors are talking of a massive financial commitment to any non-Biden presidential ticket.
These Democrats see the race in stark, black-and-white terms: Just three states matter — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. That's the Blue Wall, all of which Biden won in 2020.
And they see an obvious solution: Forget the niceties of backing Biden or even Vice President Harris. Be ruthless about finding the two people most likely to win those three states.
How it works: The anti-Biden Democrats are trading texts, emails and polling, fighting fellow Democrats on TV and X, and circulating stories and arguments by sympathetic journalists and columnists, including Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias.
Many are in conversation with lawmakers to push their leaders to squeeze Biden and his inner circle. They know Biden and his family seem unmovable — so they hope for the use of overwhelming force by the Obamas + Clintons + Schumer + Jeffries + Pelosi.
More:
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/12/biden-news-old-democrats-president