A former pollster for former President Bill Clinton said on Monday that Democrats should accept that President Joe Biden is likely to become the party’s presidential nominee because replacing him at this juncture would be difficult.
Biden declared he was staying in the race during a phone call into “Morning Joe” Monday morning where he dared his detractors to take him on during August’s Democratic Convention in Chicago. Mark Penn told “America Reports” co-host Sandra Smith that Biden had already secured the delegates necessary to earn the nomination, and that this would make it unlikely that he could be replaced at this point in the campaign. (RELATED: CNN Data Guru Says He Would ‘Take A Roll Of The Dice’ On Kamala Harris If He Were Dem Donor)
“I keep telling people this, just listen to what he is saying: He’s running, he’s got the nomination, he won the primary, he’s got the delegates and that’s the end of it,” Penn said. “The party is going to get in line or commit suicide trying to undo his nomination, because he isn’t going anywhere and nobody is going to be taking the 25th Amendment and no one is taking him out of office. None of those things are happening. And so he’s the nominee and I think they are making that clear and I don’t think anyone in the party has any power to change that.”
WATCH:
‘That Is The End Of It’: Former Clinton Pollster Says Dems Would ‘Commit Suicide’ By Trying To Replace Biden pic.twitter.com/MUeoqPaBwl
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 8, 2024
Biden has faced calls to drop out of the presidential race following a June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump on CNN during which Biden froze at least twice, lost his train of thought and made multiple verbal gaffes, with Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas being the first elected Democrat to issue a public statement urging Biden’s withdrawal. At least eight additional Democrats have also called for Biden to step aside, according to Axios and the New York Daily News.
“I’m an observer. Do I think that the Democratic Party would do better switching horses in midstream and seeming chaotic? I’m not sure that’s a very safe bet,” Penn said. “They have their nominee, they’ve had their process. I think if you were the nominee, the only person who could or should be the nominee would be the vice president because that is the constitutional order of things and the party should, I think live up to that. I think having a free-for-all at the convention with convention delegates, oh my God, that would be the biggest nightmare that any party could imagine.”
Former Obama administration official David Axelrod previously dismissed the possibility of Biden being replaced during a May 31 appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“This is not 1968 where the convention is gonna decide, we changed the rules, voters nominate a candidate, they’ve nominated Joe Biden and he’s not going anywhere,” Axelrod said.
Biden currently trails former President Donald Trump by 3.3% in a national head-to-head matchup, according to the RealClearPolling average of polls. Trump’s lead grows to 4.9% when independent candidates Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are included.
Trump widened leads he held over Biden in polls by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal since the June 27 debate, with his lead in the NYT poll conducted with Siena College reaching six points among likely voters, and eight points with registered voters.
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